Homewood Suites

[CyberTag]

Looking for opinions for anyone who has stayed at the Homewood Suites FLL Airport. We have a 2 bedroom suite reserved for 30,000 HH points. Anyone have any thoughts on the property?

[mollyanne]

We have not stayed at the Homewood but if things haven't changed the same company owned the Fairfield - which is right across the parking lot. We stayed at the Fairfield a couple of years ago. If memory serves there were not a lot of walkable places but the hotels do offer a shuttle to local restaurants as well as the airport. They took us to the Rustic Crab house - which is one of the oldest restaurants in Florida and it was a great choice. I also remember the shuttle driver who took us to the airport as being one of the nicest people ever - telling us how "blessed" he was to have that job!

[CyberTag]

We have not stayed at the Homewood but if things haven't changed the same company owned the Fairfield - which is right across the parking lot. We stayed at the Fairfield a couple of years ago. If memory serves there were not a lot of walkable places but the hotels do offer a shuttle to local restaurants as well as the airport. They took us to the Rustic Crab house - which is one of the oldest restaurants in Florida and it was a great choice. I also remember the shuttle driver who took us to the airport as being one of the nicest people ever - telling us how "blessed" he was to have that job!

 

Thanks for your reply. The Fairfield is a Marriott property and Homewood is a Hilton property.

[wieslaw]

Hi,

I can not tell you much about Homewood ....... I only walked in into their lobby and the restaurant / eating area where they served breakfast ..... they both looked very nice....... a lot nicer than Fairfield ...... a lot bigger lobby ...... nicer and bigger eating area and it seems that they were serving nicer breakfast. That was over two years ago when we stayed at the Fairfield, that is located right next to Homewood..... we just walked across the small parking lot to check out the hotel.

 

If you like, please read my report about the Fairfield - it will give some idea where the Homewood is located and what is close to that location. It is an old report but I doubt that anything changed close to the hotels.

Here is the link:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1533793

Edited June 14, 2014 by wieslaw

[megr1125]

It's a very nice hotel (it MAY be owned by the same franchisee as the FFI even though the are members of different hotel chains..there's a good chance that whomever actually OWNS the hotel -as opposed to the brand thereof- is the same...but I digress)

 

If you're there during the week, they offer a light dinner, which was usually PLENTY of dinner for me...and free beer and wine. Breakfast was also very yummy...nice variety with a rotating hot item....

 

It's funny, someone mentioned about the shuttle driver, I think I had the same person! I agree, very nice......

[mollyanne]

Thanks for your reply. The Fairfield is a Marriott property and Homewood is a Hilton property.

 

I know that. I'm just saying when we stayed at the Fairfield Inn BOTH had the same owners. They even shared the shuttle.

 

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Forums mobile app

[counsdr]

It's a very nice hotel (it MAY be owned by the same franchisee as the FFI even though the are members of different hotel chains..there's a good chance that whomever actually OWNS the hotel -as opposed to the brand thereof- is the same...but I digress)

 

If you're there during the week, they offer a light dinner, which was usually PLENTY of dinner for me...and free beer and wine. Breakfast was also very yummy...nice variety with a rotating hot item....

 

It's funny, someone mentioned about the shuttle driver, I think I had the same person! I agree, very nice......

 

So Meg, did you stay at Homewood or Fairfield? Trip Advisor reviewers are saying it's a bad neighborhood and that people's cars were broken into.

I'm so confused now as where to stay and if I'm better off to park the car at the parking lot near the pier that is $7.99/day.

Cheryl

[jennmaybe]

OH YES--WE STAYED THERE......here is my review on TA.......we will never stay here again. We also used Honors points here, so at least we didn't waste any money!!

 

We expected much better”

1 of 5 starsReviewed December 16, 2013

I am giving this hotel a 1 rating even though the hotel itself was ok. It was clean and the room was huge.

 

However, I am livid over the customer service that is NOT provided at this hotel. We arrived by Tri-rail from the Palm Beach airport and I called the hotel to ask for the shuttle to come over across the street (it's a very busy road) and pick us up at Tri-rail. They have free shuttle to and from the airport, but the Tri-rail is much closer and across a very busy 4-lane highway. We were told they would not send a shuttle and to just walk across the street. So, we ended up risking our lives to cross this busy roadway with 4 pieces of luggage. (There were no taxis at Tri-rail).

 

They checked us in right away, which was around 2:00pm. This was great. We asked the front desk clerk about their shuttle to the local restaurants and to a grocery store nearby to grab some water & sodas. This is where is all goes to hell!

 

They use a shuttle service in Fort Lauderdale, this is NOT a hotel shuttle. We were advised to tell the driver to take us to Kmart after he picks us up from dinner. So, we did just that. We were told Kmart was close by & they would provide shuttle service to that store. The driver told us he had to drop us off at Marshalls, but it was in the same shopping center, so we could just walk down to Kmart. So, we said ok. Then, to walk back down to Marshalls when we call them to come pick us up again.

 

Well, when we arrived to the shopping area, I noticed Kmart across the street. The driver said he had to drop us off at Marshalls and we had to cross a very busy 4-lane highway (AGAIN!!), to get to Kmart. I asked him what how we were going to get back across to Marshalls with a case of water & three 12 packs of sodas. The idiot told us to steal a Kmart buggy and walk back across the street. WTH??? I told him he had to be kidding me! I also told him we would NOT be calling them back & that Hilton corporate would be getting a piece of my mind for them using such a crappy shuttle service. Their guests deserve much better service than that. Had we known that, we would have called a taxi--at least we would have been dropped off at Kmart. So, we had to risk our lives AGAIN to get over to Kmart and by now, we were beyond ticked off!!

 

So, once we were done, we called a taxi to come get us. Once we got back to the hotel, we spoke to the manager and a different front desk clerk. We told them everything and how ticked off we were about their terrible shuttle service. The manager did not care one bit & never even apologized, and yes, she was standing right there. The clerk said he was going to call the shuttle company and give us a call up to our room to find out what was going on. Needless to say, we never heard from him.

 

That's ok. We may be Hilton Honors members, but there are lots of other hotel chains out there and we will begin using them!!!

 

The breakfast was extremely lacking. Probably one of the worst of any Hilton hotels we've ever stayed in. There also was not enough tables and chairs to accommodate all of the hotel guests.

 

So, if you like terrible customer service, this hotel will be perfect for you. If not, I would recommend you choose another hotel in Fort Lauderdale. There are plenty of great ones there.

[Tam Tam]

We had a reservation at this hotel 3 years ago that I had made several months in advance. I had to provide a credit card at the time I made the reservation which is not at all unusual. Upon check-in we were told our room had been given away because my credit card had expired (we had a new expiration date since making the reservation) and they said they called us but we did not answer. We did not answer because they called about 2 hours before we attempted to check-in and was on our flight down. The "ladies" at the front desk not only did not care that we were there with a legitimate credit card, they laughed at us and were quite loud with us about the whole situation. While I will say that we ended up getting a free room at the Fairfield across the parking lot, we will NEVER consider this hotel again and would hope no one would get this kind of treatment anywhere.

 

The following year we found the Hyatt House on Stirling/18th Ave. and have never looked back. We have stayed there every year since and love it.

[megr1125]

I stayed there (Homewood) and had no issues.....

 

Sucks that others did, but I really enjoyed it and had no problems...

[CyberTag]

We just returned from staying here 3 nights. We had a 2 bedroom suite and a 2nd room. We had linked both reservations and requested both rooms be near one another. We had also made a note that we would be arriving around midnight. The only complaint we have is that when we checked in the rooms were on separate floors and none were available near each other. We were able to switch rooms the next day.

 

The hotel is clean and this is a typical Homewood. We did not find the area unsafe. However, there are no restaurants within walking distance so a car is definitely helpful.

[Jeanine&Jim]

Hi We have stayed at Homewood in FLL 2 times. Recently in May. The pool was closed but we were allowed to use the pool at the Fairfield Inn next door.

I use Hilton or Marriott products as a rule.

I have no problems with the Homewood suites.

Room clean and nice staff as well.

We have also rented a car even for a one day post or precruise. Rates are really so good that it is worth it to us, to be able to drive to the beach or a decent restaurant. Vs dealing with shuttles etc.