Experience Florida's Red Lion Hotel Orlando Lake Buena Vista South - your perfect getaway!

Best bang for your buck in the Kissimmee area

We love the lazy river and I love how comfortable the beds are

We enjoyed our stay. The lazy river was relaxing, but it is mostly for kids. Our room was clean and had everything we needed. Comfortable bed. The hotel seemed clean too and had a perfect location, close to everything. The front desk was sometimes non responsive. Either noone was there or they would not be answering the phone. The price is great. You can't beat it. Thanks for accommodating us.

Clean rooms, but not much else good to say. Rude staff, unavailable amenities/attractions, and other concerns. I stayed over the weekend with some friends of mine. I will say that there are a few positive aspects of this property. It is reasonably lit, and the rooms are clean and spacious. The beds aren't super great, but I wouldn't call them the worst I've slept on. Unfortunately, that marks the end of my positive experiences. I specifically chose this property over many others because of the reasonable rate and the fact they have a lazy river area with a water slide. I knew my friends would love the lazy river while their children would go nuts over the water slide. Before I get to my main disappointment, I'd like to mention a couple of other concerns. Saturday night we returned to the hotel around 10 PM. We parked and were immediately assaulted by the smell of marijuana so strong that it felt like it was coming from our own car. About 7 cars down from us, there was a car parked in the middle of the parking lot with 4 people standing outside smoking blunts and a few others inside the car hotboxing. I was surprised at their brazenness and very disappointed in hotel security. They had clearly been there for a while, so it was clear security wasn't interested in doing something about people using drugs smack dab in the middle of their parking lot at a family resort. There are also some black nonslip rugs in the hallways and in front of the elevators. Some of them are quite old and worn. I nearly tripped and fell over one because my shoe caught a worn spot where the rug was raised sharply, and I had to brace myself against the wall to prevent a fall. These clearly need to be replaced. Maintenance is probably not high on this hotel's list of concerns. Now for my primary problem. I arrived Friday night around 6:30 PM. At that time, the lazy river area was already closed early due to staffing concerns, so I was unable to go in and preview it, but it looked fairly nice from the outside. It's supposed to be open on Friday-Sunday from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM. My friends and I were going to be busy at a local event on Saturday, so I made sure to request late checkout on Sunday to give us time to experience the lazy river and slide. Come Sunday morning, we went down to the pool area just before 11 AM only to be disappointed because the lifeguard on duty told us her fellow lifeguards had not arrived at work yet, and they would be unable to open the lazy river until 4 were present. We waited 20 minutes. Another two lifeguards came, but the fourth was nowhere in sight. While we waited, we elected to swim in the pool and use the hot tub. The pool water was surprisingly cold, so my friend's wife and son didn't even bother trying to go in. We attempted to use the hot tub, but it was barely lukewarm and very foamy. After a couple minutes of sitting in it, I noticed there was a bunch of brown stuff swirling around with and clinging to the foam. I'm not sure what it was; perhaps dirt from the surrounding plants, but in either case, it was gross. At that point, I went to the front desk with my friend to inquire about the situation because we had a 12 PM checkout, and my friends needed to leave to attend a function for a friend of theirs. The first staff member I spoke to was Iraida (apologies if I got the spelling incorrect, she was not very forthcoming with her name). She was very rude and curt when we brought the issue to her attention. When we mentioned wanting to use the lazy river area, she began quoting policy at us that they needed to have 4 lifeguards available and could not open. We then explained that we had specifically requested late checkout and chosen to stay at the resort purely because of the aforementioned lazy river and slide. She merely snapped back that we were welcome to use the regular pool and hot tub area until our checkout time at noon. She was clearly not interested in apologizing for our situation at all and didn't seem to care one bit. Perturbed, I asked to speak to her manager after she identified herself as a supervisor. The next person to come out was Yanelis. I explained the hot tub and lazy river situation to her, and while she was at least more polite than her compatriot, she again did nothing to rectify our situation or help us. The most she would offer to do was waive the $25 late checkout fee and extend our checkout time to 1 PM, but my friend had to explain that did nothing for them because they needed to leave to attend their friend's function. When I explained that I had chosen this hotel among dozens of others in the same area because of the lazy river/slide amenity and could have spent far less on a comparable hotel with a regular pool since that's all we were getting to experience (and with a dirty hot tub, at that), Yanelis told me I could write down their phone number and try calling back on Tuesday to speak to Leon, the manager of the pool area, about possible compensation. I don't know why a front of house manager wouldn't have the ability to do this herself, so I strongly suspect she was just telling me something to make me go away without trying to help me. I seriously doubt I will have any luck speaking to Leon on Tuesday about this concern, but I will update this review if I do. Obviously, I am very disappointed about this experience. While it was not wholly unpleasant, I could easily have booked a cheaper hotel in the area and saved money if the primary attraction wasn't going to be available. When I checked out from the hotel around 12:10 PM, I walked around to my car in the back of the parking lot near the lazy river area. It was still locked down. Guess coming to work and sense of duty isn't high on anyone's list of priorities here. I know the cheap rates will attract you, but I recommend you save your money and stay somewhere else.

Stellar front desk service Ok so let me just start with this is our home away from home when visiting Walt Disney world and not staying in property. We've stayed here countless times over the past several years and it's always been great! The probe is right, it's right down the street from the parks, they have an awesome pool with a lazy river (unheard of at this price point) a pool bar/restaurant location on property and a gift shop with tons of goodies you may have forgotten or need to replenish or want to snack on including ice cream and luggage! The rooms are so spacious with plenty of room for activities even with my scooter parked inside! The shower pressure is great, the beds are comfy and the rooms are clean! IRIS is a gem!!! She just helped me get sorted for our next trip with so much ease!!!! I called her before booking and less than an hour after booking I called back to make the notations we had talked about and she had already pulled up my reservation and taken care of everything! The staff here has always been top tier but she's the first one I've actually gone out of my way to leave a review for... Can't wait to meet her in a few weeks!!!

Great place close to all My wife and I arrived for a weeks stay and were immediately greeted by Deysi who was awesome and pleasant and answered all our questions, Two other women who were also very helpful were Yanelis and Iris who proceeded to make our vacation better. We have been here 3 years in a row and look forward to our stay. The pool area is nice but could use more umbrellas for shadeand the lazy river also. The grounds are kept nice, the landscaper Mike does a great job.