During my recent quick jaunt to Sao Paulo I had a six day stopover in New York on the return. I spent four of those days in Florida with my parents.
My mom works far too much, and on one of her days off she really wanted to do a “staycation” in St. Petersburg, so I booked the Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront. I don’t get too excited over staycations anymore (though now that I live in hotels full time I don’t think there is technically such a thing for me anymore), but happy mom, happy life… I think.
Anyway, one of the hotels in downtown St. Petersburg is the Hilton. While Hyatt and Starwood are my preferred hotel chains, neither have a property in St. Petersburg. Nowadays, Hilton is my back up hotel chain, as I have Diamond status with them through the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card.
The information and associated card details on this page for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by OMAAT and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Anyway, I redeemed points for the stay. This is a Category 5 Honors property, making it 40,000 points per night. Compared to the cash rate that turned out to be a really good deal, given that the hotel was going for $429+ per night. The reason the rate was so high is because the St. Petersburg Grand Prix was in town that weekend, which I hadn’t realized till after we booked.
So at over a cent per Honors point I’d say that’s a heck of a redemption. Or more importantly, 40,000 points is a small price to pay for a happy mom (especially since she feels less “guilty” when I redeem points as opposed to paying — between us, even when I book a paid stay I always tell her I redeemed points so she feels better about it). 😉
For reference, cash rates at this hotel seem to normally go for $150-200 per night. And even if that had been the rate I may have redeemed points, since I’m looking for any opportunity to burn Hilton points post-devaluation.
We arrived at the hotel at around 12PM and parked in the lot adjacent to the hotel. The property looks really tired from the outside, and still seemed to be stuck in the 90s.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront exterior
The lobby was a bit more modern, and felt like your typical US Hilton lobby.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront lobby
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront lobby
Check-in was located in the back left corner of the lobby, and we were checked in by a friendly associate. While the previous guest had been told their room wasn’t ready yet, the associate managed to find us an available room. She explained that we would have access to the club lounge and complimentary internet, and directed us to the elevators, located to the right of the reception desk.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront lobby
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront lobby
We were assigned a room on the seventh floor, about halfway down the hall to the left when stepping out of the elevator.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront hallway
It was room 716, a standard king room (they didn’t have any room with two beds available).
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront King Room entrance
There was an entryway with the bathroom to the right and a closet to the left.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront King Room entrance
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront King Room closet
The room featured a comfortable king bed, chair with ottoman, and a desk with a rolling desk chair. The room felt “fresh” and certainly brand standard for Hilton.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront King Room bed
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront King Room bed
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront King Room TV
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront King Room desk
The room faced the parking lot, surrounding buildings, and in the far distance you could see the baseball field and bay.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront King Room view
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront King Room view
The bathroom was really small, and featured a toilet, sink, and shower/tub combo.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront King Room bathroom
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront King Room shower
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront King Room sink
The toiletries were Peter Thomas Roth branded.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront King Room toiletries
While the room felt fresh for the most part, the towel rack by the shower had a ton of rust on it.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront King Room bathroom rust
The club lounge was located on the top floor, and could be accessed by swiping the room key.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront club lounge entrance
The club lounge is large and featured nice views of the bay. The furniture felt a bit scattered and I couldn’t help but feel like it was furnished as if it was just the surplus furniture from their events/banquet department.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront club lounge
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront club lounge
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront club lounge
But the views really were very nice, as it even directly faced St. Petersburg Airport, so you had a direct view of the runway.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront club lounge view
Throughout the day the lounge had soft drinks and light snacks. I loved that the Coke products were in aluminum bottles. Yes, I’m like a five year old. And I also loved that they had syrups for the coffee.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront club lounge drinks
The lounge also had a handful of snacks available throughout the day, including Goldfish, Chex Mix, pretzels, “yogurt” covered pretzels, etc.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront club lounge snacks
Then evening happy hour was available from 5PM till 7PM. On the plus side, they have an open bar with beer and wine and it didn’t seem like they charged for that, which seemed generous for a US property.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront club lounge evening drinks
On the other hand, the lounge had quite possibly the lamest food spread I’ve ever seen, consisting exclusively of “chicken wellington,” cheese, and crackers.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront club lounge evening snacks
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront club lounge evening snacks
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront club lounge evening snacks
The breakfast spread was available from 6AM till 9:30AM, and was a bit better than the evening spread. It consisted of toast, muffins, bagels, cereal, fruit, eggs, and sausage.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront club lounge breakfast
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront club lounge breakfast
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront club lounge breakfast
In terms of the hotel’s other “features,” there’s a legitimate Starbucks located in the lobby. Fortunately I didn’t have to resort to that, since I managed to keep my mother occupied for an hour or two by exposing her to “Real Housewives of Atlanta” on my iPad. “Zhis NeNe lady, I don’t know about her…”
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront Starbucks in lobby
There’s also a decent gym located on the ground floor. Unfortunately there were always people in it, so I didn’t have a chance to take any good pictures.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront gym
Then there’s also an outdoor pool, though it was only about 60 degrees when we were there, so not really swimming weather.
Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront pool
St. Petersburg is actually a really cool area with beautiful bay views and tons of nice shops and restaurants, so we enjoyed our time there. There are also very nice beaches in St. Petersburg Beach, but that’s about 10 miles from “downtown” St. Petersburg, and this isn’t really the time of year for that anyway (yes, apparently Florida has seasons).
Anyway, there are definitely nicer hotels in St. Petersburg, like the Vinoy Renaissance, but I still feel like I got a great value on points. This isn’t an amazing hotel, but given the normal rates I’d say it’s a decent value given the location.
Terrible Management, The Hotel Staff was nice and went out of their way to may our stay pleasant but the hotel billed my Credit card $100.00 for Incidentals and I used none of the hotels amenities. Garry Sims is the GM there and even he was not sympathetic to the issue and refused to do anything to fix this issue so I had to Disputer with my Credit card Company and Hilton Corporate and still...
Terrible Management, The Hotel Staff was nice and went out of their way to may our stay pleasant but the hotel billed my Credit card $100.00 for Incidentals and I used none of the hotels amenities. Garry Sims is the GM there and even he was not sympathetic to the issue and refused to do anything to fix this issue so I had to Disputer with my Credit card Company and Hilton Corporate and still have not gotten a irresolution from this and it has now been 2 weeks since my stay.
Next time stay at the Hilton St. Petersburg Carillon Park. It seems marginally better.
I have Hilton gold status. Would that entitle me to have lounge access?
@ Jon -- Yes, it sure would on a space available basis.
Last Dec when my family went to Disney World at Orlando, FL, we soent two days at Residence Inn St Peterburgs (Category 3), and we watchedf sunset and went to the clear water beach. It is was a great town.
@ Bill — A dump? Give me a break.
Looks like a dump . . .
My mom would probably ask to be moved to another room on account of the rusty towel rack. Hope the rest of the room was in better shape.
I'm pretty exclusively a Marriott guy, trying to get more into Hyatt and even Hilton these days, though. Hope hotel living is going well!
Have you stayed the Vinoy? I'd really hoped to have made it there, but with again the recent hotel category changes, it is way too rich for my points.
@ Joe -- I haven't since I'm not a Marriott guy, though will do what I can to check it out in the future.
FWIW, I received a suite upgrade here on a three-night stay last year in January. However, the suite was composed simply by housekeeping having opened the double set of locking doors to the adjacent room, which also had a sofa. Since I was by myself I didn't get any use out of it.
I was also comped 1,500 points for the shuttle van not coming to pick me up at the Vinoy after I waited...
FWIW, I received a suite upgrade here on a three-night stay last year in January. However, the suite was composed simply by housekeeping having opened the double set of locking doors to the adjacent room, which also had a sofa. Since I was by myself I didn't get any use out of it.
I was also comped 1,500 points for the shuttle van not coming to pick me up at the Vinoy after I waited 30 minutes.
Agree about the lounge -- oddly decorated, but nice views, decent breakfast service, and exciting aluminum bottles. :-)
That in room carpet is majestic, I hope to meet whoever picked out that one!
Ha, we do the same trick with our parents- "We'll just redeem some points, don't worry about it." Like you, we've found that taking our parents on trips is the most fulfilling part of this whole game. It's really such a privilege to have the means to do it.