Hotel Review: Embassy Suites by Hilton Monterey Bay Seaside

Hotel Name: Embassy Suites by Hilton Monterey Bay Seaside
Address: 1441 Canyon Del Ray, Seaside CA 93955

Dates Stayed: 10/09/2020 – 10/12/2020
Nightly Rate: $179.20

Check-in: 4:00 PM
Check-out: 12:00 PM

Parking: $15.00 per night
Internet: Free WIFI for Hilton Honors guests

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Before I begin my review, I just want to mention why I love choosing any Embassy Suites hotels when we need a place to stay. It’s because all of their rooms are suites. At the time of this trip, we were still a family of 4 (and we’re now a family of 5). Our kids are still small enough where we only need to reserve one hotel room, but they’re big enough where we need a bigger space or we’ll drive each other crazy LOL. So, I always aim for any hotel that has a bigger “suite” style room, without having to pay extra for an actual suite.

REVIEW:

We arrived at the hotel just before 1pm. The hotel grounds were clean. The hotel itself was really tall…I think it was 12 floors? When we entered, they had a large seating area, but due to COVID-19, it was closed off.

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When checking in, I always try to ask for a complimentary upgrade. If it’s your birthday or anniversary, tell them! We told them this was our “baby moon”. (To read more about that trip, click here.) If they can hook you up, they will and that will give them a better reason to do it. Since all of their rooms here are already suites, an upgrade would be to the same type of room, but with a balcony. I wasn’t successful this time because their hotel was booked up, but the worse thing they can say is “no”. Like RJ always says, “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”, so why not?! We were, however, lucky enough to get a free upgrade only for our last night since that’s when other people checked out. Something is always better than nothing!

Luckily, they had a room ready for us since we arrived before check-in time. Embassy Suites is part of Hilton Hotels, and they always provide you with a couple of water bottles and cookies at check-in, which is nice.

We were assigned to room 517, which is a little bit of a walk from the front desk. We typically like to request a room closer to the entrance, but they didn’t have any available. Apparently, the hotel was pretty booked that weekend so that’s ok – no biggie.

We had to take the elevator up to the 5th floor. Depending on the time of day, it could take awhile to catch an elevator, but that’s due to their new COVID-19 restrictions. This hotel has 3 elevators and each elevator only had a maximum capacity of 2 (more if you were part of the same family). So, if an elevator came by and already had 2 people, you’d have to wait for the next empty elevator. The stairs were another option but probably wasn’t so fun if you were assigned to a higher floor.

When we finally got to our room, there was a sticker on our door to seal the room. This showed that the room was clean and sanitized. Due to COVID-19, once that seal was broken, the hotel’s policy is that no one can enter your room once you go in – that includes housekeeping. Your room will not be cleaned again for your whole stay. If we needed more towels, we would call and request it. And, if we needed the garbage taken out, we would just put it on the outside of our door. This was a downside for me. I absolutely LOVE my hotel room being cleaned up and the bed being fixed when we leave for the day, but since we’re in a pandemic – I’d rather be safe than sorry so I was fine with it.

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The hotel room was super clean. The remotes were wiped down and placed in new plastic baggies. The room even had that new “clean” smell. We had one king bed in the bedroom. The living room had a pull-out sofa for the kids and a little table/eating area. There was even a little kitchenette area for our food.

The bathroom only had a stand up shower. Also, not sure if it would be a big deal for anyone else, but the sliding door to the bathroom did not have a lock – we didn’t have a problem with it though.

Here are some photos of our room:

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Their gym was closed during COVID, but the pool was open with a 15 person limit. You’d have to call down to the front desk to put your name on a waitlist. When space became available, the front desk would call you to come down and get a pool key and pool towels. We went swimming each day and we waited anywhere from 10min to 1.5hrs for the pool.

The pool was indoor and it was heated. They had a shower to rinse off. There was plenty seating area for your things. They also had a seating area outside, in case you wanted some fresh air.

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This hotel also had free continental breakfast. Breakfast was good. It was prepackaged for you so you just told them what you wanted and they gave it to you to eat in your room. The line was never long and the food was decent.

The breakfast was the same for Saturday and Sunday morning: A plate with eggs, sausage & potatoes; and a biscuits & gravy plate. They had other sides including oatmeal, fruit, yogurt, and cereal. Monday morning, they switched it up and had eggs, bacon & french toast. Drinks included apple juice, orange juice, hot coffee and hot chocolate.

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I mentioned this in my last hotel review, but I only stay at hotels that include free breakfast. Since we have kids, it saves us both time and money from having to go out and get breakfast before our plans for the day.

On Sunday afternoon, we were able to switch rooms to a balcony room. Check-out is 11am and check-in is typically 4pm so I was hoping we would be able to switch rooms some time in between that, but they were so busy that we didn’t get to switch rooms until almost 6pm. It wasn’t a big deal though because we spent most of the day at the beach that day and didn’t get back until 5pm. They allowed us to wait in our old room until the new room was ready.

We were moved to Room 1110 way up on the 11th floor. The room was slightly smaller, maybe because of the way the furniture was arranged. There was a bathtub instead of a stand up shower. Then, of course we had a balcony with a better view! Aside from that, everything was pretty much the same. Here are some photos of the new room:

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This is the view from the balcony:

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All in all, I would definitely recommend this hotel. They did a great job accommodating us, and they had proper procedures in place due to the pandemic. I always felt like the place was clean, and the customer service was great as well. We would stay here again next time we return to Monterey!