Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach Resort

We celebrated our anniversary at Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach, and it's a true resort with lovely grounds, loads of activities, dining, and top notch service. Concierge reached out prior to our stay and secured sunset reservations at Monarch beach club and Bourbon Steak. We also received nice upgrades to pool view in the Hilton app despite being only Gold. Russell checked us in and assigned us a room that was "one of the best on the property". While grateful, a little voice in my head chuckled, "he probably says that to everyone." Reaching the room quashed such cynicism. Apologies for doubting Russell, he was right. Our room was high up, in the middle of the resort overlooking the grand lawn. Friday was quiet, but the lawn came to life Saturday and Sunday mornings with families playing catch, walking dogs, building colorful play structures out of plastic blocks. We were close enough to enjoy the pool, but not so close where palm trees obstructed. The golf course and ocean could be seen in the far distance. To our left, the main resort and dining complex lit up at night with dozens of flaming heaters. Our balcony really did have one of the best views day or night. The room itself was clean, spacious, leaning more towards cozy coastal CA beach house than ostentatious luxury. Renovations were done just a few years ago though some of the tech such as telephone and TV are dated. The TV didn't support built-in apps and relied on Chromecasting. Not a big problem except that the wi-fi network was frequently overwhelmed. Measured 15.0 Mbps up, 14.0 Mbps down with 491ms ping. Casting from our phone to TV was hit or miss. Bathroom seemed older than the rest of the room. Our tub wouldn't drain unless we sat and held the drain lever down the whole time. The shower provided instant hot water, but the temperature would sometimes adjust on its own. Maybe faulty mixing valve. Hairdryer also a bit old. Guest services respond immediately through text. Requested a kettle for tea and he not only brought it up within minutes, but it was already filled with boiling water. Ready to go, what service. Housekeeping are a bunch of absolute mad lads and ladies. We'd come back to a room artfully made; glasses, sunglasses, eye wear case arranged in single column on the desk, tooth brush, toothpaste, mouthwash, razor, tube of shaving cream, arranged in the bathroom like a fine dining place setting. Our USB charging cables neatly bound and water bottles saw reinforcement and in optimal hydration formation. Turndown service is taken very seriously by WA Monarch Beach. We never ran out of things to do and see. There are nice paths down to the beach as well as a tram, botanical garden to explore, several good pools (excellent drink service at Sombra btw), and we enjoyed dining at Bourbon, the beach club, and AVEO. The resort side of operations gets plenty of attention and budget.

Wonderful welcoming staff: Alika, Noah and Lisa were particularly helpful in insuring a comfortable stay. Lance who rode the tram to the Beach Club, was engaging and we appreciated his service. We had a lovely meal at the Beach Club restaurant. Kirsten took care of us at our table and food was delicious. Theresa- one of the hotel operators- was super professional and helpful in making a modification to our initial reservation. She truly embodied customer service!

It was our anniversary.We went to Bourbon Steak house for dinner and then spent the night. We asked for an upgraded room but was given their basic one. When we saw the beautiful jacuzzi tub, full Of black dirt we were disgusted. We called housekeeping and asked to have it cleaned. No one came. When we checked out we told them about the problem. We were given a $50 deduction on the room; big deal! For a 5 star hotel that resort should lose a few star ratings. I do not recommend it.

Overall a pretty good stay at the hotel but just short of a "5 star" review. First with the negatives: breakfast seating on the terrace required a 25 minute wait, despite there being seats open they had to stagger them to not "overwhelm" the staff...understandable but sounds like a staffing issue which causes inconvenience to guests, hostess staff was very nice though, but the wait staff was frankly all over the place (dishes were never cleared and the only time our waiter came by after dropping off our coffee order was to drop off the check). Another negative was despite there definitely being upgraded rooms available, since it was an award stay we were not given an upgrade despite being Diamond members...however we were offered an upsell to a suite with no view. I'm under the impression this is a management policy as the front desk agent seemed very apologetic about it. The rooms were very well appointed however the balcony was in disrepair with bird feces and paint peeling on the floor. Also the walls seem paper thin as we heard the water flowing from the pipes either next door or above us which gave a very... cheap feel. You could here conversations in the hallway quite loudly from the room. Now for the good: resort overall is really beautiful and is very well maintained. The fitness center was fantastic and generally every employee we ran into was very kind and well trained. The shuttle down to the beach club was great and is a really good selling point of the resort (drinks were very expensive though). The breakfast buffet (which only happens certain days) was actually a very good value and had everything you wanted and then some, the guy doing the omelets also did a very good job. As mentioned, the room was very well appointed and turn down service was great with plenty of waters provided. Check-in was also done quite well with lemonade offered as well as bottled water on departure.

Booked to stay at this resort through Amex fine hotels and resorts. Had to make a change due to flight cancellations so called the hotel. They said, “sure no problem, we’ll make a change to the booking at no additional cost”. Get a call from them one day later (the date I’m arriving there, saying “the person who gave you this information is wrong (new and in training) and we can’t do that. We need to charge you for an additional room. Take it up with Amex”. Ended up having to pay for that same reservation 2x, so I hope they enjoyed making money on me.