BookIt.com Verified Traveler Katherine Lofgren from TAUNTON, MA

"Where do I start....I get to the hotel and there is no 'line' to check-in, just people standing all over the place waiting to check in. I was put into a room that I did not request. They did change it for me. The key did not work, the room was too hot. I asked for the maintenance folks to fix the AC, but they advised that they could not. The AC is on a certain setting throughout the hotel and could not be changed. The elevators are too slow and not enough of them. The rooms are dark. There were some serious issues with the use of our rental car. Even though the parking lot is marked as Holiday Inn Parking, they do not monitor the lot at ALL. No one at the hotel was aware of the incident. The only good thing about the vacation was the weather. I will never stay at that hotel again."

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BookIt.com Verified Traveler LELIA SMITH from EASTON, PA

"BEACH FLOOR OFF SHORE HAD MORE ROCKS AND SEA WEED THAN THE OTHER RESORTS. LOBBY FURNISHINGS AND ROOMS COULD USE SOME MODERNIZATION/UPGRADES."

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BookIt.com Verified Traveler Derek from Framingham, Ma

"We have been to Aruba 4 times . This is our 3rd time back to the Holiday Inn. My wife and I have two kids 4 and 6 . We were very disapointed in the way the staff treated us from the time we entered the hotel. We were greated rudely by a lady at the front dest to start. She told us we had to give a credit card and charge $250 for each room. Why ? they didnt explain. She told us we would get it back 3 business days after we left the hotel. As for the rooms. Our keys didnt work. We were a group of 5, which they only allow 4 people per room and had to have 2 rooms. Knowing this we had requested one room with a king bed and the other room 2 double beds. They did not accomodate that request. Our Bell Man had to call front desk to help us fix the problem. He too couldn't believe the mix up, as I showed him our printed accomodation itinerary. I must mention the Bell Man was the most friendly person at the hotel- everyone else forget it!!! The beach Was such a disappointment. There were cigarrette butts all over the beach, honestly the sand was an ash tray! Thought they would screen it at night and never did. They never raked the sand once! Never saw them clean the pools either. The kids pool was nice but it was falling apart.(my husband works with concrete so this was really waying on him) the adult pool was nice but full of infants. Guess rules dont apply anymore. Not a huge deal to us, because we were never in it anyway! But for people without kids, just didn't seem fair to them!. The food at the iguanna bar was awful!. We didn't go all-inclusive(THANK GOD) and went to multiple eateries. The worst by far was well known Smokey Joes. Known for the best carribean baby back ribs. YUUCCK- all fat! My kids were served stone cold raw chicken fingers and when brought to the attention of the waitress she said she would tell the cook. THANK goodness I cut into them before giving these to my children! The manager came over and said he would take them off the bill and give us a 15% discount Gee, thanks how nice of them.. Well our appetites were ruined... they didnt care. It was like we were bother to them . Not even a second look when we walked by the manager as we walked out. The food and service was awfull our entire stay. EXCEPT for SCALA !!!! This was the best place to go and eat hands down. Pricey But, good food! The Ocean was cloudy due to motor sports. One of the hotel workers said it is because of the wind direction...blah blah blah, there were so many boats flying by all day non stop. The sand in the water had a nasty film on the bottom of it from Oil and gas. The strip mall across the street was nice to have. And the 'Water fireworks' was nice but this turned out to be a nightly thing for us because there was really nothing else for families to do at night. The pool closed at 7, not to mention it gets dark then too! Yes there are a ton of bars to hang out in but with a 4 and 6 yr old? what else is there to do....so there we were at the water fireworks every night! . We felt like we were a bother to everyone, like they hated Americans!!! This is not what we remember about the Happy Aruba Locals! The people are just not friendly anymore. At Check out time the staff again had an attitude. As I was standing at the desk while she called our agency to see if our trip was PAID...the other lady at the desk was telling the man who was leaving that he couldn't exchange his aruba $ before he left? Really? He said to her,' what good is it to me? I am leaving today?' She just looked at him like she could care less!So then we were told that our agency wasn't aware that Aruba had a new tax, called an energy tax! WHAT??? She continued to tell me and my husband that we were charged $5.99 per night for both rooms and how did we want to pay for that? There was just no communication at all. We Paid a lot of money for this trip and waited along time to return to Aruba this time with our children who we ranted and raved to for so long about Aruba being so nice. So you want to know what my children said, ' Mom, Dad we like Cape Cod much better!' ha, so being from Massachusetts, we will stay local for our next vacation. And as for Aruba and their' Energy tax' I think I've used all my Energy writing this review!"

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BookIt.com Verified Traveler Toni from Scituate, MA

"I stayed for 9 nights with my husband and 4 kids (ages 10, 9, 9, and 5). We also went with another family and they have a 2 year old. I found the location of the hotel excellent. There is a new outside mall right across the street where there are plenty of shops and restaurants. We never took a cab. This hotel is located in the high rise section of Aruba so all the major hotels are connected by a walking path which is great. This hotel is great for kids too. They had the adult pool adjacent to the kids pool and the ocean was steps away. If you have kids like I do that vary in age than this set up is perfect. The kids pool is great for toddlers too. The hotel has a kids 12 & under eat free plicy with the purchase of an adult meal. This was a great deal. We ate at the breakfast buffet every day. It would cost roughly $40.00 for all 6 of us to eat! We ate lunch at the Sea Breeze which had the same deal and was very good. We never ate dinner at the hotel because we wanted to experience the island. The only thing that needed some improvement was the cleanliness of the resort and pool area The grounds althogh clean could have been cleaner. They have a kids club ages 5 to 11. They had activities, movies and games for the kids. They had water aerobics and bingo for adults. All in all I would definatly stay here again. It was well worth the price and the location was great!"

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"My best friend and I stayed here for a week in May and we had the best time of our lives. The staff is very friendly and go out of there way to make sure your having a great time. Will definitely return!!"

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