Hammock Beach Resort

We love coming here every summer when my husband has a conference. The pools are wonderful and the wait staff is very attentive. The drinks are on the high end but after a few who’s counting? The beach is gorgeous but warning . . . they run out of umbrellas and chairs everyday. )Maybe they should invest in a few more)! The views are breathtaking, the golf is superior and the rooms are everything you could hope for and more! Read less

Was very disappointed with this property! The internet make it look so beautiful. It is loud and old! When we arrived at our room , my husband noticed something brown all over his shorts and hand, WET PAINT! Our door to the room and bathroom hand been recently touched up with oil based paint! Needless to say there was no sign, no mention of this prior to getting in the room. The manager offered to move us one floor down but we declined as this would have put us closer to the exterior ac fans which are miserably loud! Never in my travels have we had this sort of thing happen and then management acted as if it were no biggie. They did not go above and beyond to accommodate . Won’t return and would not recommend!!!!! Read less

We stayed in a 3-bedroom unit from July 7 - 12. We really wanted to love this place, but there were enough issues, some extremely significant, that I doubt we will ever be comfortable returning. CHECK-IN: Check-in was a simple process and didn't take terribly long. Instead of a more traditional front desk, Hammock Beach Resort has multiple sit-down desks with staff that will check you in. The process went smoothly and the staff member who checked us in was extremely friendly and welcoming. The lobby was clean and felt very upscale. We had no issues with this process. UNIT: As others have described, these units are individually owned so no two units are exactly the same which is why some have great reviews and others have terrible reviews. I do not see anywhere on the website where it discusses this, which I think is pretty deceiving. The only reason I knew that these units were individually owned was because of reading reviews on TripAdvisor. We stayed in a 3-bedroom/3-bathroom ocean-view unit (Unit 1009) on the 10th floor. The unit was very nice and extremely clean, with beautiful and expensive furniture and VERY comfortable furniture (sofas and beds especially!). The appliances were all updated LG appliances (washer, dryer, fridge, microwave, oven, dishwasher) and the bathrooms were roomy and very clean. As stated, the units are decorated by their individual owners so there is significant variation between units. This unit was decorated in such a way that we felt like we were staying in an upscale European hotel. There was lots of dark wood and rich colors. While that's not a style that we would have considered typical for being on a beach, it was still a lovely stay. The owner does have some interest art-work in all the rooms, which is not our taste. However, that certainly didn't negatively affect our stay and we still thoroughly enjoyed the unit despite it not being our personal taste for decorating. SECURITY/SAFETY: This is one of our BIGGEST complaints and one of the main reasons we will not return. At around 12:30 a.m. on one of the nights of our stay, I was finishing up folding some clean laundry in my bedroom. All of a sudden, I faintly heard something in the family room area that sounded a bit like what my mother's cell "talking" when it announces who's calling. I couldn't tell if it was her cell phone or perhaps a television in the other room with some beeping or something. I headed out of the room to check to see what it was and it turns out there was an announcement over a speaker in the family room saying something along the lines of: "There has been an emergency reported. Please leave the resort IMMEDIATELY via the stairways and do NOT use the elevators." I immediately went back into my room, grabbed my sleeping 13-month-old from his travel crib and went to my mom's room. I found her sound asleep despite her door being open and the "alarm" (if you can call it that) sounding in the room right next to her. Her television was on quietly, but as I said her door was open. She is not a super deep sleeper but this warning had NOT woken her up. I woke her up and we immediately left our hotel room and headed down the 10 flights of stairs to the grass area outside the back of the resort. Many other guests were out there, as well, everyone standing around quite-groggy. No one had ANY idea what was going on as there were no staff members ANYWHERE to be seen. We had no idea if we were okay standing right outside the resort or if we needed to get away from the building as far as we could. We had no idea whether it was a security problem where we needed to try to get away or simply a false alarm. Everyone ended up waiting outside for around 20 minutes with still no sign of a staff member or any guidance on what we should be doing or what was wrong. I ended up using my cell phone to call the front desk and someone answered. I told them they had many guests outback with no direction or guidance and the staff member said that it was safe for everyone to go back inside now. I confirmed that I could tell all the guests that they could return to their rooms and the staff member on the phone said "yes." I got off the phone and then yelled so all the guests could hear me and told them what the front desk had said. We all returned to our rooms and about 10 minutes after arriving back in the room, someone came over the speaker again and said "it is now safe to return to your rooms" which made me question whether we should have waited to go back inside since the announcement was probably 15 minutes after I called the front desk. It turns out, some floor buffer set off some CO2 (or other chemical) type alarm and that's why we all had to evacuate since the fire department had to come clear everything. We found that out from another guest so I am not 100% sure of the accuracy of this. I absolutely understand that alarms go off. I have been in hotels before where we had to evacuate in the middle of the night because of a false alarm or some issue. While it's inconvenient, it is for our safety and I would never complain about this to anyone. However, what I am FURIOUS about is that the "alarm/announcement" in our room was so soft that my mom didn't wake up for it. Had I been asleep or had my television on in the room, I would NOT have heard it. That is terrifying to me and TOTALLY inappropriate. For the rest of the trip, I chose to sleep with my room door open because I was worried that something legitimate might happen and I wouldn't wake up due to the terrible "warning" system. I also am in disbelief at how there seemed to be NO proper evacuation process in place. I get that it was 12:30am so staffing was probably short, but there is NO excuse for the fact that there was not one staff member anywhere near where many of the guests were evacuated to. It is disgraceful that I had to CALL the front desk myself and be the one to tell all of those guests that it was safe to return to their rooms. I have been to a Holiday Inn where an alarm went off at 2:00am and staff made sure guests were not only directed to safety, but also followed-up with and updated to make sure everyone stayed safe. This situation was absolutely the worst run "safety" situation I have ever experienced and God forbid it had been a real emergency, I guarantee you people would have gotten hurt. Because of the terrible "alarm" system and the absolutely horrendous emergency response from the resort, I asked to speak to the General Manager the next day. I started the conversation by letting her know that I completely understand that alarms happen and had if not been for the other issues, I wouldn't have been talking to her. I explained that the alarm would NOT have woken us up had I not already been completely awake. She stated that because it wasn't a fire alarm, it does not sound in the rooms and only sounds in the kitchen area. I responded, "So, it's only really important if we're woken up appropriate in a fire but it's okay if I don't wake up in a chemical emergency (like CO2 which is a really dangerous situation, as well) and die in my room unknowingly?" She did not have a response for that. I also talked to her about the lack of staff direction or emergency preparedness. She said that there are two security members at night - one that is supposed to go talk to the fire department and one that is supposed to go be with guests. I tried to be understanding and told her I know staffing at night is lower and it's a big resort with a lot of people, but that not one staff member came to check on the many guests that were outside and it was myself that had to tell everyone when to go it. She did not have a response of this either. She said she was sorry and thanked me for bringing it to her attention and then stared at me. I am an avid traveller. I've stayed in small Holiday Inns in tiny towns and 5* resorts in other countries. I rarely reach out to managers but when I do it's usually for significant problems that they really appreciate me giving them a heads up on. In those situations, every single manager other than the GM at the Hammock Beach Resort seem almost embarrassed that there was a problem to begin with, are EXTREMELY sorry about the situation, and try their best to make it right for me as a customer. The GM at this resort just stood there looking at me after she thanked me for letting her no. She didn't ask me if there was anything she could do for me or my family, didn't seem the least bit remorseful about a potentially dangerous situation, and didn't offer even the smallest comp for our extreme stress (as a parent who had to sit an imagine what it would have been like had it been a real emergency and the "alarm" didn't reach the room my 13-month-old child and I were sleeping in - it makes me sick to my stomach just writing that). I've never had to do this because managers or staff members have always been so quick to try and help with an issue or situation, but I then asked the manager if there was anything she could do for us due to our stress, the hotel's lack of emergency preparedness, and the potentially dangerous alarm situation. She looked at me almost as if she was offended and said, "I don't usually comp anything for security things like that." I must have looked aghast. I responded, "As I said before, I have NO problem with an alarm going off in the middle of the night. It's probably just as inconvenient for staff as it is for guests! What I have a problem with is that we would not have woken up and gotten out of the building safely had I been asleep due to the terrible "alarm" system and there was NO staff anywhere in site to direct guests so I had to take charge and tell guests when they could go back in." She looked at me for a moment and said, "I don't usually do this but I can get you two drink vouchers." I was so over it at this point and said, "Fine. Thank you." Off she went to get the vouchers. At that point, another guest had overheard our conversation (I made sure to have an appropriate volume during my entire conversation with the manager as she was talking to me right out in the lobby near check-in/concierge). The other guest came up to me and said they weren't happy because the staff didn't tell them what to do either and it wasn't a safe situation because of it. When the manager came back with the drink tickets, the other guest mentioned this to her, as well. She had no response really, handed the two free drink vouchers to me and said, "Here you go." I thanked her and we were done. I'm not sure I've ever felt more uncared for as a guest during my stay - between shoddy alarms, unfollowed emergency protocol, and a manager who clearly didn't care about my experience as a guest, I had a hard time enjoying the rest of our trip. DINING: The dining in the hotel was pretty hit or miss. The first night, we ate at Loggerheads. Our waitress was quite nice but extremely distracted. We were seated pretty quickly and she gave us our menus, but then didn't come back to take our order for probably 15 minutes, despite our menus clearly being closed and on the table, as she was no where to be seen. I finally saw her behind the bar and she waited another 5 minutes (I was about to get up and go tell her we were ready to order but she finally made eye contact with me and realized she hadn't taken our order). She came over right away after that, said "sorry" and took our order. Until our order came out, she was no-where to be seen again, so we had empty drinks. Our food was delivered finally, though it took a very long time, and it was mediocre. We ordered the Spinach and Artichoke dip which actually was quite good, but wasn't really warm at all. We also got the BBQ chicken pizza and chicken and veggies for my son. Neither of which were hot - I'd say lukewarm and that's being nice. We had just arrive that day, were tired from traveling and hungry, so we just ate it and didn't make a big deal about it. Our waitress took a long time to come back to us again and I had to flag her down to get the bill as she was standing at the bar, chatting with coworkers for a long time. When she finally came back, she apologized again. She really was quite nice but just seemed inattentive and spacey. We ate at the Atlantic Grill for breakfast and I wish I had written down the name of the server. It was a female in her 60s (maybe?) who was extremely attentive and very compassionate and warm with my 13-month-old son, making sure we had everything we needed for him. Breakfast was good, though not incredible, and the service was really good, so no complaints there. The view is lovely being so close to the beach and seems like it would be a nice place to have any meal throughout the day. We also ordered room service twice. The staff in charge of room service was EXTREMELY friendly and seemed like they really wanted to make sure we were treated well. Our order arrived pretty quickly and the food was warm when it arrived and was pretty good overall. One thing I will mention is that we really wanted the Fried Green Tomatoes. The first night, however, they told us they were "out" of them and the second night we ordered room service they said they "no longer served them," which would have made the menu outdated. Just a heads up. POOL/BEACH: This was another VERY disappointed part of the resort. This resort has SUCH potential to be an incredible family resort as they have lots of pools that could be really fantastic. However, we didn't return to the pool area after our first day because it just wasn't enjoyable. We went to the lazy-river and the pool right next to it our first day there and it was pretty crowded. No problem, not the resorts fault. What is the resort's fault, however, is that the pool area around the lazy river and the pool just east of it was gross. I counted 3 beer cans lying around and multiple pieces of other trash including pizza boxes, what looked like tissues, and other random items. The sidewalk wasn't clean and had brown dirt on it and small pieces of trash in many places and I almost didn't want to walk barefoot on it. The chairs were spread all over the place, with leftover trash on some tables. The water in the lazy river wasn't the same color as all of the other pools leaving me wondering if the chemicals aren't right (gross) or the pool hadn't been vacuumed in a while (also gross). It's such a shame as it could be such a nice area but there is no reason any hotel's pool area should have trash strewn different places, the lazy river water a greenish hue and dingy sides of the pool, and a few beer cans strewn near the children's pool! Totally uncalled for for any hotel, let alone a "high-quality" resort. The Hampton Inn we stayed out earlier in our trip was also very crowded and the pool area was MUCH cleaner. Despite a Hampton having way fewer staff members and nobody to "man" the pool directly, I still saw a staff member come and back up trash/towels often throughout our time in the pool. The Hammock Beach Resort had staff everywhere, it seemed, and not once did I see anyone picking up ANY trash or cleaning anything. Simply not okay. Then we get to the beach area. The beach is very pretty and the younger staff out there seem to do a good job setting up chairs and umbrellas and such. Due to how hot it was and how crowded it got during the day, we decided to head out to the beach bout 5:30pm - 6:00pm every day. Unfortunately, they were putting all the chairs away by that point. At other beach resorts I've stayed at, the chairs don't get put away until dusk, so not having the ability to have a chair and am umbrella around 6pm when there were still a couple good hours of daylight was a bummer. The biggest problem with the beach area, however, was again ... the trash! We watched the guys put away the beach chairs and watched them walk past trash on the ground. Not once did I see ANY of them pick up trash or tidy up the area. There were at least a dozen pieces of random trash (napkins, a spoon, straws, cups, broken toys) strewn throughout the sand after the guys went in for the night. That's really not appropriate, especially for a resort of this caliber. Plus, it's terribly bad for the environment. GROUNDS: Some places were quite clean while others (like the pool and beach area) were awful. The landscaping is very pretty, it's peaceful as you walk through the grounds, and, the things like the putt-putt course looked fun. We did have to walk around some vomit on the way to the beach at one point and there was no staff in site to tell them about it. Then, another day we were walking by the beach, the beach guys were bringing in big carts of used towels and as I watched them walk in, they walked literally over the top of at least 4 pieces of trash that they should have picked up. This just boggles my mind. How can a staff member walk past large pieces of trash on the ground, basically rolling their cart over it as they walk past, and not pick them up? Another example of the resort just not feel like a quality place to stay. HOUSEKEEPING: Housekeeping was fantastic! I wish I had written down their names!! Our room was spotless the entire visit and they went above and beyond most times. I was in a hurry at one point and chucked a couple of wet bathing suits in the tub one morning. When I returned, housekeeping had hung the bath suits up so they could make sure the tub was clean. I also had a computer charger and phone charger on my nightstand and I came back to them both being wound up and neatly placed back on the nightstand. They always tidied up the kitchen and made sure things were placed neatly and made sure we had clean towels in the bathrooms. We left them a big tip as they truly made us feel like guests unlike so many of the other issues we'd had during the trip where we felt like it was every man for himself. MANAGEMENT: As I said before in the Security/Safety section, I was very disappointed by management and surprised at how no care was shown to make sure we were happy with our stay. I've never been somewhere where the management seemed to care so little for a legitimate guest concern, especially when it came to a safety issue. It just boggles my mind at the complete lack of empathy, understanding, and remorse for a situation like we experienced. PARKING: You can either valet ($20/day) or self-park. Self-parking is very easy and is right under the resort. It's a bit hard to find a spot close to the elevators if you come back in the evening but overall, nothing major. Be careful driving through the parking garage though - there are some tight corners! CHECK-OUT: Check-out was easy - we just called down to the front desk and they checked-us out. No issues here. I really wanted to like this resort. I really did. I vacationed in Palm Coast as a child when my grandparents had a condo down the road so I was so very excited to bring my own child to Palm Coast. The resort has SUCH potential to be just an incredible experience. However, when there is a significant safety concern, a seemingly-uncaring manager, and trash and dirt in multiple places around the resort, I really just can't justify coming back which is a shame. With all of this, I am shocked that this is a Salamander Resort. We have stayed at the Salamander Resort in Virginia and the experience was sheer luxury. The Hammock Beach Resort is simply not up to par, though I wish very much that it had been. Read less

We checked in on July 13 and cancelled our entire week to move to another hotel. The staff could not turn it around. The first evening we ate at Atlantic Grille or attempted to eat. It took 20 mins for the staff to greet us at the table and they take my room key card to verify I’m at the hotel. This key card has access to my room and over $700 in incidentals on it that can be used to buy things in their outlets. I asked the supervisor to bring back my card and she had passed it to the server. Major security concern!! 30 minutes goes by and I speak with the restaurant manager to get my card back. Another server over hears the conversation and rudely starts speaking to me that they will get me my card. Not sure why she thought it was ok to jump in on the conversation and be rude. We eventually order our food, a $65 seafood platter, filet, kids burger, kids grilled cheese. All the food was cold, the seafood platter was disgusting. The crab legs were ice cold. I told the server they took the food off the bill but nobody came and apologized. Honestly I think they didn’t want us there. Rude staff!! We had to go to Publix to buy groceries to eat. The room was in poor condition and filthy. Stain were all over the pull out bed where my kids had to sleep. The sheets were disgusting. What’s advertised on the website is Not what you get! I spoke with the staff Jennifer, Victor, and Valeska who were unable to turn it around. They promised to upgrade me however the room they put us in was same room with a new bedding package and some backsplash on the wall. Big time joke! Now I’m at a new hotel and getting good service, good food, and a clean room. Salamander Hotels should be ashamed to Be operating this hotel at such a low level. I asked the staff to turn it around just an upgrade to a room would have been to our satisfaction. They were unable to do so and just didn’t seem to care one bit. Read less

Hammock Beach Resort was a great place for a weekend get-away for my husband and I. The Beach was beautiful and not crowded. The Adult Pool and bar were wonderful and the staff was great. Our Room was a one bedroom suite, with an Ocean View and it was very nice, clean and comfortable. We had a bad experience at the Resort restaurant, Atlantic Grill, so we will never return there. The Resort itself looked a little worn and in need of updating, but overall we had a nice time and look forward to returning, Read less