Palmera Inn & Suites — Hotel in Hilton Head Island

TRAVELER BEFORE YOU BOOK READ THIS Booked here on 06/18/2023•06/19/2023 For a King Suite. Let me give you the honest truth on this place before you book.

• we arrived to check in and fortunately the first lady was proper and booked us in quickly and explained the 50$ holding fee which we expected and it took less than 5 minutes to get to our rooms. Great!.. until we got to the rooms… (also we didn’t use the elevator because there was two people trapped inside so we took the stairs while maintenance came to help them 😬) moving on we get to our rooms and use the key card to open the door after we grabbed all of our bags and…. there’s a full room full of people… so i’m annoyed and tell my wife to sit by while i go let the staff know they messed up and gave us a full room… i go back to the check in desk and talk to the other bigger lady that was only there to explain to her the room was already taken, she wouldn’t believe me and i even told her i would walk up there with the key and if she needed the key to go look, she gave me an attitude and told me i could just wait here, so i wait… for an hour… and it’s a 3 minute walk to our rooms… she comes back saying sorry for the inconvenience but we had booked out your room we will get you another… cool that fine i’m just irritated at this point because she could have just gave us the room after she verified people were in it but instead wanted to wait an hour… meanwhile there’s a flood of people coming in with complaints on Wasps in the rooms, Trapped people in elavators, etc etc. it was packed. moving on we finally get our keys that hardly work at opening all the key code doors you have to get through to get to your room.

• Good news! the room i was given that i paid for was beautiful, clean and fancy. i loved it very nice. only down side is that the pool is misleading in its photo, they use a wide lens FOV camera to make the pool and jacuzzi look better but it’s actually very small for such a large hotel complex.

• The breakfast here was… heart breaking. not truly a buffet per say. think of 100 people packed in a 10x10 corner that serves only eggs, dry food that is water activated and breads. good thing is they had a mini pancake maker that took foreverrrr to make one tiny pancake i guess. hardly no protein options besides sausage gravy. sad.. i was looking forward to it. over packed people and under funded quality food.

•Checking out… unfortunately they did not tell us there was going to be an extra feed for “hotel services and Pool use” they charge you 21 dollars extra at the end of your stay to check out and only ask you “credit or debit to check out” i’m astonished as this is usually within the bill when you first book. they make you sign a receipt and everything. very sketchy.

Ending - all in all this hotel was originally 124$ booked two weeks in advance with a 21$ extra fee for “pool use and hotel services” 144$ for a subpar breakfast, subpar employees, no care for peoples time, hidden fees for such sad services. is it worth it…? maybe if they changed some things the only highlight was the bedroom, it’s heart breaking. really pretty interior. i wish i could get a refund now that i think of it but alas, you live and you learn. you can do...

We received a telephone solicitation to book a 5 day/4 night stay here for "X" dollars in exchange for attending a sales pitch. We said yes because we'd stayed at resort/timeshare before and would consider purchasing one. The one we stayed at wasn't Palmera, but it seemed to get good reviews, so we gave it a try. IT WAS AWFUL all the way around...||First, we arrived and were not even welcomed by the front desk person. She was a paper pusher who was very perfunctory and rude.||We arrive at the unit expecting a one bedroom with a kitchen, and what we get is a mini studio with a kitchenette--two queen beds crammed into the living room right near the kitchen. We are a mature couple, and this is something my grandkids would stay in at college!||The bathroom was smallish and only had a shower, so we asked to switch to a unit with a bathtub and was told, "NO!" we're booked (there are maybe 4-6 cars in the parking lot). And she said, "You booked with a third party sales person--so no switching." (Apparently, Palmera uses marketing people to sell these "opportunities"--BEWARE!)||We unpack and settle in and decide to go get ice. The ice machine in our building has a sign that says "OUT OF ORDER." We got to "Welcome" desk (oxymoron--there was NO welcome) and she tells us, "Yes, it is "Out of Order, you can use the icemaker in the next building." Mind you it is raining out, and in the rain we had to walk all the way to the other building for ice. What did we find? An ice machine with a sign that said "OUT OF ORDER!!!" Poor upkeep/maintenance/communication.||We return to the college sized room that we paid a good amount of $$$ for and turn on the bathroom light and it flickers! The flicker gave us a headache. I immediately called the "Welcome Desk" (again an oxymoron...) and was advised a repair person will come the next day to repair it (so grin and bear it...)||The next morning I was advised by a different "Welcome Desk" person (also hardly welcoming) that the repair person told him that the reason the light flickers is there is a design flaw in the light mechanism. To get the flickering to stop, I was told to turn on the hairdryer or the bathroom fan!!! CRAZY!!! I note, at not time did anyone ever apologize to us for the inconvenience about the ice or the flickering light.||We reported all this to Palmera Executives the next day as they tried to sell us a points package. They showed "some" empathy but did nothing to correct the problem. Instead, we were told--what you paid was still a good deal to be staying on 5 star Hilton Head Island!!!||STAY AWAY!!! STAY AWAY!!! STAY AWAY!!! These people are snake oil salesmen. Truly, it is...

We stayed here for a week and it worked out well for our family of 4. The California King Bi-level Loft was great for us. You could tell that it was recently updated which was nice. The kids slept on the pull out couch on the first floor, and the parents had the king loft area upstairs. There are no doors dividing up the two sleeping areas, so really you couldn’t watch tv at night since the kids could hear the noise without any barrier. There were no pictures of the upstairs king loft I could find online, so I was unsure what to expect. It is small, but for the price, it worked out pretty well and included a glass shower, toilet, sink, and vanity. There really isn't much room for storage of your toiletry items or clothes upstairs. You have a few small nightstand drawers and a few slots to put items under the vanity, but storage is lacking. Downstairs, there were 3 large drawers for clothes under the main tv along with a small closet by the dining table. Breakfast was included each day and had a good variety of yogurt, fruit, cereals, juice, bagels, coffee, tea, eggs, along with some days having french toast, sausage, biscuits and gravy. They also had make your own pancakes each day which were nice, but took a bit of time, so there was always a line. Coffee was available all day long in the area where breakfast is served. In our room, we had a nice size refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave and small cook top. Bring your own dishwasher detergent since only 2 packets are complimentary. The coffee pot pictured on the website was not what was included for us. It was a Hamilton Beach special coffee pod machine despite the images online showing a regular coffee pot, so the grounds or k cup pods won't work. They did provide 2 of the special pods, but you can get coffee anytime in the lobby. There's a decent size pool and hot tub to enjoy. You can check out pool towels and corn hole bean bags. There is a laundry room that you can purchase their individual detergent or bring your own like we did, then pay $2.50 for a load of wash and $2.50 for a dryer cycle. They have a coin machine to get the quarters needed for the washers and dryers on site. It would be nice if they could just charge this to your room or have the option to use a credit card. Our small balcony was nice, but there isn't any privacy since no barriers are up dividing the rooms around yours. Yes, it's listed as private, which means it's only for your rooms use, but privacy isn't there to prevent you from seeing your neighbors or vice-versa. The staff was all friendly and our room was clean upon arrival. We would recommend staying here if you are considering traveling to...