aww3583

Does anyone have any recent experiences at this property? We're considering it for a family vacation this summer. Photos online look great.

nic3456

we are booked here in about a month, but I’m having second thoughts. Valet is mandatory and $28/day plus $22 resort fee that comes with beach chairs (but no umbrella, that’s another $15). From what I’ve read there’s no discount,etc for Diamonds

aww3583

We opted to book here. I'll take pics and post a review in the next couple of weeks. We're on points, so the resort fee isn't applicable, but $28/valet is a bit much. We'll see how they perform and let you know!

aww3583

Email from the hotel:

Social Distancing in Effect: One of the most effective prevention measures that we can practice to ensure your (and our) safety is Social Distancing. Guests and associates are advised to practice social distancing by standing at least six feet away from other groups of people not traveling with you while standing in lines, using elevators or moving around the property. We have rearranged seating groups and placed Social Distancing floor decals throughout the hotel to assist with appropriate distancing requirements.

Facial Coverings in Effect: Resort team members and Guests are REQUIRED by local government ordinance to wear facial coverings inside. This applies to all of St. Augustine Beach as well as the historic district downtown. The ordinance is enforceable and subject to fines by the police department. The hotel does have disposal masks available at the front desk, and we also have cloth facial coverings available for sale in our gift shop.

Housekeeping: Your guestroom has been thoroughly cleaned and sanitized prior to your arrival using CDC approved sanitizers. The Hilton CleanStay by Lysol program has been implemented, which includes extra special touch points to sanitize in the guest rooms and in common areas of the resort. Stayover service is no longer provided daily but you can choose to “opt in” to have your serviced during your stay in advance. Or you can stop by our front desk to pick up any additional amenities. If service is needed, please schedule with the Front Desk which day(s) you would like your room serviced. Your room will also be sealed prior to arrival by our inspector to assure that all sanitizing and disinfecting has been completed and that no one else has entered your room.

Complimentary Breakfast: A selection of hot and cold items, as well as fresh juices and coffee, which is served daily in our meeting space by our culinary team. Items are prepared for either inside or outside seating, or we would be happy to make you a TOGO box. Hours are 7:00am – 10:00am Monday – Friday, 7:00am – 10:30am Saturday, Sunday. Please note that breakfast tends to be busiest from 9:30am – 10:30am. We appreciate your understanding that you may wait a few minutes, especially during this busy time. Please come early to avoid the line.

Evening Reception: Located at the Rhum Bar. Light pre-packaged snack packs, as well as our complimentary selection of beverages are still currently available. Please have your resort wrist band on for easy identification, or you will be asked for your name/room number. Normal brand reception with shareable items is not currently available, and Embassy Suites hopes to launch a new reception experience soon. Hours are 4:30pm – 6:30pm Daily. ALL BAR SEATING has been removed. Please take your order TOGO. Please use social distancing in the cue. Bartenders will quickly move you through the line.

Valet: Our Valet Services is available 24/7, $28 Per night, Per vehicle. No self-parking options are available. Should you have a trailer or RV please let us know in advance so we can assist you with off property parking. Staff are wearing gloves, PPE and sanitizing.

Pool: Our Pool is open daily from 9:00am – Dusk, however for the safety of our guests, we ask you to practice occupancy limits and Social Distancing when enjoying the pool and pool area. We have added a number of additional chairs and have moved them throughout the pool deck, as well as on our event lawns to create more open space. Please limit the occupancy to no more than 10 people in the hot tub, maximum of 8 in the cabana, and ensure you are maintaining a 6 foot distance between you and other guests. We kindly ask that you do not move chairs around, which would cause the resort to be out of compliance. Our associates will monitor and sanitize all “high touch” items at an interval of once per hour based on usage. Our beaches are currently open to normal beach activity, however social distancing restrictions are in place and are being monitored by local law enforcement. Who wants to sit with a lot of people anyway! Please let our team help you spread out and enjoy the beach.

aww3583

Just finished 5 nights here...

Location: Excellent location on A1A with great beach access. Oddly, it's in a cell-signal black hole. Both my AT&T and Verizon devices struggled to get more than 1 bar of service anywhere on the property. Unforunately, the property's wi-fi service is terrible. I was able to get spotty wi-fi signal in a couple spots in our room and lobby.

Valet: Yes, it's $28/day. However, in my 600-or-so nights as an HH member, this is the one and only property where my vehicle was picked up and dropped off without delay EVERY time we called. Valets were prompt and polite. They all had masks on, even outside, and had disinfectant wipes available constantly. With the public beach access nearby, parking space on-site is extremely limited and I can completely understand the necessity of the valet service.

Room: We were not upgraded, but we did get put in an accessible room. The room was huge with plenty of space to spread out. The bathroom was huge with both a stationary and detachable shower-head. The HVAC was frustrating... it blew hard and cold in the sitting area but there was nothing more than a cool breath of air flow out of the register in the bedroom. The room also had motion sensors connected to the lights and HVAC system. If you forgot to manually turn all of the light switches off at night, any movement would trigger the lights to come on. We learned this the hard way the first night. The HVAC is connected to the motion sensor, too. The system blows cold until it doesn't sense any motion. Water pressure is top notch. Plenty of storage in multiple closets.

Breakfast: The breakfast is advertised as "made to order", but it's a buffet served by employees. Everyone was taking COVID seriously with gloves, masks, single-direction flow, etc. However, the breakfast is chafing dishes of Hampton Inn eggs, bacon, sausage, and potatoes. There were cereal and yogurt options, along with fresh fruit. Beverage choices were water, orange juice, apple juice, and milk. I hate complaining about free food, but after a couple days, it was boring.

Dinner: We had take-out twice from Harvest and Reel, the main restaurant. Both times, service was prompt. Food quality and quantity was above average for a hotel restaurant.

Evening Reception: Small selection of domestic beer and bottom shelf liquors. Snacks were 1-oz bags of Goldfish crackers, pretzels, and Chex mix.

Pool: The pool was awesome. Zero-entry on one side, stairs on the other. Ample seating with and without umbrellas. Poolside service is frequent, speedy, and reasonably priced. There was a set of restrooms at each side of the pool. Pool towels are available nearby. The hotel provided in-pool entertainment with a mermaid, and live music at night.

Diamond Benefits & Resort Fee: The resort "fee" is $22/day. We were on points, so it wasn't applicable. However, I don't know what benefits it pays for other than bike rental and beach chairs. There were absolutely no additional benefits extended towards Diamond Members. No complementary drinks/appetizers, etc. The new norm, probably.

All in all, we'd stay here again if we returned to the area. Beautiful property. Every staff member we interacted with was pleasant and helpful. We explored numerous restaurants nearby and loved the area.

DELee

Uh, what does a mermaid _do_ to provide "in-pool entertainment"?

David

aww3583

Lay there with a tail on and interact with kids. She answered adults’ questions about the hotel, things to do, etc. My daughters loved it. The ‘actress’ remembered my kids at multiple times later in the week and gave them a pair of Hilton sunglasses.

dlaue

"The room also had motion sensors connected to the lights and HVAC system.... The system blows cold until it doesn't sense any motion."

All travelers have endured:
1) ineffective A/C,
2) loud A/C,
3) A/C that blows on you when you try to sleep and,
4) A/C that stops cooling if the patio door (or the master switch room key) is slightly ajar.

But this is a new one.

Does the A/C stop functioning when you are asleep?
That might be a deal breaker in hot and humid Florida.

aww3583

To be honest, I couldn’t figure it out. It kept the main sitting room comfortable, for the most part. However, the bedroom (with balcony and huge windows) was always warm.

On more than 1 occasion, I’d turn the cool setpoint down and it the blower wouldn’t come on until we’d go tap the motion sensor near the main door.

It was very strange. I heard more than 1 person inquiring at the front desk about how to operate the system.

DELee

Interesting gig. Hopefully at least one pair of sunglasses per kid.

David

aww3583

Just had a lengthy stay here. Interesting mix of "above and beyond" and "wth"?

Check In: We arrived mid-evening on a weekday. There were three valet attendant sitting at the valet desk playing on their phones. None could be bothered to help us attend to our 5-days' worth of bags. They gave me a luggage cart, but quickly returned to CandyCrush, TikTok, etc. Plenty of staff available, but none motivated to help us check-in. The front desk agent was supremely helpful. He provided us with a list of daily activities at the pool, a coupon for Starbucks, a coupon for the on-site restaurant, and premium Wi-Fi network access. We were asked if we wanted to "opt in" to daily housekeeping, which we did. When we arrived at our room, we found the door open and unlocked, and multiple housekeeping supplies (chemical bottles, etc.) remaining in the room.


Room: We booked a 1K suite without a balcony. Not sure if it was intended, but we were put in a corner room with floor-to-ceiling windows, facing away from the water. The room was huge. Oddly, and mirroring our previous experience with the HVAC, the air conditioner cooled the bedroom to ice-box levels, but left the main sitting area warm and dank. We discovered that the return and filter were clogged and one of the two registers in the main area put out zero air flow. The floor was so sticky that walking in flip-flops was hazardous. We asked the front desk to have housekeeping clean with a mop and water, and we were told that the sticky residue was from the cleaning chemicals. Two of the doors (bathroom, main entry) wouldn't close without significant effort or a stiff shove with the shoulder. The glass shower leaked terribly, necessitating a full-size towel being used to sop up water after each use. It was obvious engineering knew about it due to the patching and repainting of the wall, but they were unable to fix the root cause of the issue (seal between glass and wall).



Amenities: The pool is the highlight of our trip. The pool is at least 100’ long. One end is zero-entry, one end has large stairs. There is a large hot tub nearby. Pool towels, toys, etc. are plentiful. The gym is great for a property of this size, but oddly, the HVAC wasn’t working and the gym was uncomfortably warm. The pool staff lines up kid-centric activities each day like potato sac races, treasure hunts, water balloon contests, and snow cones. Our kids, and dozens of other families loved the pool and utilized it from open to close each day.



Housekeeping and Engineering: Stay-over housekeeping is by “opt in” only. We opted in, and found that the housekeeping staff only dropped off towels and toiletries inside the door of our room. Nothing more, nothing less. On the 4th day, the housekeeping staff entered the room and took out our trash and made the bed, but did not change the linens. We routinely saw 2-3 housekeepers on our floor. Plenty of staff available for enhanced service. The HVAC in our room was only operational in the bedroom and we let them know. About 2 hours later, we received a call from the front-desk manager and she said “there was nothing we can do” and they offered to move us to an ocean-view room. We opted to stay where we were because the move would be a smaller room, and we’d already unpacked and moved in for a 5-day stay.



Dining: Breakfast is free for all guests and is a full hot buffet. Each day, we were presented with a self-service buffet of eggs, potatoes, protein (sausage, bacon, etc.), waffles or pancakes, grits, pastries, etc. This was a highlight for us in terms of quality and quantity of food. The afternoon reception is in full effect and includes beer/wine AND well cocktails for all. Specialty drinks are available at a reasonable premium. Diamond guests are given a 15% coupon for the in-house restaurant, but it’s only good for dine-in only. Odd choice during a global pandemic. We opted for take-out and ate in our room, and the restaurant staff was adamant we could not use the coupon. Regardless, the food at Harvest and Reel is excellent and we’d highly recommend it. Pool-side drink and food service is great, despite its severely limited hours (noon to 5PM).



Misc: There is an additional wing being built. Construction noise is minimal. Despite our check-in related concerns, day-to-day valet was prompt. They absolutely refused to touch any of our bags at check-in or check-out, but our vehicle was brought around swiftly each time. On-site laundry facilities are available, but coin-operated only. Neither the front desk, Starbucks, or the gift shop was able to offer change for quarters. Valet is mandatory and is $29/day.



Overall: This is our second lengthy stay at this property. We love the area, the amenities, and the complementary dining options. However, it appears Covid-related staffing issues have reared their ugly head in terms of poor valet service and engineering-related issues. We’ll definitely come back, but we hope that management sees the lingering issues relating to the upkeep of this beautiful property.

aww3583

This property has raised its award pricing rates from 60k per night to 80k per night.

What was once a great "bang for your buck" value has fallen victim to the points inflation we all predicted with the never-ending promotions, etc.

Friendly Traveling Deathmerchant

Yeah, I was going to stay there last week -- was ready for a break from all the older, kinda dirty Hamptons I'd been staying at in Jacksonville and on our way south... But I ended up booking the Hilton Garden Inn a few hundred yards from the ES. We walked by the Embassy Suites, and it did look nice - definitely a "resorty" property vs. the bland on-the-road hotels around it, but I noted that the ES was almost completely empty. Unless you reaaaaaallly need to save that 50 yard walk across the street to hit a beach, you can save a ton of bucks/points in that same block. IIRC, ES was 70k, and the HGI was 33k.

Too bad. I would have paid a few bucks more, but it was just one night, so... HGI won.

ChevyCruze

Pool bar closed around 6pm on a Saturday evening in May

County park beach immediately north of the hotel

Area formerly occupied by several rows of the resort’s pool chairs


Visited some family that was staying the weekend. Valet said there wouldn’t be a charge for parking but “accepts tips”. Done! Considering parking is now $35.

Found it odd they shut the pool bar down around 6pm on a Saturday evening in May. My guess is they need the staff at the inside bar to help with Happy Hour.

The pool was bath tub temp. There seems to be a lot fewer pool chairs by the since they had to move the fence line back due to the erosion.

Requested extra towels and a pack and play. Still haven’t received either almost an hour later as I type this.

——

Stayed Labor Day weekend 2022 using FNC. No upgrade as a Diamond. Food at the restaurant for dinner was excellent. Only complaint was that the hot tub’s chlorine mix was overly concentrated. Irritated our skin. Felt like our skin was burning. Also bleached our swimsuits.