My parents and I arrived at the Renaissance Hotel on Friday, March 30, for a one-night pre-cruise stay. We were greeted by a very friendly bellboy, Ron, who helped us with our bags and showed us to our room on the 10th floor. It was the type we had booked (two queen beds), and it looked pretty clean and felt comfortable. We then asked Rob if there were any good places to eat around the hotel; he recommended Bravo, an Italian restaurant (but separate from the nationwide Bravo chain). It was in the same parking lot as the hotel, and the food was fantastic and reasonably priced (especially for the Fort Lauderdale area).

When we got back to the hotel, my dad and I decided to go swimming. The pool felt ridiculously cold (basically air temperature, and it got fairly cool that night), so we went to the hot tub and it was the same temperature! We asked a staff member about this problem; they replied that the heaters for both the pool and the hot tub were broken and wouldn't be repaired until Monday, April 2. That was a major disappointment; one of the biggest reasons we chose to stay there was the pool / hot tub. Then we noticed something else appalling about their pool area: THEY ALLOW SMOKING. All Marriott properties were supposed to have gone 100% smoke-free by October 2006, but apparently that doesn't include outdoor pools? My parents and I are non-smokers and get pretty irritated by smoke, so this bothered us quite a bit. (I also noticed that this smoking ban does not include areas just outside the main entrance; we got hit by tons of smoke every time we went in or out of the hotel.)

Unable to make use of their pool or hot tub, we went back to the room and I decided to get on the internet for a while. The Renaissance offers high-speed internet access for $10 a day, which seems kind of unnecessary considering that they charge hundreds of dollars a night anyway. Besides, one- and two-star hotels like Holiday Inn Expresses give you internet access for free; why should nicer hotels charge so much for it? But at least it was a reliable, fast wireless connection.

My dad is a silver Marriott Rewards member. One of the benefits of that level of membership is a late check-out upon request. He asked someone at the front desk if he could do that since we couldn't embark on the cruise ship until around 1 p.m., and they told him that he can but they'd prefer that he didn't, emphasizing that last part. (To be fair, he asked somebody else about that policy later and they apologized about the first response and said that it would be no problem at all.)

That evening, there was a knock on our door. My dad got up to look through the peekhole to see who it was, and... no peekhole! If that's not a security issue, I don't know what is. Turns out it was a hotel staff member coming by to deliver a copy of the next day's newspaper. While the door was still open, he noticed that there appeared to be a peekhole on the outside of the doors; looking again at the inside of our door, he noticed that there probably was a peekhole, but it was covered up by a sign on the door (see photo). I have to wonder if all the rooms are like that.

I took a shower that night. I wear glasses, so naturally, I take them off before getting in the shower; had I not done so, I probably would have seen all the mold and scum in the bathtub area and decided to wait until the first day of the cruise to shower. It was everywhere: the faucet, the bars, the towel rack, etc. (see photos). Then I saw the ring of mold around the top of the sink; I could see some of it plainly in the mirror, but when I got down lower and put the rim of the sink at eye level, I was disgusted at what I saw (see photo).

Since we were just staying for one night, we didn't need to use the closet, which is probably a good thing since we would have had a hard time doing so with one closet door off its track and leaning against the other (see photo).

On the bright side, the beds were comfortable, and the sheets looked clean. I liked the huge selection of pillows. I might have been able to get some sleep that night if it weren't for the extremely noisy A/C vent. Either it was off and we roasted, or it was on and we couldn't sleep for the constant tweeting of the vent.

In the morning, we went down for breakfast in the Bistro 17 Restaurant. It was $14 per person just for a continental breakfast buffet that was about a third the size of your typical Holiday Inn Express buffet (granted it also included a cooked-to-order omelette station - my ham-bacon-and-cheese omelette was delicious, as was the rest of the food).

The express check-out was a piece of cake - no problems at all there.

We took the hotel's shuttle to the cruise port; it was on time and cost $6 a person. A taxi would have been cheaper (just over $12 total, I believe), but the shuttle driver was very friendly, and we were the only ones in the shuttle. He was a great help with the bags, too; one of them was pretty heavy.

Overall, I'd say the Renaissance WOULD be an okay place to stay after each of the following changes were made:
- thoroughly removing all mold from the bathrooms
- removing the $10/day fee for internet access or local calls
- reducing the price of breakfast by a few bucks (while it was good, it just wasn't worth $14 each)
- moving the signs on the inside of the doors so that you can see out your peekhole
- banning smoking everywhere on their property, including the outdoor pool and areas within about 30 feet of the main entrance

Unless those changes are made, I will not stay there again; I'm sure there are better places in the area for less money, such as the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites that (as of the day I'm writing this review, April 8, 2007) is ranked #6 of all Fort Lauderdale hotels.

My husband and I stayed here for 5 nights (Mar 29 to Apr 3, 2007) for
a conference that was being held at the Broward Convention Center.

The hotel was nice, clean and close to all amenities (Convention center, restuarants and Port Everglades, great for a pre or post cruise stay).

Bed was comfortable and room was spacious. Staff were wonderful and attentive and seemed to enjoy what they were doing. They helped recommend some places to eat (all good by the way).

The pool isn't as big as it looks in some pictures but is decent. The only thing I didn't like was that it's right next to 17th Street which is very noisy. If they could have done a "180" on the design, it would have been perfect. The heater was broken and people complained that it was cold, I thought it was just fine, that could be the Canadian in me though - we like refreshing!!

We happened to be staying here while a cheerleading competition was going on - a group of kids aged 10 to 17 and their parents were at this hotel - and I could see how this would have disturbed quite a few guests that were not part of that group...they did somewhat
"take over" the pool area one day and left their garbage EVERYWHERE, there were even plastic cups and newspaper floating in the pool. The hotel did a great job in cleaning it up quickly, I was just a little perplexed at how rude some people could be - not mention it was mostly the parents - not even the kids - that were acting this way. They were also quite noisy running up and down the halls of the hotel - but they are kids and for the most part - just being kids - but where were the parents???

We are heading back down to Fort Lauderdale for a cruise in December and will most likely book this hotel again for our group (1 or 2 nights prior to sailing). We just hope the cheerleaders aren't there at this time!!

Stayed one night post cruise and booked through Hotwire.

Arrived on Sunday morning at 9:30. The lobby was full of cruisers both coming and going and also bustled with the activity of a very large wedding, which was taking place at 11:00.

We knew rooms would not be available but checked with the desk anyway. We were given an I. D. card of sorts, which would advise any waitstaff that we were checking in and could post charges to our room.

We then checked all our bags with a valet named Sam. He was extremely cordial and efficient. He made sure all bags were tagged and that we had a claim check for each.

We were then off to the water taxi and to spend the day on Las Olas. Returned to the hotel about 2:30 and were able to check in.
We had to wait about 40 minutes to have our luggage brought to the room, which we thought was a fairly long time.

My husband enjoyed the pool area. The area is full of new loungers and very colorful cabanas and is very nice. I used the business center to check e-mail and also used the hotel's computer terminal at the front desk to print boarding passes. This is a nice feature and new since we last stayed here in 2005. The outside area is beautifully kept and the flowers are lovely.

Our room on the 9th was spacious with a very comfortable bed. Furnishings are nice and look fairly new. Bathroom was spacious and clean. The only thing out of place was a pair of someone else's underwear found in the closet!! This was a little creepy but I know the hotel tries to turn these rooms very quickly on the weekends.

Enjoyed a Starbuck's coffee at the lobby bar and a couple of drinks later on. We did not find the prices too exhorbitant for a hotel.

The staff is very friendly at the Renaissance. We almost couldn't get away from the front desk at one time since the staff was so chatty. It was nice to be treated so nicely!

We had a very early flight time and received our 2:30 A. M. wake up call right on schedule. We also requested a cab for 4 A. M.(the night before) and it was right on schedule.

I was interested to see if we would be treated any differently since we had booked through Hotwire this time opposed to booking directly with the hotel previously. I can report that the treatment was exactly the same. I guess it it always better to book rooms at lower rates than to have them empty.

The good news is that this is a lovely hotel in a good location , and the beds are nice. The bad news is that the walls are paper-thin and you can hear phone conversations and televisions clearly. The hotel's solution is to keep moving you around to find a "quieter" room. After our 3rd room change we stuck it out for the night,

The hotel e-mailed us a request form (I requested a refrigerator and a feather pillow) but they were never delivered to our original room. The desk staff seemed uninterested in assisting us. We won't be back.