Holiday Inn Resort Hotel

My wife and I, and another couple, stayed there over New Year's Eve. We were quite disappointed with our stay and with the property in general. The front desk person was unnecessarily rude and took afront to basic billing inquiries at check-in, saying at one point, "if you don't like it, you can leave." The same person, as well as the following day front desk person, refused to look up a Priority Number on the computer system to enable the crediting of the stay to the couple with whom we were travelling. The wait-staff in the breakfast buffet area were clearly overwhelmed each morning, with plates, napkins and coffee, being in short supply. The rooms were adequate, but lacked basic amenities such as Do Not Disturb sign, and had many large cracks in the ceiling. Such cracks were no doubt due to recent hurricane damage, and such damage was evident throughout the property, such as broken chairs and tree limbs piled in various corners of the property and behind screen fences. Positives included good WiFi access in the rooms and a fitness room (some broken equipment). We suggest passing this property by and looking for an alternate place to stay when you are in Marathon. If Holiday Inn doesn't seemingly care about policing this property, why should anyone reward Holiday Inn, Inc. with their hard-earned money by patronizing it?

The check-in Clerk was rude on the phone when we tried to find the place at night. All signage and building lights were still out from the hurricane a month earlier. They did promptly move us to another room when we complained of insects in the bathroom (and someones hair). We also give them credit for promptly bringing the towels housekeeping failed to leave. Food and drink are available at the Tiki Bar but we passed. Worse, the rate they charge for this property was MORE than we were charged at the 4-Star Sheraton Resort in Key Largo. If I was "Holiday Inn" I would be embarrassed to put my name on this property. But I think Holiday Inn has fallen to this level everywhere...3rd class lodging! We do Not Recommend this property.

I have stayed in a few motels in my life but I think I have finally managed to find the noisiest air-conditioning unit in the continental USA. The compressor thundered into life with such force that normal conversation was no longer possible, let a lone sleep. The noise combines with the most disgusting stench of mould and old socks emanating from the unit. Sadly we only discovered this when we started using it tonight. What gets me is how this place manages to keep the Holiday Inn rating.... it is not even worthy of the shoddiest holiday inn express out there. Do yourself a favor if you value sleep and stay somewhere else.... utter waste of money.

We stayed at this hotel for 3 nights in mid August 2005. Check in was OK and relatively painless and we were directed to a room on the ground floor adjacent to the carpark. As soon as we entered the room we could tell that there could be problems. The A/C sounded like a jumbo jet taking off ruling out any possibility of keeping it on during the night and when I tried to programme the inroom safe to store my passports, flight tickets and money it didn't work. I reported both of these to reception but was told that the A/C units were old and there was nothing that they could do and that the maintenance guy would come round to have a look at the safe. This he did 10 mins later but this was only to confirm that it didn't work but they did let me use a safe box behind reception. Bathroom was barely passable for cleanliness and the toilet and shower had seen better days. Pool area was nice and clean though with a lovely heated pool and lively Tiki Bar. Car park was very dirty with rubbish and broken stop barriers strewn around and guests tended to be noisy when using the carpark during the night with no concerns for sleeping guests. Didn't eat at the hotel as the menu didn't look appetising but there was no need to as there is a beautiful restaraunt across the street called The Island which does terrific food and you get to see the beautiful sunsets as well. The best thing about the hotel is the location in the middle keys as you can get to all attractions in the Keys easily which was the reason we chose it in the first place but the cleanliness and the facilities could be dramatically improved by a bit of investment.

Good value for the money and great location if you like to stay in the Middle Keys. Room was clean and staff friendly. Key West is too noisy and crowded, so if you like quiet, this is the hotel. They also have a boat launch if you have a boat. If you like lots to do in the evening, this hotel would not be good for you as town closes up, but hotel does have a Tiki Bar. We would stay here again.

1. Check in clerk was very rude and arrogant. Other clerks were OK thru out the stay. 2. Room was substandard. 3. Front door had a 1 inch gap at the bottom. Had to put towels down to keep the A/C in. 4. Ice machines always out. 5. Toilet leaked, rocked like a rocking chair. They did fix it but the situation was unsat to find upon arrival. 6. Pool was dirty and kids completely unsupervised. They were riding skate boards up a ramp into the pool. Broke the pool stairs handle several times. It was impossible for adults to use the pool. Management did less than minimum to enforce the rules. 7. This hotel lost the Holiday Inn status about 5-6 years ago and it is hard to believe it was reinstated.

We stayed 2 nights on june 23-24,This hotel is not clean. We had to change rooms because of a loose toilet leaking sewer gas. The band at the bar will keep you up, teenage boys from the area swim in the pool and use foul language, use all the pool towls and use up the ice throwing it at each other, and you in the process. OK, I know this sounds like a rant but wow, was this a disappointment. When I tried to talk to the front desk, Kim, had an answer for anything I looked for help on, (and sorry for the trouble was not one of them.) They up-dated the outside of the hotels, but not the rooms. The airconditioner is soo loud, and does not take the humidity out. Look elswhere!

When we got here we immediately noticed that the toilet wouldn't flush. We told the management and they said they'd fix it immediately - but they never got around to it on the first day. On the morning of day two we told them again and they said they'd fix it. We left and when we came back in the afternoon not only had they not fixed it, but they didn't service the room. On day three they still hadn't gotten around to fixing it.

We stayed here for a couple nights as we had fishing charters booked nearby. The rooms are clean and comfortable and they have a nice pool. In the rear of the hotel you can book fishing, snorkel and dive trips and rent some nice saltwater rods/reels for 10.00 per day. Depending on the tides and the bite, you can catch fish out of the canal that borders the hotel. The staff was plesant and responsive to our needs. With regards to the in-room safe, the front desk was glad to store our stuff while we were out because the lock was broken. If you eat the buffet breakfast, go early while it is still fresh. We would use this hotel again for a like trip.

Checked into our room but was not happy that the in-room safe was broken. As we were on holiday from the UK, we had a lot of important "stuff" with us (passports, flight tickets, money etc). Waited 2.5 hours to try and get a room with a working safe!!. Amazingly the girl on reception said that only a few of the rooms had working safes and they had no idea which rooms did. They made real hash of trying to find us a room with a safe, which is not what we wanted after long hot drive :( In the end I had to phone up Holiday Inn main Customer Services dept and complain before they would sort the problem. Even then, the hotel maintenance chap, turned a simple 5min job into a 45min hassle. We were given free evening meal and breakfast for the problems, but the hotel really needs to sort out the safe issue. On the surface the staff were friendly enough, but anyone who REALLY cared about customer service would have sorted the problem immediately, rather than wasting over 3 hours of our holiday. Saying that, if you aren't bothered about the security issue and lack of good customer service.... Nice pool area (heated pool), Cookies and coffee in reception in the afternoon. Rooms were clean and brightly decorated Hotel has a nice Tiki bar, which did good food in the evening and a nice friendly bar lady. Buffet breakfast cost $8.95 each. It was OK, but overpriced. The on-site jet ski rental was funny... a few knackered old Polaris machines, which the guy wanted a rip-off $75 an hour for. Main concern with Marathon is that there's not actually anything to do there. I wouldn't bother stopping here again, would rather just go straight on down to Key West.