Our messy Family Vacation to Naples Florida

Edgewater Beach hotel view from 3rd floor

My husband and I celebrated our 15 year wedding anniversary this year! We waited till August to take a nice vacation as a family and unfortunately it did not turn out so well. I am big on TripAdvisor and for once I went out of my comfort zone and stay at a hotel that was not in the top 10. Boy oh Boy I will never ever do that again.

Naples, Florida was our chosen destination for our summer trip. There were a lot of hotel options but not too many hotels were on the beach. Of course we all know when traveling with a family you are always trying to figure out ways to have an amazing time but not break the bank. I found a nice 1 bedroom suite at the Edgewater Beach Resort with a refrigerator, microwave and plenty of room to spread out. I am a big tripadvisor junky and I do a lot of research before I book a hotel. It seemed like this hotel was getting one good review then one bad review – and it was all having to do with the quality of the rooms. I was so concerned that I called the reservation center and had them note in my record that I was worried about the quality of the rooms. They of course told me they would put me in the best room available and that I had nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, something bad did happened and I had hoped the customer service would be better as I had read in other reviews but we were let down.

We spent 3 nights at the resort. The first night was fine, we went to the beach to watch the sunset and indulged in room service! We loved being so close to the beach and the room was nice. The room has a full size refrigerator, microwave, and toaster perfect for breakfast and lunch. This was very convenient for us and the grocery store was very close by. Our second day there was also fine – we enjoyed the beach all day and again saw the sunset at night. Unfortunately, once we returned from the sunset our bathroom was leaking water everywhere especially from the ceiling, from the walls. Luckily, we were smart enough to remove all our clothes and electronics from the closet that sits right in the bathroom area. We called the front desk the minute we entered the room and found water leaking from the bathroom ceiling and the front desk person did not care. He did not understand the seriousness of the situation in our room and just brushed us off. We waiting over 30 minutes and still no maintenance person came to our room. In that time enough water had built up from the room above us that the ceiling in the bathroom vanity area fell with 2 loud bangs and water went everywhere. At this point my children are crying and in a panic so we start packing as fast as possible and I send my husband with pictures on his cell phone of what was happening in our room and took it to the front desk. Still the person at the front desk just did not care what was happening – he was bothered by us. He did move us to another room but at that point it was because my husband was angry by how he was being treated and was in no mood to be ignored. When we went back the next morning to talk to the front desk about what had happened and how our children were now scared to use the bathroom alone and were afraid to be in the room because of the roof caving in the front desk person showed no sympathy and just brushed us off. She said and I quote “What are we supposed to do to make this better” and she wanted us to come up with a list of demands. Really? Me the customer has to demand things – the front desk staff just wanted us out of there as fast as possible. To be honest we would of ended our vacation early if the kids would not of been with us. About 24 hours after we returned home I filled out the customer survey and told my story of how displeased we were with our stay at the hotel. I am happy to report that the General Manager was very quick to respond and she handled it as best she could. I just wish they had someone onsite to handle customer service issues better.

Naples Sunset

This was the only summer vacation we took as a family and were were celebrating our wedding anniversary and it was ruined. I was very disappointed how the whole situation was handled and if it would be been just my husband and I there is no way I would of stayed that 3rd night there. I did not want my kids to remember that last thing that happened on our trip to be the roof caving in. I appreciate the complimentary dinner that we had at the Coast restaurant the night our ceiling fell in and I appreciate the manager at least showing some empathy for what happened. I am choosing to take the high road and not leave awful reviews of this hotel. I wish this vacation would of turned out differently but no one got hurt and that is all that matters – right! I am going to remember the fun family times we had and the beautiful sunsets.