To the Hilt(on) and A Love Affair with Old Hotels by Anthony Watkins (books to read this summer txt) 📖

To the Hilt(on)

We are the kind of folks who were raised to stay in the $12.00 kitchenette on our rare but occasional trips down to the Gulf. In fact, I still remember the first time, as a preteen, that we not only stayed at a Holiday Inn, but actually ate lunch in the hotel restaurant (I had a five dollar hamburger, and yes, it was better than a dollar burger from a fast food joint, but I was more amazed at the linen tablecloth, the fancy menu and the five dollar price).

The working class, “load’em-in-the-unairconditioned-station-wagon- and-let’s-stay-at-the-motorcourt” mentality also led to our choices of luxury hotels tending more toward the eccentric, including the Bourbon Orleans (New Orleans), Colony and Cabana (Delray Beach) the lost and much lamented shabby old lady called the Gulfstream (Lake Worth), some funky grand hotel, whose name eludes me, but it is located on Miami’s North Beach with a Greek spa, and gift shops in the basement, a fabulous view of the ocean and fading autographed caricatures of Jackie Gleason and Frank Sinatra from the times they stayed there in the fifties, and even the Wyndam OceanWalk, here in Daytona.

But never a Hilton. Not only were we put off by the behavior of Paris Hilton, but having spent most of our lives in the shadow of Palm Beach, we neither expected to be able to afford it nor were we prepared to enjoy the kind of people we tend to associate with the high end life style, having seen better manners from homeless folks under a bridge than some of the Palm Beach crowd. But, by accident, we ended up at the Hilton Oceanwalk on Daytona Beach.

The accident occurred due to my wife’s mistake. She was supposed to book a suite in the Wyndham Oceanwalk. She is the master of discount travel booking, though I have to add, many hotels, from your generic Days Inn, to your exotic Bourbon Orleans, as well as the midrange Double Trees, Extended Stays and so on, don’t get the “Online Discount Booking Concept.” Too often we find we get the room that has an almost non functional A/C, or a room that shares a common, poorly sound proofed wall with the ice maker room, or even a room in the Wyndham, that opened into the hallway, which seems odd, but I guess is okay, except, our window opened onto the elevator landing, so we had the joy of trying to put a toddler down for the night while drunks were staggering and yelling and laughing as they came off and got on the lift. “Point Being,” as my beloved late father-in-law was fond of saying, these hotels are glad to book the extra rooms, but instead of trying to persuade you that they are such fine institutions that you might want to return and pay Rack Rate, They give you the mini, second hand version, usually assuring that you book elsewhere the next time.

We have spent the last year, like many Americans, taking turns getting laid off, and thankfully, getting re-employed, and at better wages than those we lost. Even with the good fortune, we have had some stressful times, and have had to forgo our serious “chill and recharge” kind of getaway. We finally managed to finagle a three day weekend adventure. Even with the odd window overlooking the elevator, we had enjoyed our stay at Daytona Beach so much (no we are not bikers, nor race fans), the Wyndham had a great water park, including water slides and a lazy river inner tube float, and two indoor pools. Daytona also has two of the best bookstores in Florida, Mandalas and Abraxas, and both are located a block apart and the foot of the bridge. We are, afterall, “book people.”

My wife was careful to book a suite with oceanview, so we didn’t get a view of the hallway. When she told me we were staying at the Hilton Oceanwalk, I corrected her, “No honey, it’s the Wyndham Oceanwalk.” She replied that Hilton must have bought it, because now it was a Hilton. End of discussion. She is, afterall, queen of the online discount travel booking.

The night before we left, I decided to “google map it,” to see how long the trip would to take. When I put in “Daytona oceanwalk,” up came the Wyndham. I became both suspicious and concerned. Sure enough the good folks at Wyndham were alive and well, and dear wife had booked us at 100 N Atlantic, not 300 N Atlantic, we were just south of the Oceanwalk Mall, not just north. I checked, the Hilton had two pools, no water slide, no lazy river. Of course our online booking was non refundable. We tried to explain to our almost five year old son that it was a mistake that we couldn’t do anything about, that there would still be swimming pools, there would still be the same beach, and we would have a great suite and he would love it. He wasn’t buying, so I promised to ask if we could pay to use the lazy river for a day when we got here, if he wasn’t happy at the Hilton. But it was with heavy hearts that we headed north to Daytona. My wife was horrified, and I kept telling her it didn’t matter, that we needed a good vacation and this was going to be one and the Hilton would be fine. We both hoped I was right.

My wife called on the way up to see if we could get an early check in, and to ask for special consideration, as it was my 50th birthday, her 40th and our 11th wedding anniversary (Yes, all three of those events occur in an 11 day stretch in early August, that and three more birthdays in late August, makes it about like Christmas in summer around our house). The hotel couldn’t promise an early check-in, as they were fully booked both the previous night and the day of our arrival. I had a sinking feeling that we might be told they were overbooked and we would be stuck without a room. But that didn’t happen. Here is what did happen: The Good (a lot of that), The Bad (a little of that) and The Ugly (only one small incident)

At the Hilton:
The Hilton does almost EVERYTHING right, and almost ALL their staff really seem to care about your total enjoyment of the Hilton experience, but for some reason, at least in the summer, both towers check in at the south tower location, and all parking is Valet only! And the valet is $17.00 PER DAY. The main problem isn’t the money, it is the congestion at check in, on a busy weekend, it can take 15-20 minutes to get from the street to the lobby. They didn’t have our room ready, but the bellman took our stuff and tagged and stored it, they gave us pool passes and we were able to let our son swim while we waited. Within a few minutes, we were able to get into our room.
The suite, was wonderful! There are a couple of design points I would suggest, but later for that. First, it smelled nice and clean, which believe it or not, is not a given, even in luxury hotels, A large mirrored front closet faces a mini kitchen, two cabinets, a good size granite top, a deep sink, a mini fridge, and a “pod type” twin cup coffee maker. Not my taste in coffee, but I was able to make do with my fresh ground whole bean set up, but it was a lot like my wife’s K-cup setup at home. She loved it. Three things were missing, a toaster and a microwave, as well as eating utensils. I think Hilton is concerned with folks making meals in their room, because there are several fine restaurants in the complex.

The kitchen/entryway opened to a well appointed large hotel room with a sleeper sofa, and comfy upholstered armchairs. Through an attractive French door is the bedroom, a well appointed writing desk, and very comfortable king size bed, another armchair, and dresser with a TV atop. Down a short hall is another closet another granite top sink with a pretty wood framed oval mirror, and through a door another vanity, toilet and a cast iron tub.

The view from both rooms is, of course, astounding, nothing but ocean beyond the wide flat sandy beach, oh, and then there are the sunrises! But that isn’t all, out to the side of the bedroom, a heavy sliding door opens onto a private patio! The patio is exactly as big as the two rooms combined. It has a nice high, safe wall, (a little under four feet). In the afternoon about half of it is shaded, and in August, it is too hot to enjoy, even in the shade, but after dark, it is quite a treat to be able to go out and enjoy the sound of the surf, to watch the people strolling the beach, to have a nice rum drink and sit in the lounge chairs and watch a great big moon poke itself up of the ocean haze.

About 6 pm the first evening, there was a knock at the door. When we asked who was there, they replied “room service.” Now I have watched enough movies to know if you didn’t order room service and room service comes anyway, it is really a secret agent man with a silencer, but in this case, it really was room service, with a platter of chocolate dipped strawberries and a bottle of champagne chilling in a bucket of ice. Compliments of management! That was a nice touch. Everywhere we went anywhere in the hotel or left and returned, everyone seemed to genuinely care that we were happy. Once, our car had been parked in the north lot, though we were in the south tower, and the valet apologized about the wait, before he dashed away, and returned within about two minutes. We were never treated second class. Which may be an odd thing to say, but over the years, we have found the concept of pleasing the customer, seeing to it that the person spending the money is having a good time, seems to get rarer and rarer, whether one is buying a burger, a car, staying in the cheapest hotel and the grandest resorts. So we were thrilled when they worked hard to make sure we had everything we needed or wanted.

Now, on the second evening, we had one of the two ugly things, and the only one that anyone can be sure about, as you will see. We, again, went out to the valet, and this time, the man explained that our car had been parked at the north parking lot (note: the entrance for the north and south towers are about ¼ of a mile apart), he told us that we would have to walk up to the north tower entrance, which we did. We were a little surprised, but everything had been so nice, and everyone was so pleasant, we decided to let it slide. But when we asked the valet at the north entrance if we could have our car, he looked at our ticket, and told us our car was parked at the south lot. As my wife prepared to explode at the thought of walking back, he explained that, no, he would run get it. He also told us that this wasn’t the first time the guy had pulled this stunt.

While