We booked a reservation at the Hilton Resort Oceanfront using Hilton Points, for a three night stay. Our plan was to do a quick tour of Hilton Head; ride bikes, fish, etc. and then depart the fourth morning. We have stayed at many different hotels and have a pretty reasonable expectation of what the service and rooms should be like. If you never travel, or stay in Motel 6's on a regular basis, then you are going to be very happy with this resort. However, if you've stayed at other resorts, I suspect this will not be the case.
First, the good: It's located right on the beach. You are but a short walk to the ocean. They rent bicycles and chairs and such right on property. There is a fairly nice pool, albeit a small one, on property. It's heated, and there is a cabana that serves drinks near the pool and what looked like plenty of chairs. The property is laid out as two large buildings, each with five floors. There are truly only about 10 rooms that have full ocean front views, from what we could tell. The balconies are sort of angled towards the ocean so even if you're note waterfront, there's a chance you can see the ocean. They had us initially in an interior room on the second floor (clearly no ocean view) and then happily moved us to the 5th floor of the building, closer to the ocean. The buildings are laid out long-ways towards the beach, so unless you have rooms on the end, you will get a partial view of the beach. The rooms themselves are middle-sized. There is a kitchenette with a small fridge and small sink, coffee maker, business desk, glasses, plates, silverware, cups and a breakfast table that seats four. The bathroom is average, but fairly small. There's a small vanity outside of the bathroom. There is a large balcony with two chairs that overlooks the courtyard. The lock was broken on the sliding glass door, but the latch still worked. They rent bicycles on property, and the surrounding area (Palmetto Dunes) has plenty of bike paths. However, the bicycles are very rusty and not in good condition. There's a bike rental place (Dunes Outfitters) just down the road that has very nice bikes, even with baskets, that will deliver the bikes to this property. I would recommend doing that. There's a very small playground, a pair of ping-pong tables, and a firepit that's lit at night. The staff was courteous, the rooms were generally clean. Service was acceptable. Parking is $6 for valet, or $6 for self park. It's much easier to self park, and there are separate parking lots near each of the buildings. I would recommend self park. There was free Internet service that worked fairly well - both wired and wirelessly. You do get complimentary continental (not full) breakfast each morning, but you have to bring the little certificates they give you when you check in, or they will otherwise charge you. The breakfast buffet was fairly nice, with plenty of selections. Though we did find that they tear down the breakfast about ten minutes before the end of breakfast being served. So if you get there near the end of breakfast, you'll be out of luck. We went fishing at a nearby saltwater inlet but didn't have a single bite. There is a general store nearby that sells some fishing equipment and bait.
And the bad: It's a tired property. There are signs that the rooms were renovated, but only piecemeal, as in the countertop was replaced but not the trim. Or the handles and knobs were replaced, but not the actual furniture. The mattresses were old. Our room smelled like cleaner, so we kept the sliding door open most of the time. At the time of our visit there were major renovations going on. An entire new pavilian and deck were being constructed, yet no notice was given of this on their website. We only found out after we had checked in and walked past the construction. Thus we were awakened the first morning at 8:30am by pounding, saws cutting, tools and wood being thrown around. 8:45am was early, but not too too early so we took it in stride. However, there were workers wandering the property, hanging around, etc. and smoking in the hallways. The second morning the noise began at 7:15am: banging, hammering, wood being throw around. We called and complained to the front desk and they had little to say about it. They said the manager would call us when he came in later that morning. Again, there was nothing about this on their website. We assumed that they would make some effort to keep the noise down in the morning (other properties under renovation we had previously visited did just that). We decided to check out that morning because the point of a vacation was not to be awakened at 7am each morning by banging. Also, two of the three elevators were out of service, so we had to wait for that single elevator way too often. We received a newpaper the first day, but not the second. We spoke to the concierge about locating a place called Giovanni's Pizza that had had rave reviews on TripAdvisor. He sent us to Giovanni's Pizza and Pasta, saying that the two were owned by the same people. We went to this restaurant and the food was terrible! Pizza was bland, service was bad. And we noticed a sign saying that they were *not* affiliated with Giovanni's Pizza. See the separate review on this that we wrote.
The beds were fairly uncomfortable and old - too soft and lumpy. Clearly they had not been replaced in the renovations. And the pillows were very very thin. I have wide shoulders so I had to pile three pillows on top of each other just to keep my neck from craning. The bathroom tile was dirty with mold stains. The kitchenette has one tiny trash pail that filled up immediately. We finally met with the manager when we checked out. He was polite but somewhat unconcerned about the renovation and its impact on guests. He said he would give us back one day's worth of points, but that's all he could do. He indicated he would call us back later that day (I gave him my cell phone). But he never called us back that day or the next. We ended up calling him back, and again, he did not seem concerned and would only refund the single day.
Also note, there is a general store nearby that has some food and supplies. I would recommend it for snacks and drinks, but NOT for actual food. They served disgusting fried chicken, bad looking pizza, and macaroni and cheese. Definitely not a place to eat a meal.
So in general, this was an average property. If you've never been to a resort, you may think it's fantastic. But it's not - it's average at best. The construction pushed us over the edge and made us leave. If you're familiar with upscale resorts, I'd think you'd be disappointed. There are plenty of other resorts in the area (Marriott, Disney, etc.) Though we are not familiar with those, I would recommend checking those out before selecting this one.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC