Embassy Suites by Hilton San Antonio Brooks Hotel & Spa — Hotel in San Antonio

Dear Embassy Suites, I'm going to make a psychic prediction and say that your milkshake doesn't bring any more boys to the yard... ZERO stars really. This will be my second stay at this atrocity. 1- THE ROOMS: The rooms are super noisy. I don't know if the people above were doing CrossFit, trying to get their double Dutch on, or they are just troglodytes who don't know how to walk properly. We heard everything. Until about 3 am. All three nights. 2- THE CUSTOMER SERVICE: Poor at best. Very antagonistic and thoughtless. This staff could care less but I'm not sure how. I feel like I might be the first to bring this to your attention and inform you that you are in the HOSPITALITY business. That's your entire world.

As an assist, here is some research on what I have found regarding hospitality.

Hospitality /hŏs″pĭ-tăl′ĭ-tē/ noun 1.Cordial and generous reception of or disposition toward guests. 2.An instance of cordial and generous treatment of guests. 3.The act or practice of one who is hospitable; reception and entertainment of strangers or guests without reward, or with kind and generous liberality. 4.The act or service of welcoming, receiving, hosting, or entertaining guests. 5.The business of providing catering, lodging and entertainment service. 6.Kindness in welcoming guests or strangers.

I've reads through these and can say that you have achieved quite the opposite! For a second I thought that there might be a hidden camera somewhere and the jokes on me! Nope!

Night two, we came in from a San Antonio event around 10:15 pm. As we were walking to the elevators I heard the sound of the noise of live music in the connecting event center. We went to our second floor room and the noise was crazy loud! I called the front desk and simply asked when the concert would be concluded. She very curtly informed me that the concert isn't going on, they have been busy and there are a "lot of kids" in the hotel. I then went downstairs to see again and the music was still going. I went to the front desk to ask again. There were two lady's at the front desk. One in uniform at the left desk and one in a black dress @ the center desk. The lady to the left was already helping someone so I stood in front of the center desk. She was texting or playing a game. I stood there in front of her for almost a full min before she looked up at me. It was so long that the lady to the left stopped talking to her customer and looked over and the lady in the black dress with the look of "Are you going to help your customer" on her face. She finally looked up at me. She did not greet me. She just looked up. I engaged and said, "I just called down and you told me the music was over". She replied, "That's just a meeting". I to which I responded, "It doesn't matter what it is, you told me the music was over and it's obviously not. It's almost 11 pm and I have people that need to sleep. What are we supposed to do about the noise?". Her response was a shoulder shrug. I then asked when THE manager was going to be in. Very condescendingly she said, " Tomorrow at 9 am." She then promptly went back to her phone. I turned and walk back to the event and recorded the loud music and asked someone there when it would end and they said it would conclude in a few mins. It did indeed conclude about 11:10 pm. The next morning I went back down stairs and asked to confirm that THE manager would be in that morning. The man seemed clueless. He told me that manager would be in around 9am. I told him that I wanted to talk to the GM. He chuckled and said, "He wouldn't be in during the weekend." I asked for the GM's contact info and he couldn't give it to me. Conventional wisdom says that if a hotel guest is asking for the GM then there might be an issue. That did not occur to this gentleman. No worries! I was able to find the corporate office numbers in TN and will be calling them in the morning. This hotel is not cheap and the customer service really needs to match the price. Customers and Honors members should not be treated this way. Especially for...

I will preface this review by saying the following: besides the Menger and the old La Mansion del Rio, this is the nicest hotel I have ever stayed at while in San Antonio. And I have been here a lot. However, this hotel definitely has its own issues. This is a very honest review of this hotel's pros and cons:

Pros: This hotel is very tech savvy. Never had to get a keycard although they gave me two. I used my cell phone to unlock my door the entire stay. Never had one problem with that or with the Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is screaming fast even for the basic access. The lobby in itself is a work of art. Beautiful and big. Nice bar with a couple of local San Antonio microbrews. I love it when the local hotels support the local Commerce. I was recommended a Texas uncommon ale which was fantastic. Excellent old world meets new murals. Breakfast buffet is fantastic. More options then you could ever hope to have for a morning breakfast. Very nice and receptive staff everywhere. The Starbucks was good enough. I am a black coffee drinker and they were serving Verona, my favorite. Did not take Starbucks digital pay. For those people who have to use more than four words to order their drink, this is probably not the Starbucks for you. But the coffee was hot and tasty. Rooms were nice and clean. Two room suite with two queen beds was immaculate. No problems whatsoever with the cleanliness. The sleeper sofa in the two room suite is probably the most comfortable one I have ever slept on to date. This is likely because it is new. Give this a few years, and you will probably have to request some kind of foam topper or bring your own. The views from the front and the back of the hotel are really quite beautiful. This is in a very well-manicured Greenscape area of San Antonio which appears to be undergoing a little mini-revival. The pool area and fire pit area look awesome. We were passing through on our way from North Texas to South Texas, and did not have much time to really investigate this. The little grocery area is very useful. Waters are $3 each. So it might actually be worthwhile to get the premium suite for an extra $15 as it seems like it includes probably $40 worth of snacks at Embassy prices!

Cons: The HVAC system was bipolar. We walked in to a 65-degree room with a smart controller that is supposed to recognize the presence of people. We had to heat the room up even though it was 99 outside. From that moment on, the controller did not know to go back to cooling, and I had to set it all the way back down to 60 degrees to engage the cooling portion of this "smart controller" so that it would continue in cool. Finally figured that out after tossing and turning all night long, waking up to find that it was 79 in the room even though the set point was 72. If you stay here, request an odd-numbered room that is higher than "X20", where X is the floor that you are on, and anywhere from the third floor up. Even though we were on the 6th floor, our room was an even numbered "teen" that was right above the industrial-sized air conditioning units which made lots of noise throughout the night. If you are not a sound sleeper, this will bother you. Despite our bipolar air conditioner, we had a droning noise coming from our vent in the bathroom all night long regardless of whether or not the unit was on or off. This was addressed for the most part by making sure all doors were closed to the bathroom (simple enough?). Well, the door from the bathroom to the bedroom is a barn door, that shut very oddly to a flimsy removable panel controlling the bipolar HVAC. So the noise could never be completely drowned out from the other side of the sleeping area either (remember, we were getting plenty of noise from number 2 above). Spa services we are VERY expensive. Hours of operation were odd. Contemplated getting a morning massage, but passed per the first 2 sentences.

Will we stay here again? You bet. Rate was great and plenty of pros. Room 623...

After 4 visits to the reception desk and 3 phone calls, the management never addressed our concerns. We had a short trip to San Antonio from the Austin area and being nearly 70, my wife and I called several hotels to request a room that had not been occupied for a couple of days prior to our arrival. The Embassy Suites Brooks reception desk assured us that their occupancy was pretty low and reserving such a room for us would be no issue. Also, because of our early appointment in SA, we requested early check-in since their regular check-in time is now 4 PM, so that we could drop off our stuff and meet our party. They agreed to 2 PM. Upon arrival, low and behold our room was not ready. The reason given, it is still being cleaned and not ready. But, you assured us a room that would not have been occupied for 2 or 3 days before our arrival in this time of deadly pandemic. That is why we chose your hotel. Sorry, you have to wait for the room to be ready. In the elevator it states that you can use your smart phone to unlock the room door. I went to the reception as directed to get directions. They could not manage to help with the set-up. They suggested I call their national customer service line. After 30 minutes of hold we were told that we needed to install their app and have the person who reserved add the second person. It did not work. The next day, a receptionist assured me that she had worked there for 7 years and that a spouse cannot add another person. She still could not help us set up the app for either one of us. The room had a leak from the sink by the front door. As soon as you walk in, you step into a permanent puddle. We thought the custodian accidentally left some mop water there. Nope, it was there the whole time. Our room had what looked like an AC vent above the toilet seat but it was an amplified engine noise that never stopped, day or night. We closed both bathroom doors and still the noise was loud in the bedroom. The next day we found out that our room was adjacent to the machine room and the loud noise was coming from there and leaked into our room through that vent. So much for quiet nights' sleep. Embassy suites used to provide evening drinks and snacks to the weary hotel guest. I asked for a non-alcoholic beer, the bar attendant said that they have that but must charge me for it. The snacks were garbage. After all of our requests to inform the GM about these issues, they never managed to call us in any way. Needless to say, we would never set foot in this so-called hotel. They all need some serious training regarding running a decent hotel and dealing with...