I read most of the reviews with Trip Advisor regarding this property. Some are overtly negative. I say..give it a rest. This is not the Ritz and if you expect it to be...you'll be disappointed. It is an updated albiet older property run by Marriott. Service and staff, all courteous and friendly. Pool lovely, right on the beach. Food - try the 3030 Restaurant whereas it is fantastic. Construction noise so many moaned about - non existent. I'd go back tomorrow.

My husband and I had a four night, post-cruise stay at Marriott Harbor Beach at the end of November 2006. I had read mixed reviews on Trip Advisor and was mainly concerned about noise from the nearby building site. I therefore booked a deluxe ocean front room in order to avoid this and, rather ironically, ended up closer to the building site! That said, we did not encounter any noise.

Our main problem was not with the location but with the service and attitude of many of the staff. Although the problems we encountered were seemingly minor or trivial, we experienced so many of them that it ruined both our impression of the hotel and our holiday. Consequently this review is rather long.

Upon arrival we waited quite some time to be attended to at reception. We were told that a room was not yet available, not a problem in itself as we were early. We were given an account number so that we could use the facilities and a pager so that they could contact us when our room became available. We presented a Marriot Premium Pounds coupon to be applied as a credit to our account, only to be handed the equivalent amount in cash. When I queried this I was brusquely informed that that was the way it was done.

We left our luggage at the bell stand and had literally walked no more than 50 metres from reception before we were paged to tell us our room was ready - a pleasant surprise. However we had to wait at reception again for quite some time before somebody bothered to come and attend to us. We went through the check-in procedure again only to discover, as we were given our keys, that we had been checked into the wrong room. After finally being given the correct room we returned to the bell stand to discover that our luggage had been tagged incorrectly and had therefore been misplaced.

After being in our room only a few minutes housekeeping arrived to ask when we were checking out - a little disconcerting when you have just checked in to a room which has supposedly just been made ready for your arrival. Shortly after that someone arrived to restock the mini-bar and we began to wonder whether the room had been serviced at all, particularly as the glass balcony doors were covered in smeared greasy handprints.

A little while later we received a phone call regarding the coupon we had presented at check in which, it seems, should have been applied to our account as a credit rather than paid out in cash, exactly what I had queried at check in. I informed them that we would come down later on our way to dinner, return the cash and have a credit applied to the account instead.

A few hours later I received another phone call from the front desk from a rude and obnoxious individual informing me that they had spoken to me quite some time ago and wanting to know when I was coming down to give them their money back. I hadn't realised that the Marriott was so strapped for cash that it had to resort to harassing guests, especially considering that we were paying $469.00 a night!

Having sorted out their mistake we went to dinner at Riva. We had booked an escape dining package which included breakfast and dinner. However, when we arrived at the restaurant we were met with blank stares when we mentioned this. The waitress was rather rude and intent on forcing us to try the buffet, despite the fact that we repeatedly asked to see the menu. Eventually we were able to order what we wanted. We were then presented with a bill and told we would have to sort it out with reception who, quite frankly, seemed unable to perform even the most simple of tasks without messing it up.

We then went to reception again to have the charge removed from our account and to query exactly what we are supposed to do when we have booked a package on their own website that none of the staff seem to know about. It turns out that we should have been presented with vouchers for dinner and breakfast when we checked in, which of course we weren't because the staff are all incompetent. Additionally, not one single member of staff in the restaurant bothered to mention that we needed to present them with a voucher.

After finally being given the vouchers my husband noticed that the all had the wrong date on. So, it was back to reception again for this problem to be sorted out. By sorted out I mean that someone crossed out the incorrect dates and scribbled on a new one. This meant that every single time we used one we were challenged about the change of date and treated like frauds whilst someone scuttled off to telephone reception and check up on us.

After being subjected to rude and incompetent staff and a catalogue of errors within the first hours we were understandably disillusioned with the hotel, extremely unimpressed and left hoping that things would get better.

However, the following day we returned to our room, late afternoon, to discover that housekeeping had not been, despite the fact that we had been at the pool all day. We went to reception to complain and asked that they get someone to come and clean the room whilst we were at dinner. We arranged that we would call reception to inform them when the room would be empty and available for cleaning.

We went back to our room to get ready for dinner and 10 minutes later housekeeping arrived to make up the room. We decided it was easier to vacate for an hour and go for a coffee than it was to attempt to get any kind of service or intelligent response from the staff at reception.

Sadly, this was not the only problem we encountered with housekeeping. The turndown service was practically non existant. We had only one evening out of the four nights we stayed where a couple of chocolates were thrown on the bed, which had not even been straightened, let alone turned down!

We also had a problem with a dripping bath tap that was never fixed depite reporting it to reception.

The hotel had many good points. It had a good beachside location. Our room was spacious and well appointed. The bathroom was large and well stocked with wonderful Nirvae products. The buffet breakfast in Riva was fantastic. The dinner menu in Riva was limited but everything we had was delicious and the portions were plentiful. We didn't find it expensive in comparison with other hotels or restaurants. We had lunch in the Spa Cafe one day which was a little pricey, but very good. Other days we had snacks from the bar near the pool which we thought were remarkably inexpensive.

Overall the hotel was good but our experience was marred by the very poor service we received from a lot of the staff, many of whom treated you as if you were a big inconvenience in their day. The exception to this was the staff at the concierge desk who were extremely friendly and very helpful.

We would not recommend this hotel and certainly would not consider staying there again. Fortunately we were only there for four days but it was enough to ruin our holiday.

My husband and I spent the 1st week of January at Harbor Beach. The room was very nice, loved the bed, TV, and found it to be very spacious with a fantastic view. The service was great and our meals were fantastic in the Riva restaurant. My only reservation about this hotel is the upcharging and food costs even though we knew that by reading previous reviews, it was still shocking to pay 50.00 for a sandwich, salad and two bottled water at the poolside "serve yourself" cafe.
I highly recommend renting a car if you have not seen much of Florida. We drove to Miami Beach & explored South Beach for a day which was quite fun.
In Fort Lauderdale itself, the water taxi was a good way to get around and I recommend Los Olas Blvd for some great shopping and restaurants. The Everglades were worth seeing even though I wasn't that interested in seeing an alligator, I have to admit I enjoyed it. Spending a day at the hotel Spa is also a must if you have the time.

I was at the HBR for Christmas this year - following a great stay last Chrtistmas. I was not disappointed but I was not thrilled either. Last year the hotel gave Elite guests beachbags, towels and invited them to a party. This year nothing....After CHristmas it was really, really crowded. All the acivities catered to children. They need some things for adults to do as well like they used to. They really nickle and dime you for everything so I think next year I will go somewhere I will feel appreciated. The "big" guy stays here over the holidays and I was looking for him to tell him how I felt (Mr. Marriott). He would have cared - the staff here did not care how I felt - and I have stayed here at least 10 times in 4 years.