Westgate Lakes Resort and Spa in Orlando, FL

Place is an absolute dump. Dingy gross and disgusting. They don't tell you you have to "share a common space" with other strangers either and then will fight tooth and nail to refund you your money. You'd be better off sleeping in your car than here.

I would never stay at this location again. They try and sell you a timeshare the minute you walk in the door and if you are not interested, they are not interested in you or your stay. The resort is very spread out and to get around is almost impossible. They say they have golf carts and shuttles to assist guests, but they don't. Staff on golf carts drive right past you and never offer to give you a ride within the resort. Guests are also not friendly here. It's cheap to book for a reason. You get what you pay for. There are so many more beautiful resorts in Orlando. Don't choose this one.

Misleading Sales Practices and Booking Nightmare with Westgate We purchased a Westgate timeshare in Gatlinburg and immediately regretted it due to deceptive sales tactics and broken promises. Sales Misrepresentations During the presentation, we were told booking would be straightforward and affordable, with costs through Interval International never exceeding $599 per week. We were also told our supplemental week could be split into two vacations and pressured to sign that day or lose the offer. The most alarming issue: They requested our Social Security numbers claiming it was "only for identification," but later we discovered a loan was opened without our informed consent. Booking Reality vs. Promises When we attempted our first booking, the experience was a complete disaster spanning three days. On Day 1, we called Gateway Reservations for an August two-bedroom unit. Initially quoted $349, we were then told it couldn't be booked until September. After being transferred multiple times, quotes escalated from $989 to $1,078 for a ONE-bedroom unit. This took over 2 hours with no supervisor available. On Day 2, we tried Interval International where we were promised sub-$599 rates. The lowest quote we received was $1,859—over three times what we were promised! A supervisor finally explained that the $599 rate only applies to "exchanges"—a critical detail never disclosed during sales. On Day 3, we contacted the Gatlinburg sales office and texted our rep Amber for three days with no response. We were transferred repeatedly and never connected to a supervisor.

One of the worst vacation experiences I've ever had. 7 nights of mediocrity and regret. (lengthy, but there is SO much to say.) The only upside to this hotel was the shuttlebus service to Universal Studios, and even that was subpar since it only leaves on specific times, you had to book it the day beforehand and it doesn't even go to Epic Universe, only the Citywalk. You want to use this bus outside its regulated hours? Forget about it. So is any of this an upside? You decide. We were checked into a unit right beside the pirate-themed water park, and boy did we know it. Great view, but so much noise! While guests were forced to leave the water park at 7 PM, all the splashing water features were left running until 11 PM every single day for no reason! Good luck sleeping with all that going on right outside your window. The room itself was laughable. Dirty, the sofa bed's mattress was completely deformed, electrical sockets coming off the wall, jacuzzi out in the open in the middle of the room with zero cover... The village shops were overpriced and the Starbucks at this resort closed every day at like 2 PM, what is that about? Zero supervision at the Adult Relaxation pool, so of course other guests were taking their small children there. But all of that could've been tolerable if it hadn't been for the TIMESHARE portion of it all. After we checked in, we were ushered over to the Hospitality desk to receive a 'welcome packet'. To this day don't know what the packet was- maybe the small box of cookies that was ultimately shoved our way? What I do know is that we were encouraged to sign up for a free breakfast, with a small 90 minute presentation and a tour of the premises. No strings attached, no commitment necessary, it was only because Westgate wanted us to stay with them again in the future. Oh, and we would also get 125 (or maybe it was 120, idk) dollars "in cash" if we did this. If it'd been up to me, we wouldn't have done it, but my friends were interested. Still, we were forced to sign up under MY name, because men were not the target audience of this presentation, only single women "because research shows they travel more". (Um... What?) I was also encouraged by Hospitality to lie about how much money I make, to make myself look more desirable. I cannot count on both hands how many red flags I was seeing at that point. Anyway, I caved to peer pressure and allowed this. Big mistake. Everything about this 'free breakfast and 90 minute presentation' was a dumpsterfire from start to finish. The "presentation" is a personal sit-down with a Westgate representative who will throw many numbers and boasts your way about how much money can be made by becoming an owner. In fact, the representative we got was surprised we weren't already an owner since he usually only got paired up with those (allegedly). He later changed his tune to say that this presentation was only given to people who had already committed to becoming an owner and were exploring options, so who even knows what the truth was at that point. Either way, the "tour around the premises with a golf cart" was not a tour at all, it was just taking us directly to two different model units to show us what they look like. Then we were taken back to the breakfast hall to talk options, by which I mean deals. Several options regarding payment plans were shoved our way- each time we shot one down, another slightly better one was thought up on the fly and presented within a minute. But they said we had to agree NOW- offers were only valid that day. Classic pressure move from sketchy salesmen. The Westgate representative also insisted that ChatGPT would be a more trustworthy source of information than a professional accountant. HELLO??? When we finally gave a hard "no" instead of a polite "well let me think about it" after more than two hours of watching Westgate employees bend themselves into pretzels to keep us in our seats (yes, two hours, forget those 90 minutes), the mood turned sour immediately. We were accused of wasting their time, and only being in it for the "gifts". WHAT GIFTS? The breakfast that can't have cost more than 50 cents a plate, the non-existent tour or the 125 dollars "in cash" that turned out to be Westgate-voucher-only? Or are the gifts the horrible feelings left in the pits of our stomachs? You wasted OUR time, Westgate, by manipulating and gaslighting us. If your goal was to have us return in the future, you've accomplished the opposite. Bonus points: When we went to check out, a woman came rushing out of the lobby into the parking lot, screaming the following words: "Do not get the timeshare! Do NOT get the timeshare! I'm telling you! I'm sueing! Class A lawsuit! They won't get away with this!" I don't know whether she meant the presentation or the timeshare itself, but I think both would be apt.