Gilson Hotel, South Padre Island

This is a great hotel and the best beach on SPI. Everything you need is here. I am wondering if these bad reviews are even for this hotel. They do not even make sense.

Unless you are 25 or younger and plan on getting hammered every night with the college kids, this is the WORST hotel you could possibly choose to stay at!!! It is crawling with college kids who puke and pour beer everywhere, scream and yell into all hours of the night, and bang on doors just for the fun of it. If you are between the age of 18 and 25, you will be forced to pay an extra $10 for a green wristband that you must wear at all times so the staff can tell that you are a guest of the hotel and not some random college person wandering around. From 11:30am - 5pm EVERY DAY, there is a huge sound stage set up on the beach less that 200 yards from your room that plays booming bass music so loud the room vibrates. One of the nights, a huge pool party was held at the pools directly in front of the rooms that went from 9pm - 2am and was so loud we were all unable to sleep. We asked the hotel why we were not informed of this when booking the room and they claimed a letter was sent to us informing us of the party. No such letter was sent, as if it had been we most certainly would NOT have stayed here. It is not uncommon to see the following at this hotel: college kids vomiting into the pool for a full 5 minutes before any hotel staff asked them to leave; college boys rolling kegs down the beach to make camp in front of Isla Grand; screaming college girls and guys standing on their balcony yelling at anything and everything that passes by; severely under-dressed men and women; parties being thrown after 2am (when the bars close) on every floor of the room. The hotel staff has a combined age of 22 and is pretty unsympathetic to complaints, so don't expect much help from them. There was absolutely no warning from the staff or the hotel website that this is Spring Break headquarters for the entire island, so don't expect any honesty from them. We are a family of 5 with 3 college-age kids and EVERYONE felt extremely uncomfortable with the hotel and the whole situation. I can't imagine how some of the families with young children were able to handle it. In short, NEVER EVER STAY AT THE ISLA GRAND in South Padre!!! - A Family of 5 from Michigan

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner at the restaurant at this hotel, the bill was presented, but no one told us that the gratuity had already been added to the bill. I left a generous tip and again no one mentioned that the gratuity had already been added in the body of the bill. I called to request that the additional tip be credited to my Amex account, was promised by the Manager David that he would resolve the situation and call me back. Of course, there was no call back. I have pursued this through Amex and will no longer use the facilities at the Isla Grande.

This hotel is perfect for a weekend getaway -- at the end of the weekend, though, you'll wish you could stay forever. Everyone was friendly and helpful, the heated pool with waterfall was refreshing, relaxing; the band at the Quarterdeck was amazing.

We arrived on Saturday night, and we were placed in a beachview room that had a malfunctioning adjoining door. We could hear everything going on in there (I assume they heard us too) We requested another room that night, and were moved to a much better and quieter location. That lasted till the next morning when the jackhammers (just like the commercial) started up outside our room. Again we requested to be moved and were assured the jackhammers would quit that afternoon and they would be gone the next day. You guessed it, they started up again the next day (this time at 10:30). We again requested to be moved, and management moved up to a very nice two bedroom in the tower. Other then the noise problems (admittedly not the fault of management) we had a great time. The beach and pools are ideal, and even though the resort is 50 years old, they have kept it quite nice. The staff was very nice and obviously accomodated us when we complained. The resturant is good, and this time of year (late September) is very nice and no crowds. I appreciated the staff helping make our stay pleasent but be warned that there are connecting doors between the hotel rooms that may not seal very well. If noisy neighbors are a problem for you, I would book the tower or ask for a room in a quiet area.

We waited 6 hrs. on our room.On the phone they said we would have a view of the ocean, the only view we had was of a roof top, vents,and a c units.We were very disappointed and would never go back!

The post-hurricane rebuild leaves a lot to be desired. The $500 a night condos smell like the mold that was found to be growing in the ductwork. While the staff was accomodating and moved us to another condo, it too was mold infested and smelled awful. When we brought this situation to the attention of the Condo Association Managment, they did not seem all that surprised. They may be the victim of shoody repairs from the hurricane or they may be guilty of greedily repairing the condos and hotel too quickly. Either way, it is irresponsible to continue to rent out mold infested rooms. If you are sensitive to mold, have respiratory problems or traveling with babies or seniors, beware. Some of the rooms (not condos) have been redone and do not reak of mold. My parents room was nice and did not smell. However, the room my sisters were in smelled as bad as the condos and they ultimately had to be moved to a room by my parents that had been redone and did not smell of mold. Prepare to be underwhelmed by the front desk staff. After waiting almost a half hour to be helped at the desk by the one guy working the desk, we were asked to take a seat and he would get to us after he took care of everyone else in line as he felt our issue was less important than the needs of everyone else in line. When we refused to take a seat because we had already waited for our turn in line, it took the clerk all of 3 minutes to take care of our issue. His attitude was unbelievable, and he should not have been manning the front desk by himself.

First of all our name was misspelled so we were told we had no reservations. The pool and landscaping was nice but very crowded. The room was very small, old, and in desperate need of updating. The tub was dirty and moldy. The sleep number beds were full-size and uncomfortable. We paid a lofty price for a beach view from a first floor room. There was no breakfast offered and no coffee pot in the rooms. The restaurant food was tasty and we were allowed to leave two days earlier than planned. All in all we won't stay here again!

Saw ad that said NO MATTER WHERE YOU STAY, COME PLAY AT ISLA GRAND BEACH RESORT - so we left our condo for the day, opened a tab at their pool side bar, paid $100 for banana boat rides and decided to "play" at their pool until our scheduled boat ride 2 hours later. That was until the pool Nazi told us we couldn't have a cooler at the pool so we put it back in our car...he followed my husband to our car and asked if we were guests. We said "No, we responded to your add to "come play" - we explained the situation - the rent-a-cop pool nazi called the manager and they kicked us out even after we showed them their own ad and our bar tab!!! Incredibly rude and deceptive!!!

This staff at the fron desk was very rude. We had alot of problems checking in. We paid $365 dollars a night for a beach front room & expected it to be very nice. It was HORRIBLE! The room was very outdated & needed alot of work & the bed was uncomfortable. They had told us that the entire hotel had been remodeled. All i could tell that was new in my room was the paint on the walls. I couldn't beleive i paid that much money for that. My husband & I were very upset!