A little late in my review; perhaps I'm very post-jet lag, but we stayed here on our first American holiday (vacation you call it). We travelled from Melbourne Australia, our first night was here, we found the rooms clean and pleasant, staff were fine, the pool was great (boy it was hot), and the steak I ordered that night, simply the best - and the beer, well, it was fine as well. Kids loved the pool, we used Expedia, and no issues what-so-ever, would love to stay again!.

I should have known that I was in for trouble when the bookings desk kept me waiting 10 minutes when I called from overseas to book a room for a conference. I specifically requested a refridgerator as I have special dietary requirements and I was told that it would definitely be included in the room. When I arrived there was no fridge and none was provided when I asked politely in person.

The woman at the Concierge desk (short fair hair) was very grump and unhelpful. When I asked if by chance they had a suitcase weigher so that guest could check whether their luggage was over limit or not she just snapped "no". Several guests remarked at dinner about her manner.

In the morning you could look forward to being woken up by a guy with a leaf blower by the pool. What's wrong with a quiet broom ? The blood marks on the net curtains were a worry too.

But the worst part was the renovations in the hallway outside outside rooms. You could look forward to dust and noise for a week. I won't return to this "resort"

We were visiting family for the holidays and needed a place to stay, so we didn't really use the full resort during our stay. When I checked in and went to the room, the upper floor of the building we were staying in was under renovation. For a full day, rolls of carpet and padding were lying on the sidewalk to the parking lot. I got the the room and could not open the door. I walked back to the front desk and they sent someone from engineering, who was able to open the door by throwing his body against it, telling me that the locks sometimes just did that, and it was normal - for "security" purposes. I appreciated his "glass half full" approach, but we decided in the end that maybe we should try to move to the room next door. I called the front desk and they were very accommodating and sent someone over with keys. We had her try the extra-secure door and she was shocked at how difficult it was to open. Later we saw that it was being fixed.
Our room was large and appeared to have been recently painted, maybe new tile in the bathroom, so probably already renovated. The main problem we had with the room was that the only way to get any natural light into the room was to open the blackout vertical blinds, totally exposing ourselves to anyone who might be passing by, as we were on the ground floor. Some sheers would have been nice, because with the blind closed the room was very dark.
We returned to the room one night and adjusted the thermostat to get the heat going and it didn't respond for at least 10 minutes. Just as engineering was again arriving at our room, it kicked on and we were told that it "usually takes about 15 minutes". It was very loud.
Little things...hard mattress, burned out light bulb, an outlet that we discovered wasn't working after leaving the cell phone plugged in to charge all night.
We had a good price on the room through bookit.com, but would recommend reading the fine print as we were charged a $10/day "resort fee" at checkout. I'd stay here again in a similar circumstance at a great price, but wouldn't pay any more.

I would love to be giving an "excellent" review right now but that's not going to happen. This will be our last time staying at the Carefree Resort & Conference Center. 5 nights stay - hot tub hasn't worked the entire time, no pool side service, fan in bathroom doesn't work, shower head broken and gross ice machines. We've stayed here 5 times before over the last several years and it's disappointing that each time we return deferred maintenance is noticed. 3 out of the 5 times the hot tub hasn't been working. Time for us to move on and locate a hotel that understands "guests" are important and return happy guests are even better.