Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort — Hotel in Daytona Beach

I recently stayed at this property and feel compelled to share my disappointment regarding the overall experience. While I expected a comfortable and hospitable resort type environment, what I encountered was far below acceptable standards—especially given the high costs associated with my stay.

First and foremost, I was surprised by the $700 incidental deposit, billed at $100 per day, and an additional $35 daily parking fee to park in a lot that is at least 1-mile walk away ($50 if you choose to valet). For these rates, I anticipated a well-maintained, secure, and guest-oriented property. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

The property is noticeably dated, and security presence was limited to the pool area, leaving the rest of the hotel openly accessible at all hours. The public has open access and even the homeless community was present on property. Housekeeping was only available upon request. Even after requesting service, our linens were not changed, we received no fresh towels, and the cleaning performed was minimal at best. In fact, the debris on the floors was swept just out the door onto our porch area. Imagine walking outside your cabana room to see that 2 Port-o-potties have been set up right near your room with a wash station…

We encountered mold in the shower & along sides of sliding doors, broken tiles on the shower floor that moved when water was activated, no hold bar in shower, a visibly dirty microwave that we had to request as it was not included with the room, grime in ceiling corners and access points, dust-laden air vents and ceiling corners, and, most concerning, live insect activity - cockroaches (palmetto bugs) - both in the bathroom and in living room area near the entry door. We encountered 3 different incidents with these bugs and the response from Staff was minimal at best.

When we raised our concerns with a staff member named Bill, he was dismissive and responded with, “You could never live in Florida,” which I found completely unprofessional and inappropriate. Additionally, staff members who delivered requested items were unable to answer basic questions due to language barriers, making communication frustrating and ineffective.

The only bright spot in our experience was Richard, who was courteous, helpful, and the only member of your team who treated us with genuine respect and professionalism. Erron E. was nice enough to refund 3 days of parking and issues $40 in food/drink vouchers, offer pest control services, and speak to housekeeping about sanitary procedures. Daniel came to the room on 7/25 during the 3rd insect incident & was nice enough to listen to our concerns, and go the extra mile to actually move furniture around to find even more of the bugs present in the room for removal. Jennifer R. offered Hilton points for our negative experiences, which I declined, as that does not properly address the negative experience we had. She stated that was all she could do. Jennifer did provide contact information for Supervisor D. Trotter who I reached out to by email on 7/5 (during our stay) requesting a phone call. However, I didn’t hear back from him until about 2 days after we checked out of his hotel. His tone was anything but apologetic, and was quite sarcastic in nature. He stated that ‘if he or his Staff could have blinked their eyes & made the elevator work or fixed any of the issues we had during our stay, they would have…’ He went on about the 3 back to back hurricanes the hotel & the area in general had experienced, and stated this was the main reason that they have not yet been able to BEGIN renovations for this property. While he reluctantly apologized for our experience, he stated that they were ‘lucky to even be open and providing hotel stays.’ He blamed the non-working elevators on the city, and stated that they are doing the best they can with what they have. It’s amazing that the resort pricing remains the same with all of the above and that none of this information is readily provided online for potential guests to see - except through...

Before I start my very negative review, I do want to say that most of the staff was friendly. I want to recognize Simone (Guest Service) who checked me in, Dan (security guard) was mostly by the entrance of the pool. He was greeting people and just making sure no one entered with coolers. And then India (Guest Service) who was the last person I spoke to as I left Sunday night. I wanted to make sure I was not going to get charged for one night of parking as my family and I chose to leave Sunday night instead of Monday morning. She was very friendly and very helpful.

So why did we choose to leave Sunday late afternoon versus Monday morning? Well, the elevators was a HUGE part of it.

Being a Hilton hotel, this was a big disappointment. The lobby area seemed fine but once you entered 1/4 working elevators, (elevator # 2) you didn't know if the elevator was going to fall apart as it took you to your floor. Eventually 3/4 of the elevators were working. People got stuck on elevator #2.

We had a nice ocean view room. The room seemed dated.

You must use your room key to get pool towels. They charge you $25 for the pool towels if you do not return them.

I believe we ended up finding two showers by the pool but one for sure did not work. We didn't even bother trying the other one.

You can't bring in outside food or drinks. I get it, they want you to purchase their stuff, but you are already paying for this dated hotel that only had one working elevator most of the time and now you can't even bring in your own stuff down to the pool. We did eat our breakfast from Wawa by The Blind Turtle on Sunday morning. For lunch, we had gone to Publix and got a few things and was planning to do the same thing but as we were setting up, one of the employees told us that we couldn't sit there. I was confused and she pointed to the signs that said, "no outside food or drinks". I told her how I thought that sign was for the pool area since it was by the pool area then very snarky, she pointed to another sign that I could not see. I asked her "where could we sit?" and she pointed to the other side of the hotel or inside the hotel.

We understood that we couldn't eat by the pool area, but we couldn't eat outside at all. Unbelievable. We were 3 different families trying to spend time together during lunch so now we all went to our rooms and ate separately.

That employee did not need to be snarky. If we couldn't use those tables, they should have a sign right by there instead by the pool. The other sign you could barely see it.

I mentioned earlier about the elevators not working but one most of the time. Elevator #2 was the one that needed to be worked on, yet it was the only one that seemed to be working AND that is the one that at least two families told me they got stuck in. The line for the elevators was always long. My mother is 75 years old and unfortunately, she cannot go up and down the stairs. She had no choice but to wait in line while a few of us would take the stairs which was hard to do as we had to go up to the 8th floor. Now talking about the stairs. The stairs weren't even wide enough to have enough people go up on one side and down the other side. In case of an emergency, everyone is screwed because not only the elevators are not really working, now we don't have space while using the stairs.

Whenever you needed to go on the elevators, it did not matter if it was going up or down, you would seriously get on there and go for the ride because you didn't know when it'd be available again.

You had to walk so far down to go to the beach. Then when you were done, there was only ONE feet shower to use, and the line was always long. And then the pool shower was not working. (Again, I didn't try the other one which was hiding, and I don't think a lot of people knew it was there because we didn't notice towards the end of our stay.) I feel bad for housekeeping because of all that sand in the room.

You can either Valet parking for $40 (I think) or Self-parking for $30 across the hotel (behind the BBQ...

Read the reviews before you pay to stay. They’re accurate.

My kids are attending Passion Camp here this week and my husband and I decided to get a suite at the same hotel and have some time to ourselves because it’s been a while. The camp chose this hotel so we just went with the camp‘s choice.

Positives first: the staff here has been fabulous. No complaints. The view from our room is beautiful and the suite is spacious enough for my husband to work remotely and us not bother him too much. All that plus the walkability of the hotel to restaurants and things around it is what gives this hotel three stars otherwise it would only be one star.

Negatives: the entire building. It’s old and not well kept. I’ve stayed in cleaner, nicer two star hotels and you get free parking and breakfasts in those. Details below.

The room thermostat can’t keep the room below 75 unless it’s set to like 50 degrees, which causes alot of condensation from the ceiling vent by the outer (warmest) wall. So much so it’s dripping and the ceiling, wall and carpet are soaked around it. See photos. I told the staff about the issue, they came quickly, but appeared to have only reset the thermostat so it’s hot in here again, and took away the ice bucket and towel that were catching the water. I had to call for a new ones. I have a mold allergy and my son and husband have asthma, so I’m nervous we’re now being exposed to mold. No compensation or discount were offered. (Update: our AC flat out broke and they gave us a very small discount and switched rooms for us, but I had to ask for this after my second service call in 3 nights, and the second suite also had a leak and wet carpet around the wall, so not changing rating.)

Like I said, there’s a conference going on, so there’s alot of teens running around. Unfortunately, they’re leaving behind trails of crumbs that the house keeping staff can’t seem to keep up with. We stayed there three nights and it was never cleaned up. (Pictured- right outside our room) It’s also affecting the availability for the elevators. There’s only two elevators for each 11 story tower (third is broken), and only 8 people can ride at a time before the elevators get temperamental. I am staying on the fourth floor, so I’ve just been taking the stairs, but my son‘s room with his camp group is on the 11th floor so they don’t have the option of taking the stairs and have to wait upwards of 20 to 30 minutes for the elevator. That’s ridiculous for what we’re paying to stay here.

Parking: the valet is $50 a day on site. That doesn’t include a tip, but I’m sure they want one. If you choose to self park, it’s $35 a day and two blocks away. Outside. So if you get groceries, because the food on site and nearby is very expensive, only get what you can carry for two blocks plus a couple flight of stairs. This becomes very annoying if what you’re wanting to buy is water because I haven’t found any water stations anywhere to fill a water bottle yet and water is very heavy. Also, annoying is that there are no luggage carts allowed for guests unless you have a bellhop help you, which then encourages the extra fee of tipping. So we’ve been having to schlep all of our stuff ourselves from self parking with no carts to help at all.

Also, it’s taken us two days, and we still haven’t figured out the self parking entry and have to get a new parking ticket every time we enter because it’s not working with our key, thus incurring new fees. Every time we talk to the hotel staff about it we hear something a little different, but because it’s two blocks away, and nobody is in the booth, no one‘s there to actually show us what we’re doing wrong. I’m hoping this can be resolved before we check out on Friday. (Update: it was, the staff here is always helpful.)

I feel so nickle and dimed, it’s ridiculous. All for a dirty hotel, a warm room, noisy hallways til 1am, a jiggling mattress that shakes alot with even the smallest movement and no direct beach access. I cannot believe this is a Hilton hotel. Avoid if you...