Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront — Hotel in Saint Petersburg

BED BUGS!! Our recent stay at what was at one time our favorite place to stay in St. Petersburg, FL. The Hilton Bayfront.

My wife and I drove into St. Pete booked to stay at the Hilton Bayfront on Saturday, Jan 11, 2025, checking out Tuesday. Check in was easy and the valet parking team was amazing. We spent the day out and about on Saturday, returning to the hotel in the evening and going to bed. We woke up Sunday ready to start our busy day, to see a small blood spot on the bed where my head was laying. We got up and looked ourselves over, concerned about where the blood came from. As we checked the bed for any other blood we noticed bugs crawling around everywhere in the sheets. I quickly took pictures of the bugs to confirm what the bugs were and yep, Bedbugs!!! I put 6 of them in a coffee cup to show the manager and then I called the front desk. The young lady helping was very polite but didn’t know what to do so asked me to hold while she talked to the manager “Alex”. She came back to the phone and was very apologetic and asked us to come down and they would change our room. My wife went down while I packed and they gave her a new room key and when she returned she said they offered us free breakfast. To be honest I felt a little insulted that the manager thought it was an appropriate level of customer service that a free $30 breakfast was the answer. I then went down to talk to a manager and let the young lady know we should step away from the other customers for our conversation. I was then introduced to Alex. I showed him the bed bugs that I had in the cup. Alex said he was sorry and offered us complimentary breakfast again. I explained to Alex I didn’t want free breakfast and my concern was that we and all of our clothes had been exposed and I didn’t want to take hitchhiker bed bugs to our new room, car and even more so our house on Tuesday. He actually suggested I go to a laundromat and wash our clothes and he would reimburse me for the cleaning. I explained I should not have to spend our vacation washing clothes at a laundromat because of their bed bug issue. I asked him to have the hotel dry cleaning service launder our clothes, Alex responded that he didn’t think he could do that and he then thought it was appropriate customer service to offer me a coffee voucher. I asked him if he truly thought that was the appropriate response and let him know if I was on the other side of the counter I would be googling local laundry services and insist we let Hilton have our clothes laundered the same day. He said it would be 4pm before he could talk to someone for advice. He assured me he would call me in a few hours. He did call and offered to have our clothes laundered but here’s the catch, we would have to wait until Monday evening to get our clothes back. So we would have to wear the same clothes for 3 days. So I guess laundry comes to a halt on Sunday’s? I’ll be reluctant to stay at Hiltons anymore, but not for the reason you may be thinking. I’m not upset about the bedbugs, these things happen. I’m upset at the level of customer service we received. This young man has no concept of customer service or ownership of his role as a manager and leader. Not to mention we all decide to pay ridiculous prices because we want a next level experience. Hell, I would have taken the clothes to a laundromat myself before I suggested to a customer that they spend hours of their day to wash their own clothes or wear the same clothes for 3 days. These suggestions are quite frankly unacceptable to me. When things like this happen, it’s so easy to do the math and realize that the few hundred dollars you spend to turn the situation from negative to a positive experience and more importantly, keep their loyalty versus the tens of thousands you will lose over the course of a year. No matter where I stay moving forward, I will inspect under the sheets before unpacking. I cant even get into the fact we lost water and/or hot water 3 times. I really hope this is an isolated incident and not the direction Hilton is going...

I recently stayed for at this location for 5 days/ 4 nights on a business trip. The hotel itself was fine. A/c in the room worked great, bed was comfortable enough, and room was decently clean. As other have pointed out, their concession stand is expensive, but within expectations based on location. One of the three treadmills in the gym was also not working. When leaving I did the express checkout, but discoved the next week the hotel charged me a $600 smoking fee. When I called to inquire on the additional charges, the staff member, Tara, was extremely unhelpul. I was able to get her to email me the report incidents, but when I attempted to discuss she became confrontational. She informed me there was nothing that could be done, no one else (including management) I could speak to, and would not even provide her name (even though it was in the email). After pointing out anomalies in the report she eventually provided me the general managers name and phone number, Sebastion Hansen. I've attempted to call Sebastion and left messages without response back. The issue at hand is I don't smoke and BOTH times the room sensors were triggered were when I was walking into the room/ returning from dinner. Quick search online shows these sensors are known for errors like this. I'm sure this could have been resolved already if the hotel had been responsive. Presumming they can check room keycard usage to verify the times the sensors went off are the same as me entering the room. I cannot recommend this location. I was hesitant to stay at this location due to recent poor reviews, but convinced by others. I regret selecting this location over the Hilton Carillion Park.

Update: I spoke with customer service who were polite and created a case. I was notified by them a member of the management team from the hotel would be reaching out to me within 48hrs. They would review card scans and footage. I never received a call but an email with updated invoice with one of the smoking fees removed. No information was listed in email as to who made the updates, how decision was came to, etc. I reached out directly to the hotel to find out additional information. The rep I spoke to, did not gather her name, was very polite and as helpful as she could be. She advised she was not sure why the one charge is still remaining as the notes are very vague. She asked me to hold while she would get someone from management. Upon returning, she notified me management could not provide an answer either and advised to reach back out to customer service or dipute with my credit card company. I reached back out to customer service. They pulled up notes from the hotel, all they could say was the hotel is noting they have a sensor scan and keeping one charge on record. I again brought up if they can check keycard scans, this should verify the sensor went off as I was opening the door returning from dinner. Customer service advised they are unable to pull the report from their end but the hotel can and transfered me back to the hotel. C/S confirmed upon transfering the call they would make sure a member from the management team was on the other line ready to discuss. Once transfered I spoke with Zach Roberts from the hotel. He was polite through the interaction and appeared he might have also been at a loss. I advised of the situation again and had been notified by customer service the hotel would check keycard scans and if necessary camera footage to verify the times of me entering the room. Zach confirmed the hotel does have access to check card usage, but not at his level. I asked again if this had been done and responded it had not. Pushing back as to why this has not been completed as again should be very easy to resolve, he asked me to hold. Zach returned and explained the GM (presumming it's Sebastian Hansen still) said the charge is staying and to dispute with my cc company. I again asked about reviewing camera footage and/or card usage, he confirmed they will not...

UPDATE-2/16/25- A wellness room magically became available and we moved into a wellness room. Our second night went without any further issues and no further asthma attacks. We are just managing the symptoms from the first night until it fully clears his system. Hilton, though we moved rooms this should have never happened. The lack of preparation, accommodation, and hospitality is unacceptable and leaves a terrible impression.

Original post- 2/15/25-We have been Hilton members for years, and have stayed at many Hiltons. We have only had 2 bad experiences so far- this hotel being the only one that has warranted a review. We have never had an issue getting the pillows and linens replaced in our rooms due to allergies at any Hilton or any other hotel brand for that matter. However, upon checking in yesterday we asked the person at front desk if room has feathers in it and she told us that yes the pillows were feather. We kindly asked her if she could request the pillows in our room be replaced with foam pillows, and to this she responded that to do this we would need to upgrade to their wellness floor. I responded that both my son and Husband are allergic to feathers. She then told us that she would try her best but couldn’t guarantee it as all of their foam pillows are reserved for the wellness floor. As we had dinner reservations we proceeded to our room, unpacked, got dressed and left. In the mean time someone reached out through the app and asked how our stay/checkin in was so far, to which my husband responded that we were waiting for foam pillows. When we return to the room there were 4 pillows on the bed. We figured fine we will give this a try as it was already late. In the middle of the night my son starts wheezing , we had to give him a rescue inhaler. There are now feathers all over the floor from him tossing and turning in bed. The other pillows in the room are still all feather. The blanket is feather. Morning finally comes and I go down to speak to the front desk and a new person proceeds to tell me that they can’t move anything from wellness rooms to keep them allergy friendly. She also told me that they were sold out of wellness rooms last night and are sold out of wellness rooms tonight. I told her that if they do not offer this accommodation to guests then they should notify them upon booking. She proceeds to tell me that the wellness floor is advertised on their website. (I’m sorry but this isn’t a notification that if you have allergies you should book their wellness room as they will not accommodate allergies in other rooms). Allergies are a legal disability. Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) states that in both the ADA and Section 504, a person with a disability is someone who has a physical or mental impairment that seriously limits one or more major life activities, or who is regarded as having such impairments. Asthma and allergies are usually considered disabilities under the ADA. HILTON- so you mean to tell me that if you are booked out of wellness rooms then your guests who have allergies and are staying in your hotel are out of luck and must go through what we did last night and have a full blown asthma attack. To top this off our room smells like mold and the carpet is filthy, looks like it hasn’t been...