Holiday Inn Express St Augustine Vilano Beach in St Augustine, FL

Bob and Delaney were great, but Kate and Michael were terrible. The hotel management was disorganized, causing a stressful checkout. We’re IHG Platinum Elite members with a pre-approved late checkout of 2:00 p.m. Despite this, Kate and housekeeping harassed us from 11:00 a.m. the morning of to leave urgently. We explained our approved checkout time and planned our last day around it. They aggressively banged on the door and called incessantly. It was stressful to be forced out of our room when we had a 2:00 p.m. checkout. The management team seemed disorganized and defensive to our complaint. Instead of fixing it, Michael said we were no longer welcome. This was an inappropriate reaction. We were upstanding guests throughout our stay and planned around our approved late checkout. Their mistake and mishandling escalated our concern. We left at 1:30 p.m., 30 minutes early, due to the harassment. We uncomfortably rushed, losing precious time with family, to do our best to leave as soon as we could with the unexpected late notice. Check-in time is 4 p.m., so they had 2.5 hours to clean the room. This shows the inefficiency of the management and housekeeping team. Aggressively evicting guests last minute is unacceptable and ruined our experience. Michael’s mishandling of this valid complaint only worsened the situation. Our family members on the second floor experienced similar issues on the day of the bride’s wedding. Despite having a 2:00 p.m. late checkout, which was pre-authorized by management and as IHG Platinum Elite members, housekeeping repeatedly disturbed them by knocking loudly on their door from 11:00 a.m. until they could exit. This disruption was especially stressful and bothersome for the bride and bridal party on their wedding day. We also encountered minor issues during our stay that we didn’t mention due to the excellent service provided by Bob and Delaney. Our room (311) had loud noises from the ice machine all day and night, disrupting sleep. The shower curtain and bathroom smelled of mildew. The sheets had hairs and debris, the towels had stains, the faucet leaked, and the air conditioning was extremely loud, but it worked well. We could also hear housekeeping loudly gossiping about guests in the hallway. This is unprofessional and unacceptable. The horrible management by Michael and Kate overshadowed the excellent customer service provided by Bob and Delaney. Bob and Delaney are exceptional and this hotel is lucky to have them. My negative review is due to avoidable mistakes caused by disorganization, mishandling and misunderstanding of management (Michael and Kate). Michael’s response to this valid complaint was unprofessional, careless, and appalling. We do not recommend this hotel due to the mishandling and mismanagement of Michael and Kate.

In Mid-June (15-19), we had 4 rooms while holding a mini family gathering. Though we are states away from Florida, we decided that St. Augustine would be a great location. As for lodging, we focused on the Holiday Inn Express Vilano Beach based on the great reviews we saw, the location, and the overall value. The GM, Michael, and his team were great! They were able to assign our rooms close to each other. The rooms were clean and well organized. The hotel was located next to a Publix and a large range of restaurants all within walking distance. It was also very near the beach and provided beach equipment for the guests to use. The one thing that stood out for us was the free breakfast included in the room rate. Yes, the food was good, but the remarkable experience was with the staff members that were there each morning. Usually there were always a few that replenished the food but also to take your dirty dishes away while you stayed and talked, interacted with the guest in a joyful manner, including some light entertainment with the children. They would also walk around offering some fresh fruit and watermelon as an after-breakfast treat! It was like you were invited to have breakfast with a family. I have stayed at a few HIEX hotels and never experienced breakfast like this. The other staff members at the front desk and/or in the hallways seemed happy to see you. The Front Desk provided great suggestions and help with the shuttle into the historic area of St. Augustine. We all highly recommend this hotel when visiting St. Augustine! If we have a return trip, this is the hotel we will stay at.

Very clean, great location and breakfast included. Can walk to shopping, eateries, pier and beach. Laid back area ditch no hustle and bustle going on. Just relax and enjoy. Plenty of towels in room and nice shower. Rooms have balconies and parking is free. Mattress was very comfortable.

I absolutely love this hotel, and have booked it for another 5 day stay in July, but it is not a no smoking property as the sign says. Be prepared to be bombarded by smoke almost everytime you enter or exit the lobby doors. That's because the smoking area is under the drive up area and the smoke just lingers there. Otherwise the staff, breakfast and rooms are excellent.

We’ve never stayed at such an amazing hotel! They’ve thought of everything! It’s new, it’s clean, the people are wonderfully welcoming and helpful,; the breakfast is fantastic with 2 kinds of scrambled eggs- one plain and one with spinach!, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, cinnamon rolls and incredible muffins, and more! Honestly, the price was so very worth it; we’ve stayed at other hotel chains on this trip and never had as much; the toilet paper was the nicest of our entire8 state trip!. Stay here!!!