The Harbour Beach Hotel was everything we had hoped for and more. Fort Lauderdale is fantastic. Rooms were clean, spacious and well laid out, the hotel and grounds were all superb too. We loved the location also but I wouldn’t recommend it to people that don’t have a car. Despite initial rumours, the hotel restaurant and bars are not as expensive as we had feared; they are fairly average for a Florida hotel. A couple of minor niggles – 1. If you book with virgin take a print out or brochure with you as they will try to charge you for parking. 2. The car-park attendants are too busy on their mobile phones instead of seeing what you want. 3. The business/holiday mix of clientele is a little odd.
In summery this is a lovely holiday location and a very nice hotel. Compared to the other package deals available to UK travellers this really is quite a bargain.

Dear Future customers, From a Platinum member of The Marriott
Group (+75 days a year at Marriott Hotels)

Well, just got back from this Hotel and would like to share some info about past reviews !

1, it's more of a family Spa ! There are very few areas for relaxe time because this hotel does cater to the family crowd !

2, The Spa is very nice ...wonderfull escape from the crowd at the beach ..but again a place to just relaxe and enjoy the tranquility !

3, the people complaining about the rooms ! Well, make sure they understand that you are a guest of this Hotel and want
a fair treatment ! I had them change my room twice because I wanted a better view ! No problem they did it !

4, if you do have a car use it to your advantage ! Go to the local food store and have the Hotel deliver a small fridge to your room ! I did it and they where very happy to inform of this service!
Got some very good wine and some fresh fruit and some wraps and stuck them in the fridge !
Again bought a small travel pack filled it with ice ,,and had some nice Chardonnay wine right on the beach ...while everybody else where paying $11,20 for a glass of wine !!!
In the morning I would have fresh fruit and yogurt and did the Starbuck coffee which is located to the right of the elevators !

5, Taking the Troley is a very good and inexpensive way to travel around if by chance you do not have a rental car !
If you want to travel ...taxi's are pretty expensive $15,00 to Los Alos Blvd and that is one way !!!

6, Los Alos is a great place for Food, Shops, Local artist , etc...
Another interesting area is Galleria Mall ! Really good Food, Shops i.e. Louis Vuiton, Armani, etc...

7, The water taxi is Fun ! for $11,00 you see very up-scale houses $15-20 million !!!! and you see all the great canal system Fort Lauderdale is World renowned for !

8, Enjoy the beach ....take a walk ! The water is good and the sand is nice and clean !

Fort Lauderdale is not Boca nor South Beach ...Been there done that scene ...but it's less tourist and very friendly !

Enjoy your stay !

Spagats

My family and I spent 3 days (2 nights) at the Harbor Beach Marriott early this April. I have 3 young children (4, 7, 8)

The location is perfect and the pool and beach areas are great.

The rooms are dated and for the price we paid ($459.00) per night, not acceptable. Even though the hotel is non-smoking, our room had a very distinctive smoke smell. The front desk was no help in finding a solution.

We could not get chairs by the pool, since the pool area was occupied by non-hotel guests. We did not know this when we booked but the Marriott sells pool and beach club memberships to local residents of the Ft. Lauderdale area. Great deal if you're a local. Not so great if you are a hotel guest.

It was almost impossible for our kids to swim in the pool since we could not get close to it to supervise them. Even though 40% of the chairs seemed available, people "reserved" them and staff did not appear willing to uphold the 60 minute use it or lose it rule.

The beach was less crowded, but the hotel charges for use of its chairs on the beach, even though we were paying guests of the hotel. The nickle and dime part of this hotel gets to you after a few days.

The food was average but the restaurant staff was very good.

We dealt with the front desk twice, and both times the service was almost rude and very unprofessional.

We will not stay here again and if you have children, I recommend somewhere else.

Stayed there a few weeks ago. The hotel has beautiful rooms and a gigantic pool. Most of the rooms have either an ocean view or a pool/ocean view. We had the p/o view and would not have paid extra for the full ocean view. Beware as the other rooms have views on a construction site or a parking.

The Oceans Restaurant is one of the best we've ever been to. Its expensive but worth it for at least one supper. The breakfast buffet is also amazing (expensive) and they have a little restaurant by the pool which is fine for lunch and drinks. They also have a Starbucks in the hotel which is great for a quick latte and muffins.

The hotel is very pricey (we paid more than 400$ a night) and we were disapointed that this did not include the parking , meals,pads on the chairs or any sort of perk. Everything is extra so beware if your budget-conscious. The parking is 23$ US per day. If you have to go out a lot by car, it ends up being pricey. Pads on chairs are 10$ a day, umbrellas 15$ and so on.

Staff was friendly and very professionnal.

The hotel is a long walking distance (about 25 -35 minutes) from the main FLauderdale Beach area and the Las Olas boulevard which has restaurants and shops which is not very convenient if you're not the stay-at-the-hotel-all the-time type.

They seemed to have a nice kids program but at the time we went there, the ocean was very wavy and I would not have let my child go in there. However this is is the case with almost all of Florida's East Coast and not particular to this hotel. The West Coast has calmer waters. The amazing pool compensates for that in this case.

We had decided to choose this hotel because it was one of the only one that was beachfront and had a great pool but next time we will try the Hilton which is better located for our needs and just across the street from the beach with nothing blocking the view.

I would recommend this hotel for business conferences or older couples but not necessarily for families or younger couples.