I stayed 3 nights at the Intercontinental West Miami for a business trip. The location was convenient as it was close to the offices I was visiting. However, beware that the hotel is directly in the continuation of one of MIA airport runways, therefore, aircrafts fly low and frequently right above the hotel. It did not disturb me to sleep, but at the swimming pool, there was quite a lot of noise. Otherwise, the rooms are very clean, very large (American standard), well equipped and the staff is friendly. In summary a good business traveller's hotel.

We overnighted at this hotel on our way home from Key West in July 2007. The rooms are very nice and clean - really comfy king size beds! Excellent access to MIA - the shuttle runs hourly.

Be sure to check the hotel website before making reservations through a third party - we saved about $20/night by booking direct - paid less for this hotel than for the B&B we stayed in at Key West - $112/night.

Would not hesitate to recommend this hotel to anyone.

This was not the short drive from the airport touted by the website.
The shuttle runs once per hour during daylight hours only, so you may have a long wait to catch it, then a long wait in traffic before arriving. The hotel itself was quite nice, very clean and comfortable. The people at the desk were helpful and seemed knowledgable. The problem was the only restaurant on the property, which was pretty awful, although I must say the food was very good. How could this be? Well the service was awful. A completely empty restaurant, we stood at the entry more than ten minutes as the staff walked around inside talking to one another and ignoring us. Once seated (oh yes, we're open...) another very long, long wait for sometone to take our order, bring water, etc. On top of that, even though it clearly states on the menu that gratuity is added on bills for five or more people, they added two gratuities to our party of two's bill. I didn't notice till I looked at the bill later that there were three gratuities, my own and their two. That made my $16. hamburger and soda more than $36. Since there were no other restaurants within sight, I foolishly ate breakfast there the next morning and got another two gratuities put on my bill. By the way, cereal and milk is $12. If you want anything with eggs it's at least $16.00 (before the add-on gratuities and sales tax.)

The front desk was nice about taking my own gratuity off the check upon check-out but said the restaurant was a separate entity and she could not change the prices or gratauities they added. Oh yeah, AFTER
the gratuitis were added, then they added sales tax to that. I checked and found out that in Florida you are not allowed to charge tax on gratuities which is a payroll item, however they do it anyway.
Because of the restaurant experience, I felt very ripped off so I did not have a good experience.

If you stay there, it would be much better to take a cab or the complimentary shuttle to another restaurant. There are several about one mile way.

I stayed one night before leaving on a once-a-day early morning flight to a remote Bahamian Island. Due to the international boat show being in town, I couldn't even get Priceline to accept a bid on a 4 star for less than $239 over the course of a week's bidding. The Intercontinental is NOT worth that, even on a sunny day, which mine was not!

The airport shuttle service runs only once an hour, when and if they feel like it to the airport. The drivers take side trips to rental car lots with people who aren't even staying at the hotel, making what should be a 10 minute trip run into an hour-long airport route circuit. Shady dealings. Taxis are exorbitant and purposefully slow, as they run on meters in that direction west of the airport, rather than on a flat rate like towards the Atlantic and SoBe. Several VERY short cab rides cost me $12-$20 a piece. I didn't rent a car due to the "airport hotel with shuttle" billing, which is far from reality.

Just a few miles away from the hotel is the Dolphin Mall, which is like traveling to the third world! Spanish is the native language there, and although I speak fairly fluently, it just isn't right! The feel and look of the mall, even though it includes familiar brand stores, is of a Tijuana or Cancun bazaar.

The end of Miami surrounding the hotel is warehouse central, but there is a mediocre McDonalds across the very busy highway-like street, which I highly recommend. It's WAY better than the cafeteria-like fare you'll get at the Intercontinental. Don't venture near a buffet! They take the leftovers from the convention caterings and re-serve the crusty, old concoctions to anyone foolish enough to venture in. Plus, the quality is industrial can grade to start! Everything is room temperature and non-appetizing. When queried, I said my food was NOT good, but I got a shrug and a refilled water glass instead of an offer to make things right.

WiFi doesn't work in the rooms, for me or for all the other guests with whom I conversed, and I spent a good part of the afternoon trying to figure out why with a "tech support" person in the midwest, with whom I finally got connected by the front desk. Oh, and the staff are all wildly young, all new to the hotel, all outrageously inexperienced in the hospitality industry, and all completely non-solution-oriented. That's IF you can get them to answer at all.

The physical plant of the hotel is 3 stars tops. That's because of the nicely landscaped small pool in the back courtyard, a mediocre fitness center, the non-functioning business center, the gift shop, and the decent sized rooms and bathrooms with large sink counters. However, due to the inept staff, rotten food, and aggravations, the hotel plummets to a 1 very quickly.