Embassy Suites by Hilton Williamsburg — Hotel in Williamsburg

Where to start with this hotel…Diamond Member review.

Very clear causality of Covid. I had the pleasure of staying here 2 years ago…it was a highlight of our trip. Very different experience this past week and the culprit was clearly poor management and lack of proper staffing due to Covid. We stayed 5 nights.

The staff that were there did the best they could…and I almost bumped this review to 2 stars on their behalf - but frankly, it just wasn’t good enough.

The issues started immediately upon checkin. The room we were assigned was occupied by a very understanding woman who was showering when I entered. We left immediately and went to the front desk for assistance. We were then assigned a new room - but were told we may have to move after a day or two because that room was booked by another guest. We didn’t end up being moved, but it was still a rather inconvenient experience.

This is also where we learned that the property manager was on vacation this week and that the hotel had a total of 2 people working there that day. Keep in mind, this is Colonial Williamsburg on the week leading up to the 4th of July. The hotel was packed full. I wouldn’t typically harp on someone for taking vacation…but maybe don’t take vacation on your busiest week when severely understaffed.

The rest of our stay was uneventful…though there were many issues.

Here is a list of the current problems…

1. Breakfast went from something I’d gladly pay for 2 years ago (even though it was free - huge perk!) to something I paid money to avoid this trip. It was supposed to be ‘made-to-order’ breakfast…it wasn’t. Everything was pre-made in large batches. The eggs were over half oil - inedible. Biscuits were cold and gross. Pancakes (seriously, how do you mess up pancakes?!?) were mealy and disgusting. We ended up eating stale cereal and milk a few times to avoid this breakfast.

2. The indoor pool wasn’t maintained properly. Floor was slippery and the water had a green tinge to it. The water was way over chlorinated…to the point it burned the skin upon prolonged exposure. Towels were regularly unavailable.

3. Housekeeping was non-existent. According to the front desk, ‘as a covid precaution we aren’t offering regular housekeeping services. You must request turnover service each day before 730am if you want it. You’d think with no house keeping they’d overload the rooms with consumables like towels and soap/shampoo - no. We ran out of each after the 2nd day.

4. The air conditioning was woefully under powered in the room. It was a hot week - mid 90’s. The room temperatures were in the mid 70’s at their low. I expect a hotel room to be able to maintain mid 60’s. Furthermore, the lobby air conditioning was out all 5 days of our stay. I can understand a broken AC unit - these things happen - but not fixing it for 5 straight days is completely unacceptable.

5. Business Center computers and printers were broken the entirety of our stay. This was a big problem as Colonial Williamsburg and Water Country USA require printed tickets and reservations.

6. Wi-fi signal does not penetrate room 104. I’m not sure if this problem is wide scale throughout the hotel - but we were unable to connect to wi-fi from our room. We had to move to the un-airconditioned lobby for wi-fi signal.

That’s it. I rarely give Hilton hotels bad reviews…I value my relationship with them as a Diamond Member and they frequently go well out of their way to help me…this experience however, It would be a disservice to Hilton not to call out the problems at this hotel. It’s not close to the standards they set for...

Unfortunately, my stay at this hotel was considered a bad experience. All the rooms had a distinct odor when you first walked in. Musky, as if wet laundry sat in the washing machine for days. I say room(s) plural because my whole family also stayed at this hotel. In total we had 4 rooms and all of them had the same odor.

Room service came in one time to make my bed out of the 3 days I stayed. Otherwise, if you don’t catch them to advise you want the room made they don’t come in. My trash remained in the room from Friday until Monday. I had to go to the front desk everyday to get fresh towels. None were provided in my room. I noticed everyone leaving their trash and wet towels in the hallways. So I started doing the same just to keep the room clean. In my opinion, there should be a better system to reflect that cleaning should be priority. Everyone’s trash and wet towels in hallway looks unkept. Maybe, besides having a no disturb sign, have a sign that we can put on our door to have our rooms cleaned for when we do go out for the day.

I also brought my kids to the pool since they were looking forward to swim. When I arrived there were no towels left. Just a stack of old ones left on the floor and in a bin. The pool was cloudy and had multiple hairs floating around. Along with someone’s toe nail floating and a piece of skin someone peeled off. The floors were dirty in the pool area. As if you had stepped outside and walked in tracking dirt. Rather then feeling refreshed I was disgusted. I immediately rushed my kids out of the pool within only being there for 15-minutes.

The shower head had a lot of build up and the pressure was poor. Rust below the shower door.

Parking wasn’t bad. You have your access card and they have multiple doors to access the hotel. Although, I noticed the door near the laundry room on first floor some people didn’t have their cards so they would pull it hard enough where you didn’t need your card. Concerns me if someone doesn’t belong in the hotel they have easy access to enter on side door instead of being seen in front first. You want to feel secure where your staying especially if you are away from home.

On my second night of staying here I came in late from Busch Gardens with my family and was interested in doing room service for my kids. My hotel book guide advised the service was available until 11:00PM. When I called at 9:45PM I was advised that they don’t offer this service at this time. I ended up ordering food to be delivered from an outside restaurant. If a service isn’t offered they should update the book guides in the room instead of advertising what the hotel offers. I can understand certain policies have changed throughout COVID. But there was no explanation provided. Just verbally advised service wasn’t offered.

My positive feedback throughout all of it is to the staff. They were very courtesy if we needed towels and would get it themselves. Everyday they would say good morning. The staff that served the breakfast was pleasant and warm to my kids and I. You can tell that the staff does work hard. I saw them running around to clean up tables, maintaining the trash in the eating area, and cleaning the floors.

I won’t be back unfortunately with my family. It wasn’t worth the amount I paid to stay here. But hopefully management can improve there quality...

We are Hilton Diamond members so always try to stay with the Hilton Family of Hotels when we travel. For this quick weekend trip to Williamsburg we were traveling with our two daughters as well as another family with two kids so we opted for Embassy because we like the pretty standard one bedroom suite options. For this stay we were also able to get an adjoining room with the other family.

Check in was super easy and the front desk staff was pleasant. It’s a nice lobby with the restaurant and bar area right after you pass the desk in an open atrium area. Each floor forms a ring around it looking down.

The pool area is okay if a little sparse. Only a handful of chairs. At one point the had a hot tub (according to pictures) and we had been looking forward to after a day spent at Busch Gardens but apparently it was taken out at some point. Bummer.

The reason I gave this hotel three stars instead of four is two reasons. The room sizes were cramped. We didn’t expect a ton of space but we’ve stayed at a number of Embassy suites and these ones are just small. I’m talking two people can’t comfortably pass each other if trying to walk between the base of the bed and the dresser in the bedroom. Or even when between the beds. Which leads to the second reason for three stars. One of the beds had a broken (sharp)part of the bed frame exposed and sticking out. When my husband trident slide behind me as I was leaning over the bed getting something from our suitcase, he sliced his lower leg open on it and instantly started bleeding pretty good. We called sown ti the front desk for a band aid and some antiseptic ointment but they never showed or brought it. They seemed almost indifferent to the fact that it even happened when he called. Luckily the friends we were traveling with had a bandaid he could use after the bleeding stopped and he got it cleaned up.

The next morning we went down for their breakfast buffet. And this is the reason the review is saved and still solidly at 3 stars (might have even bumped it to a 4 if not for the injury). The buffet is one of the better ones we’ve had at a hotel. And it is included with your stay. All of the staff were very friendly and helpful, the woman making the omelettes was great and the omelet was loaded and tasty! We for downstairs at a busy time but they kept replenishing so no food ran out.

We would probably stay here again but maybe not tonight it’s so many people as there simply isn’t...