...some staff there can very easily ruin the Hilton brand.

Stayed there for a late night arrival before heading out to Key West the next morning. The hotel is located ideally to the mall, is very comfortable and offers decent views of the Inter-coastal. The front desk staff and valet was very accommodating, but one of the workers from the kitchen (who obviously has no business interacting with guest) was very confrontational to us as we put items in our truck that was inappropriately parked (as stated by him) by the valet.

I would not discourage anyone from staying at this location but I would encourage management to be very careful with letting some of there staff that know the least amount about good customer service to interact with guest.

Other than that, it's a good hotel, although a little sedate - We will probably look for another Hilton in Ft Lauderdale the next time we're there that is near more restaurants and entertainment venues.

We have stayed a couple of times in Ft. Lauderdale but never in this hotel. We found it a very positive experience. We believe the location is great for a family. It is very close (about 200m) to the Galleria Mall which has an excellent food court for lunch and dinner and it is very convenient located with a 400m walk to the beautiful beach. The rooms are absolutely perfect for a family with a full kitchen, living room and bedroom. We are two adults and two children at the age of 6 and 8. The front desk staff was extremely friendly and helpful with pretty much everything. We order quite a lot of stuff from Ebay and it was not a problem to order it to the reception of the hotel. The warm, complementary cookie at check in was very appreciated, especially from our kids. Also very convenient with the water taxi at the canal-side of the hotel. A nice “small” Starbucks in the lobby was also very good.

A couple of downsides though, although they didn’t spoil our overall experience. The swimming pool in the back could be warmer…I don’t know if something was broken or so, but was definitely not warm enough. The valet parking was about 24$/day….very pricy! (we stayed 12 nights so it costs a lot). I am also a firm believer of free Internet service at all hotels, it is 2012! It was free in the reception but not very convenient to go down there every time to get connected.
Overall we would love to come back and we will definitely recommend this hotel to others.

I stay in this area frequently for work and since I'm a Gold HHonors member - I try to only stay in Hilton properties. With that being said I really like the Hilton Fort Lauderdale and after three stays I decided I wanted to try something new out for the sake of trying something new. Here's the plusses and minuses for my particular situation:

Plusses
1.) Food is delicious in the onsite restaurant. I was one of maybe two or other tables there both of the nights that I ate dinner. Truly delicious food and attentive servers.
2.) Valet is slightly quicker, but the lot is also very close. They helped me with my bags one day, but just kind of left me floundering on another.
3.) Kitchen is slightly larger, but same quality
4.) Quieter room - I didn't hear any of the horns that I had read about from the bridge opening and closing, but I did hear a voice telling boats the bridge would be closing twice. I also think this room was quieter because I slept with the door closed (in minuses below.)
5.) The view at the Hilton is a full front on ocean view, while at the Gallery One (from my 12th floor room) I could view the ocean and the intracoastal and a variety of interesting (what I assume) residential buildings. I couldn't see the sun rise, but it was still quite a beautiful view.
6.) Taking nothing away from the workers at the Hilton - The workers at Gallery One seemed more cheery and open to asking me how things were going. Very close, but yes Gallery One takes this one.

Minuses (Again for my situation)
1.) The room is too large - I know many prefer large rooms, but I like loft/open-style rooms since it's just me.
2.) Really nothing to walk to. Again - I travel alone and at the Hilton I can easily walk to various restaurants on A1A even after the sun sets and I don't think twice about it. Gallery One is next to a mall with various food options, but it's a creepy looking, lonely walk from the front of the hotel to this mall. It's not a far walk by any means, but not one that I will do when by myself after a glass or two of wine and the sun has gone down.
3.) The workout center is HORRIBLE! It's like Gallery One remembered after the entire hotel was complete to add a workout center. It's clean and the machines are high quality, but overall the workout facility was a joke. There were 3 treadmills, one elliptical, a bike and some free weights. All this with a view of a glass block wall. I could barely last 45 minutes - it was so uninspiring. The Hilton hotel fitness center has a view of the ocean and feels like a legit workout center that was actually planned during the construction of the building. When working out this is where one would want to spend their time not at the Gallery One's hidden workout center shoved into some back room on the second floor.
4.) There's only one restaurant, but as I noted above the food is much better at this one restaurant than at the Hilton's main restaurant (but Hilton seems to have a third restaurant underway.)
5.) Not all rooms at Gallery One have balconies connected to the balconies of other rooms, but my room did. This meant that I did not feel comfortable sleeping with the windows open. Curtains yes, window no.
6.) Bathroom was not as luxurious as the Hilton. No tub and while similar - the Hilton just has a much better layout and finish.
7.) The room was clean, but I find the Hilton cleaner.
8.) Breakfast options for Hilton Honors members 100x better at Hilton. You can get Starbucks, Odwalla Smoothies, Odwalla Bars, Fresh Fruit - high quality stuff to go or to stay or you can eat onsite at the Hotel restaurant. GalleryOne gives Hhonors members a continental breakfast and a very disappointing up charge fee of $5 to get the hot items. This seemed like a very petty charge and it is very disappointing that the entire breakfast is not offered to Hhonors members at no charge. Do you know how much money I spent at your hotel and now you want to charge me $5 for a scoop of powdered eggs. What a joke and minor rant end :)

I will stay at the Gallery One again ONLY if the Hilton Fort Lauderdale rates go up too much in high time. Otherwise - I don't see a personal reason to stay at Gallery One again. Well maybe I would if I had 3 or 4 people with me - and for some rather odd reason we needed to share a room - but if it's me and my DH then we'll also stay at the Hilton.

Happy Travels!

Very nice suite hotel close to beach, Galleria mall and intra coastal canal. No need for rental car. Five minute walk to beach and Galleria Mall. Nice area on beach with a couple of shops and bars. Not too many. The mall is a bit upscale but has a good varirty of stores including Macy's and Dillard's. Our room had a view of the draw bridge and we found it interesting. Noise from bridge and traffic was minimal. Hotel service was good. Restaurant service was good and food tasty. Breakfast buffet was good but monotonous and about 20.00 which is about norm for Hilton. Could easily walk to mall to eat. At night there was a "golf cart" giving rides in the area for 2 or 3 dollars if you did n't want to walk. The Sun trolley passed out side hotel as well. The water taxi was interesting and fun. I would do it once and definitely not as a means of transportation. It takes long to and from destinations and it appears that there are different routes - some go downtown and some go to Gallery One when you are returning. If time is important jump in a taxi.
I would stay here again.