In all fairness, before I present my laundry list of problems with our rooms, I must say that for the most part the staff was friendly and helpful. The older part of the hotel is quite beautiful and has a wonderful yesteryear romantic quality to it. The landscaping is lush and mature and the pools are a pleasure to relax in and around. The beach at the hotel is adequate, but remember, Key West is not really known for its beaches, so our expectations weren't very high on that point.

Now the bad and sad part... We booked two rooms for March 8 through March 15 (high season) a double for my sister, and a mini-suite ocean view for ourselves, $359 and $379 respectively. We had requested adjoining rooms. Our check in was fairly normal, except for the expected "we don't have the adjoining room available". Okay, well, we can live with that. The bellman had difficulty figuring out how to get to our rooms! There was a "security guard" there that also had no idea where our rooms were! That certainly didn't make me feel secure in any way--what kind of "security guard" doesn't know the lay of the land in the hotel he works?

I mentioned the 'older' part of the hotel before, there is also a 'newer' part with rooms and courtyard set up much like any cheap motel anywhere in the country. And boy was it ever. This section was where our rooms were located. We were on the top floor (4th) and did have ocean views, through the dense palm treetops. The rooms, however, were filthy. The door to the room had a problem with the latching device. It didn't function properly half the time and the bottom of the door was rusting and rotting, dropping bits and pieces of sharp metal onto the carpet (not good for a two year olds little feet!).

Upon entering, the first thing I noticed was the dark brown staining on the carpet, running the entire length of the room. There was also a kind of wet moldy smell in the room even though the air conditioning was going full blast. I thought, 'well, okay, let's give it a chance' We were all so excited to be in a warm place after such a long mean winter we just started unpacking and hit the pool and beach immediately.

Over the next day, there were more things that really started to get to me. There was thick black mold on the inner shower curtain liner, the bathroom floor had a dirty footprint in the corner that the housekeeper just never seemed to pay attention to. The floor grout was disgusting, it seems they only wipe the floor and never scrubbed it clean! The wallpaper was peeling at all the seams (wallpaper is a dumb idea in tropical weather anyway). The towel/rack shelf thing was bent and falling off of the wall. The shower drain was rusty and unclean. I know this is pretty standard, but the water pressure was more like a spritzer bottle than a shower! The light fixture had two 'energy saver' fluorescent bulbs in it that took a very long time to heat up and light the bathroom. All of this horror was packed into a teeny tiny cramped little bathroom!

The crib we had requested was covered in dirt and dust, the sheets/pillow were clean the but the crib looked like is had been stored outside. One of the wheels was totally broken off, creating a lopsided slope. I had to clean off the thing myself with a wet washcloth and use some magazines to level the crib so the kid could sleep in it without sliding into one corner!

The rest of the room was okay, a bit run down, the decor was probably nice 10 or 15 years ago when it was done, but the materials and finishes weren't of high enough quality and definitely were deteriorating fast. Out of three bed pillows two had dark stains on them and smelled really foul. The bed skirt on the bed was six or more inches too long and was very unattractive and had gotten dirty from repeatedly being stepped on and vacuumed over. All of the lampshades were stained and loose. The 'artwork' consisted of posters that were so faded out that they seemed to be only that funny blue color with a yellow white background.

The mini-bar was adequately and expensively stocked but the laminate surfaces were peeling away at the edges and there was a ton of dust and dirt laying around either side of it. There was a safe in the closet--but it was completely useless! The instructions had worn away so long ago it was good for nothing but taking up space. A quick glance at the climate control and the air vents, showed massive amounts of dust accumulation.

Our 'suite' was nothing more than a standard room with one king bed, and a small sofa and chair jammed into the other corner, a totally generic 'shoebox' of a room that even a discount chain hotel would be embarrassed to lay claim to. Oh, by the way, the balcony was spacious. Okay, whew.

Well we've stayed in all types of hotels, resorts, guest houses, villas etc. all over the world. We spend anywhere between 20K and 50K a year on travel and this next thing was unbelievable to us. Later that morning after returning from the pool, we were walking around our room in our bare feet and noticed something weird. While we had clean feet (in our sandals) back from the pool, our feet were TURNING BLACK from walking around the room on the carpeting! I couldn't believe this.

This has to be one of the all time most disgusting things I have ever experienced in any hotel anywhere. That was it, I called to talk to the manager. I asked that we have a face to face meeting instead of just speaking on the phone. I went to the front desk and we sat down and I presented him with a list of the problems and wanted to have our rooms switched. What was the response? "We'll see what we can do", "The hotel is completely booked" "blah, blah, blah, blah," I wasn't completely satisfied but I said "Okay, let me know what you can do as soon as you know. But please don't call the room before 4:00 because the baby is sleeping." I didn't know what to expect since I have rarely if ever had as many complaints here as anywhere else. He asked for a copy of my list and I presented it to him. Later that afternoon, a staff member tries to open our door without knocking at 3:30 pm and is barging in with a plastic shower curtain! I told him to come back later. A few more minutes before 4:00 another person is banging on the door. This is really unbelievable. I specifically said not to disturb us before 4:00 nap time was over. So much for first-class service. I immediately called the manager again (after getting our child settled down) and had to just cut loose. He asked if our 'problems' had been resolved! Um, no! So, he finally offered to move rooms, not very convenient for us, but I couldn't stand another minute in that room.

The new room was in the same section and almost just as bad, but it didn't smell and I knew we would be out of there in a few days never to return to this hotel or any Wyndham Hotel anywhere in the world--EVER. So this was our 'accommodation' trading one dirty room for another.

Apologies from the staff: None. We had a terrific time in Key West as long as we didn't spend a minute more than we had to in our so-called 'luxury' rooms. I will never recommend this hotel to any family, friend, co-worker, or stranger on the street. Wyndham has a lot of work to do if this is what is considered top-drawer.