Best Western Crystal River Resort

4 couples, 45-60yo. 2nd year staying at the BW Crystal River. Brought our own boat. This place has a PRIME location! Private boat ramp, free overnight docks, pool, 3 BBQ’s, large tables for self-made group dinners on the dock and amazing views across the marina, especially at sunset. Rooms are dated but clean and very functional with small refrigerator & freezer, microwave, comfortable beds and modestly appointed rooms with great A/C. The free breakfast are marginal at best but enough to get you offshore. Availability of ice was also marginal, but bags of ice available down the street. 2 relatively good restaurants next door, all connected by marina boardwalk. Downside..... this is a kids place! In the evening, on returning from fishing, minimum of 20 young kids in the pool, including babies in diapers. In retrospect, perfect location for young families with kids going out fishing, perfect place for our group, except for the relaxing sunset dip in the pool which was, sort of, nasty. The BBQs are brand new from last year but never got hot enough to put a sear on steaks....meat/seafood came off with a “boiled” look. In the end, this is a great location for jumping off to great fishing and scallop season and we will stay here again. less

The hotel rating is a 5, but the ast manager Dawn was so horrific (I’ll come back to that later in the post) that her rating is a 0 - so I’ll even it out and say a 3. We came with family and got 3 rooms. All of them were clean and what you would expect. The kitchen efficiencies were small - but manageable for a few small items. Don’t expect lots of space for food or cooking- but it had a toaster and a small burner stove. Our room was on the second (top) floor - if you like to sleep in, top floor isn’t for you. There were two giant skylights right over our bed. We didn’t mind because we wanted to get up early anyway - but if you are sensitive to morning light it’s something to ask about. The location of the hotel is GREAT. You can walk to crackers restaurant/bar/grill and there is a boat ramp and a few spots to dock up. Lots of big parking lots of boats and trailers. Very close to Pete’s pier so If you need ice or to gas up it’s convenient. They serve a nice hearty breakfast that comes with your stay. Now - I have to post this in hopes that some upper management or corporate can read how horrific their staff is. When we arrived there was a woman at the front desk literally SCREAMING into the phone at a guest. She was not only unprofessional but extremely rude to the person on the phone bht also us - that’s the first thing we saw coming in. I could tell the guest was asking to speak w her supervisor and she said “let me speak to YOUR supervisor”. It was so awkward. Then we had another encounter with her. My husband wasn’t feeling great so I went to walked to breakfast to meet everyone and I had his ticket for breakfast. There were THREE (yes 3) employees “guarding” the breakfast room (there were only 8 guests in the dining room at the time). I handed a nice both tickets not knowing how th h worked and dawned snatched them out of my hand - scolding me for having two, asking me how I got two. Checking the dates and demanding why I had two, I explained my hubby wasn’t feeling great but he would be there soon. I asked if I could just hang on to his or keep it with them and then give it to him when he came. Damn demanded that I had to go back to my room and give my husband the ticket and come together! I couldn’t stay and give it to him when he got there because I wasn’t allowed to leave and come back in... even tho it was literally empty and they could have seen me hand it to him. She was EXTREMELY rude to me it was horrific. First accusing me of stealing a ticket then making me leave and Go back to my room or else if we didn’t come together we couldn’t eat. I went to see her name and she convenient wasn’t wearing a name tag both times, tho everyone else was. When I went to the front desk she barked at me “what do you want?” - I just took a card and left and asked another employee what her name was. They seem scared of her. I was SHOCKED to see the card had her name and “ast manager” - she had the absolute worst customer service skills I have ever seen in my life. Hopefully someone will see this and make some changes because it was embarrassing... less

The hotel was awesome. The pool, brand new gas grills, boat dock and Crackers were all within a close walking distance. The ONLY complaint I had was I was told when I booked the room that I could use my AARP discount so I made sure my AARP enrollment had not expired only to find out when we arrived they would not accept it because Sunday, July 1st was the start of scallop season. Sunday, was also the day we were leaving, no one in our party were interested in the craziness of getting involved in that so we left at 10:00 on Sunday. Either they need to revisit their policies or train ALL of their employees to be on the same page. One more thing, they had a wonderful continental breakfast and they gave each person a coupon to go and enjoy it. How much money are they saving to have an employee stand there to make sure no one goes in without a coupon and eat? It's not like they had the type of food that was really expensive and their bottom line would be affected. I was okay with it and I would not have mentioned any of this until I had to leave the dining area to go and get our cousin's medicine that he had to take before he could eat, only to be stopped by the guard at the door leading into the dining room, I said, "I will be right back is that okay?" She was about to say no, but I stopped her and said, "I am going to get medicine for our cousin that he has to have." And then her hackles went back down and said ok. OMG, really? Maybe they have had issues with too many people taking advantage of their 5 star dining, I don't know and I am not an expert on financial things, however, I know the cost of having someone guard the door into the dining room has to far exceed the lost revenue from someone taking a few eggs, waffles, juice and such, if this were to ever occur. Would we go back, absolutely, I just think people should be aware and don't go thinking you're going to get breakfast without a coupon, please do not try this, you would probably be sent straight to jail! LOL less

The only minus was a slippery tub. Other than that everything was as good this time as the other times we have stayed here. Nice comfortable bed, quiet, clean, friendly, all the things we expect from Best Western. less

We had a 2 night stay here. The room was nice and clean. Our only problem was with the neighbors dogs barking constant for hours. The hotel staff was extremely friendly and helpful. We will be staying there on our next trip to crystal river. less