Out stay at the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando was a huge disappointment. On our arrival on 7 October Saturday we were informed that the Hard Rock Hotel didn’t have any rooms available to honor our reservation. Our desk attendant was nice and wanted to be helpful but it was very difficult to understand him since he spoke very broken English. After the manager came out to help us with the problem, he saved the day by finding us a room with a garden view. Having paid in advance for a non-smoking with a pool view, I was rather upset to find my view was the back of a bush on the first floor and a room filled with cigarette odor. After returning to the hotel front desk, the manager gave us a $75 credit and moved us to a pool side non-smoking room the following day.

On 8 October we were moved into a nonsmoking room with a pool view on the 4th floor which matched our reservation and expectations. We were not particularly happy with the new paint odor but it was
certainly better than the smoke smell from the previous room. The next morning I asked the front
desk why they had a vacuum cleaner running throughout the night. The noise was as annoying as a person snoring. I was told that this was not a vacuum cleaner but a carpet drier and that the floor was
being renovated. Regardless, the hotel ran the machine throughout the night without regard for those
(if anyone else was on this floor other than us?) trying to sleep.

On the morning of the ninth, a crew of several Spanish speaking men arrived at 6:50 am probably to begin renovation work. We wouldn’t have known this except for their loud talk, shouts and laughs which carried on for several minutes.

I wouldn’t be going to the trouble to write this complaint had it not been for the grand finale at
checkout. After all, the manager had given us a credit and the other noises throughout the night were
an annoyance that we were able to ignore.

The desk attendant at checkout gave me a bill that defied common sense and was not even explainable by her. The bill listed many credits and charges. Only a few of the charges had a description such as The Kitchen (hotel restaurant). The other credits and charges were simply listed as Visa and the balance due was approximately $585.30 (on the first printout, more to follow). Having prepaid for the hotel this was very much more than what I expected and, as stated previously, had no description on the bill for what the charges were for. The desk attendant explained, with much confidence and enthusiasm, that this was probably just the rollup for the day of all of the charges I had and that the hotel accounting system just worked that way and, as much as she hated it too and many other customers had the same complaints, that’s the best she could do.

Still on the bill. When I asked her why there were so many credits on my account she explained that these were actually charges and the charges were actually credits. When I asked about the credit for $75 (reference para. 1 above) she explained that it was shown on the bill as a credit and that it really was a credit. At this point she printed out a second bill that separated the credits from the charges to try to clarify things. I won’t continue the play by play, but I kept my composure through 30 minutes of the hotel’s attempts to explain to me why credits are charges and charges are credits unless they are really credits and then they aren’t really charges. Throughout the conversation the desk attendant
provided six different printouts of my bill attempting to explain the charges. Each time, the balance due
was for a different amount: $585.39, $185.30, $0.00, $188.59, 47.03, and $556.42CR. Although I admire her persistence, after 30 minutes I gave up and asked the simple question, what amount will show up on my credit card bill? To this she replied, all of the charges and credits and after you balance them out it should come out to $185.30. The nightmare is sure to continue.

In summary, this is not at all what I expected from a Loews owned hotel. If it were not for having retained the copies of the six bill’s provided at checkout, I think it would be more believable to describe a UFO sighting. An American hotel should hire people to work the front desk who speak English well and use a billing system that doesn’t require an accounting degree in reverse gibberish to interpret. Our Hard Rock experience was very stressful and a big disappointment.

Sincerely,
Barry