The Alfond Inn

Really wanted to like this hotel. The staff is very friendly, especially the valet staff. The hotel is in a nice area. It is fairly well maintained. The artwork is very cool. However, it is hard to write a positive review as there were lots and lots of little things that were not right. Details matter. Rooms were not made up sometimes as late as 4 or 5pm, and then the stuff hotels like this normally do (for example, stow the ironing board) were not done. The pillows, all four of them, were super high loft - maybe 6+ inches - meaning that my wife and I had to sleep without pillows. On check-in, rooms are assigned on a "first come first served" basis, so they can't tell you when your room will be ready and there seems to be no ability to request rooms near each other if booking multiple rooms. No warning is given on check-in or anywhere on-site that the hotel restaurant can have a multiple hour wait in the morning (at 1030am we were told they could seat our party of 4 at 1245). None of these are in themselves a deal breaker (ok, perhaps the horrific pillows), or even a big deal. Plenty of hotels get a few things wrong. The volume of little things was strange however, and they added up throughout the stay to eventually a "I wish we booked elsewhere" feeling.

Beautiful hotel, staff and the restaurant and lounge service is Fantastic! Fun lively music on the weekends. Beautiful spa! Wonderful place to relax and unwind. Bud, Adam, Bill & Madison are a jot in the lounge. Highly recommended!!!!!!!

Just spent 8 nights there with my son and it was not our 1st visit but we encountered the same issues as our 1st visit which shows me they really dont take these reviews seriously (and I have read several reviews stating the same). The same people in Front Desk and the same issues .. no change. The hotel is a very nice property in a priviledge location which makes it a perfect place to stay if you want to visit Orlando without the busy areas of the parks and like in my case, visiting my son that studies there. Lovely shops and restaurants at walking distance. Here are the pros and cons : PROS - location - well kept and nice property - their newly added cafe is very good and warm service - service from Eduardo in the restaurant Hamilton’s Kitchen (not the food) - efficient valet service - comfortable beds, nice towels and big size rooms CONS - I have to start with the service in Front Desk, specially with a lady called Olivia. After 3 breakfasts in the hotel (which were included in our rate) a nice server told us that because we pay USD 20 daily resort fee while staying in the hotel we had 10% discount in the restaurant, so I realized this discount was not applied to the previous days so I went to Front Desk to ask them to please apply them to our previous bills and this lady called Olivia told me it was not their area and I told her “here is where I will have to pay the bill so ultimately its your area”, she insisted it was not her issue and when I asked again to please look at it she rolled her eyes in a very disrespectful and rude manner and dismissed me. That was not what you can call a professional management of a situation by a trained employee in Front Desk in any hotel. In my opinion Olivia should be put in the back office without interacting with the guests, terrible attitude really. Needless to say to day she didnt do anything nor anybody else. The only person I would say was really nice and professional was Bree. Always nice and willing to help. - Check in was fast since we arrived around 6 pm. We were never explained that breakfast was included, that we had a USD 100 credit and what the USD 20 daily resort fee included. Basically asked for a credit card and gave us our keys, 0 smile or anything that made us feel welcome, in spite me being a Titanium IPrefer Member. Nothing stating in the IPrefer page was granted, needless to say to say that the “complimentary internet access” was charged in the USD 20 daily fee resort and no mention of the upgrade (maybe saying it was not possible beause they were fully booked or something?)…being a Platinum IPrefer member means nothing for them. No difference. - The USD 20 daily resort fee (which I dont mind paying if you get the benefits) was charged efficiently every day and it included the 2 most expensive water bottles in the world and that we, most of the days, needed to call guest services to ask for them because Housekeeping didnt put them daily. It felt really uncomfortable to claim for the famous 2 bottles of water. - Packages and laundry : a whole issue that they should get organized better. When they receive a package supposedly they call you so you pick it up, but it didnt always worked like that because we didnt always receive any call or message and I knew we had a package from Amazon delivered. Be prepared to spend some minutes while they look for your package, and even 1 day David from Front Desk, when I asked for my parcels told me he would look for them but before he had other thing to do …is this normal ? If you have other thing to do and a guest is asking for their parcel you tell the guest “I’ll send them to the room”, no…I had to wait like 15 minutes while he did whatever had to do and then arrived with my parcels complaining that they were left in the hallway and not in the storage room, like if it was up to me to decide where they leave them. Every day was the same issue, they didnt find the parcel listed in their list so they had to look for it manually, 0 control, then they registered the parcel. If you have laundry dont expect it to be delivered to your room, yo have to pick it up from Front Desk. The 2nd time I asked for laundry they told me to bring it down to Front Desk. Basically they dont deliver anything to your room, even if you ask. - Housekeeping was fast but inconsistent. Somedays they stocked the shower cap, another day they didnt, or left few towels etc…what they never did, in our whole stay has vacumming the room. I was seeing the same things in the floor for all our stay. - Check out. In spite telling Front Desk the previous night that we were checking out at 4,30 am and asking them to have the bill ready, it was a not ready and a mess. They didnt have it printed as requested and they charged the breakfasts (that were included in our rate) and didnt deduct the USD 100 credit also included in our rate. When I asked for it and showed Chris the details of our rate he told me he didnt know anything about it and that when the manager arrives in the morning he will look at it. I had to contact my travel agent to get this sorted out and in spite of that they havent deducted the total of the breakfast charges and its not that we had extensive and expensive breakfasts, just normal breakfasts. Still working with them to comply with the condition in our rate about this. - Restaurant Hamilton’s Kitchen. I refer specifically to breakasts because we didnt use the restaurant for other purposes. Their menu is very limited. No pancakes, no waffles, no omelettes, no croissants, no smoothies, no hot chocolate, no variety of jams, no hams and cheeses …usually when I stay in a hotel one of my highlights is having a nice breakfast, here it was not the case for us. I think it would be wise to include typical american breakfast food like pancakes, waffles and some variety of breads like a croissant, rye bread for example. The service was nice, specially Eduardo. So basically our stay was pleasant but with these issues that really tarnished it. The location makes me go back and probably I will go back there because I am visiting my son who studies there but for what I pay I expect at least a pleasant service in Front Desk and them to respect and apply the conditions we have included in our rate. This is still an open subjet which our travel agent (Thank God I have one) is dealing with.

Wonderful property and terrific staff. The rooms are large and perfectly clean. The bar is well stocked and friendly. The food served for breakfast and lunch at my company's meetings was excellent. There's no reason to consider any other hotel when in this area.

Upon arrival, my room wasn’t ready, but the front desk graciously offered to hold my bags. I asked if I could use the gym and lockers to change, and they assured me it wouldn’t be a problem—just head to the spa reception, and they would take care of it. However, when I arrived at the spa, I was told I couldn’t use the lockers without booking a spa treatment and was instead offered a public restroom. I explained that the front desk had sent me, but the response was simply, “We don’t handle that, and my manager said we can’t.” Even if I had wanted a treatment, none were available for the next three hours. What a frustrating welcome—and a clear disconnect between teams. I travel the majority of the year for business, most hotels in this category would have handled this very differently. It’s disappointing when guests are not only misinformed but also have their reasonable requests dismissed so abruptly.