We made a late decision to spend a week-end in Key West and our favorite hotels were booked. We found vacancies at the Sunrise Suites, but the reviews gave us serious misgivings. We arrived expecting the worst. Perhaps our expectations were so low, that we were delighted to find it not so bad as we expected.
We had a good sized room on the fourth floor with a balcony facing east. We could not see the water, but we were absolutely on the "sunrise side". There was no charge for parking, but if the property had been full this would have been a problem. There are simply not enough parking spaces for the number of suites available. I guess if you could not find a parking space you could park at the office and walk the one and one-half blocks back to the condo unit.
Our suite was semi-tastefully decorated and the distressed furniture was a perfect choice - impossible to tell if the furniture was damaged by careless guests or came that way from the factory. The linens were certainly not of high quality, but were clean. We had two bedrooms with two bathrooms, and a living room with a kitchen area on one end. The couch in the living room converted into a bed. It would have been very uncomfortable as the mattress was about 1/2' thick, but if you brought an air mattress a third couple could stay in the unit. There was a TV in the living room and one in each bedroom. They were not the latest technology and the bedroom TV was about 12', but it was a TV. The cable offerings were good.
We did not accept maid service when we registered, but ended up paying for it anyway because we did accept fresh towels when they were delivered to our room. If you want to avoid that extra $10 charge be sure to refuse the towels, or else let them come in a change the sheets and make the bed.
The room was on the clean side. This is not to say it was clean. The tile floor was filthy and walking on it in bare feet left the souls of our feet black. There was dirt in the corners and crevaces where careless housekeepers had pushed it rather than remove it. The toiletries were a strange brand, and not particularly good. The toilet worked about every third flush, and there was a terrible odor from the garbage disposal.
The water heater vented into the kitchen/living room combination and it took the A/C about 8 hours to bring that room below 76 degrees. Once we achieved a livable temperature we had no difficulty maintaining it.
Would we return? It certainly is not in the same category as the Doubletree or the Inn at Key West, our preferred properties. In a pinch, however, it is a doable property. If, like us, you expect the worst you may be surprised. I think these units are individually owned, and it depends upon the responsibility of each owner to maintain his unit. We got one that was fairly well maintained.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.