My husband and I just returned from a weekend at the South Padre Sheraton. We were there for a wedding and decided to splurge and stay where the wedding took place.
Upon check-in, around 9pm, we decided to freshen up and head out for the evening. We quickly noticed that something was wrong with the toilet, as the water in the bowl was white and unclear. After flushing the toilet, we could tell that there was a bar of soap stuck in the bottom. We also tried using the sink and it didn't drain at all.
My husband called the front desk and asked them to have maintenance come take care of the issues. He told them we'd be out for a few hours and that they were welcome to come in while we were gone. They said someone would be right up.
When we returned about 3 hours later, no one had been to our room so my husband called the front desk again. The maintenance man arrived immediately and my husband stood at the bathroom door while he fixed the problems. The maintenance man dumped the water into our wastebasket and made a mess. Then he reached his hand into the toilet to remove the bar of soap. That also got water everywhere. So he used our guest towels to wipe up the toilet and sink water, then placed the wet towels on our bathroom countertop. Then he said it was fixed and he left. We were left with a wastebasket full of water and toilet water-filled towels on our countertop.
My husband couldn't believe how unsanitary the bathroom suddenly was and he headed down to the front desk to complain. There were no other rooms available so they sent housekeeping up with a manager. The house keeper cleaned the bathroom and the manager said he'd put a complimentary breakfast coupon for us at the front desk. It was about 1 a.m. at this point and we were exhausted, so we didn't push it further at that time.
On top of the bathroom incident, I noticed a piece of broken glass on the rug in front of our bed, a toenail clipping in the middle of the living area, white stains on the couch, and black mold on the bathroom vent. Gross.
The last evening of our stay, we decided to go down to the pool for a late night swim. We were hanging out in the larger swimming pool when someone pointed out that something slimy was moving toward us. It ends up someone vomited in the pool and it was just floating around.
We decided to use our free breakfast the last morning of our stay and were told that it was only for the 'American Breakfast', which was worth about $7/each. We told the waitress that we wanted the breakfast buffet and she explained that we'd have to pay the difference. My husband took the coupon to the front desk and they agreed to cover the full buffet for both of us.
Yesterday afternoon right before we left, my husband decided to take part in a game on the Sheraton Hotel's beach volleyball court. At one point he dove down to hit the ball and landed his foot on a hypodermic needle. When he looked down, the needle was sitting next to a balloon. It punctured his heel and drew a small amount of blood. This is a huge deal and solidifies how unsanitary this hotel is. He's going to the doctor today and we're hoping nothing happened from the needle.
We realize that this hotel is in a huge party area, but we were very disappointed to have spent the extra money ($199/night) for what we thought would be a nicer hotel. We weren't there during spring break, yet we felt like the hotel is recovering from spring break year-round. It's not worth the money one bit and we'll definitely never stay there again.