The property needed a lot of fixing up, cracks / wood breaking, gutters overloaded, garden overgrown, pools need a repaint. The staff came twice to check on the room, and were there for less than 20 seconds, long enough to pull the bedsheet up and tight (still dirty though from before my arrival) and fold two soaked towels I had draped over the top of the shower.
The place had dirt on the floors and the counters, and everything outside was in need of a clean or a wipe. The ice cube maker spat out some cubes with black bits (tree?) in the ice, two times. The room had a bit of a funky smell the whole time. The paper thin walls helped hear the neighbours going about their "business."
The front desk were very polite, but 'help' in any form meant drawing/circling where the hotel was on a map, then Hemingway House and a sister hotel. Not even suggesting what to do at the sister hotel, like go for a drink or a meal. Just circled it.
The hardest working person was the breakfast man who was rushing out eggo waffles and fresh fruit. He did great, for a simple job. No signs of effort, urgency, or frankly any care on the part of any other staff. Just going about an annoying job, it seemed.
It was very expensive but relatively fine in the context of other hotels which I'm assuming suffered Covid downturns too. So maybe par for the course for KW. I wouldn't go back to Key West anytime soon.
Low value for the dollar even coming from freezing Canada. The sunsets were nice tho!