- Report: #114908
Complaint Review: Ramada Plaza Resorts - Ft. Lauderdale Florida
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Ramada Plaza Resorts
2419 E. Commercial Blvd Ft. Lauderdale, 33308 Florida, U.S.A.
Phone:
800-618-3003
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Ramada Plaza Resorts Against better judgement took the vacation AWFUL Don't fall for this Ft. Lauderdale Florida
We recieved the voucher in the mail like everybody else. I responded to it after talking with my family. I fully expected what I was promised. The paperwork said gold key accomodations, so I expected a really decent hotel. It said a cruise so I expected a cruise.
What we got when we arrived, was a moldy, dirty, bug infested hotel room with cracked and peeling paint on the walls. And that was the upgrade. We had our 11 month old grand baby with us and with in 15 minutes of being in this hotel room, she was wheezing. It was awful. So while my husband and I were looking for another hotel, our adult kids whom were with us took a 15 minute swim in the pool after which they all broke out in some sort of rash. Later, I showed them huge black moldy areas in the pool. The time from leaving home to finally laying our heads on a clean pillow was 41 hours.
Everyone complains about getting a sub-compact car. Well I bought 2 packages and upgraded them both so our whole family could go along on this trip so we were assured that we would get a mini-van. What we got was a 15 passenger mini-bus. Probably could have put 4 sub-compacts in it. After about 3 hours, we finally got the mini-van we were promised.
Our cruise which we were really looking forward to was cancelled. And it is no wonder, the ship did look old and dilapitated. However this little tidbit of information was only divulged to all of us passengers after we had stood in line to get our boarding vouchers, and passed through customs where they checked our ID, and then waited to board for several more hours. So now, we had no hotel room for the next 2 nights because we were supposed to be on a ship.
We ended up in Orlando 2 days early after the cancelled cruise. I never even saw the Atlantic Ocean. I am so bummed about that.
The hotel in Orlando, the Ramada 1000, had a beautiful flyer. When we walked in, the lobby was gorgeous. I thought this looks promising. But then it seems you are walking into another hotel when you get on the elevator. Dirty. We stayed on the 5th floor and the 5th floor lobby smelled awful. Not like mold, but more like a really dirty, sweaty, men's locker room ( no offense guys ). Our room was dirty as was the second room we had. In fact, I left a complaint letter with the manager as I own a cleaning business, and was appalled at his cleaning staffs methods, and lack of professionalism. You literally could have built a cat out of the lint and dirt in the corners, along the walls and under the beds of these rooms. The whole vacation was a bust. We did not enjoy one minute of it.
It was advertised to be a vacation of our dreams, and the ultimate in relaxation and excitement. That is 100% false advertisement, which constitutes mail fraud since it came through the US mail. It also involves unfair trade practices including travel scams. In addition, had I booked this trip myself, I would have gotten it cheaper and it would have been quality accomodations and a quality cruise.
You notice on their voucher they mail out that they display Universal Orlando, and Carnival cruise lines. They do this to make you think they are reputable.
Well I am going straight to the top to get a refund on this bogus trip. Any help in the matter, names, addresses that I don't already have would be helpful. Also, has anyone who has taken the trip delt with the refund process? I will update my progress.
Renee
Aberdeen, Washington
U.S.A.
What we got when we arrived, was a moldy, dirty, bug infested hotel room with cracked and peeling paint on the walls. And that was the upgrade. We had our 11 month old grand baby with us and with in 15 minutes of being in this hotel room, she was wheezing. It was awful. So while my husband and I were looking for another hotel, our adult kids whom were with us took a 15 minute swim in the pool after which they all broke out in some sort of rash. Later, I showed them huge black moldy areas in the pool. The time from leaving home to finally laying our heads on a clean pillow was 41 hours.
Everyone complains about getting a sub-compact car. Well I bought 2 packages and upgraded them both so our whole family could go along on this trip so we were assured that we would get a mini-van. What we got was a 15 passenger mini-bus. Probably could have put 4 sub-compacts in it. After about 3 hours, we finally got the mini-van we were promised.
Our cruise which we were really looking forward to was cancelled. And it is no wonder, the ship did look old and dilapitated. However this little tidbit of information was only divulged to all of us passengers after we had stood in line to get our boarding vouchers, and passed through customs where they checked our ID, and then waited to board for several more hours. So now, we had no hotel room for the next 2 nights because we were supposed to be on a ship.
We ended up in Orlando 2 days early after the cancelled cruise. I never even saw the Atlantic Ocean. I am so bummed about that.
The hotel in Orlando, the Ramada 1000, had a beautiful flyer. When we walked in, the lobby was gorgeous. I thought this looks promising. But then it seems you are walking into another hotel when you get on the elevator. Dirty. We stayed on the 5th floor and the 5th floor lobby smelled awful. Not like mold, but more like a really dirty, sweaty, men's locker room ( no offense guys ). Our room was dirty as was the second room we had. In fact, I left a complaint letter with the manager as I own a cleaning business, and was appalled at his cleaning staffs methods, and lack of professionalism. You literally could have built a cat out of the lint and dirt in the corners, along the walls and under the beds of these rooms. The whole vacation was a bust. We did not enjoy one minute of it.
It was advertised to be a vacation of our dreams, and the ultimate in relaxation and excitement. That is 100% false advertisement, which constitutes mail fraud since it came through the US mail. It also involves unfair trade practices including travel scams. In addition, had I booked this trip myself, I would have gotten it cheaper and it would have been quality accomodations and a quality cruise.
You notice on their voucher they mail out that they display Universal Orlando, and Carnival cruise lines. They do this to make you think they are reputable.
Well I am going straight to the top to get a refund on this bogus trip. Any help in the matter, names, addresses that I don't already have would be helpful. Also, has anyone who has taken the trip delt with the refund process? I will update my progress.
Renee
Aberdeen, Washington
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Allen
Orlando,Florida,
U.S.A.
I Worked For These Rip Off Artists! BEWARE!
#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Thu, October 28, 2004
Ramada Plaza Orlando Ft. Lauderdale Vacations is owned and operated by Jim Varillo. Don't bother contacting him, because he will do nothing to refund any money to you. This is how the bussiness is laid out. Jim Varillo is in the time share bussiness. He purchased several small hotels and purchased the franchise rights from Ramada in order to have name recognition and credibility for his low quality accomodations package which includes a cruise on a small, very old ship called Imperial Majesty. The vacation is designed primarily to get you here and then sell you timeshare. Jim in turn sub contracts the marketing and sales of these vacations to small Limited Liabilty Company's and gives them permission to use Ramada Plaza Resorts on their advertising. This way, he remains in the clear when you are misled about the quality of the vacation being offered. One of these company's is Four Amigos Travel (Ft. Lauderdale), the one that represented itself to me as being Ramada when they hired me. They send out direct mail with Ramada Plaza Resorts logo telling you that you have been awarded over $1000.00 off the vacation. When you call, they tell you that the offer is extremely limited and that you are only allowed to call one time. They put two phone numbers on the advertisment. The first one in bold is a line that intentionally gives you a busy signal. The second phone number, which is smaller, but still prominent enough to make sure you notice it is the real number. This way, when they tell you how much demand there is, you believe it because you couldn't get through right away. You can try talking to Ramada, but they will tell you that they were misled by this company as well about the nature of the advertising that would be done with the Ramada name. In other words, they act the victim in the matter. If it makes you feel any better, the owner of Four Amigos Travel ripped me off too. After working an 80 hour work week setting up his new office in Orlando, he fired 5 of us, called us lots of disgusting names including calling one of the female managers a C*NT. Then he paid us minimum wage for 40 hours. The only way to see any of your money back is by disputing the charge with your credit card company. They are required to keep there disutes under a very low % and will probably refund your money to keep there merchant accounts. This is assuming that you paid with a credit card. If you paid with a check by phone, you can forget evwer seeing a penny of your money. Take my word on this, the only thing you will gain by contacting Ramada Plaza Resorts is heartache. I am in the process of reporting my experience with this company to the State Attourney Generals office. God Bless
