Hawthorn Suites or Clarion Inn LBV?

[suecee]

We are currently trying to choose between the 2 & looking for some input.

Has anyone stayed in both? How do they compare?

They both have shuttles to the parks.

Lots of people recommend the Clarion but I see Hawthorn has a lot of good reviews on TA etc. Also Hawthorn's room appears bigger & it comes with breakfast.

I am also keen to know which one has closer/better choice of restaurants etc.

Tia

[Cloverlady]

I really cannot recommend Hawthorn Suites I'm afraid

What seems on paper and on Tripadvisor to be a fabulous hotel was not the case for us last year.
We should have known better than to book it as we;'d stayed there a few years ago and arrived in the room at check in that time to find old dirty clothes, stains and even childrens lego toys ';tidied' into the supposedly clean bedding for our arrival.
We gave them the benefit of the doubt after that, and had them come remake the room.

We booked again for last year and oh boy it had gone downhill. You'll see for yourself as you go along the corridors to your room that all the doors are scuffed and dented and kicked in like a prison row or something. We had a filthy room (which I cleaned myself with Dettol wipes) a broken microwave and luke warm water for 3 nights whilst they tried to fix it. Tried to give us another room but the sink had a massive crack in it and it leaked. After that we walked out and checked in elsewhere and fought for a refund when we got back!
Also sat at breakfast one morning I watched asomeone wipe the surface under the froot loop dispenser with a wet rag, scoop up the stray frootloops from the splashes of milk and put them back into the top of the dispenser. Yeuuuuch.

Lots of Brits were in the hotel though, and it SHOULD be a nice place as you do have a lot of room (2 rooms) but it is so very basic and grubby. Such a shame as could be so much better.

Just wondered if you have looked at Embassy Suites? They were a similar set up but much much cleaner and all round nicer and a much better breakfast too!

[suecee]

Thanks Cloverlady for your feedback. I will take a look at the Embassy Suites.

Not keen on motel style rooms hence why looking at alternatives.

[bonnies mum]

The Clarion has external corridors - if that’s what you mean by motel style.
Many dibbers recommend it but we did not like it - I know there are many pluses with the bus service & location. However,not for us, we thought the room was badly in need of an upgrade.

[suecee]

Thanks bonnies mum. It's so hard choosing somewhere.

[beepbeep]

I’ve stayed in both
Both very cheap, rooms were both clean and the pools were basic but did the job.

Clarion has out side access to the rooms
Hawthorn more like a hotel internal corridor access to rooms

Clarion rooms are more modern than the hawthorn

Hawthorn has a separate living area / kitchen which was great

Clarion you will get ants if you leave food out, but if you don’t leave food out and clean up toothpaste off sink then no ants will come through outside door (we had a circle of ants around my electric toothbrush as I did not rinse it enough, but after that we stored the tooth brushes in the plastic cups and we had no more ants after that)

Hawthorn needs a bit of a tidy up and maintaining but if scuff marks on walls in the corridor dosnt bother you like us you’ll be fine

Hawthorn breakfast very basic normally 1 type of egg and 1 type of meat every morning with a selection of begals toast cereal coffee juice
It did us fine and saved us a ton of money on breakfast. It’s not fine dining it’s simple basic stuff which I looked at it as it was free included in the rate

Clarion breakfast never again very nasty 🤢 and expensive 24 dollars for 2 that included a mandatory tip and tax. Buffet breakfast with not much selection, some small hard muffins, a pastry or two, tinned fruit, fresh melon and oranges, scrambled and boiled eggs, South American aniseed sausages, really greasy hard bacon.
I found the clarion menu for the evening was gross looking we didn’t even try it
Clarion takeaway pizza was awful

Both clarion and hawthorn pools are an ok size for some fun and games.
Hawthorn has a hot tub bubble jacuzzi thing
Clarion has a kids splash zone area

I’ve stayed in both many times and I like them due to location close to Disney and easy to get to universal up the turkey lake road (skipping a lot of traffic on the i4) both had clean rooms both were cheap, both had pools
For the price of the hotels you get wot you pay for.

[suecee]

Thanks beepbeep for your detailed reply, really helpful especially the ants bit!

[novocastrian]

can only comment on the clariion & echo the above

great location 20 mins to either parks (universal & disney) shuttle buses and a lynx stop literally right outside. easily walkable to local eateries , sea dog literally next door

although cant comment on the food we got stuff in for breakfast & ate out every night

did goto the bar one night which was passable but nothing special

high up car park facing room would be my choice, less footfall past your door & quieter

EDIT didnt see any ants mind ...

[suecee]

Originally Posted by novocastrian

can only comment on the clariion & echo the above

great location 20 mins to either parks (universal & disney) shuttle buses and a lynx stop literally right outside. easily walkable to local eateries , sea dog literally next door

although cant comment on the food we got stuff in for breakfast & ate out every night

did goto the bar one night which was passable but nothing special

high up car park facing room would be my choice, less footfall past your door & quieter

EDIT didnt see any ants mind ...

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Thanks. Your advice on room location is appreciated

[PumpkinCupcake]

I'm just back from a stay at Clarion Inn LBV and would go back and stay again. It's a basic hotel, nothing fancy. On check in they didn't have the king room that I had requested, so gave us a normal room for the night and asked us to come back the following morning and they would change the room for me to what I had requested, which they did.

I can't comment on the food there as we ate out the entire time, and the location to restaurants is fantastic so there really was no need to eat there. We had a fridge and a microwave in the room which was handy for bringing home leftovers.

The shuttle service was the reason I booked this hotel, but we ended up not using it at all as the times didn't really work for us. For example, the shuttle to Universal is at 7am! We ended up using Uber the majority of the time and spent just under $400 in 10 days on Uber.