Hilton Garden Inn Orange Beach Beachfront — Hotel in Orange Beach

We were on vacation this week and chose this hotel for a few reasons. My wife is a Hilton rewards member, we wanted a hotel on the beach, and we liked that there was an onsite restaurant. I cannot say we had the most pleasant experience during our week, but I want to name some specific staff members who were particularly helpful. Veronica, Sarah, Carmen , Stacy , Deandre, Diana , Collin ( beach service), and housekeeping all had a part in making us feel welcome.

We arrived Monday (June 9th) and hung out at the outdoor pool bar where we were met by a fun bartender named Carmen. We hadn’t eaten in hours and planned to have dinner at the restaurant inside. The website and the sign in front of the restaurant said they would be open until 10. Carmen told us we could place orders until about 9:45. We tried to get food at 9:15. A girl told us they were closed and her cook left at 8:30. When we questioned it, she simply said “they just leave early sometimes.” She did not seem to care much. We were hungry and annoyed. Almost no restaurants were delivering at that point, we had been drinking so we couldn’t drive anywhere, and my wife is gluten free with limited options. We ended up eating mediocre delivery pizza on our first night of vacation.

We returned to the restaurant Tues evening at 7:45. There was a different girl working and we heard her tell someone “your food will be right up.” Then, she promptly turned to us waiting in line and told us the kitchen is closed. The signs were still posted that they were open until 10, and my wife told her they need to take down their signs. As we tried to understand why this keeps happening, she turned her back to us, threw her hand in the air, and told us to go talk to a manager. This was rude and a ridiculous thing to say because there was no manager on site. Stacy, from the front desk, tried to help us out, including calling the manager that night. We , again, ended up having to get fast food delivery.

After breakfast Wednesday (served by a sweet lady named Diane), we requested to speak to a manager. Victoria knew the situation, and reimbursed us for the money we spent on delivery. She put us in touch with the food and beverage director, Nick. Nick reassured us this wouldnt happen again, and offered us free dinner for the next two nights.

We showed up for dinner Wed night, and we were met by a sweet bartender named Sarah and polite cook named Deandre. We learned that Nick no longer worked at the hotel. Some time between breakfast and dinner, Nick’s employment ended. They did honor our promised dinner. We explained that all we wanted was to be able to eat and we had no intentions of upsetting anyone.

By Thursday night, we made a reservation for dinner at a local restaurant and chose not to take advantage of the meal we were promised. That was good because the restaurant was, once again, closed by 8-8:30 and we likely wouldn’t have gotten served anyway. Even after all of this, their sign stating the restaurant is open until 10 was still posted.

Our room could use some updating, but it wasn’t as bad as I’ve read in some reviews. Access to the beach is convenient, and, Collin, the chair service guy, is great. The pool is super nice as well as the pool bar. But the pool bar was randomly closed during the day sometimes, and there was no signs anywhere to explain why it was closed or when we should expect it to reopen. One of the elevators kept going out, and a staff member even told us one of the cables was broken. This made us very uncomfortable using that particular elevator when it did sporadically open back up.

This hotel has some great staff members as well as some that clearly don’t care at all. They are likely understaffed and overworked. Some things could be better handled by communication. The restaurant doesn’t need to open for a dinner service at all until they are able to work out the staffing. If it closes at 8, guests need to know that. Even though we are Hilton rewards members, it’s unlikely we will stay here again when we return to Orange...

On Day 3, my 10 yr old son played baseball early in the morning. 830. We had to leave by 7 to be at the field by 730. He normally doesn’t take his phone to the fields, and if he does, he hands it to me when he gets out of the truck. This day, he left his phone laying on the bed in the hotel room. Our room was a double queen. What he didn’t know was that I had asked for housekeeping to change our bedding and trash that day. When we returned to our room, his phone was nowhere to be found. We looked thru everything, thinking they had moved it out of their way. No phone. We called the front desk to let them know. They sent the “Head of Housekeeping” up to the room to speak to us. We told them what had happened and I even said “maybe it got wrapped up in the linens when they picked it up.” At that time, they supposedly went and looked everywhere in the laundry room and housekeeping located on our floor. Even check the laundry chute. We were told the phone was nowhere to be found but that “they would let everyone know and keep looking.” The next morning, my husband went to the front desk to check the status. The manager there had no idea what he was talking about, checked our room notes and nothing listed there about a missing phone. No one had been notified of anything. At this point, my husband was aggravated and asked for the GM’s information. He was given her card. He returned to our room. Shortly after, the same “Head of Housekeeping” and a large Maintenance man knocked on our door and asked to search our room. They said it was to make sure it hadn’t fallen under beds. Actually, they were making sure we weren’t making a false claim and still had the phone. We let her know we were contacting the GM. She said that the housekeeper that had done our room was usually very good at detail and didn’t even remember seeing a phone. At this point, there was no being nice: someone had his phone. I should note that Life360 showed the phone still at that location and turned off, even tho it had 60% battery the previous morning.

About 10-15 minutes later, after letting them Know we’d be contacting the GM, there was a knock at the door… we were handed my 3 year olds PINK satin baby blanket that had been on the OPPOSITE bed of the phone, and my sons phone. Along with a claim that the phone was wrapped up in the blanket. 1) housekeeper had no business taking baby blanket for wash. 2) blanket was pink, hotel linens are white, definitely wouldn’t have blended in. 3) blanket wasn’t on same Bed as phone. 3 yr old sleeps with me, not her brother. 4) This wasn’t a mistake. This was theft. The case on my son’s phone was a clear indication that the phone belonged to a child. They assumed we’d think he lost it and wouldn’t bring it to the hotels attention and they’d have a free phone. They employ thieves.

Also, they advertise a restaurant on site. However, you cannot call down to order from the restaurant itself. It is actually the pool bar restaurant. You have to physically walk down there to order. Then walk back down to get your food. In our case, multiple times, because “the grills pilot light had gone out and had to be relit” causing a delay. Very inconvenient and a hassle.

Overall, staying here, made this a vacation from hell. Plug-in’s didn’t work. Phones didn’t charge. Bathtub was cracked and leaked. No drawers for clothes for our week long stay. Elevators were very slow. They painted walls white in the middle of the day and just hoped you saw the wet paint signs. Not satisfied at all. Night hotel staff stayed on the phone for personal calls and were dismissive if you needed their help. Do not recommend staying...

We stayed here over the July 4th weekend. I was not impressed with the overall aesthetic of the room. The linens were thin and cheap, the bed was not high quality, the towels were dingy and grey in color, the room had a musty smell that I can smell on our clothes now that I’m unpacking, the floor in our room had wet sticky spots that we had to call down to have maintenance spot clean. The floor remained soggy our entire stay and ended up staining my $350 travel crib mattress a yellow color. The view was told to us to be a beach and pool view, but in room 408, a quarter of our balcony was blocked by a concrete wall and our view was obstructed by the shape of the hotel being an “L” shape. It should have been better described as a partial ocean view. We traveled with 2 young children ages 3 and 1 and needed housekeeping daily to keep garbages cleaned out. We literally had to check on housekeeping every day but 1 to ensure that they would be by to clean. Once they came and we were getting the babies ready to go to the beach, they said they would return in 15 minutes. 3 hours later I checked with the front desk and asked if they could have housekeeping come. I was told that I shouldn’t have asked them to come back if I wanted them to clean the room and they couldn’t guarantee that anyone would be by. Housekeeping was going home at 3PM and at this time it was 1PM. I needed cold milk because I have a 1 year old and I needed to keep freezer packs frozen to put in my bottle cooler for the day. I was told we had a mini fridge with freezer compartment. Our first one had no freezer compartment, so I asked if I could keep my freezer packs in a freezer downstairs. I was told no, that I needed to use the freezer in my room. I explained I didn’t have one so they sent maintenance to show me how to use my freezer compartment. Maintenance confirmed I did not have a freezer compartment. I had to go through 3 mini fridges until we got one that worked. The pool was filthy. There was garbage, large clumps of hair, grass floating in the pool. We had to ask the front desk to send maintenance to clean it. Our room overlooked the pool area which gave us an unwanted view of people having sex in the pool area!!! Great when you have a 3 year old who wants to be on the balcony to look at the ocean and you have to stay inside because of this. Our room stunk of marijuana multiple times. I’m sure this was due to the HVAC units. The smell was pulled into our bathroom which then stunk up our whole room. Again great with young children. All in all, I would not stay here again.

The upsides, the location is nice, easy to get to, boardwalk that leads right to the beach and the food offered for order was not bad. The breakfast buffet was actually good. They had some issues with staffing so there were times during lunch and dinner that food was not available, but we were able to order pizza. I don’t know the guy who was running the poolside bar, but he was a hustler. Every time he needed ice or to grab something he would literally run to keep people from waiting. I didn’t interact with him, but I did see him while I swam with my kids and he was a really hard worker. Mike with maintenance is a gem. He swapped out our freezer, had a great attitude, circled back to check to ensure everything was okay before going home, quickly cleaned the pool when we had requested it and was always kind and considerate.

Hope this helps anyone looking to travel to the...