Amelia Hotel at the Beach — Hotel in Fernandina Beach

We booked this hotel based on the reviews, photos, video adverts, location, and price.  We got in about 8pm and were tired from traveling. The poor lady helping us, as pleasant as she was, couldn't see anything and so that made check-in a bit lengthy. I believe she was legally blind and should never have been put in that position.  The hotel is in a great location, exterior decent, but the interior was so run down, the lobby didn't look clean or in good repair. Both exterior doors were open without a screen or air curtain and fans were running. It made us believe there wasn't functioning air.  We had a room on the second floor, #222 (even though we asked for the 3rd floor, water view, balcony). We got the view (again, it's nice location) and the balcony. Immediately upon entering the room, we realized we wouldn't get a good night sleep.  The door to the balcony had a full window and metal mini blinds that only went part way down, the curtains didn't pull far enough cover it and there was a gap between the frame and the door. I later realized it was because it had been unlocked. So if your looking for a dark room, this wasn't it and our "room darkening kit" didn't help this time. We then noticed the bed looked like it hadn't been made which made us wonder briefly, but of course, after the long trip, we needed to use the restroom. 🤢 It looked like it hadn't been cleaned either (I have pictures). We then proceeded to fold the covers of the unkempt bed down and there was a small bug sitting there.  1st time my husband had to save me. I honestly don't know how I got in the bed after that, but, long trip... tired... I digress... We were so tired... we just started our process of getting ready for bed so we could eventually sleep.  Well,  there's a mini fridge and we had things that needed to stay chilled or they would go bad. The fridge was less than sufficient, warm actually, and there was no apparent way for a sleepy person to try to figure out how to control that. Chalk one up for lost food now. It wouldn't have mattered anyway because the microwave was not stable on its feet, wobbling all about, we feared it wouldn't work either. To bed now, trying not to think about any of these things. But then looking up and seeing the mold in the corner (I have photos) made me recheck last allergy meds intake and have to double dose so I could breathe the next morning (if I was still moving from the bugs); mold, #2 time for husband to save me. Needless to say,  it was a sleepless night.  So the next morning the first thing I felt I wanted to do was shower.  😳 Wrong choice.  It looked like someone peed down the side of the shower and splashed on the door. (I have photos, but I can only attach so many) It was never cleaned. So, try to set water temperature in my sleepy state of being and the temperature control handle for the water was broken. I would try to set it, then, by itself, it would slowly rotate counter clockwise to the "hot" direction, which could have been worse but there was no water pressure.  That made showering very tricky. Short shower even shorter, I tried not to touch anything. Time for #3 of my husband saving; he called in as I was drying off and getting dressed, "Do you mind if we switch hotels?" I thought we were about to head out of the dark and into the clear.  We packed up wondering if we were going to need to bomb our bags. He found a wonderful place nearby that we could stay. But, we're not in the clear yet.  We discussed if we should get this hotel to not only reimburse us but to pay us for not releasing any reviews. Well, as we were leaving,  thinking things couldn't get worse...  yes, it could.  Outside our door and about 2 doors down was a used condom. 😡 By this time, I'm done. As we exit, my hubby comes in for save #4 and takes care of the front desk while I advert my eyes and leave hoping to never return to this place. So, OK, the other plus; they were able to help us...

The hotel is clean, it’s pretty and the location Is wonderful. The beds were good, the WiFi definitely is not. We had never been to this part of Florida. We were there for the UT-UI bowl game so we were only staying two nights. Upon check-in, the clerk was not very friendly but he was professional, for the most part. This is my inference and I could be mistaken, but by how I was spoken to and by his tone, I felt like he seems to feel a certain way about those who book with Expedia. Like I said, I could be mistaken about this. When we went into our room, we were satisfied with it until I attempted to flush the commode and it would not flush. I called the front desk, no one answered, so I went back down to inform the clerk. I was told, “oh I forgot to tell you, we are having a little problem with our water. A pipe burst today and there are a few rooms without water”. He did not know for sure when the water would be back on but it wouldn’t “be much longer“. No apology or other options were offered. My daughter-in-law had to go to the Dairy Queen across the road to use the restroom a little later, we had to wait a little longer than planned to do what we had planned, but we didn’t have a problem with that. I can’t be sure how how long we had no water because we weren’t notified when it was back on. At some point I decided to try it and at that point it was on. When we came back that evening, the night shift clerk at the desk was very courteous, professional, friendly and helpful. She apologized more than once about the water situation. I wish I could remember her name. The next day my son had to be back at the stadium in Jacksonville around noon. It took about two hours to drive, there and back. When we arrived back at the hotel, there was still no water. We waited, did what we could to get ready but so finally had to walk back down to the desk to see if I could get some info on the water situation. We had stopped and used the restroom at the Dairy Queen when we got back, but we both were needing to shower before leaving for dinner and the game. The same gentleman was there that had checked us in the day before. He did not know when the water would be back on. I explained to him we needed a shower pretty quickly. At this point he found a room we could move to.So we packed, moved, unpacked and finally showered but because of this we had to cancel the dinner reservation we had with family members we hardly ever get to see. Its so annoying and I still don’t understand why we weren’t offered this room when we initially returned to the hotel earlier in the day. I wish I could say this was the end of the mishaps, but there more. The next morning we were getting ready to leave. We had mixed up our things the night before when we were rushing around trying to get to dinner on time, so we were running behind. I explained to the first housekeeping staff person that came to the door that we were checking out but we might be a few minutes late. She shook her head and seemed to understand. However, a few minutes later, while I was standing there, in a towel, putting on my makeup, a man used his key to unlock out door. He did NOT even knock, he just let himself in. I was shocked but thankful I had the towel around me!! I was actually fully dressed and almost ready to go when the same thing happened again about 15-20 min later, except this time it was a lady who let herself in without knocking. I really like this part of Florida. We always plan one vacation and try to have a second on in the Fall. We are seriously considering Amelia Island for Fall, but after our stay at this hotel, we will be considering other options...

Our room was booked by my boyfriend's mother for us for a Friday through Monday stay. She took us to check us in around 4 pm in the afternoon. Once that was completed, we didn't immediately go to our room, but went to eat supper. We returned about 9 pm. Our cards didn't work to open the room, and we heard coughing coming from inside. We returned to the front desk where the clerk told us we probably just put the cards near our phone. When we mentioned that it sounded like the room was occupied, she assured us it was not and told us to just 'knock on the door.' We went to get into our room once again, and there was in fact someone occupying the room, and they had the inside door lock latched. When we told her this, she seemed to get frustrated with us and finally switched our room.

Our room was not great. The sheer curtains had a large rip in them, the bedside lamp did not work, the shower drain plug was broken and laying in the tub, and there was purple duct tape on the towel bar. The room itself had a very strong mildew smell that was not present in any of the common areas of the hotel, and there was indication of mold/water leaking on the ceiling above the shower. There was also evidence that there might be a beehive somewhere near the room. We did not report any of the issues, although we probably should have. On more of a comfort note, the towels were very scratchy and thin. We also discovered that the hot/cold knobs for the kitchenette sink were switched (the cold knob actually turned on the hot water and vice versa).

Sunday afternoon, we were not able to enter our room again. When we asked the desk clerk she told us, once again, we put our cards near our phones. We had both kept our cards in our front pant's pockets away from our phones the entire weekend.

We received little to no housekeeping the entire weekend. They may have come in and swept, but nothing else. The only time our 'do not disturb' sign was displayed was while we were physically in the room.

A few other notable items; the doorframe to one of the maintenance rooms on the first floor (which was always left open) was separating from the wall, and the EXIT sign displayed above the door to the parking lot was only held up by its wires, which is a safety/fire hazard. The hotel also had a company come in to clean a/c units on Saturday morning, which meant that long hoses (one was about 3" in diameter) were run throughout the hallway of the first floor. There was no indication the hoses were there, and we actually had to step over them to get out of our room. It also caused a lot of extra noise.

The location was ideal for walking to the beach, and the coffee was hot. We didn't eat breakfast there, so I cannot comment on the quality...