Thank you for posting your video review, I see you gave it a '4' in the review section. Sorry your first II getaway was a flop. What II resort in Orlando is your next getaway? I expect that should be a major improvement!
Sheraton Vistana Villages. Here's hoping it's a step up, or I might try and change locations.
Your experience at Villa Roma brings me back to a previous thread where we discussed review methodology, I think you are correctly applying the recommended criteria for TUG reviews since you said you would not return to this resort. But most of the TUG reviews are '8' or so ... so did you wonder what the other reviewers were seeing different?
Yes - when I saw the 8s I was like - these can't be real. At least 25% of my rating was public shared spaces - the "Bowling Alley" was shut down blocked with stacked boxes - looked like they turned it into storage some time ago. The walkway to the main building was missing it's awning cover for 75% of it, 33% of the center railing on the stairs was literally barely attached and unsafe. The events were scheduled the night before - you were supposed to go after 6PM or something to pick up a new sheet for the next day. The hot tub was back in a corner in basically an attached shed. The "business walkway" wasn't open when we walked through, but it was older looking.
If
I HAD to guess, people rating it highly aren't doing so because of the rooms or decor or even build safety, but because of the events and things to do (many of which seemed shut down for the season - fair enough - but that means that the "bump" is like 3 months out of the year). The shuttle for tweens and older getting to stuff without needing the parents to drive them might also be a plus. Or - maybe most reviewers see the place with "rose colored glasses" at a power level of like +100 lol. IDK. We were in a busy section of the resort - I think over 50% of the units were full, which is high for us on many getaways like this.
This all goes back to the review methodology - for me the room / unit is the core important thing
if it falls outside of the 5.5-9 range. I don't care how amazing anything else is if I'm almost squicked out from the bed or bathroom. And... we almost were. Slightly worse and we'd have just left. And as cool as all the inside ping pong, pool table, shuffleboard, etc were - there's plenty of places that have those available (if not always inside) that have way way nicer units, AND more to do in the area. (I can't emphasize enough that
Massanutten is a happening area by far with lots more food and store options than Villa Roma)
Kind of the same thing with TripAdvisor, Villa Roma is 3.5 stars ... not great but not horrible either. TA is likely taking in 'other than timeshare' reviews so not really reviewing the same product.
I did not get to see the inside of their "hotel rooms" in the hotel section, but the hallways were exactly the same as in the timeshare building, and some parts of the main building were also timeshares. I think a lot of the reviews are just not using a good methodology. I probably would have rated this lower "as a hotel".
I have a yet to publish review of a resort in the Smoky Mountains where my experience was like yours, good reviews here on TUG and 4 stars (out of 5) on TA and I'm trying to decide if it merits a 5 out of 10 on TUG.
I feel a bit odd about being the negative outlier and am aware of the urge to bump my rating upwards a bit
Yea, as I said, the rooms probably rated a 3, but I bumped it to a 4 because of the free activities and number of food options (we didn't try any though). I just feel like if I wanted to play ping-pong, go to the hot tub, sauna, etc I could stay for about the same price at Regal Vistas which are much nicer if a bit more of a drive.
