My boyfriend and I were looking for an inexpensive local hotel just for one night. We were horrified by some of the reviews on the less pricy hotels. Even this one had some horror stories. But we took a chance and were pleasently surprised! As soon as we walked into the lobby we were greeted by a happy front desk clerk who was very informative. She checked us in promptly and gave us instructions on how to get to our room. (600) We made sure to check out our garden room before getting our bags out of the car. It was spotless, oversized, and a great deal for the price we paid. They even gave us a room pool side that had straight access to the hot tub! The room service prices and spa selections were resonable. I had a cut on my foot from a previous incedent and decided I need some new bandaids and antibiotic cream. The security gaurd was at our door within 5 minutes with the needed items and double checked if we needed further assistance or to file a report. We also noticed the pillows were down feathers which we both are allergic to. We called housekeeping and again within 5 minutes we had fresh foam pillows. They even called later to make sure we got everything we needed. It was a short stay for us but will definatly return another time.

We recently stayed at the International Plaza Resort and Spa for our Honeymoon. We were quite worried after reading some of the reviews we had read previously. But once we arrived we found the hotel to be lovely, it was well kept, and your room was cleaned everyday with fresh towels. And the staff were very friendly.
We were staying in one of the garden rooms and found it to be fine and a short walking distance to the gardens and pools. While we were there the hotel was upgrading one of their swimming pools and we were not disturbed by the noise at all.
We never ate at the hotel as it was a bit more expensive, so we went to the restaurants across the roads which were really nice. And for a dollar each way you can get a bus right outside the hotel down International drive to other restaurants. (you can buy a $16 pass for 14 days at the hotel, which is worth it if you going to use the I ride a lot).
The hotel provides free buses for you to get to the parks, which we found useful.
Overall I would definitely go back to this hotel again.

Positives- I stayed at this hotel from 9/28 to 9/30. I stayed in the Tower because from some of the pictures, it looked like the Tower rooms were nicer. And in my opinion, the Tower is well worth the extra $10 a night I paid to be in there. It was a little more inconvenient to be in the Tower, rather than be in one of the buildings surrounding the resort. I felt "safer" not be accessible to anyone from the parking lot, which is why I chose to stay in the Tower. The room was very nice, I had a king bed room. Everything was clean and comfortable. I was on the 5th floor, not much of a view but I didn't care. I ate some meals in the on-site restaurants, which was very nice, no complaints there. The pool was nice and the staff was very friendly. (However, see the negative below)

Negatives- There is a ticket counter in the lobby for Universal. I thought it was going to be more time efficient by buying the tickets in the hotel to limit waiting at the park for tickets. The purpose of my trip to Orlando was Halloween Horrow Nights. So...I THOUGHT I was purchasing Horror Night tickets AND admission tickets for the night. The woman at the counter mislead me into thinking I was purchasing Express tickets AND admission, however, once getting to the gate at the park, I found out she had only sold me Express tickets. She had precisely told me while I was purchasing them that it was both Admission and Horror Night tickets. Basically, I was discouraged and left the park without going into Horror Nights and returned to the hotel to get a refund.

THE BEST PART- The manager of the hotel (Tim) apologized sincerely and told me that the ticket counter is not a part of the hotel, the ticket counter is owned by Universal. He said he could not give me a refund for my tickets but offered to pay for my ENTIRE hotel stay, as well as telling me to plead my case the next morning to the ticket counter to get a refund. In the end...I stayed at the hotel for free (was $99 a night) and I got a refund for being mislead (minus $10 processing charge). I was very very pleased in the way the manager responded.

I will stay here the next time I go to Orlando

Stayed in June and meant to write a review earlier. Went as a group of 18, 10 adults and 8 children aged 3 - 8 years. Had 4 garden rooms and one in the tower. One family in our party upgraded to the tower because they got nervous reading reviews. They regreted doing that because the tower room was slightly smaller, not much better than the rooms the rest of us were in and they felt seperated from the group.
Loads of safe free carparking, parked outside our room block easily, very convenient.
All rooms were excellent, spacious, comfortable, clean. Plenty of hot water, clean towels, Room cleaned daily and linen regulary changed. Air conditioning worked well. Large fridge in room ideal for baby bottles, soft drinks and beer!
Lots of clean and safe swimming pools located in the gardens, we used the one close to our room and the kids loved it. Always got seated round the pool and loved that we could use pool in the evening to cool down after a day at the theme parks. Grounds were safe for kids to play in and we never had to worry about them.
Food in hotel was good, but a little dearer than eating out. Across the road from the main entrance some shops and restaurants that are all Ok and very handy to walk to.
Hotel exceeded my expectations for price we paid so staying there was excellent value. I would definitly say accommodation was comparable to UK AA good 3 star/basic 4 star.
In conclusion, if you want a very good value, good standard hotel, the International Plaza Resort & Spa is spot on. There will always be the odd person who has a bad experience and more often than not it's those folk that write reviews on a web sites like this and worry the rest of us. Don't be put off from using this Hotel, 18 of us thought it was excellent!!!!!!!
Oh as well they seem to be working real hard refurbishing rooms, so I expect it will get better (but maybe cost more).