Last week at this time, Susie and I were at what has become one of our favorite hotels, the Doubletree Resort in Hollywood Beach Florida. Located on A1A at 4200 South Ocean Drive in Hollywood Beach, right along the Intracoastal Waterway, and just next to the Hallandale Beach Bridge…it’s a perfect location.
This is our 3rd year staying here, and our longest stay, and honestly, we were wondering if we were going to be bored staying from Monday to Sunday. Well, we soon discovered we had nothing to fear, and from the time the valet took the Honda CRV from us on Monday afternoon, we never left the hotel again! We treated it like an all inclusive resort, and since we’ve been to the area a lot, including several times in recent years, there was no need to do anything but relax on the property!
The property is beautiful, the rooms wonderful, and the view from our 7th floor balcony is just incredible! What a wonderful view to go to sleep to each night and to wake up with every morning.
Then there is the pool…and what a pool it is! With it’s location right along the Intracoastal Waterway, we liked nothing better than to stand in the pool, and watch boat after boat after boat go by. The entire pool area is wonderful and the Lava Tiki Bar right next to the Intracoastal is a place we’ve spent so much time…both day and night! Great drinks, excellent food, and great staff!
Speaking about the staff, to our mind they take an already good property and elevate it to Diamond Status! The first person we met was Joe, the Concierge/Bell Captain…. by the time I checked in, he and my Susie were best friends! He was from Brooklyn, had run a cemetery in Pennsylvania for many years, and knew exactly where Ocean City was. What a great guy and never failed to say hello every time we saw him all week!
In the morning we had great breakfasts in the Port South Grill, served by great servers including Jackie, and Stephen.
Our afternoons were spent at the pool and bartenders Frank, and Calford made excellent drinks and were quick with a smile and a joke!”
Every night but our last (too windy), we were outside at the Tiki Bar (why not..it’s March and 70+ degrees!) and enjoyed the drinks and companionship of John, Ian, and Frank behind the bar, and the friendship of Serge the server.
In fact, after spending a night talking with Frank as he served us, the next morning, we were at the pool less than 10 minutes when he showed up next to us with two Bloody Marys saying, “Here are the Bloodies I promised you last night!”
Then there was the pool staff! Casandra at the towel hut and the hardest working man in the hotel, Carlos the Majordomo of the Doubletree Pool! He never stops! Great work ethic and a very nice man to boot!
Somebody else we interacted with was Karl at the front desk, who was so helpful to us when we had a little problem with our room’s Do Not Disturb sign. On one of our last mornings, we’d left about 11:30 and discovered that someone had taken our Do Not Disturb sign while we were in the room. When we came back at 5:30, the room was not made. So we went to the desk and spoke with Karl to get new towels and a new Do Not Disturb sign. The next day, when we went to the pool, we put our new Do Not Disturb sign in the room, but when we came back, we found another Do Not Disturb sign on our door knob, which caused our room not to be made up! Can you say Gas Lighting? Bottom line, we got our room made up that day, and left with a story to boot!
Now, just as an example of how well this hotel is maintained, our last morning coming out of the Port South restaurant we passed this gentleman, who spent his days touching up the paint around the hotel! Incredible!
So, I guess you understand we love this hotel, the location and especially the staff! We will be back to visit our “friends” again, because that’s what the staff is to us! Great job! Thanks for a wonderful, relaxing 6 nights! Sorry it’s over….oh, and by the way, we used Hilton Honors points and stayed for free! Winning!!
R New Adventures 