Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront

Danielle at the hotel bar made an already great stay even better. I bartended for years, so I have high standards, and she was attentive, quick, gave wonderful service, and made a great drink. The location was great too, and our room was clean. We could walk everywhere we wanted. I’d come back to the bar just to see Danielle, even if I were only visiting for the day. Highly recommend.

We were here for my niece’s graduation from Stetson Law and found the hotel clean and well run. Check-in and valet were smooth, and they handled my early check-in request easily and professionally. We had a room on the 15th floor with a view of Tampa Bay. Definitely will stay here again!

Our family booked the Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront for a special Christmas trip with our 5-month-old son, but the two days were marked by cold water, an accusation we believe was false, and deeply unprofessional treatment. Hot water failed several times. We couldn’t bathe our baby the first night. Engineering said it was fixed the next morning, but it failed again that evening and the following day. Hot water matters when you’re traveling with an infant. Then we were accused of smoking in the room and charged $300, even though nobody in our family smokes. When we questioned it, Front Desk Director Cynthia Dill insisted, “The system is never wrong,” and “It’s your word against the system.” We asked for someone to inspect the room, but were told to come downstairs instead. Cynthia kept talking to us while chewing food, in front of our baby and my mother-in-law on Christmas Eve. There was no empathy or apology, just attitude. Later, we learned the smoking claim came from an internal email citing a timestamp of October 14, 2025 between 7:40-9:40 AM, months before we arrived. The charge was eventually removed, but we still got no apology for the false accusation or the stress it caused our family. We were also charged $10 for a water bottle and $12 for ice cream. One staff member acknowledged the pricing was “ridiculous” and a cash grab, which doesn’t help guest trust. The bright spots were Krista at check-in and the attendant who brought up the pack-and-play. They actually cared. The rest of the staff made us feel like we were in the way. We chose Hilton hoping for peace of mind and a reliable family stay. Instead, we dealt with cold showers, accusations based on dates that didn’t match our visit, and a manager implying we were lying. We’re already escalating this to Hilton Corporate. No family deserves that treatment, especially at Christmas.

I came for the views and the vibe, and both were incredible. We stayed in 1313 on a top floor, with a good skyline view. I think the lower room numbers on that side may have a better bay view. The food in the hotel was expensive, so I skipped it. A couple of things to know: the thermostat seemed unreliable. I set it to 63 degrees and still sweated at night. I only found out on my last morning that you can turn up the fan, too, which was too late to help. Parking was another issue. $45 a night for valet only? No thanks. There’s a garage directly behind Hilton called Camden, where parking is $15 for 24 hours and you can come and go. A path opposite a nail shop makes it about a 3 minute walk to the hotel.