Complaint Review: Golden Palms Inn & Suites - Ocala Florida

    There was absolutely NOTHING that went well about my stay at the "Golden Palms Inn" in Ocala, Florida.  Let me first start off by saying that I'm a south Florida firefighter, and the only reason I stayed at this "Golden Palms" hotel was because it had offered people going to the fire college a "significant discount".  Living in Palm Beach and never had visiting Ocala in my life, I searched online for a good hotel and came upon this.  Again, what attracted me was the "discount" they offered to firefighters.
    My two buddies and I needed to re-take a Florida state fire re-certification test at the nearby State Fire College.  We drove over four hours from Palm Beach to come to this Golden Palms.  Over the phone, we booked a hotel for THREE people, and they told us it would be $79.99 per night with the "firefighter discount".  They then e-mailed us a picture of one of their rooms, with a refrigerator, a plasma TV, among other various luxuries.  We agreed and we headed on our way for a 4-night stay. 
    Upon our arrival, the woman behind the counter had no clue about our reservation that we had made a mere four hours prior.  I reminded her again that WE were the firefighters from Palm Beach and in town to go to the fire college.  After about a 20-minute run-around, she finally agreed to give me a key for one of their rooms.  (My friends waited in the car).  I grabbed the key and headed for the room.  
    We grabbed our gear out of our truck and headed up for the room.  As we opened the door to the room, the smell had made us throw up.  It completely wreaked of FISH for some reason, as if we were at a marina or on a boat!  That dreadful smell of dead fish could not escape our noses.  We went back to the front desk to get a different room.  Disgusted and annoyed at me, the front desk lady assumed I was exaggerating.  She scoffed at me and took the key up to see for herself.  She opened the door to the room, and her eyes began to tear up.  She backed out and said in an annoyed tone "I'll get you a different room".
     The next room wasn't any better.  We entered the room and the first thing we saw was a cockroach scatter across the floor.  Looking around to find the cockroach, I came across the comforter of the bed, which had huge blood and semen stains all over it.  We were all disgusted!  We headed back for the front desk.  The lady behind the counter was so pissed at seeing us at this point, she told us "take it or leave it!"  Obviously, we would've left it.  However, we needed to be at the fire college in less than 6 hours, and all the other hotels nearby had no vacancy.  So we said we'll stay in this hotel but only if we get another room.  Again, the lady didn't believe about the blood and semen stains on the bed, or the cockroaches.  She once again walked up into the room, and saw what we described.  "Those are just stains", she replied.  "The sheets have been washed, don't worry."  Disgusted, we demanded a new hotel room.
    After about another 30 minutes of arguing, she finally gave us another room.  It came with no refrigerator, no plasma TV, as a matter of fact NO TV AT ALL, and the window was broken in the room, letting an ice-cold breeze get in that made it miserably cold.  Because we had to get up in 5 hours, we finally agreed, but said we need a different room tomorrow.
    Tomorrow came and we left for fire training all day, from 6am - 5pm.  We returned to our miserable room and got to bed around 9:30 to be up once again at 5am the next morning.  However, at about 1:00am, a loud pounding was at the door, as we were all startled at the loud banging.  Afraid to open the door, we peaked out the window.  It was the lady at the front desk!  "COME ON OUT, YOU SCUMBAGS!", she screamed.  "I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!"  We opened up the door, assuming that she had the wrong room.  She was so furiously huffing and puffing, she screamed "WHY ARE THREE OF YOU IN HERE?!"  At this point, we were scared out of our minds because we had all been just awakened by what we thought was a murderer or something.  "What are you talking about?", I asked.  She again screamed profanity, calling us "Assholes", and "Faggots".  She said "What are all three of you in here sucking each other off?!"  We could not believe what she was saying to us.  She then said "There's only supposed to be TWO of you in here, not THREE!"  After arguing back and forth in front of our door at 1:00am, we told her we'd settle it tomorrow because we had to get to bed.  
    We again headed to the fire college at 5:00am and returned late that afternoon.  Upon returning up to our room, we discovered that our keys now did not work to open the door, yet all of our stuff was inside the room.  We went back to the lady at the front desk to discuss all the issues.  She started SCREAMING at us that "we never told her it was more than two people in the room", and the price would be $40 more per night!
    I can go on and on about the several rip-offs of this hotel, however I would then be writing a novel.  To make things worse, we were driving along I-75, and we saw a sign for the "Golden Palms Inn & Suites", advertising for $39 a night!  How were they charging us $79 a night at a "discount?!"  
    Golden Palms Inn & Suites is a complete RIP-OFF!  Stay away!  I should've read all the negative reviews online first before I agreed to book a 4-night stay there.