This hotel definitely shows its age, but it must be viewed as part of its charm. Prior to this visit, the last time I stayed here was 35 years ago. The location can’t be beat. Staff was friendly. Standard 12 PM checkout time was appreciated. I’d stay here again.
I wanted to stay within walking distance to all the beautiful shops and restaurants in downtown Winter Park and this location was perfect. Yes, the hotel is old but it has so much "character" between the vintage elevator, gift shop and treasures in the lobby. It's also wonderful to sit on the balcony, have a glass of wine or cup of tea while overlooking the Central Park or street.
The staff was very helpful with anything I needed. Be sure to ask if you have issues with getting on to the WiFi. Once I was shown how to do it, it was fine. There is a charge for the Valet Parking but it's worth the convenience in a place like this where parking is difficult and the drivers can be a little crazy.
I read some reviews that complained about the train or street noise. To me, that is part of the charm of staying in a place like this. It reminded me of the smaller hotels I stayed at when I've traveled in Europe or Canada. I prefer hotels like this to chain type places.
Having said that, a few minor touch-up repairs (i.e. like getting rid of the chipped paint in the bathroom) and a Continental Breakfast (with pre-wrapped items like croissants and muffins) could improve the value. My room and balcony were clean for the most part, but some aspects were a bit "run down." That would NOT deter me from staying again in the future.
My wife thought it had "character". The place is filthy! Just gross and nasty! We had dead bugs on the night stands, on the lamp shades, in the tub and suspect hairs everywhere. F this place. Needs to be burned down to sanitize. Too bad cause the location is good. Oh, might I add, no parking. And we booked the "honeymoon suite". This place is not fit for working girls. And, the bathroom doesn't have a vent. And the A/C is pathetic. I mean, I just can't tear this place down enough with decent language. There are no superlatives strong enough to describe what a real dump this place is. Reminds me of "the dirtiest toilet in Scotland" from Trainspotting. Turns out you can only take a shower. The spout selector button is stuck in the upright position. And it's not a discount hotel by any stretch of the imagination. You get the idea. Avoid at all costs!!!
Old Florida charm with quaint old-fashion lobby; creaky wooden floors throughout; wrap-around balcony in the heart of upscale Winter Park. If you’re scouting for an early-20th century movie set or are doing historical research on the area you might be happy here.
But then…
1) Only a thin wooden door between us and the neighboring room - we could hear everything they said and did - even bathroom stuff. Just entirely too close - we were afraid to speak or even flush our toilet. Uncertain whether the connecting door locked from both sides…didn’t feel safe or private through the night.
2) Potentially relaxing wrap-around balcony is only divided by planters, which might be enough privacy if you just want to sit outside for a moment, but our neighbors to the other side decided to celebrate their relationship rather vigorously, treating their section of balcony as part of their bedroom, and thus treating us - and everyone below - to an x-rated show that we couldn’t turn off.
3) Thought maybe our TV would be a good ‘white noise’ maker so we could at least whisper to each other in our room, but the remote didn’t work. Room service guy brought us another one that sorta worked…kinda. We quickly decided to give up and try to sleep.
4) We were awakened by neighbors on both sides around 1am - the ones on the other side of the connecting door talking and shouting and slam ming doors — the ones on the other side aggressively re-consummating their relationship yet again. We heard it all…
*There was one pair of foam ear plugs on the dresser - not two. Maybe we could have shared them - one for each of us?
5) I tried to shower in the morning. The bath handle spun around and around - no idea how to get hot water. I then tried to pull the knob to divert the water up to the shower head, but it was rusted stuck - couldn’t pull it with all my strength. Gave up on the shower.
6) Found long black hairs here and there in the bathroom; hair pins and used elastic hair binders scattered around the room. Made me wonder how clean the room was.
7) No self-parking option - valet wasn’t part of the $239 room fee.
…Probably a good thing the desk clerk didn’t ask how our stay was when I handed him the room key this morning.
My wife and I stayed for our anniversary. The bellman assisted us to our room and turned on the AC. After he left, we noticed that the previous guest had left a suit hanging in the closet and that the lamp in the suite did not work. We called and he came back up to our room. He took the suit, looked at the lamp, and noticed that the AC was not working. He moved us to another "better" room where the AC was working. While the room was decorated better, we later discovered that the sink in the bathroom drained so slowly that we didn't want to use it. Later that night, I discovered that the TV didn't work (error message said no connection to the internet). I didn't immediately report each of these because I didn't want to move again. I did report the TV to the front desk upon checkout and she said that they had just changed providers and had been having troubles. On the positive side, we loved sitting on the balcony watching the street scene. Also the bellmen were stellar. We loved the location and the history of this hotel, but frankly, it needs major work.
