vtgambler

I could not find a thread related to this property but if I missed it please move this along...

We're thinking about a stay here next spring. Any experiences? If nothing else is that a good location base for St. Lucia?

pauleeepaul

Well if you want HH on St Lucia this is the only option, glad to see a hole in the footprint fixed. Reviews look ok on Tripadvisor FWIW.

Milhous Gloriosus

any updated reviews?

Hawkeyefan

Subscribing....very interested for next year. Diamond treatment?

Hawkeyefan

janner34

Having just stayed here I can provide a bit of info. As a Diamond, I was upgraded from an island facing room to a marina view room on a points reservation. It was a very nice, modern, new hotel. Excellent pool, plenty of dining options. A free shuttle (usually via boat I believe, but sometimes via boat and sometimes via minivan last week) went twice daily to Pigeon Island National Landmark where towels, loungers and iced water was provided to hotel guests on the beach. As a Diamond member, a welcome note in the room offered free use of the pool cabanas (which we used twice) and premium seating at the restaurant on the top floor. Breakfast was full complimentary buffet, but it seemed that was offered to all guests. Omelette station and various different side options daily (including local options like saltfish) and juices.

inagaddadavida

Just spent 4 nights here with my wife and figured I'd pass along some details since reviews were sparse when I was looking a few months ago. The hotel appeared to be pretty low occupancy when we were there. Never saw more than maybe 10 other people in the pool area at any given time. In spite of this as a diamond booking with points we only got upgraded one category from an island view room to a water view room on the second floor. To tell the truth, my status wasn't recognized at all during the check in process until i inquired about whether we had been upgraded at all.

A couple other minor points that stuck out in my mind, the jacuzzi wasn't working the whole time we were there. I finally mentioned this to the staff on our second to last day and they started to work on it, but it still wasn't fixed by the time we departed. The jacuzzi may not be a popular item when the weather is 85 degrees, but i would have put it to use once the sun went down in the evenings. Speaking of evenings, we found that we needed to run our air circulator in the room on high at night to drown out the music playing in the pool area. This may not be a problem for others, but we went to bed somewhat early while there.

I also noted that they never replenished the toiletries in the bathroom through our four nights. On our last day I bumped into a housekeeper in the hallway and requested an additional bottle of shampoo which she happily provided. Just makes me wonder if they are trying to skimp on toiletries to save a few bucks?

The staff throughout the hotel were friendly and nice to talk to any time we had the chance, so we did enjoy the interaction. Breakfast was decent, although everyone in the hotel gets free breakfast, so no diamond benefit there. Come to think of it, the Hilton branding on the whole was pretty minimal, so I'm not sure what they're aiming for with that association.

Overall we had an enjoyable stay, but I had a hard time saying "yes" when asked at check out if we would be back. I feel like there are probably other hotels in the Caribbean that we would be more impressed by. We've only visited 3 islands so far and I feel like we haven't found one yet that we are "hooked" by.

Feel free to drop any other questions here and I'll do my best to answer.

nickfromct

I'm at the Hilton in St. Lucia now. One thing I wasn't aware of was the long ride from the airport to the hotel, about 90 mins to 2 hours by car. The hotel itself is very nice, as is the pool area and the free breakfast. The free shuttle to Pigeon Island isn't free anymore (US$18/pp) but there is free shuttle to local shopping. Diamonds get access to the pool cabanas if any are available. They rent them out for $60/day otherwise. Not sure I would return as the 2 hours drive from the airport was brutal. There is a closer airport that is used by flights from some of the surrounding islands and that maybe a way to circumvent the transportation issue.

happy10345

Staying at this hotel now…by far the worst Hilton stay I have had in years!

As a diamond I was upgraded for an island view room to Mountain View with terrace so that was a definite benefit. I would prefer a marina view, but the hotel was sold out, so I can’t complain about this. Also breakfast is no longer free for all, but diamonds get a free continental breakfast. This includes juice, salad, oatmeal, yogurt, and some horrible bread. You can pay an additional 25USD for hot food, pancakes and eggs, but the break doesn’t improve.

Some other negatives…

• I asked for a toothbrush and toothpaste…they don’t provide them…I can’t think of a hotel that hasn’t had this for me in years. I can only compare it to a Motel 6 in the US where they have these things in a vending machine, but in this case that didn’t even exist.
• They had no Orange Juice at breakfast multiple mornings. The manager of the hotel assured me they’d have it the next day and they didn’t
• One day my room was being cleaned at 4PM when I returned. I asked if they could come back in 15-20 minutes and they said no…they then left, but left my room 1/2 cleaned and when I returned 2 hours later, my room wasn’t useable…no bedding or towels. I was assured my room would be made up by 1PM in the future, but two days later it wasn’t cleaned at 3PM again
• I was told for $35 I could get shared transfer from the airport, and if it wasn’t available they’d let me know…but instead they just sent the private transfer at $95.
• No tea kettles
• There is no transfer to Pigeon Island anymore…at least not included. It is a nice walk though

There is no free transfer to a shopping area as advised previously

• I was told they could heat food for me, when I enquired before arriving, but when I arrived they wouldn’t do it. I don’t mind them not doing it, if it is a health code issue, but I do mind being misadvised.
• I was offered $40 to “appease me” if I wouldn’t complain to Hilton about my experience. I refused!
• I requested a late checkout…they said 12:30, but absolutely not 1:30…given all my issues, and the fact that I had housekeeping in my room one night for an hour as I ate dinner at 6PM because they left the room in totals disarray, you would have thought they’d be more helpful.
• The manager of the property is kind but totally unhelpful.

Positives

• Rooms are basic but nice
• Pool is very nice
• Dining workers are friendly and kind

Would I come back? No way! Worst Hilton out there…a Hilton that doesn’t even provide toothbrushes, shouldn’t be a Hilton, this isn’t Motel 6.

BigFishDave

Just wondering what happened to your toothbrush in transit?

happy10345

An excellent question. I stopped bringing toothpaste with me years ago. I try to limit the liquids I have so just ask when I arrive. In the last 5 years I’ve always been given toothpaste and it comes with a toothbrush so I just don’t bother bringing one

Eujeanie

So how did you then get a toothbrush and toothpaste?

My dentist gives out those little travel sized tubes every visit. BYOTB.

I've been given those overnight TB kits (usually after being stranded by an airline) and the TP comes in a foil wrapper (like Hot sauce from Taco Bell but MUCH smaller) - certainly not enough for a multi-day stay anyway?

happy10345

I bought them at a local store!

_kurt

That's very disappointing to hear about the breakfast changes and housekeeping failures. Even when I stayed about a year ago breakfast service was a little spotty. They had trouble keeping certain items in stock. But the hot buffet was decent for what it was. If they are charging $25 for it now (for those with free continental... how much if you're starting from zero?) I can guess why the quality has declined! They must have driven guests to other options. They're probably serving many fewer people per day with a corresponding decline in freshness and variety.

Your toothbrush and kettle complaints I agree are significant annoyances but hardly justify "Worst Hilton out there". If anything, the housekeeping failure would have been the deal-breaker for me as far as returning to this hotel.

happy10345

I totally agree the toothbrush alone doesn't make it the worst Hilton ever! Honestly, what made the stay so bad was that they kept asking what could be improved, but then nothing improved! So I kept getting texts asking how the stay was, but when I told them the issues they did very little. Like how could the manager promise OJ the next day and then not have any? The same store that I bought my toothbrush from had plenty of OJ...so even if just to appease me they could have found some...by the way the bar had OJ, so the hotel even had it.

Back to the toothbrush they told me that Curio collections can't give them out...Hilton has told me this was not correct!

Oh and I did hear from Hilton and do feel like they took my complaints sufficiently seriously and I appreciate that.