Ken Davidson

Review of Radisson Bahia Mar Beach Resor...

Bahia Mar Double Tree by Hilton has an absolute be...

Bahia Mar Double Tree by Hilton has an absolute beautiful perfect location. Located across the street from one of the best Pristine beaches in South Florida with a pedestrian bridge connecting the hotel to the beach.

It is rare to post anything but a 5-Star review on a Hilton property so let me begin with the great things of this property.

Reservations - HIlton hHonor Reservations is always a great experience. They are helpful and strive to acomodate their guests. I booked this a day out and was able to book using rewards points for everything other than Valet parking costs.

Location - you can't beat the location of this property. Located on Seabreeze Avenue it sits on a great beach that offers miles of ocean front sand. The beach offers picnic area with tables and charcoal grills along with adirondak chairs for sitting. It is also within easy walking distance to many area restarants, bars and shops.

Room - We arrived to find our room, room 307 in the marina building to be clean and comfortable. We had a king bed, TV, mini-fridge and microwave along with a balcony overlooking the marina that included two chairs.

Scott, our bellman was very professional and provided us with information about our room, the area and walking tips to visit area attractions.

The NEGATIVE areas of opportunity.

Our arrival experience was less than stellar and revolved primarily around staff issues.

VALET - the hotel offers self parking on the Hilton website but we were told upon arrival that all parking is valet. The Valet service is slow and totally inefficient. Few if any of the valet staff speak or understand english. We called for our car and had a hard time communicating with the individual and after arriving to the valet area had to ask three different people for our car over a course of 45 minutes before we finally were able to get the vehicle. When he brought the car to the curb he opened the doors for us and stuck his hand out but I did not tip.

The second day of our stay we arrived back and were told to leave the car and keys and I remembered I left an item inside. I was instructed to go to the "valet shack" and get my keys. The lady inside the "shack" never made eye contact or looked up from her phone. I finally had to get my keys from a board they were hung on and then asked where my car was located. The only reply as she continued looking at her phone and texting was "somewhere". I returned the keys and she never spoke still totally engrossed in her phone. I hung the keys in the office and left. I realistically could have walked in off the street and grabbed any set of keys and drove away with any car on the lot totally un-noticed.

HOUSEKEEPING - Our room was never serviced during our three night stay. Upon our arrival the kleenex box was empty and despite calling for service each evening was never filled. although the room was clean it was not serviced and was missing many items such as the Kleenex, toliet paper roll or many coffee items. How does a hotel forget to service an occupied room? Not just on one day but on multiple days? No, we never put the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door, there was not fear of being disturbed.

FRONT DESK - Upon arrival there was heavy check in traffic due to the International Boat Show but there was one front desk clerk on duty. Check in took over 20 minutes as other staff members would walk out from the office and look at the line but nobody ever stepped up to help guests. Not sure if there was any management presence in the hotel. As a note, the gentleman who was working the desk was very friendly and good at his job.

Overall, this hotel has a great location but it is not a hotel I would ever return for a repeat stay. While in line one day a lady in front of us asked another member of her group why they chose a hotel with "such horrible customer service" and the other lady responded "that is how we got this rate during the boat show."

There are many other hotels on the strip in this area and worth checking out.