Avanti Palms Resort

We stayed at the hotel in November 2019 on the day we were leaving we deposited our two suitcases in the hotel secure storeroom and were given a receipt. When our transport arrived to take us to the airport we went to collect our cases but our suitcases where missing. The front desk were of no help. As we could not miss our flights we had to return to UK without luggage. When we arrived home I had a missed text from a guest who had been staying at the hotel for a week before going on a cruise to say that they discovered they had our cases with the rest of their parties at Port Canaveral and had no choice but to leave them at the port. Of course they have never been seen since. The Manager told me that the bellman had seen the guest take them. How is that possible without showing the receipt? What sort of system is this? I asked for the CCTV to be viewed and was told that fro November until today January it is not working. The manager Ricardo told me this has never happened before.

I gave the hotel an opportunity to make this right but unfortunately they didn't. I arrived New Year's eve early and my room was not available. The only thing I had on me was a backpack so asked to leave it with the front desk crew. A gentleman by the name of Ricardo allowed me to leave my backpack in their baggage check room as I left to wait for my other guest to arrive. Shortly after I decided I did not want to carry as much cash as I had on me so asked him to retrieve the backpack. He met me at the door and stood over me and watched while I placed cash and keys in the backpack. 20 minutes later, after talking to friends, decided I would bring my backpack with me to Universal and keep it in their vehicle. Again it was Ricardo who gathered my bag and provided it to me. When I got to the park I realized there was $100 missing from my backpack. I thought about letting it go but on January 2nd sent a message via Facebook messenger and advised on what happened. They responded that they would send it to the property to address. On the 3rd I got an email from Ricardo that he was responsible for investigating the matter. So, the gentleman who handled my backpack, who witnessed me place money in my backpack, is now investigating whether or not money was taken. Understanding that it may not have been him emailed back that I looked forward to the findings from the investigation. Well, after 8 days I realized the complaint was simply going to be ignored because he never responded. I sent a message back to the Facebook messenger and they directed me to Hilly Adler the General Manager. I forwarded the email string and advised on what had happened and at that this point had not received a response on what was found. His response, "I apologize that this issue has not been resolved to your liking. At this time, we are unable to prove that anyone actually went into your bag. With out any poof, we are unable to move forward with any restitution. Please accept my apology." I emailed back asking how they knew and if that was based on video evidence or on the feedback of the individual responsible for the investigation, the same one who was handling my baggage. His response? "At this time we have to conclude our conversation. We don’t even know if the money was actually in the backpack. My team has never had any issues or concerns that I need to confront." Well, I can tell you they did know as he watched me put it in the backpack. Secondly, a response of I've never had problems in the past so there obviously can't be problems now is an unfortunate response from a General Manager. It was never about the money but instead knowing that the location would do their due diligence and look out for future guests. This is not the case here. Seems the way they manage consumer concerns is to ignore first and if it continues to deflect.

I wanted to write an honest review since most reviews about this place are negative. Listen people, most of the time you get what you pay for. You can’t spend less than $100 per night and expect a 4-5 star resort. That being said I do believe the negative reviews about this place are harsh and had me feeling very nervous prior to our stay. We traveled in January as a family of 3 (which included my 2 year old son). We were taking a quick 4 day vacation away from the cold of NY. Booked the Avanti Palms using Groupon. Paid around $235 for 3 nights! Hotel was not busy at all, I’m sure that added to our experience in a positive way. The grounds are very nice. No complaints there. Lobby and bar areas are clean and modern. There is a small cafe/convenience store that is cute and met our needs. Serving Starbucks coffee. Game room for the kids was clean, fun and reasonable at $1.00 per game. The pool area was excellent for my 2 year old. Water fountains and shallow water made for hours of fun. Decent sized sand area for the kids to play as well. Towels are provided by the pool which is great. The rooms are probably what bring this place down. We stayed in building 2 on the second floor overlooking the pool. Great location. The rooms are updated, but you can tell they are covering up a very dated building. Sheets and towels are clean but no attention given to weather or not they are stained or warn looking. The second day housekeeping was unable to clean our room because our son was napping. The lady said she would return, but never did. That left us with a mess of a room and no towels left to shower that evening. Reported to the front desk and we did have towels and sheets delivered promptly to our room, but no consolation was offered. Maybe a voucher for food or something for our inconvenience. Overall you will enjoy your stay if you have realistic expectations. Location is great as International Drive is jam packed with things to do and restaurants galore. Don’t even need to rent a car as almost everything you need is walking distance and there is a convenient trolly that runs up and down I-Drive. This place has potential. Rooms/corridors need to be spruced up like the lobby and pool area and this place can be great. We enjoyed our stay and would consider returning in the future.