I stayed at the Hotel for 4 days and except for the first night, the food service was terribly slow. At times it took 45 minutes just to be recognized. This was the case in all the different areas of the hotel that serve food. The food was prepared well and tasted fine. The service was well below average. I doubt that I will ever stay there again.

I have stayed at this property numeorus times when it was owned by Marriott. While it was many years ago, I was surprised to hear all of the negative commentary. Realizing it couldn't be that bad, I went ahead with the booking. Prior to traveling and hotel cancellation policies, I called the front desk to voice my concern on what I saw on this site. They seemed very professional and I had a strong feeling that this would be a good stay. We were here for extended weekend vacation at the same time as the previuos reviewer. She was right about the boat outside her room.. we had a bit of that with our view, even so, in many of the rooms I have stayed in at this hotel, the views are good.

The Good....
Staff: Excellent staff all around...very friendly and not too pushy.

Food/Bar: Again, very good. We liked the ice cream bars for sale at the pool. You are at a hotel, so we felt the prices were in line with comperable hotels/restaurants in the area.

Facility: Quite good. Looks like they are renovating many rooms so the decent rate we got will probably go up. The fitness facility was excellent and featured TVs on the cardio equipment. I don't even have this at my health/fitness center. Yes, the tower is being remodeled but there are still many rooms to be had. The pool was very nice!

Room: Beds were VERY comfortable, better than what we had on our honeymoon in Hawaii 7 months ago. Room looked great and always clean.

Location: Yes you are not by the beach. Big deal...the bus to the beach is 2 blocks from the hotel, there are hotel shuttles to/from the beach, and there is the water taxi, which drops off alomost on the hotel property. We were up toward the beach...not many nice looking properties up there anyways! Walk 10 minutes south (?) on SW 17th and there are many nice shops and restaurants, including Publix Grocery Store which was helpful as we packed lunch for the beach a few times.

Bad: Din't really see any glearing bad things here. Overall, this was a great extended weekend.

We were transferred to the Grande after terrible service at the Hyatt next door (hard to believe they are the same company).

The front desk manager (Gustav) was more than helpful. He was quick and consise.

Led to our room with a nice view of the yacht club. Then he called later in the morning to make sure our stay was agreeable.

Awesome service. More like a 4 star than a 3.5.

I stayed a week here for the FL Governor’s Hurricane Conference in May. The hotel was being renovated; so many rooms were not available, including the Towers. (Or so I was told.) I had requested an intercoastal water view, but then ended up with a Yacht parked right outside my 2nd floor balcony the entire week, so did not get much of a view. The front desk, valet and baggage attendants were all very nice. Food was okay (very expensive), except for one bad experience with a “rare” burger (had requested well done) by the pool bar. Water Bus stop is located right next to the hotel, which was very nice for traveling to areas like Las Olas and the Beach so you don’t have to worry about parking, but not as convenient as I would have liked since they only picked up once an hour.
The beds and pillows were very comfortable - a real plus for me, since I cannot stand hard beds. Also enjoyed the toiletries by Rusk...very nice smell and worked well with the shower pressure (which wasn't bad considering some hotels I've stayed.)
Overall not a bad hotel, but I did expect it to be a bit nicer (~$100 plus tax and $20/night for valet parking (self is $15))…maybe after the renovations are completed? Also, this hotel is NOT on the beach, but on the intercoastal and right across from the Convention Center – close enough to walk.