I learned in September 2010 that I needed to travel to the Coral Gables area from Oct. 27 through Nov. 5. I have stayed in Coral Gables in the past (twice in the late 1990s), at a nice hotel in the north end, but a bit of research showed that the hotel in question has since changed hands and is now pretty expensive; I lost interest in it quickly.

So, I did a very comprehensive web search for god but relatively inexpensive hotels in the Coral Gables area, and I kept being drawn to the Gables Inn website. Within 12 hours of having completed my research, my gut sense told me to make a reservation only at the Coral Gables for my upcoming stay in the Miami area; I believe, if I remember correctly, that I prepaid for the stay online via the hotel website to get the cheapest rate.

My stay in the hotel turned out to be wonderful. This is definitely not a 5-star hotel, and it it is not priced as one either, but it provided all the basics, plus some nice amenities that I did not expect. The room was large and spacious and meticulously clean, and while the bathroom showed a bit of age, it was clean and very workable. The desk clerks and the owners were very friendly, as were other guests whom I sometimes bumped into in the lobby when I visited the front desk.

Some of the nights during my stay were rather chilly, and the heat pump portion of the window air conditoner/heater was more than adequate to keep my room very warm, despite the fact that I had windows on both sides of the room open a bit all day and all nite.

About the only negative thing that I can think of is that the room, when I first arrived, smelled rather strongly of chlorine bleach, and I assumed at first that this was likely due to the fact that the housecleaning staff perhaps scrubbed the sparkling tile floors with chlorine bleach (I dealt with the smell by opening the windows a bit.) However, I quickly noticed that the chlorine smell grew more intense after each of my morning showers, and a bit of snooping around and sniffing the tap water showed me that the local municipal tap water seemed to be heavily chlorinated, and that my morning showers were releasing sufficient chlorine gas into the room to create the smell. I guess that anyone who lives in a house that uses chlorinated municipal water would already be familiar with ths phenomenon, but it was all new to me, as I live in a pristine wilderness area in the Appalachian mountains in the mid-Atlantic coast, and our water is fresh unprocessed mountain well water, and so I was and am rather unfamiliar with heavily-chlorinated municipal water!

Before closing, I must also note that there is a great little Mexican taco/burrito joint located just a short walk to the north, and just a few yards further north is Don Pan, an excellent Venezualan bakery/breakfast/lunch cafe that is simply amazing. I walked to each of them almost every day for breakfast and lunch, and sometimes dinner as well.

Overall, I really liked this hotel, and I plan to stay here each time that I return to the Coral Gables area on my trips, and I happily informed the very friendly owners of the hotel (who seem to be two Indian brothers, one of them an engineer-turned-hotelier) of that fact as I checked out on my last morning before heading to the airport.

My memories of this hotel and of the immediate area are all positive, and I would recommend this hotel in a second to someone looking for a relatively inexpensive hotel in the Coral Gables area.

Terrible hotel!! Complained at check out about bed bugs found in my bed after room service came, management only gave us $20 off and a appology. They Refused to give us a larger refund because of "maintenance expences". This came from the owner!!!

We booked this room because it was the closest place we could find to stay to arrive early the next morning for surgery. The first room we were put in, after the desk person played with the computer for over 5 minutes selecting a room, was bare. We turned on the heat (reverse cycle AC on wall), and it caught on fire, setting off the fire alarm. We were transferred to another room, and the desk clerk didn't even go back to that room as far as I know, maybe to check on the fact that there might still be a fire after we quickly turned off the AC.

It was a cold night in Miami. There were no hangers, no blankets, TV didn't work, hard bed and flat pillows, no amenities such as a hair dryer or coffee pot (which would have helped with the basically unheated room). The heater worked about 5 minutes, then cut off. We tucked clothes under the sizeable gap at the door to keep the coldwind out. I slept under my coat for warmth.

The next morning I tried to take a shower, and could not get even warm water after running the water for 3 minutes. Water rationing concerns prevented me from running the water any longer, so we had to go unshowered to surgery. When I complained to the front desk that there was no hot water, he said that I should have run the water for 10 minutes, and then it would get hot, because they had a propane Instant Hot water system. Laughable!

There was NO concern about the fire in the first room, as the morning desk clerk didn't even know about it. They refused to reduce our payment because of fire, lack of hot water, blankets, TV didn't work, etc.

This place should be shut down. This is next to the worst place we have ever stayed. The worst was an "hourly hotel" we were put into as Red Cross volunteers after a Florida Hurricane!!!!

Although we had booked for 2 nights, we checked out to chance getting another place. We were DELIGHTED to find Kendall Inn and Suites, right next to Baptist Hospital, only $10 more, and we got a discount, Happy Hour, free full breakfast, marble and granite, countertops, mini-bar, coffee maker with coffee, huge TV, luxury linens, all amenities expected in bath, great HOT shower, balcony, blackout curtains, free internet access, close parking, friendly service, very comfortable bed with lots of fluffy pillows, and down comforter.

What can Trip Advisor do to be sure that NO ONE recommends this deplorable hotel?
To have a rating of 10 our ot 14 Miami Hotels is a disservice to your readers who rely on you for advise. Thank you.

If you're in town for a quick trip, I would suggest staying here. I wasn't keen to stay here after reading some of the reviews on the property, but for the price and the convenience it was worth. The room we got was really clean; I've been in places where I've really regretted paying more for what I thought would be a great stay. I have friends at UM which is just accross the street and they recommended it.