Signia by Hilton La Cantera Resort & Spa — Hotel in San Antonio

A mix of great and bad. The bad outweighed the great.

Great: Most of front desk was perfect. We booked a room on SEVEN and ALL the lounge attendants were superb. Spa was beautiful. Masseuse did amazing. Loved it.

Bad*: When we got to the resort 1* we had to wait for valet as we saw 3 attendants, 2 talking and 1 sitting. After finally getting help 2* we walked past the other 2 attendants with our bags only to have to open the door myself. I can open a door, but am I wrong for thinking a part of hotel service was helping with bags or at least opening a door?

We check-in. As front desk is explaining 3* a porter interrupts to ask if we need help with our bags. When done with check-in I declined his help. Admittedly annoyed from the little assistance of valet then his rude interruption, "I got it" now.

4* A point of pause during check-in was being told hotel was changing to Hilton the next day. Everything we just did would be closed out and needed to check back in. 5* Fast forward, I went to check-in again next morning before breakfast, since it wasn't 11 AM I couldn't. My additional inconvenience was based on their schedule.

@ our room we look around. 6* In bathroom sink there were little black spots. Easily wiped away with a tissue so we dont fuss.

Next day we eat breakfast @ SweetFire Kitchen. Food was bad. Food is personal and everyone doesn't like everything but it wasn't worth finishing. I barely ate and the server noticed. He kindly offered to take meal off the tab, but I wasn't asking for compensation. I ordered it, didn't like it, that's on me. Even though it was part of my bad experience the server wasn't an issue. My opinion is with choice there are better options including Henrietta's which is just grab and go muffins, coffee, and etc. I also didn't like that the restaurant was relatively empty when we got there. Why were all the tables that came after us put next to or close to ours? Maybe I'm being extra but can we have our space not invaded by strangers if we don't have to?

After breakfast we go back to room waiting for 11. In bathroom 7* more little black spots in sink.

8* Finally @ 11 we go check in. All transactions closed out. Give them a card to put on file. Basically duplicate efforts. @ this time I showed pics to front desk about sink. Moved to a new room. 9* New room was smaller. Our original booking was for a king. New room queen. At 6'3" I know difference between a king and queen. @ this point we have spa appointments and plans so we decide to just enjoy rest of the day.

We check out next morning. Front desk asks about our stay. “How are you this morning?” “How was your stay?” “Did you enjoy the spa?” “Are you a Hilton reward member?” 10* After every reply he says “That’s great.” When I tell him about the issues in sink and our smaller room he still says “That’s great.” How do you tell someone you’re not listening and don’t care without saying it?

We get car from valet and leave. Drive to mall less than 10 minutes away. I get out car and reach back in to grab my phones. 11* In the bright morning sun I see scratches on car seat. Immediately get in car and go back. Spoke to valet manager who fills a claim. Promises I’ll hear from someone in 48 hours. I got an email 9 days later. 12* 2 days later my claim is denied because I reported the damage after I left the premises “a fair determination cannot be made as to when and where the incident occurred.” We took car from valet multiple times. Based on that logic the 1st time I take car out “a fair determination cannot be made.” See the attached pic, tell me if the scratches could be from something in someone’s back pocket like keys. If you agree, can you think of any job that might keep keys in their back pockets?

If we went for a day trip things might’ve been perfect. Since we stayed longer maybe too many chances for mistakes. Water always finds its level. The grounds are beautiful, but service is what makes a business. If you can, go elsewhere. If you go here don’t use valet. Don’t go to SweetFire Kitchen. Don’t...

Don't do it.

We failed to google search reviews before booking our stay, and we regret this choice. I've since read some, and see they told the last girl, "thanks for letting us know so we can improve" which encompases their attitude toward our experience. Needless to say, they did not improve for the next guests...

My husband and I wanted to take a trip to enjoy the day spa, which was lackluster, but it's not the biggest issue. (More on that later.)

At no point during the booking process were we informed about construction on the property, from 8am to 5pm. And, by 8am, I mean 7:50am. We'd considered booking direct with the hotel (ultimately, we booked through Delta), and at no point during those calls were we told that the hotel was under construction.

We were not informed upon check-in. We found out as a delightful suprise, at 7:50am as saws and hammers sang a sweet song of futility directly above our heads.

When I called reception, Rebecca seemed well-trained on the response, and mentioned that we should have been informed upon check-in. We weren't. She offered a $40 resort fee removal. Woefully insiffucient. I requested a breakfast credit, which they granted, which still wasn't enough, and it's really not up to the guest to develop solutions. The only resolution for waking us up 2 hours early on a vacation, giving me a migrane, and causing us to want to leave immediately, is a refund. That's the only way we could possibly leave and feel like returning is a possiibilty, in the future when construction completes. They're fighting the refund request, tooth and nail.

The spa: Staff are very friendly. Check-in staff at the hotel are also friendly. However, if you're coming for a true sauna (meaning it's properly hot), and a relaxing (quiet) experience, it's hit or miss. Here are some things about the sauna that you may like to know. We paid a discounted rate of $50/pp and we felt like we got that much value, so we were fine leaving this alone, as a solo issue:

The sauna/steam/warm jazucci are not co-ed. Which, we suspected, so we asked the hotel before making our reservation. We were told they're co-ed...not a deal breaker, but this was a deciding factor in choosing La Cantera over another spa with similar ammenities downtown

The sauna isn't very hot...if you want a proper sauna experience, you'll be disappointed, unless you happen to be there on a day in which people don't leave the door open. This isn't usually under the staff's control, but we did see a waitress hold the door open while asking if anyone wanted to take an order. Leaving a sauna door open for longer than it takes to walk inside and close the door takes about an hour to correct, if the door stays shut. Such a bummer. The don't increase heat up to 180F by request

The "quiet zone" signs are ignored, which is somewhat common in the States, but the staff makes zero effort to remind people that this is a quiet space. Outside is for chatter, inside is for quiet bliss

The "no device" rule isn't inforced. I personally don't mind if people use their phones respectfully or sneak a totally isolated selfie (still bad mannered), but two girls were very loudly and impolitely engaging in a photoshoot in common spaces where the phone isn't permitted. Several staff members saw this, and failed to correct the behavior for the sake and comfort of the other guests.

Several guests were visably bothered.

My husband says that the men's area was quiet and such, but that the sauna had the same issue.

The spa disturbances were touch and go...I went outside to hang with my husband, for 30 minutes while the first loud group did their thing and moved on, and experienced about 30 minutes of quiet before the photo shoot girlies moved in. They were LOUD (and swearing and being genearlly disruptive) and I gave up. We went to a nearby place for thai massage just to make sure we'd had some kind of relaxing experience...but of course we had no idea just what delights the morning would bring.

We felt like we didn't matter...

I shared this feedback with the hotel, twice, but they didn’t care. Given that La Cantera is 4 star and ranked as one of the top 5 hotels in Texas, I came here with a certain expectation. We booked Deluxe room w/2 Queen beds for $500/night during Spring Break. I told my kids this would be one of the nicest hotels they’ve ever stayed at and it fell very short of that.

Our room was down a long dated hallway. Our view was of the cars departing the hotel. At $500/night, I was expecting more. The room next to us had room service and the dinner trays were still there at 9am. I’m paying too much to look and smell garbage in the morning.

The pools are lovely and the main selling point. But the kids pool wasn’t that clean probably from kids running through the garden (some sign or effort to stop this would be nice) as a short cut to go down the slide. The other pools were wonderful. Sadly we encountered gum stuck on the floor next to our lounge chair.

The staff is extremely friendly and makes every effort to be helpful (staff really made our stay wonderful), but they tended to only work the side of the pool closest to the bar; drink cups and food trays piled up high throughout the day. Guest would move the trays to an empty table so twice the chairs/tables were being used just to hold garbage. The staff were constantly on the move so not lack of effort, perhaps more staff is required?

Also, the guest key only works at half the gates, but the gates all look exactly the same and have the same welcome signage. There is no indication as to which ones are “exit only” so new arriving guests would stand at the gate wondering why their key wouldn’t work. Again, simple update of signage would solve this.

The prices on the website for the Kids Club were inaccurate ($79 website/$110 actual). Easy to note on the website that prices vary during certain times. And the schedule handed out for kids activities missed dates of some activities. Along this line, the hours for when the pools are open are only listed AT the pool. Adding this to the activity sheet (or on the website) would be nice.

The “kids” arcade was absolutely terrible. Of the 7 games, 2 were too violent for younger kids (7 & under), 2 they physically couldn’t reach (my youngest is almost 4 feet tall) and 1 was broken. Then there was at least 5 claw games that were almost bare with only 3-5 items remaining. Note, parents HATE claw games. The card readers and prize machine worked intermittently as they required Wifi, which had a poor signal there. We called the number for help, nobody answered, walked up to the front desk for help and then we were sent all the way back to the recreation desk (why not post a sign that says go to recreation desk next door for help- that would save an hour of frustration). Again, the staff was EXTREMELY nice (particularly Enrique, always very calm and friendly!) and helpful, but there’s only so much they can do. The game room is outsourced. Again, 4 star hotel and $500/night. You already are making a ton of money off of me in other areas of the hotel, just have a nice array of games kids can play. Something simple and fun became a waste of money and more importantly, time.

Signature restaurant was exceptional. The creativity of the flavors and the service was superior. Sweet Fire was also a wonderful experience, great food and excellent service. Ricardo was a great driver and very friendly.

Overall I would say our stay was nice, but there were so many little inconveniences and irritations throughout that I wouldn’t run home and tell my friends this is one of the best in Texas. Hyatt Regency Lost Pines, Gaylord Texan, Omni Barton Creek and Miraval were all better experiences. There’s a lot of opportunities to make La Cantera a better stay and a lot of what I noted above doesn’t require a large investment. The friendliness of the staff and the relaxing poolside views is what I’ll remember most. Again, we didn’t have a terrible stay, but the rooms are FAR over priced for the...