Beach Village at The Del, LXR Hotels & Resorts — Hotel in Coronado

I told myself not to do this for fear of being blackballed in the future but I look at the fact that I made the reservation in January and agreed to pay $1250 per night for this, that's what galls me. Multiple flight delays made us get to Coronado at 8:20 pm instead of mid-afternoon that day. I was determined to eat at Little Frenchies and we had to go there before we checked in. My husband got a call from the Beach Village....were we still coming? Yes. They informed us they were leaving (!) and we would have to go to the main hotel to get the keys...how's that for superior service? We pull up to the valet guys and they know nothing, try to open the trunk. Didn't want us to wait in the car. My husband had to explain he was just going in for keys. I stayed in the car. Finally out he comes. Some poor young man gets on a golf cart and we follow him to Beach Village....we have the same room we had last summer. He fumbles to get the locked gate open, admits he has only been over there one or two times, and never in the dark...and it is plenty dark. In we go and walk back and forth trying to find our room, we follow the sign and arrow to no avail. I remember it is at the end of a row, up a flight, there is zero elevator to our room....hence the need for the help...we are 75 with two suitcases. My husband finds the room! Room is nice, just like last summer. Whole village looks empty. Next night, we come back about 10 to see two male well dressed senior citizens fumbling to get in the gate. My husband lets them in, they look ok. We have no idea what to do with our car, no valet, no people. He didn't like the idea of leaving the key in it. He makes THREE phone calls on the valet phone there to the main hotel desk and supposedly somebody will come over to take care of our rental car. We wait. And wait. And wait. Somebody comes but it is to help the two men into their room. Finally I say, let's go to the room and call them and say to come to our room and get the car key. Someone does so. There is zero service and at what a price! Now it is 10:30 pm. I would like coffee. Thinking back to the previous visit, after we had visited our local friends and dined with them in town, I knew nothing in the area would be open so I called room service. There was none. Zero. No coffee. My husband sees the Nepresso machine. We have two at home. He gets it going and steps into the bathroom where I am doing something. He steps back into the little ante room to check on the coffee and it has overflowed the mug and is still coming out, it has flowed down the front of the row of drawers and is nearly to the carpet. He stands there shocked and I say, "pull that mug over and push the other one under it!" He does so. I taste the coffee and it is undrinkable, very thin. Pour it out and we spend time with a wash cloth cleaning the drawer fronts and interiors. Make another cup, this time watching for overflows. It is also super hot. Mugs are too small. You think of the places we have been, the level of service, the employees around and the worst part of all, what we are paying for this, I just was sick. We want to visit our local friends, plus look out onto the beach and water. What is my incentive to come back? I went to the front desk and poured out my tale. The young man was nice but quickly took a step back and said the Beach Village was no part of the Hilton chain, it was a separate entity. I thought that was odd since back in January I had wanted to stay in those new rooms by the fire pits, the ones that had flooded and had been repaired by July 4, only to be told they were all booked in April, and the lady suggested the Beach Village! Why would she suggest a place that was not connected? Finally the young man went and got a manger and I told the tale again. What I wanted deep down was at least one free night, or one night paid for but I never said so. In the meantime my husband was talking to the manager at the Beach Village and she had set him up to receive some sort of certificate in the mail for one free night at any property in the future. I doubted it would arrive but lo and behold it did, the other day. Unfortunately it is for a standard room, which we never get. He called and IF there is an upgrade the place could do that. We never ask for upgrades. I prefer to sign up for and pay for exactly what I want; I don't like surprises. So...we are stuck with a certificate that I don't want. I am very disappointed and can't quit thinking about this. My husband has spent a good part of his career making loans for Hilton Hotels in our state, he just retired 2 years ago. We are planning vacations every six to eight weeks and I saw that in Austria for December there are no Marriott's only Hiltons. We belong to both. What is our incentive to stick with the Hilton Hotel chain? I can't quit thinking we have been had. To make matters worse, we drove from San Diego to Palm Springs and checked into La Quinta for four nights for his golf amateur tournament and the place was perfection, it's one of our favorites. The contrast was unbelievable.||Please reply....if you read this. The Hilton website doesn't allow for...

We just completed our 9th visit to the Beach Village at the Del. We’ve enjoyed the Del over the years and really like Coronado. We’ve noticed a significant decline in the customer experience in recent years. When you go to a place like the Beach Village/Del, it is all about the experience. You know it is going to be pricey (e.g., $14 for a can of beer from the Eno Market but you expect it in a place like the Del). Unfortunately, they have compromised this via their focus on corporate events over individual guests. When we visited a year ago, there was a sales award corporate event that overlapped with our stay. The company bought out the Sun Deck for our entire time there. IMHO the Sun Deck is one of the gems with a bar and food that has great views of the ocean and sunsets. No individuals had use of the Sun Deck for those four days/nights and the same company had events on the beach in front of the Beach Village. Last year we had to wait until 5:45 p.m. to get into our two-bedroom ocean front suite/cottage in the Beach Village.|This year, we reserved a three-bedroom ocean front suite/cottage for five nights. The daily cost for the suites totaled $7,000 per night including taxes and fees. Right in front of our suites was the Beach Club, an exclusive place on the beach with umbrellas, chairs, a big entrance and unfortunately a completely obstructed view of the beach and ocean. Right next to this is an area where they now hold corporate events. During our five-night stay, there were three different events that also created an obstructed view from our patios. They have to set-up and tear down for these events so there is noise and disruption. My step-son said they were vacuuming the sand in the area after a Friday night event until midnight and he could not get to sleep. I did talk with Krista who is the Director of the Beach Village. She ended up making a small credit (equal to about 5-6% of the total bill) for these challenges. The employees look weary when you bring up the issues as you know they are getting inundated from guests. At the end of the day, shame on Del management and Hilton Curio for enabling these circumstances when guests are shelling out $7k a night. I feel bad for the employees who get irate guests.|Another experience that has degraded is the Windsor Cottage. You used to have access to the Cottage being a Beach Village guest for a complimentary breakfast. About five years ago, they took away the complimentary breakfast and you had to pay for it (it was a small buffet type experience). In the last 2 years they renovated the Cottage and it just reopened and is called the Ocean Concierge Club. When we checked in we asked about and it was $150 per person, per day to use the Cottage. They provide a breakfast and lunch as part of the charge but if you want dinner that is separate. If 3 people wanted to use the Cottage for four days it would total another $1800 on top of what they are paying for their rooms, essentially for breakfast and lunch.|A couple of solutions. Clearly, the ocean front suites going from 1000-1008 (we were in 1003, 1004, 1005) should have a different pricing structure versus other accommodations given the obstructed views (both the Beach Club and Corporate Events) and not have guests have to express displeasure to get a small credit on the final bill. BTW, the Beach Club was completely empty during our whole stay. Realizing corporate events are likely going to continue and even expand, provide free access to the Windsor Cottage for the ocean front suites. It would be a small way of indicating you care about the individual guest experience. We’re not sure we are going to go back next year or future years. It is a shame the direction in which things have gone over the last...

We just completed our 9th visit to the Beach Village at the Del. We’ve enjoyed the Del over the years and really like Coronado. We’ve noticed a significant decline in the customer experience in recent years. When you go to a place like the Beach Village/Del, it is all about the experience. You know it is going to be pricey (e.g., $14 for a can of beer from the Eno Market but you expect it in a place like the Del). Unfortunately, they have compromised this via their focus on corporate events over individual guests. When we visited a year ago, there was a sales award corporate event that overlapped with our stay. The company bought out the Sun Deck for our entire time there. IMHO the Sun Deck is one of the gems with a bar and food that has great views of the ocean and sunsets. No individuals had use of the Sun Deck for those four days/nights and the same company had events on the beach in front of the Beach Village. Last year we had to wait until 5:45 p.m. to get into our two-bedroom ocean front suite/cottage in the Beach Village.|This year, we reserved a three-bedroom ocean front suite/cottage for five nights. The daily cost for the suites totaled $7,000 per night including taxes and fees. Right in front of our suites was the Beach Club, an exclusive place on the beach with umbrellas, chairs, a big entrance and unfortunately a completely obstructed view of the beach and ocean. Right next to this is an area where they now hold corporate events. During our five-night stay, there were three different events that also created an obstructed view from our patios. They have to set-up and tear down for these events so there is noise and disruption. My step-son said they were vacuuming the sand in the area after a Friday night event until midnight and he could not get to sleep. I did talk with Krista who is the Director of the Beach Village. She ended up making a small credit (equal to about 5-6% of the total bill) for these challenges. The employees look weary when you bring up the issues as you know they are getting inundated from guests. At the end of the day, shame on Del management and Hilton Curio for enabling these circumstances when guests are shelling out $7k a night. I feel bad for the employees who get irate guests.|Another experience that has degraded is the Windsor Cottage. You used to have access to the Cottage being a Beach Village guest for a complimentary breakfast. About five years ago, they took away the complimentary breakfast and you had to pay for it (it was a small buffet type experience). In the last 2 years they renovated the Cottage and it just reopened and is called the Ocean Concierge Club. When we checked in we asked about and it was $150 per person, per day to use the Cottage. They provide a breakfast and lunch as part of the charge but if you want dinner that is separate. If 3 people wanted to use the Cottage for four days it would total another $1800 on top of what they are paying for their rooms, essentially for breakfast and lunch.|A couple of solutions. Clearly, the ocean front suites going from 1000-1008 (we were in 1003, 1004, 1005) should have a different pricing structure versus other accommodations given the obstructed views (both the Beach Club and Corporate Events) and not have guests have to express displeasure to get a small credit on the final bill. BTW, the Beach Club was completely empty during our whole stay. Realizing corporate events are likely going to continue and even expand, provide free access to the Windsor Cottage for the ocean front suites. It would be a small way of indicating you care about the individual guest experience. We’re not sure we are going to go back next year or future years. It is a shame the direction in which things have gone over the last...