Ramada - Village Inn (Now Holiday Park)
Written: Sep 09 '05 (Updated Dec 19 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: It's a good place to score crack if you're an addict.
Cons: Including the above...You name it, it'll be listed here!
The Bottom Line: Never consider this dilapidated festering hole as an option! Trust me, sleep in your car, or under a flatulent elephant!!!
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| SanguinMoon's Full Review: Ramada Inn Deerfield Beach |
I don't even know where to start, and I have so much to say!
This review will be broken into 2 parts. Part I - Holiday Park Hotel & Suites (Formerly known as The Ramada) Part II - The Village Inn.
Why 2 parts? Because they are attached. You'll never hear about this until someone writes about it. Let me first start with Holiday Park.
PART I ~ Holiday Park Hotel & Suites
(Formerly Ramada) Holiday Park Hotel & Suites. Don't let the name fool you. (That's why it exists). Plain and simple this place is a dump! Now…they have been undergoing a fair amount of refurbishing…new paint, fixed (not new) air conditioners etc…but nothing from what I can tell has actually been improved upon. Sure…they painted the stairs, but what about the rust underneath? I actually witnessed them painting over it.
It’s important for you to know that most of the information you will receive when looking up this place online are either lies or exaggerations. This is the reason for my writing this. Allow me to explain.
I took it upon myself to look up the hotel online. Here are a few things they mention…and I quote: “The hotel is located near, the Fabulous Sawgrass Mills Mall.”
No it isn’t! You’re a good 30-40 minute drive from that mall. Sawgrass Mills Mall is in Sunrise Florida. In fact I just put the addresses into randmcnally.com to estimate the distance…It’s 25 miles away! Is that close? I don’t think so. And speaking of distance…I read on one site that they claim to be less than a mile from the beach. Are you kidding? They are located one block WEST of I-95. A good 2 miles from the beach; that’s a big difference if you’re contemplating the walk.
They also mention a “deluxe continental breakfast”.
Ok…deluxe? It was “alright” considering it’s the crackwhore of hotels. The primary breakfast includes Stale bagels, donuts & muffins. I had gone down for breakfast a few times, twice of which the waffle machine was broken. They do have juice, but no coffee. You do get a coffee machine in your room however. They also have the little boxes of cereal. (my personal fav…at least it’s a sealed box.) One more thing about the breakfast…it’s in the smallest room. Why they don’t use the media room for it I’ll never know…oh..I guess it’s all the businessmen/women that stay here need that room…lmao…give me a break. It’s so cramped it’ll take you 15 minutes just to get into the room. 159 rooms and they use one of them for this breakfast of champions.
I’ve read other reviews of this hotel since staying there. People have complained that rooms smell of urine. They’ll tell you over the phone they have rooms, then when you get there they’re sold out…or they’ll quote you one price, then when you get there, it’s a lot higher. The blankets have burns on them, the bathtubs are stained with G-D knows what, it’s just gross.
They have a gym if you can believe it, but it’s mostly broken down machines. The rower didn’t work, the bicycle was broken, and the pulley system of the all in one machine was wedged between the pulley and steel frame rendering it useless.
You have a few other room amenities such as a small hair dryer and an iron with ironing board.
They also have a pool and cabana area. When I tell you that the general populous of this place is rather seedy…you’ll understand when you head out by the pool. Wake up early so to be sure you can have a beer with the 9am loungers…
On a few occasions I was approached by random drug dealers (They also lurk near/around the pool area) asking me if I was straight. Ok..I am straight... apparently in their native tongue straight means crooked. (Just a note for any of you that dare stay here.)
There’s a Wellsley across the street..if you have to stay in this area…give them your business. They have comparable rates.
PART II ~ The Village Inn
Ok…the positive part of this review is over. Fasten your seatbelts, it’s all downhill from here.
Unfortunately, my family fell upon hard times late last year, early this year and had to stay at this sh*thole known as The Village Inn. Home to the dregs of society.
The Village Inn is attached to the above hotel. It is an extended stay.
First of all. The people here pay a lot of money for this dump. $825 and up / month. So what’s included?
Free basic cable which goes out EVERY time it rains, a safe with no lock or key, a sink with no drain plug. A broken lamp, stained mattresses, an ac unit which barely works, a gritty film on the tile floor that turns your feet black, a microwave from 1979, a begrimed showerhead, blankets with burn holes in them, lumpy mattresses with springs poking you all over, A shower curtain with broken rings, and that barely hangs lower than the top of the tub, a toilet that sometimes flushes, and needs to have the handle tapped repeatedly or else it'll run all night long, paint chips on the floor, strips of paint hanging from the interior walls, a door which allows water to come in when it rains, mold in the corners both by the floor and ceiling and not just in the main room, but the bathrom as well. There's also mini fridge that has a faulty freezer section.
What don’t you get? No hangars for your clothing, no use of the safe, no properly working lights, (they flicker like strobe lights and sometimes never stop) no access to the gym next store, no access to the pool or cabana, no security, no coffee maker, no iron, no hair dryer, no daily maid service (once a week) & no free breakfast of any kind.
In fact when my mom first looked up the place, she just needed meager accommodations for a short while. They quoted her $825/month. When she arrived there, just an hour later...the guy said…”What?” we don’t have any rooms for that price and said my mom had to pay $990/month. My mom had no choice at the time but pay it. Later that month that guy was found extorting money and was arrested. The fear that they will still try to extort as much money from you is still there. This is not a place where you can trust people.
The formalities aside: I have had several experiences here I wish to forget.
1. Coming back here at night anywhere from 9pm to 4am you’ll see people standing around outside, grooming one another, or shouting… people throwing things out windows, being arrested or committing a crime.)
2. I’ve seen the police come down there as often as 5 / 6 times a week arresting various people. Both men and women. Usually for domestic violence or drug trafficking.
3. My friend dropped me off here one night and we’re talking inside of his car. There’s no one else around when a car comes up next to us. A guy inside gives us a dirty look then pulls in front of us. Someone from upstairs comes downstairs and tosses a bag in the guys car…they exchange few words, then he leaves.
4. The keys to the doors are the ever common plastic cards. However ours never worked more than a few days. You’ll just come back one day and your card won’t work. Then when you have to go to the office to get new cards, they criticize you, saying that it’s your fault they’re not working. As an experiment, we kept the cards together in the same folded paper they gave them to us in. After 3 or 4 days they no longer worked. Now they say it’s our door, which they wouldn’t fix. So we had to constantly deal with this problem.
5. Random gun fire late at night. Slamming of doors as well.
6. The place is right next to a train station…(They don’t mention that on any website) You’ll definitely hear that at 2am!
7. If you have dogs…the few grassy areas nearby are flea ridden and they don’t treat the lawns. (We found out the hard way).
8. If you’re a non-smoker, people there don’t care, and they’ll stand right in front of your door smoking. The door doesn't reach the floor so all the smoke comes right into your room. Then they'll juststand out there and talk at all hours of the night.
9. A lot of the time the once a week maid service runs out of towels or soap… so you have to go without or buy it on your own.
10. You’ll witness prostitutes getting dropped off here.
11. You can hear the TV on in the neighboring room.
12. There is a phone in the room. You can make and receive local calls, BUT they charge you .53/minute if you go over 10 minutes!
There’s just so much I could list.
~ A plethora of things fell apart and broke while we were there. The phone no longer allows you to make calls; you can now only receive them. This was a management decision, and the 10 minute rule still applies.
~ The soap dish broke off while my mom was in the shower. It just fell right off the wall, she wasn’t even touching it.
~ The hook from the back of the bathroom door fell off.
~ The toilet paper holder fell off. (Sensing a reoccurring theme here?) The place is corroded and falling apart.
~ Water was dripping THROUGH the light fixture in the ceiling of the bathroom from floods above. The water actually dripped off the lit light bulb, Water filled up over an inch in the glass that held the bulb!!! And the maintenance said they couldn’t fix it…
~ Our ac had broken, so we got a replacement a few weeks later. (A few weeks during the summer... I might add, with no ac) Then we got a refurbished one. It works, but there are rat pellets inside. To put it more blunt rat droppings.
~ The handles to the drawers fell out.
~ We’ve had the maid service come by and they didn’t bother to empty the trash on several occasions. They also don’t sweep or mop the floors.
If I haven’t convinced you by now to stay as far away from this place as possible, then nothing will work, and I wish you the best of luck. Bring a bullet proof vest, some mace, a taser…leave your kids at a 7-11 (they’ll be safer there.) If you bring dogs, they’ll have to do their business in the parking lot, or else you’re going for a very long walk.
It's aggrivating... the cops are here ALL the time for one reason or another, yet the residents here that have a time share at the local jail don't seem to care.
I will say this though…much like the program for juvenile delinquents “scared straight” if you want to reinforce the issue of staying in school and making something of your life to your children….staying here for a week will do that!
I would have rated it zero stars, but it wasn't an option!!!
ADDENDUM: My mother read my review and had this to say:
"I have experienced this place and am embarrassed to say so. You cannot get in anymore at $825, it's now over $900+ monthly. You have to leave a deposit on the phone before you are allowed to use it and there is a minimum, should you not use all of your deposit before you leave, you cannot get your money back. Also, should you choose to leave your residence early because you've hopefully found a better place to live, that money you don't get back either."
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
SanguinMoon
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Member: Jay
Location: Coral Springs, Fl
Reviews written: 48
Trusted by: 27 members
About Me:
Writer - Producer - Director
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