Orange Lake ResortRental Guest Reviews

Outstanding Resort

We had an amazing time at the Holiday Inn Orange Lake Resort. The 2 bedroom villa we had was very spacious and offered all of the amenities of home. The pools, dining options, and available activities kept us entertained. We wish we had stayed longer to be able to enjoy the property more. We did not use the resort shuttle as we had our own vehicle and found ample parking. We did not care for the additional $35+ taxes we paid upon arrival. We were told these were resort fees. We understand paying resort fees, but we don't understand why when we reserved through the IHG website that it doesn't include any and all fees. That is the website for this resort. We were aware of other charges within the resort based on reading reviews. Perhaps the website should be a little more transparent on what people can expect as far as fees go. With that being said, we had an amazing time and would definitely go back. We have recommended this resort to our friends.

Timeshare not a resort!!!

We were very upset when we arrived at the resort to find out that is a timeshare scam. Most of the activities my children wanted to do, you had to pay for, including rock climbing water slide and floats for the lazy river. None of these fees were on the website to let us know beforehand. Plus it was very confusing because it did say it had a shuttle. Unfortunately the shuttle was just for the resort not to take us to the different Parks. I didn't realize that Holiday Inn had timeshares. From now on I will be very careful when I'm choosing what resort we will stay at.

Nice room with everything for a lengthy stay, but hard beds ruin it.

We got to the hotel for a short stay and check-in was quick and the staff member was friendly. Wait time to check in was minimal. We then were shipped over to another friendly staff member to get the parking page to stick in our vehicle only to go through at least a 20 minute spiel (with 3 little kids waiting impatiently) attempting to get us to take a tour for a timeshare. After multiple 'no's' we finally were able to get on our way. Initial impression of the villa was very favorable. It looked nice, but had a funky smell in the master bedroom only (Lysol'd it a lot and that helped). We unloaded and the kids explored. We had to vacuum the living room floor area for safety reasons. The villa itself came with everything you would need for an extended stay and was clean. We had a villa that slept up to 8 people and had 7 staying. We got there and only had 6 towels, when called to request 1 or 2 more we were told if we didn't clean/dry our own towels and needed more we'd be charged per towel so we declined. We then went to the pool in the villa area we were in. Nicely maintained and was fun. Only complaint I had of the area was the women's bathroom being on the side where there is a gate immediately exiting the pool area AND just before the door to the bathroom there is an ICE machine that blocks sight of the door. Doesn't feel like a 'safe' area to let young girls go alone by themselves. After swimming, we decided to call it a night. No one, I mean literally not ONE of us, including the kids, got sleep that night (except for the one on the fold out sofa bed). The beds were ROCK hard. I could literally hear the springs creak every time I inhaled and exhaled. The next day we took the shuttle to the lazy river area. The shuttle drivers (multiple trips) were friendly, especially Ada. My kids loved her. That evening we called and requested additional pillows so as to sleep on top of those because of the beds being hard. We explained how many people we had and they said they'd send plenty of pillows and super fluffy blankets to lay on. What we got were 3 pillows and 2 flat heavy blankets (which did nothing to help). Needless to say, only 2 people got any sleep that night as well. We didn't even bother to hang around and do anything on day 3 as we were all so tired. It was really a nice place, but the beds totally ruined the experience for all :(

Nice room with everything for a lengthy stay, but hard beds ruin it.

We got to the hotel for a 2 night stay and check-in was quick and the staff member was friendly. Wait time to check in was minimal. We then were shipped over to another friendly staff member to get the parking page to stick in our vehicle only to go through at least a 20 minute spiel (with 3 little kids waiting impatiently) attempting to get us to take a tour for a timeshare. After multiple 'no's' we finally were able to get on our way. Initial impression of the villa was very favorable. It looked nice, but had a funky smell in the master bedroom only (Lysol'd it a lot and that helped). We unloaded and the kids explored. We had to vacuum the living room floor area for safety reasons. The villa itself came with everything you would need for an extended stay and was clean. We had a villa that slept up to 8 people and had 7 staying. We got there and only had 6 towels, when called to request 1 or 2 more we were told if we didn't clean/dry our own towels and needed more we'd be charged per towel so we declined. We then went to the pool in the villa area we were in. Nicely maintained and was fun. Only complaint I had of the area was the women's bathroom being on the side where there is a gate immediately exiting the pool area AND just before the door to the bathroom there is an ICE machine that blocks sight of the door. Doesn't feel like a 'safe' area to let young girls go alone by themselves. After swimming, we decided to call it a night. No one, I mean literally not ONE of us, including the kids, got sleep that night (except for the one on the fold out sofa bed). The beds were ROCK hard. I could literally hear the springs creak every time I inhaled and exhaled. The next day we took the shuttle to the lazy river area. The shuttle drivers (multiple trips) were friendly, especially Ada. My kids loved her. That evening we called and requested additional pillows so as to sleep on top of those because of the beds being hard. We explained how many people we had and they said they'd send plenty of pillows and super fluffy blankets to lay on. What we got were 3 pillows and 2 flat heavy blankets (which did nothing to help). Needless to say, only 2 people got any sleep that night as well. We didn't even bother to hang around and do anything on day 3 as we were all so tired. It was really a nice place, but the beds totally ruined the experience for all :(

Clean resort

I like the atmosphere. It was very peaceful and clean didnt have any problems my girls love to see wildlife like deer and all the birds. Would love to come back for another vacation. Would highly recommend this resort very good place for family time.

Great Resort - but be prepared for their approach

It would have been a 5 star review had it not been for the unexpected high pressure sales approach at check in. If I had been more prepared, I would have shrugged it of, but since I was blind sighted it really put a damper on our trip. Beware- when they send you to "get your parking pass", you will be pressured into signing up for a tour. Initially when we arrived, we didn't have all of our days planned out, so I agreed to go on the tour. Then, once we made our plans we realized we would not be able to fit it in. I called with a day's notice to let them know we would not be able to make it, and they still charged us a $30 no show fee. I can understand the no show fee if you actually don't show up and they hold a spot for you, but that wasn't the case and they had no ability to give me the $30 back. It was unfortunate that this was handled in this way - bombarding people as they walk in the door when they have no idea what they will have time for. Just be prepared! Other than that it is a great resort!

Nice room with everything for a lengthy stay, but hard beds ruin it.

We got to the hotel for a 2 night stay and check-in was quick and the staff member was friendly. Wait time to check in was minimal. We then were shipped over to another friendly staff member to get the parking page to stick in our vehicle only to go through at least a 20 minute spiel (with 3 little kids waiting impatiently) attempting to get us to take a tour for a timeshare. After multiple 'no's' we finally were able to get on our way. Initial impression of the villa was very favorable. It looked nice, but had a funky smell in the master bedroom only (Lysol'd it a lot and that helped). We unloaded and the kids explored. During this time I managed to get a piece of broken ceramic glass in my foot off the carpeting in the living room so we had to vacuum. The villa itself came with everything you would need for an extended stay and was clean. We had a villa that slept up to 8 people and had 7 staying. We got there and only had 6 towels, when called to request 1 or 2 more we were told if we didn't clean/dry our own towels and needed more we'd be charged per towel so we declined. We then went to the pool in the villa area we were in. Nicely maintained and was fun. Only complaint I had of the area was the women's bathroom being on the side where there is a gate immediately exiting the pool area AND just before the door to the bathroom there is an ICE machine that blocks sight of the door. Doesn't feel like a 'safe' area to let young girls go alone by themselves. After swimming, we decided to call it a night. No one, I mean literally not ONE of us, including the kids, got sleep that night (except for the one on the fold out sofa bed). The beds were ROCK hard. I could literally hear the springs creak every time I inhaled and exhaled. The next day we took the shuttle to the lazy river area. The shuttle drivers (multiple trips) were friendly, especially Ada. My kids loved her. That evening we called and requested additional pillows so as to sleep on top of those because of the beds being hard. We explained how many people we had and they said they'd send plenty of pillows and super fluffy blankets to lay on. What we got were 3 pillows and 2 flat heavy blankets (which did nothing to help). Needless to say, only 2 people got any sleep that night as well. We didn't even bother to hang around and do anything on day 3 as we were all so tired. It was really a nice place, but the beds totally ruined the experience for all :(

Snakes in Lazy River and pushy sales team

I would not recommend signing up for the time share "Tour". We initially did, then after reading horrible reviews about the pushy sales team's tactics, we decided to cancel. When cancelling, the rep was aggressive and rude. She even lied to my wife, claiming she had agreed to a cancellation fee, if we did not attend. This was a desperate last ditch effort to have us keep our appointment... I can only imagine how aggressive they are on the actual tour. Also, the Lazy River at River Island had snakes in it. We saw them on 2 occasions, which freaked out everyone in the area. One male guest was bitten while trying to get the snake away from his children, but he didn't believe the snake was poisonous.

Better hotels in the area.

We stayed at this property 4 years ago and had a great time so decided to head back for a relaxing week. It was mom, grandma and 4 kids ages 6-13. As soon as we got there the kids wanted to swim and go down the lazy river! As soon as they went down the lazy river the kids who were ahead of us was yelled at and told to get out and find their parents. Confused as to why the kids came back to us and we went to talk to the guy who was extremely rude and told us that they have to pay and have bands to use the lazy river. Huh???? No one ever told us this! So we went to see the cost for this as this wasn’t the case last time we were here. We were told we had to pay 9.00 a person to go down the lazy river per day. Then to play mini golf was 12.00 a person for golf and the blow up slide and rock climbing was additional as well. We were shocked but I guess we had to pay the 54.00 a day extra to use the river. Then of course $12.00 per person to play mini golf. We decided to go to get the kids floating tubes (from target) as there were kids floating on them the day before. As soon the kids got in the pool with them the life guard immediately started yelling at them. She yelled at them To the point where a stranger came to us telling us our kids didn’t say anything to her or did anything wrong and she hailed off on them Disrespectfullly. That she is lucky she didn’t yell at their kid like that. We asked to speak to a manager. He did nothing and didn’t seem to care. Seems that you can use floatations if they are purchased from the holiday inn or at other Pools. So once again 54.00 for tubes and lazy river and 72.00 for mini golf! That was how it was all week! The pools were nice and kept up, the property is huge and you have to drive everywhere or take the shuttle if you want to wait for it. The staff (pool) are rude and disrespectful! We won’t be back! There are many other resorts in the area that have the same Amenities if not more that don’t nickel and dime you for everything! It’s included in the “resort fee”.

I'm a repeat guest, final stay horrible

Everytime I come to FL I always stay at the resort for part of my stay from the time I checked in it was bad, I should've known. I got in late, check in clerk didn't really say much, I asked any upgrades, answer no. It was just short, not sweet conversation. Got to room, dirty, blankets dirty, my co worker slept on floor, and carpet had red stain, blanket had bright red stain, pull out mattress stained, and shower floor mat dirty. Next morning while at work I emailed resort, no response got back to room nobody made the bed, no new blankets nothing, went to dinner asked if someone would go to room for service, after late night came back nothing done, this continued for our whole stay. Finally the last night I called from driving and said At this point you haven't answered none of my emails, nobody ever went to my room for anything, can you at least leave a bag on door with supplies needed to shower and clean up do dishes and laundry, of course I got that. I usually get the villas when I stay so maybe that's the problem. Also my last 2 nights I drove around the parking lot for 20 minutes trying to find a spot we had to park so far from the room each night it was ridiculous. I could go on and on, but this is enough