I had the opportunity to book another extended stay at Westgate again this year. Like many establishments in the tourist industry, Westgate is no exception to the impact of COVID.

Fortunately, they have not compromised on Customer Service and an outstanding team of employees.

When I first checked in, more than half of the buildings were shut down and on any given day half of the pools are closed. It ended up being a bit of a guessing game as to which pool of the day would be open. Construction is almost completed on the water park which should be up and running by the end of the month. With that opening I am guessing the facility will attract more families. Not sure how that will impact the over 60 crowd once they start travelling again. Perhaps Westgate will want to consider in the future designating buildings for Snow Birds vs. those with children.

The clientele is a little bit rough around the edges. Music would often be blasting from individual patios or cars. Occasionally there would be fights among families or guests poolside and security would have to be called. It was not unusual to see paramedics on site at least once a week and one night my building was actually surrounded by 7 police cars while an active investigation was underway. It was apparent that security was doing their best to monitor activity but it was a challenge.

The Villas are quite nice and spacious. They do allow pets and hopefully in the future they will install pet waste stations on the grounds to encourage people to clean up after their pet. You had to be careful for "deposits" being left in the stair wells or on the grounds. With COVID there is no housekeeping service but they will deliver whatever is needed to your room within minutes and are very gracious about it.

Additional COVID precautions were apparent in the Fitness Center. The team there did an OUTSTANDING job of monitoring the health of visitors, social distancing, wearing of masks, disinfecting of equipment, etc. I always felt confident that actions were being taken to insure the guest's safety.

Westgate Lakes continues to be a great location near the theme parks and right off of the interstate. There is a Target and Walmart within 5 minutes as well as a Dollar Store and an Aldi opening soon. I would definitely consider returning and would be curious to see how the water park impacts the facility.

Where do I begin I checked in on Monday there were no towels in the room the air conditioning was not functioning the bed had hair from a female. The white comforter was stained I went to close the air conditioner vent because it was cold in the room after I got the ac to work and I found mold on the went this is very unacceptable I’m not happy with my stay I won’t be coming back here for a long time unless things change I take this trip alone to get away from the cold weather up north this is very unacceptable and not tolerated the mold in the room it’s very unacceptable even if I’m not an owner of a villa I still shouldn’t have to deal with these kind of things

We swapped our timeshare through Interval International and let our friends use it the week of Feb 19-26, 2021. I was a little surprised to receive a "how was your stay" email in what should have been the middle of their stay. When I texted our friends to see how their stay was going, this is what they told me:

"I just got your email about the Westgate lake stay. The room was pretty bad. We didn’t want to bother you and we felt so bad you’ve been so generous but we had to leave. There were roaches in the room and wet cat urine in the carpet. We tried to talk to the manager but he said there was nothing he could do so we just left.

Even the cleaning lady said that they had been very busy and didn’t have time to clean. There was also trash under the bed. We went to the manager but ultimately couldn’t take the cat urine odor for another day and the roaches were just hanging out in the living room in plain sight. He said there was nothing he could do so we left. The next day someone called us and said they could have sent an exterminator but that was just crazy."

This is clearly unacceptable and embarrassing. I strongly recommend against staying at this hotel.