Universal Palms Hotel & Conference Center, Fort Lauderdale

The location is by a railway that can be loud and interrupt sleep. The suite we had was roomy and nice. I believe the hotel advertised pay per view movies but this service was nowhere to be found.

Pros: stayed 5 days - no problems Good location , average hotel room, bathroom good/very clean bed average funiture good more than one channel of HBO room clean staff was friendly, good parking, would stay there again Cons: near a train track

The phrase, "You get what you pay for!" isn't entirely accurate. This place truly is awful, and you get less than what you pay for. I'll start out with the positives. 1) Easy access off of I-95. 2) Plenty of parking. 3) Legends Sports Bar was decent. 4) The pool looked nice. 5) More than one channel of HBO. Now, the negatives. 1) The room smelled like mildew. We had to open the window and door just to try and air it out. We were unsuccessful. 2) We thought the toilet wasn't flushed by the person who previously used it, but we realized it was just the water that was yellow. The shower and sink faucet had the same problem. 3) The bathroom was tiny. You have to decide whether to straddle the toilet or get into the tub to open or close the door when inside. Not a decision you should have to make. 4) Two towels for four occupants aren’t enough, despite asking for more. 5) Everyone knows not to use the comforters, but they should still be cleaned. The origin of the stains remained a mystery. Hold out for CSI El Palacio rather than investigating for yourself. 6) There is nothing around it. Everything required driving and paying for parking, or calling a cab and 1) hoping they pick you up, and 2) hoping you can get a fare to downtown Fort Lauderdale for less than $25.00. 7) The Do Not Disturb sign was meaningless because even if you didn't want to be disturbed by the housekeeping staff, you were when they wheeled their carts back and forth. Not quite as bad as the train, but still very noticeable and disruptive. 8) Oh yeah...the train tracks. I don't know how you can give any place a 5-star rating when there are train tracks right next to the hotel. They run all the time…day, night, early early morning, and they blow the horn each time they pass too just to make sure you know. Find something closer to everything. It may cost a little more, but it will be worth it.

Booked a pool suite with a request for a pull out bed, got a 1 King suite 50 ft from Rail road track and Freeway facing dumpster. No rollaway beds, I slept on a 5 ft couch - I'm 6 ft. Light in bathroom didn't work (take shower in the DARK) handy man couldn't fix it! No trash can in room. Prewrapped Dainish, fruit and coffee were breakfast (resteraunt closed). Had to call 3 times to get anything done. Had to beg for more towels. Only two provided, three people in room. Would not stay again! Manager did refund my money.