I sent a 3 page complaint to Universal Guest Services containing pictures of bites received while staying at one of their deceitfully promoted hotels as well as other complaints about the hotel and received an email from a representative from guest services. Within less than a weeks time I received 3 emails from the same rep saying to call in to further discuss. I tried a couple of times but was kept on hold at length. Finally I tried early one week and was told by some woman that anyone could help me. She took a quick read through my note and told me to call the hotel for a refund.
Please tell me the point of guest services. Obviously I had an issue with the hotel and didn't feel that was the appropriate route due to lack of concern when we were there. But 3 emails from one rep to discuss and call in and told to call someone else. That's it. Only suggestion w/ a giggle at my expense... No other words of advice, no further discussing. What a WASTE!
Sad that we have yearly passes and frequent their parks and hotels rather often. But seeing the lack of attention when someone states they leave one of your resorts with bites all over them and the complete hand off after being told to call in, there are plenty better resorts that actually give a damn about your experience. The lady that emailed me 3 times could have told me to call the hotel for a refund within that email. They didn't care while I was there and definitely not after the fact. HORRIBLE hotel .
Full letter sEnt to Universal Guest Services is below (minus the photos of bite marks I received while staying on their property).
My fiancé and I recently (6/13-615) stayed at the new Cabana Bay resort hotel on the Orlando properties and were horribly disappointed. As frequent fliers to the universal parks, the Hard Rock hotel, and the Portofino, we decided to try the new resort when we saw that there was a promotional rate for a family suite. Making it seem like we were getting a stellar offer, we reserved 2 rooms 2 months in advance to secure what we thought and was advertised as a "deal."
Finally our much anticipated weekend getaway came and we were amped to get to the hotel. At first, thought it was nice at first glance. Pretty cool design and trendy. Not too excited for it to be like a motel (outdoor access to the room), although understanding it's keeping with the theme. The lobby is nice and open, check-in was easy, customer service was mediocre. The room was nice but super small. Kitchen decor was appealing. Although being a moderate/value hotel, it being an onsite hotel I would've expected better out of the toiletry accommodations as well as many other things. Pretty cheap bar soap and even cheaper shampoo and conditioner that doesn't feel like it's cleaning anything.
Really wasn't too much in terms of 50's decor and was expecting more with the accent pieces thoughtout the rooms and hotel to actually give it that 50's vibe. The pool area was nice but definitely should be advertised as a "kid hotel" because they were running wild. Thought I was staying at the Nickoldean hotel! The 2 nights we were there, the hot tub was occupied in the evening for at least 2 hours with a gang of people so no one else could utilize the facilities.
Considering it is an on-site hotel the shuttle ride to the parks and the drop of location is absurd. No express passes included even though you are afforded the same benefit as the other onsite hotels in regards to early park admission for Harry potter had to have been the ultimate disappointment, amongst other words, as well as misleading. Even though the shuttles run frequent, we waited for the shuttle to arrive, only to wait another 10 mins on the bus to wait for an occasional straggler. Then you get dropped off to find you are no better off than the people who stayed offsite and parked in the same car garage and have to walk that same long way through the lead up to City Walk.
It rained through the day when we were there and into the evening so we just decided to eat at the hotel diner or whatever "restaurant type seating" was available in the bowling alley. We were seated at a table, nobody was in there in terms of dining other than maybe one other table. Took 8 mins for someone to come over and acknowledge us and take our drink order, which we were also ready to place our food order as well. Had to repeat the order 4 or 5 times, then was told we should get one burger over another although it was a completely taste, rather than just adding something to the initial burger we wanted. That wasn't that big of a deal because the girl was nice and didn't have an attitude.
Maybe 5 mins later the manager or server she was working under came over in a real put off tone that made me appalled with his approach. In an overly aggressive approach and crappy attitude, the guy asked "so what is it you guys want to order?", not hi, just want clarify, nothing, as if we were completely inconveniencing the people in there. After my fiancé and I marinated for a minute, we decided to get up and leave, but of course we were going to notify our server. Our initial server, the young lady, saw us approaching the door and apologized stating she was new. I explained that we had absolutely no issues with her, it was her manager or supervisor that was inappropriate. At that point when the guy saw us leaving he approached again with the same snark attitude. We just explained that we lost our "taste" for where we were due to his customer service. My fiancé and I ended up in the cafeteria which had a burger spot serving the EXACT same thing we would have ordered, without the attitude or a necessary tip on horrible service.
Aside from being there, even leaving the hotel was a horrible disappointment. I ended up with what the doctors I work for can only explain as bed bug bites. I have included a picture for whatever it counts for. I live in Naples, fl and as I said come to the parks frequently throughout the year and have never had any problems while there or after leaving. I didn't change detergents, creams, do anything different, get stung by or anything, didn't even know I was bitten by anything. Not even a couple hours after leaving the Cabana Bay resort I had little bites showing up in a loose line near my chest and just below my belly button, with a few bites behind my ear or on my neck. As the week went on the bites came out. They turned to welts from the unbearable itching that led to uncontrollable scratching, that led to scabs.
I have never felt so dirty after leaving a hotel, not to mention one deemed a Universal resort, where it's part of the "experience." I've had to deep fry EVERYTHING just to make sure I don't end up bringing that into my home, whatever the creatures may have been.
Value or not, this should not be labeled a Universal hotel. I've received better at a remodeled Days Inn, with better accommodations and service. However, the icing on the cake (you would have thought that had been the bed bug bites), was that the SAME day we got home and went online to plan our next trip since then was an absolute waste, to find even cheaper rates then that oh so super "promotion." Complete scam. No matter the dates, even one day after the dates we traveled was cheaper for the SAME hotel. CRAZY!
Next time Universal decides to open a hotel maybe they should get together a panel of their frequent visitors so it can be a little bit more up to par. Not worth the money and definitely not worth being considered part of the Universal properties, which I cannot reiterate enough.
Loews Hotels Reviews
I sent a 3 page complaint to Universal Guest Services containing pictures of bites received while staying at one of their deceitfully promoted hotels as well as other complaints about the hotel and received an email from a representative from guest services. Within less than a weeks time I received 3 emails from the same rep saying to call in to further discuss. I tried a couple of times but was kept on hold at length. Finally I tried early one week and was told by some woman that anyone could help me. She took a quick read through my note and told me to call the hotel for a refund.
Please tell me the point of guest services. Obviously I had an issue with the hotel and didn't feel that was the appropriate route due to lack of concern when we were there. But 3 emails from one rep to discuss and call in and told to call someone else. That's it. Only suggestion w/ a giggle at my expense... No other words of advice, no further discussing. What a WASTE!
Sad that we have yearly passes and frequent their parks and hotels rather often. But seeing the lack of attention when someone states they leave one of your resorts with bites all over them and the complete hand off after being told to call in, there are plenty better resorts that actually give a damn about your experience. The lady that emailed me 3 times could have told me to call the hotel for a refund within that email. They didn't care while I was there and definitely not after the fact. HORRIBLE hotel .
Full letter sEnt to Universal Guest Services is below (minus the photos of bite marks I received while staying on their property).
My fiancé and I recently (6/13-615) stayed at the new Cabana Bay resort hotel on the Orlando properties and were horribly disappointed. As frequent fliers to the universal parks, the Hard Rock hotel, and the Portofino, we decided to try the new resort when we saw that there was a promotional rate for a family suite. Making it seem like we were getting a stellar offer, we reserved 2 rooms 2 months in advance to secure what we thought and was advertised as a "deal."
Finally our much anticipated weekend getaway came and we were amped to get to the hotel. At first, thought it was nice at first glance. Pretty cool design and trendy. Not too excited for it to be like a motel (outdoor access to the room), although understanding it's keeping with the theme. The lobby is nice and open, check-in was easy, customer service was mediocre. The room was nice but super small. Kitchen decor was appealing. Although being a moderate/value hotel, it being an onsite hotel I would've expected better out of the toiletry accommodations as well as many other things. Pretty cheap bar soap and even cheaper shampoo and conditioner that doesn't feel like it's cleaning anything.
Really wasn't too much in terms of 50's decor and was expecting more with the accent pieces thoughtout the rooms and hotel to actually give it that 50's vibe. The pool area was nice but definitely should be advertised as a "kid hotel" because they were running wild. Thought I was staying at the Nickoldean hotel! The 2 nights we were there, the hot tub was occupied in the evening for at least 2 hours with a gang of people so no one else could utilize the facilities.
Considering it is an on-site hotel the shuttle ride to the parks and the drop of location is absurd. No express passes included even though you are afforded the same benefit as the other onsite hotels in regards to early park admission for Harry potter had to have been the ultimate disappointment, amongst other words, as well as misleading. Even though the shuttles run frequent, we waited for the shuttle to arrive, only to wait another 10 mins on the bus to wait for an occasional straggler. Then you get dropped off to find you are no better off than the people who stayed offsite and parked in the same car garage and have to walk that same long way through the lead up to City Walk.
It rained through the day when we were there and into the evening so we just decided to eat at the hotel diner or whatever "restaurant type seating" was available in the bowling alley. We were seated at a table, nobody was in there in terms of dining other than maybe one other table. Took 8 mins for someone to come over and acknowledge us and take our drink order, which we were also ready to place our food order as well. Had to repeat the order 4 or 5 times, then was told we should get one burger over another although it was a completely taste, rather than just adding something to the initial burger we wanted. That wasn't that big of a deal because the girl was nice and didn't have an attitude.
Maybe 5 mins later the manager or server she was working under came over in a real put off tone that made me appalled with his approach. In an overly aggressive approach and crappy attitude, the guy asked "so what is it you guys want to order?", not hi, just want clarify, nothing, as if we were completely inconveniencing the people in there. After my fiancé and I marinated for a minute, we decided to get up and leave, but of course we were going to notify our server. Our initial server, the young lady, saw us approaching the door and apologized stating she was new. I explained that we had absolutely no issues with her, it was her manager or supervisor that was inappropriate. At that point when the guy saw us leaving he approached again with the same snark attitude. We just explained that we lost our "taste" for where we were due to his customer service. My fiancé and I ended up in the cafeteria which had a burger spot serving the EXACT same thing we would have ordered, without the attitude or a necessary tip on horrible service.
Aside from being there, even leaving the hotel was a horrible disappointment. I ended up with what the doctors I work for can only explain as bed bug bites. I have included a picture for whatever it counts for. I live in Naples, fl and as I said come to the parks frequently throughout the year and have never had any problems while there or after leaving. I didn't change detergents, creams, do anything different, get stung by or anything, didn't even know I was bitten by anything. Not even a couple hours after leaving the Cabana Bay resort I had little bites showing up in a loose line near my chest and just below my belly button, with a few bites behind my ear or on my neck. As the week went on the bites came out. They turned to welts from the unbearable itching that led to uncontrollable scratching, that led to scabs.
I have never felt so dirty after leaving a hotel, not to mention one deemed a Universal resort, where it's part of the "experience." I've had to deep fry EVERYTHING just to make sure I don't end up bringing that into my home, whatever the creatures may have been.
Value or not, this should not be labeled a Universal hotel. I've received better at a remodeled Days Inn, with better accommodations and service. However, the icing on the cake (you would have thought that had been the bed bug bites), was that the SAME day we got home and went online to plan our next trip since then was an absolute waste, to find even cheaper rates then that oh so super "promotion." Complete scam. No matter the dates, even one day after the dates we traveled was cheaper for the SAME hotel. CRAZY!
Next time Universal decides to open a hotel maybe they should get together a panel of their frequent visitors so it can be a little bit more up to par. Not worth the money and definitely not worth being considered part of the Universal properties, which I cannot reiterate enough.