This was our second stay at Villas by the Sea, the first being a few years ago. We checked in on the 24th of October after driving seven hours to reach Jekyll. Our initial room was 429, a one bedroom suite. Room felt pretty big, with a separate dining room and living room, and a nice kitchen. The dining room even had a small library of about 30 books. After dropping our bags and unpacking, we went to grab some food and see the central shopping center. After coming back to our room around 9pm we discovered that our toilet consistently ran, though slowly, and the shower/tub did not drain. We called the front desk, and maintenance did show up pretty quickly. The maintenance guy was friendly, bt after attempting to unclog the shower for about an hour he told us he would have to wait for a plumber in the morning, but he would tell the front desk to get us another room. My wife and I packed our bags back up and I got the keys to our new room (269 I believe) from the front desk. At this point it was well past 10pm. When we entered the new room we found it a lot smaller than our previous room. The dining room and living room were about the same size as just the dining room in 429, the kitchen felt a lot older in style, and a lot of the decorations in the room seemed to be broken. A coat/hat rack on the wall had 2 of 3 prongs completely broken off, the shower head was much older and leaky, and the bathroom mirror was completely crooked, one side hanging about 6 inches lower than the other. While I understand that a hotel can not foresee every maintenance issue, I felt like we got downgraded to a much cheaper and smaller room through no fault of our own, with no apologies from the front desk. If our first room did not have plumbing issues I would be rating this hotel 5 stars.
The Driftwood Bistro restaurant attached to the hotel was very nice. I definitely recommend the sweet potato souffle as a side dish, and the trainee server we had along with her trainer were very helpful in assisting my mother with choosing a meal that she could eat with her allergies.
Also, guests should be aware that it appears the hotel is selling some rooms off, and the buyers can rent out their rooms privately on AirBnB and VRBO. I am not sure though if the hotel or the owners are responsible for the upkeep of those rooms.
