DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Atlantic Beach Oceanfront — Hotel in Atlantic Beach

Our stay at the DoubleTree Hilton Atlantic Beach from December 26th was one of the most unpleasant hotel experiences we've had. While the initial check-in process with a friendly receptionist went smoothly, the rest of our visit was marred by numerous issues. At check in, we noticed children running, screaming, to which the receptionist noted. She stated there was religious conference happening and we moved on.

Environment: Once we got to our room, the environment was chaotic and loud, with children running unsupervised in the lobby, hallways, and pool area. Noise persisted late into the night the entire stay, making it nearly impossible to rest. The elevators were frequently inaccessible because the attendees of the religious conference would board quickly & fill the elevator, despite being aware of the other guests waiting to board. We would wait 20-40 minutes to get on. We ordered pizza to 214 on the 28th and the delivery man waited in the lobby for nearly 45 minutes.

Children were riding the elevator without supervision, repetitively up & down. The staff was growing increasingly frustrated with the environment yet did not control the situation and it impacted their professionalism. It was clear the hotel had over booked and did not have the resources to accommodate the circumstances.

On the 27th the children playing in the halls began knocking on doors (214), to which the parents did nothing about. We decided to change plans and leave for a night out since rest was not an option.

Service: After attempts to reach the hotel staff via the IM & text options about the room transition went without response (unlike the previous day), we called the front desk. The front desk seemed irritated by our request to remain in our room until 400 was ready. We were ultimately allowed to remain in the room.

Housekeeping started rapidly knocking on the door at 10:30am on the 28th, yelling check out through the door. When I opened the door, the housekeeper turned and walked away, despite me trying to speak to her. Housekeeping proceeded to enter our room twice without permission on December 28th in 214.

While waiting to transfer rooms, we went to the pool. I watched the front desk call twice within a minute & immediately called back. Again, we were met with "We've been trying to contact you..." in a disappointed tone. It's ironic because all we had done that morning was try to communicate with the staff. She said we needed to move rooms immediately and in the midst of all the chaos, I grabbed my daughter out of the pool, hurried thru the lobby wet & proceed to wait for an elevator for 30 minutes. Got upstairs & frantically packed only to realize- no room key, no room number.

Once again, met with the impossible revolving door of elevators, I opted for the stairwell. I get down to the first floor where my old key won't work. An employee from the inside ignores my attempts to talk and I walk around to the front.

What may have been the entire FOH staff was lined up at the front desk. They are not friendly when greeting me, except for one older staff member, who wasn't operating the desk. We get it sorted.

Pests: Room 214 had ants in the bathroom sink, and when we finally moved to a suite (Room 400), we found roaches in the microwave, bathtub, and walls. Despite reporting these issues, management’s response was dismissive and unsatisfactory, offering only a comped night and a breakfast voucher we couldn’t use due to hygiene concerns. The jacuzzi tub was neglected, hair around the drain & filth around the jets.

The pool area was overcrowded and unsafe, with no staff intervention as dozens of unsupervised children engaged in inappropriate behavior (jumping, running, chanting "HAWK TUAH"- a reference to viral clip about a girl giving head, pushing each other in the pool) The entire experience was chaotic, unhygienic, and poorly managed. The risk of an injury was obvious, if not someone drowning in such a mismanaged environment.

I cannot recommend this hotel to anyone seeking a relaxing or...

. The room was outdated, had mold on in the bathroom, smelled like smoke and just wasn’t what I had expected based on the rates. I was alone in the room with the baby and heard a knock on the door. The baby had just fallen asleep so I rushed to the door to answer to prevent any additional knocking. It was 2 men telling me they needed access to the room to run some internet cables. I informed the guys that the baby was asleep and they would have to come back later. I quickly shut the door. Less than 30 minutes later there was another knock at the door, it was the same contractors, and they were insistent that they had managers permission to access the room. At this point they were almost forcing entry into my room by pushing the door. I had to stop them from getting access with my foot.I was terrified! I immediately called down to the front desk to speak to the manager thinking that he would understand the situation and jump to my rescue.

I spoke with Jerry Paquette, GM, and explained the situation with the hotel contractors. I explained my fear with the men almost pushing their way into my room and the baby sleeping. Jerry informed me that I “did NOT have any options but to let the men into my room”. I quickly hung up the phone and told him that was unacceptable. I was in completely shock! I could not believe he told me this and was not willing to help come up with a solution. I personally did not think it was unreasonable to ask them to wait another 30 minutes until the baby was awake and we could leave the room. I looked outside the peep hole at this point and saw a larger man sitting outside of my room in a rolling chair monitoring the door. There was also 3 additional men pacing back in front of my door. Thankfully within the next 30 minutes my mom had returned to the room and the baby was awake. The men had left from the hallway I proceed to the hotel lobby to talk to Jerry to attempt to coordinate a time for the contractors to finish their work.

Once I met Jerry in the lobby, I told him that it was completely unacceptable how he handled that situation on the phone. As a women with a child in the room, I should have never been put in a situation where I was fearful. The first thing Jerry said to me was “Calm Down”. I was taken back by this response as I was not yelling or angry. I then asked Jerry when telling a woman to calm down ever actually worked. At this point, I knew that any customer service training that Jerry had received was a failure. I also understood that talking about the previous interaction would not be resolved by him as he lacked empathy, compassion and understanding. However, I did rise above his attitude and attempted to provide Jerry with a solution to allow him to return to my room the following morning with a female staff member present to do the work. I let him know if they could be there at 10am I could provide them access to the room. Saturday morning at 10:20am, no one from the hotel had knocked. I had decided that they had changed plans and were going to finish the work a different day. I went ahead and put the baby down for a nap. Roughly 20 minutes later, we had a knock on the door. My mom met the person knocking outside of the connecting room. My mom offered to let them work in that room but regretfully informed them that the baby was asleep in the next room and they would have to wait. Unfortunately, the female from the hotel was visibly upset by this response and said she would have to use her “manager power” to come into the room with the sleeping baby. My mother shut the door and said No. Next thing we know, the female employee BUSTED into the door, breaking the deadbolt, and throwing the babies pack and play (bed) 10 feet into the room. The baby woke up screaming! I grabbed the baby and ran to the next room. I was in...

I've been coming to this hotel since 2017. In fact, I was here when we had to evacuate for hurricane Florence. I've come pre-pandemic and twice post pandemic. I've had a variety of experiences here so I'll try to be fair.

Over the years, the general experience here has gone downhill. I was never impressed with their restaurant Prime 1079, but I did love their breakfast & Molly's. However, during the pandemic they offered free continental breakfast which was pretty gross - cereal, pastries, donuts. During our current week here 9/2021, they started offering a breakfast buffet again for $16/pp. It was SO disappointing. They only had 5 items plus the normal continental pastries. No fruit. The second time I came, same limited number of items and most of it was out. Waited for biscuits and gravy and the gravy was completely burned and tasted of 50% oil. I told the employee that it had an off taste, and he actually said he knew that he burnt it but brought it out anyway. At that point, I simply left and decided against breakfast. When we stayed in 2020, they put coffee out in the lobby all day for guests. Not in 2021. We overheard someone complain about this to the front desk, and the employee claimed that she's been working here for yrs and they've never done it, but they definitely have.

The condition of the hotel has deteriorated which is really saying something because it was never great to begin with. They actually HAVE updated furniture and carpet over the years (I have old pics to prove it), but it seems some things have been damaged from hurricanes but they never made the effort to fix it. Water stained lamps, broken rotted wood, roof damage, rust stains on the exterior from water damage, etc.

My first time here in 2017, I received a cute bag as a Hilton honors member with 2 waters and cookies. Now, you get nothing. No perks at all for HH members, and I'm a silver member for reference.

My first time here, I was impressed with the cleanliness. It is an older hotel, but as long as it's clean, I am happy. I can't say it is as clean as it was back then. Stained hall carpets, bad smells, moldy AC vents? I was just not impressed.

The views are great, but lower levels may have obstructed views. Also, if you don't get oceanfront, the left side units overlook the parking lot and the right side overlook the roof so a higher floor is ideal.

I used to appreciate the cleanliness stickers they put on the doors to show a room has been sanitized and not entered UNTIL I saw a maintenance employee go into a room to perform maintenance by peeling back the sticker, being careful not to pull apart the seal. When he was done, he put the sticker back to make it look like no one has been in the room since it was cleaned. This was INCREDIBLY disappointing since Hilton advertises this as a benefit to reassure their customers.

For everything they don't offer anymore due to covid or whatever other reason, the prices should be way cheaper. I'm honestly floored that they try to rent these units out for $300-400/night. Trust me, it is not worth that by any means. I wouldn't pay any more than $225/night for a suite or $175 for an oceanfront efficiency.

I do appreciate that the hotel is pet friendly which is honestly the main reason I return. I do hope Hilton does something with this hotel to bring it up to Hilton standards. Otherwise, I will start looking into renting an oceanfront beach...