Over a few weeks, stayed a total of maybe 10 nights in this hotel using points, certificates and paying for the room as well. The hotel is located on 17th Street opposite Port Everglades, and about one mile from the beautiful Ft. Lauderdale beaches.

The Renaissance has 12 floors of rooms along with a restaurant, lobby bar, meeting rooms and a ballroom. It's right across from Port Everglades and about 3 miles from Ft. Lauderdale airport.

This hotel has won AAA four-diamond awards for several years, and the restaurant is supposedly award winning. According to a hotel associate, those restaurant awards were won in past years when the place had a different name. If the restaurant is currently award-winning, the people bestowing such awards need to go to culinary school as the menu was rather limited and the service was lacking-even in an almost empty dining room.

Both times I was upgraded to a Club-level room with a view toward the port and the ocean. (You can see ships and the ocean, although it is a bit far away.) I arrived kind of late due to an Amtrak delay-about 9 PM. The lady at the desk was very nice. I had enough time to go up to the Concierge lounge to get a snack. I was so tired that I didn't bother to inspect the room until the following morning.

The room was a king room with a comfy bed, chair and ottoman, small table and a desk and chair. There was an armoire containing a mini-bar (which I didn't use) and a TV. The hotel offers a decent selection of channels including the Food network, A&E, a couple ESPNs and the like. The bathroom was average size, with the sink separate from the tub/toilet. Nice smelling toiletries and plenty of towels. There are 2 computers off the lobby, and one in the Club Lounge, with free internet access. Otherwise, it is Marriott's standard "wired for business" package that I believe was $9.95 per day here, for unlimited domestic local and long-distance calls, plus wireless (or wired) internet access. Also, there is a boarding pass kiosk at the front desk.

The room really was not very clean. Dust everywhere, improperly vacuumed floor, dirty towels, dirty glasses and basically yucky. I told the desk manager who promptly arranged to have it deep-cleaned. I really didn't want to change rooms s I liked the location. And, if I was going to move, I would just leave the hotel. They did buy me breakfast which, that day was very good, as was the restaurant service. Aside from the not-too-clean room, I wasn't impressed with either the service or the food in the Concierge lounge. At the time, there was no coffee, the food was low and the Concierge was missing in action. Eventually she returned and refilled everything. After that day, I had no problems with her and spoke to her at length over the course of my two stays there. I was very enlightened as to how some of the problems at the hotel arise! The rest of the stay was pleasant and I really didn't have many other issues. I didn't hear a lot of noise-a little bit from traffic (I was on both the 10th and 11th floors) and the noise from adjacent rooms was minimal. The only sounds I heard were from the room that connected to mine-through the connecting door. Generally, I won't take this type of room but as I checked in early, that was all that was available at the time on my second stay.

On that second stay, the major issue was trash that was left in the vending area on my floor for a total of 48 hours. It really started to stink. In fact, I brought this to the attention of the GM when I spoke with him about the problems I had the previous week. At that point, the trash was there for 24 hours. Conventional wisdom says that if you inform the GM of a hotel that there has been trash sitting around for a full 24 hours, it gets removed. Not true. Finally after I told the desk manager after 48 hours, it disappeared.

During this stay, the problems were with the food and service in the restaurant and lounge, which was funny since the week before, I recognized both the male and female bartenders for their friendliness. As the Club lounge is closed on weekends, and Marriott elite members are not given breakfast in the restaurant here as they are almost everywhere else, I ordered breakfast in the restaurant anyway. I had the lemon ricotta soufflé pancakes with raspberries and pine nuts. not bad, not great but, at a cost of $8.95, not a terrible deal. Coffee and juice are extra. I was told that there would be a buffet but it was not offered on this particular Saturday.

The restaurant does not have anything "light" to eat at dinner. If you want a sandwich, you have to eat in the lounge or order room service. I had a pizza. It was horrible, undercooked and frozen and pre made-not fresh. A four diamond hotel should not serve a pizza that is worse than Dominos! I told the male bartender, he said oh. Service in the bar can be excellent or inattentive depending upon the bartender. On this occasion, he was more interested in watching a movie than taking care of the few customers. I complained to the front desk since he couldn't be bothered, and they gave me a coupon for breakfast.

On Sunday I went down to eat around 8 AM. The manager was working the Starbucks stand in the bar area (available daily from 6:30-11:30 AM-coffees and pastries for a quick breakfast). There were only 2 occupied tables in the restaurant with four servers who were standing around doing nothing!. I stood there at the doorway for a full five minutes until the manager came over and scolded her team for ignoring a guest. She told me that since the hotel is cutting hours, she had to operate the Starbucks (not a real Starbucks store, just Starbucks stuff in the lobby bar.) A waiter grudgingly came over to seat me and was rather huffy. He hadn't been so nice the night before when I only wanted dessert in the restaurant as the pizza had given me indigestion! I said forget it-I have a free breakfast and I can't even get a table? I was permitted to order room service which arrived in a short amount of time. Bacon, eggs, normal potatoes, toast, juice and lousy coffee! The food was fine-wound up getting coffee from the Starbucks. Four diamond hotels do not ignore guests either!

I didn't use the pool but there are cabanas and big, comfy couch-like seats so it looks nice! Also, the bartenders (at least one of them) makes the rounds outside so you can order drinks.

The hotel is very close to the port. There isn't a free shuttle, but cabs are plentiful and I think that van transportation can be arranged. From Thursday-Sunday there is a trolley that runs from the Publix to the beach. It's 50 cents per person each way and you just wait near the bus stop and flag it down! Great way to get around. Also, the Broward buses stop right outside the hotel as well. For cruisers, or those in need of stuff, there are plenty of shops within walking distance. Walgreens, CVS, Publix, Winn-Dixie, a few liquor stores and lots of restaurants-everything from fast food to sit down. Giorgio's is good. It's very small, close by and offers Italian food. They only have 10 tables and it feels like you are eating in a deli with atmosphere. The food was good-I had a pizza but they offer all sorts of things, yet the service was bad. Could be because I was s solo female diner. My waiter was falling allover the groups and couples and ignoring me. The other waitress came over and when I went up to pay the check I told them that I was tired of waiting for the server to come back.

The Renaissance is due to be renovated next year (2008) and it needs some love. Some of the furniture is showing signs of wear and tear. Also, the place could be cleaner. I only saw the hallways vacuumed once, and it was only one floor! Dust and crumbs were all over the place! Rooms also need to be general cleaned. You could see a big build up of dust in corners and along the walls in both rooms I was in. You shouldn't see all sorts of dust all over the place, nor should you find lemon seeds on the floor in rooms in four diamond hotels! Rates vary widely so keep checking. I found a rate of $89 that was available for much of my first stay yet when I told the desk manager, she honored it, then the rate vanished. She wasn't sure how it got there. The AAA rate varies from $116-125, but can go as high as $200 per night-all within the same week. They do have a rate that includes breakfast, but is was $50 higher than the lowest available rate of $129. so unless you are feeding 4 people, $179 is not much of a deal.

The Renaissance Ft. Lauderdale is good for a pre or post cruise stay, or if you have business in the area. It isn't on the beach and is not a resort. If you are looking for that environment, check out the Harbor Beach Marriott about 1 mile away. It is currently being renovated but I checked it out and it seems that the renovations are being handled so as to cause minimal noise and inconvenience for guests. It's beautiful in any event! The Renaissance is much better than most hotels yet you can get a sense that the owners of the property really are trying to save money. More than one person working there told me as much! I would not be opposed to staying here again if cruising out of Port Everglades and if the rate was good. If you use hotwire, this is the only 4 star hotel in the Las Olas/Ft. Lauderdale/Port Everglades area so if you see it and it's around $80, it's worth it. (Now, when the Hyatt is done, that may change, but for now-it's the only 4-star in that area.) But, if the rate at the Harbor Beach Marriott was close, I'd probably go there for a change.

You could do better, and you could do much worse. Just don't expect too much!