Homewood Suites by Hilton St. Cloud

We’ve stayed here a few times over the past several years. The rooms are spacious, breakfast is set up nicely, and there are lots of restaurants nearby, though none are close enough to walk to. The suite kitchen has a nice, newer full-size fridge and freezer. The carpet is showing its age. We were here during a very cold weekend, and our assigned room’s older heater sounded like its fan bearing was about to give out. The front desk moved us to a different room. That unit was newer, warmed the room quietly, and didn’t disturb our sleep.

The front desk attendant was friendly when I arrived, and the location is nice. My room was roomy, with a kitchen, comfy pillows, and, to my delight, a ceiling fan.

I thought I’d be here just over two weeks, but family matters stretched my stay to a month. The staff were wonderful, especially Manager Jennifer. They even lent me an office chair so I could work comfortably.

During our wedding stay, my 80-year-old grandfather, who has Alzheimer’s, and my grandma didn’t get the room we’d been promised. We were told it would be on the first floor near the elevator, but they were put on the second floor, far down the hall, because they wanted adjoining rooms with a family member. They accepted the change. Then their key wouldn’t work, and my grandma had to put my grandfather on the floor while she went back to the front desk for help. When we raised what happened, the response was basically that he should’ve requested a wheelchair. That missed the reason we were upset. My husband and I had to use this hotel for our wedding block because our venue has a contract with it. The experience was the worst vendor part of our entire planning process, though our main frustrations were with mid to upper management, not the front-line staff. Guests encountered all kinds of confusion: some were told there was no block under our name, some were put on a “waiting list” management said didn’t exist, some were told the code the hotel had given us was invalid, and some were told they were on the block when they weren’t. They blamed “staffing problems.” Just days before the wedding, my husband drove 1.5 hours to the hotel to straighten it out. Communication was poor too. Emails and calls often went unanswered or got very late replies. Staff turnover was apparently the reason, but no one told us about any changes. Some guests were told rooms weren’t ready even though they arrived after the stated check-in time. When we checked in, we were told we’d need to change rooms halfway through the weekend because the complimentary night from our venue contract was booked separately from the nights we paid for. We said we couldn’t move during our wedding. A team member resolved it, but we still had to return one key and get another for the same room, which felt pointless. We later told our venue owner about the problems, and they contacted the hotel. Management then made an unscheduled call while we were in the middle of our honeymoon. It was defensive and condescending, with no apology or accountability. They said wedding blocks “aren’t really a thing” unless there are welcome gifts, despite having given us a discounted group rate. They asked us to provide names of guests with issues while we were on vacation, even though my husband had already gone in person to address the problem. We gave a few examples, and they answered, “Well, those guests are already on the list.” That ignored the fact they weren’t properly added until we escalated. Management kept blaming “staffing issues” on the call while also claiming the management team was strong. The person we’d been communicating with had either left or been fired in the middle of everything, and a manager had mishandled the block in the first place. There’s more I could say about the experience and that call, but this is already so dang long. In the end, they gave us a half-hearted apology that basically blamed us and promised to do better “next time.” There won’t be a next time, and that’s fine. We’re not looking for excuses or more “apologies.” If you’re considering this place for a wedding block, I’d say don’t. It’s not worth the stress.