Holiday Inn & Suites Orlando SW Celebration in Kissimmee, FL

The Good • We were assigned to a double bed room in the 2nd tower (not the main tower) and I was worried that it would be an old room, but the front desk clerk assured me that it was one of the few newly renovated rooms in the 2nd tower, and it was...but make sure to ask when checking in. • The beds and sheets were comfy and the room was clean. • The wall mounted Dove body wash, hand soap and lotion was a very nice touch as they are good quality products. This is a great amenity by Holiday Inn hotels, as my friend forgot their body wash and lotion at home. • The water got HOT not just warm, and the water pressure was pretty good. • The sliding glass door had a translucent white curtain in between the blackout curtain, which made it possible to open the blackout curtain and let in light, without having people outside view into the room. • We stayed during rare Florida winter days when the temperature drops significantly at night and then gets warmer in the afternoon, but both the AC and heater settings worked well. • The tub/shower was clogged, but the front desk sent someone immediately after I called, and the maintenance guy was able to fix the issue within 20 - 30 minutes. • Our room had a microwave and decent sized mini fridge, which was great since we often had restaurant leftovers to eat. • The website to register for the Disney shuttle was not working on my laptop for some reason, but the front desk lady was able to register us. The shuttle bus arrived exactly on time at both the hotel and Disney pickup. The Questionable • There is only one hook in the bathroom to hang a used bath towel. My friend had to hang their bath towel in the closet. • The room was not very spacious. The walking space between the television, desk, drawers and the beds is very narrow. • I was told there are only two ice machines, one on the 3rd floor and one on the 7th floor. The one in the 2nd tower is on the 7th floor which was inconvenient since we were staying on the first floor. • When we arrived on a Friday night there was a group of boisterous men drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana in the back outside of the hotel. They look like they could've been carpenters working on renovating the hotel rooms. This made me and my friend very uneasy. To add to that, someone (possibly a hotel guest) stuck a bottle at the back side door (next to our room) to keep it ajar so that it would not slam shut. I removed the bottle, because with those men outside, my friend and I did not feel safe leaving the door open like that. If they are contractors, the hotel owner/manager really shouldn't let them loiter in the back of the hotel at the end of the work day, especially if they are going to be drinking and smoking. All in all, I would recommend this hotel if you are looking to stay in this area near Old Town as it is a good 3-star hotel a short walking and driving distance to many stores, restaurants, and near Disney. However, the biggest drawback of this hotel is the fact that they charge a relatively high resort fee ($28), when this is not a really a resort quality hotel or area. I'm guessing this fee helps pay for the renovations. Nonetheless, I would only book this hotel if you are able to get it with a discount/promotion that offsets the resort fee.

DO NOT BOOK HERE! Got authorities called on me by the front desk beast, here’s what happened- I had a reservation for Feb 13th that I did with a third party app 3 weeks in advance. When I show up, I provide my ID to show I meet the age requirement, 21. I was told at the front desk that the age requirement is actually 21.5 by State LAW and company policy. And that Holiday Inn had already declined my reservation without notice, so I had nowhere to sleep for the night. I call their number today, I get redirected to a Chinese hotline where a man was asking for my Chinese phone number, and then this hotel wouldn’t pick up my phone again, so I returned after doing my homework (customer support, ToS) to demand an explanation. This time, according to the receptionist, the age requirement is now “3-6 months after turning 21 but if you’re well behaved you can book a month after”. I ask why I was lied to on the 13th. Why Holiday Inn didn’t accept my paid reservation with no notice. Why the age requirement isn’t consistent. She kept interrupting me saying “what I wanted”, how I was holding up the “whole lobby”, and to talk to the third party app. “People are here on their vacation” she said. I was on mine too. I was firm about my complaint because I want answers, not a bandage. I want compensation for the behavior and treatment of their staff, especially NOW. She said I was being aggressive, and as I was saying how she’ll probably call security, she cut me off saying “Oh I’d never do that, I’m calling the authorities”. I didn’t reach at her, I didn’t scream, I didn’t do any body language that suggested I was going to harm, I guess I was just a typical “difficult customer”. Again I said I want an explanation for the behavior on the 13th. She shuts down, said she’s “done”, and left to the back to call law enforcement. I asked what law I was breaking, no response, probably because I’m a hispanic male so she assumed I was going to try something. This was an elderly woman with a big bun hairdo and glasses FYI, if you see her at the front desk, you’re treading on a minefield. TLDR; inconsistent age requirements got me sleeping, customer hotline redirecting hell, and got authorities sic’d on me because this woman cannot handle a “difficult” customer that poses no threat. If you’re a young traveler, BEWARE!

Jan 25 th we just had a very frustrating experience. At the entrance, a man who said he worked with IGH group approached us and offered $175 cash if we took a short visit to a resort that was supposedly only 8 minutes away. He said everything was free and kept asking us for a lot of personal information. We repeatedly told him we were very tired and just wanted to go to our room, but they kept talking to us and making small talk. Even the manager was present, and at no point did anyone mention any kind of deposit. I clearly asked several times if everything was free, and they assured us it was. After wasting a lot of our time, they suddenly told us we had to pay a $75 deposit. This was never mentioned at the beginning. In my personal opinion, this feels like a misleading business practice designed to pressure people after they are already exhausted. If they had been honest from the start, we would have said no immediately. This situation makes the hotel look very bad, even if these people are third parties. Because of this experience, we definitely will not be staying here again. Do not fall for this. It was a complete waste of time.

Hotel is not located in the nicest of areas. Homeless people loitering right outside in the parking lot and by the McDonalds next door. There’s a Motel 6 next door and we heard loud, screaming people into all hours of the night. Room itself was just ok. Nothing special and ours overlooked the rooftop.

After staying in this hotel for 3 weeks last year we were happy to book again for our trip to Florida, but as we had already driven on a road trip from Boston to Florida we were looking for a good rest after a long journey. However, it didn't start very well, we had requested to pay for the hotel prior to our arrival, but being as the payment hadn't been taken we had to at reception, not really a problem, I always use a Halifax Clarity Credit Card when not at home in the UK, I have used the card for a few years without any problem, it is highly recommended by myself, I don't get charged for using it abroad, and I don't get charged for currency exchange. I handed the card to the lady on reception and she proceeded to input the details then handed it back to me for to insert my pin number, a big surprise, the card was declined, this has never EVER happened to me before, the lady took the card back and tried again, same result, declined again, 5 times this happened, I didn't know what to do next. I'm not stupid, I do carry two alternative credit cards plus my debit card, I try not to use these whilst abroad because of the charges, but I had to resort to my Nat West card to pay the bill, I will get charges for this. I don't have a phone number whilst in the USA, I've never had a use for one, I just use a sim that I can use the internet which does serve my purposes, so I cannot phone my credit card company, plus, its a 5 hour time difference, so contact will be difficult, I contacted them next day via a remote bot, which was helpful and I was able to get my problem across but not totally resolved, the bank did try to phone me but the lack of a phone number meant they couldn't get through. The card worked intermittently throughout the rest of the trip but I still had to rely on my other cards. When I got home I spoke to the bank, they told me that the card had been declined because the expiry date had been inputted wrong at the reception desk, instead of the UK format of 01/28, sha had tried 28/01...5 times, I just wonder what the 28th month is in that persons head, it did cause problems, embarrassment , stress and it will cost me when I get my bill. The first night also had its drama, in the middle of the night, someone in the adjoining room tried to break into our room, we were woken by the sound of the door handle being tried and loud banging and kicking, we had to call security, who did turn up and they did check up on us. First day we noticed that we only had 3 coat hangers, we requested more but we never got any, we had to used the drawers as a alternative. Th sink in the bathroom would not hold water, it took 3 attempt's over 2 days to sort it . Yes, its a lot of complaints and the hotel is beginning to look tired but the staff are lovely, helpful and mostly cheerfully go about their business. The hotel is clean but does need modernisation in places. A change in circumstances means we won't be returning, but I would recommend, but only if they address the problems that are within there control.