I feel a bit lonely giving the Cavalier anything but an extreme rating, but my experience was more mixed:

The lobby and restaurant/cafe/bar are stylish and inviting. The guestroom, on the other hand, needed some renovation and scrubbing. The room was amply sized, without any amenities.

Service at the front desk and restaurant was excellent. But my room wasn't cleaned on the second day of my stay, even though I was out for over six hours after the maid's knock at 8:30am.

No need for valet parking (at $30/day), since the municipal parking garage (at $8) is just around the corner on 13th.

Location is excellent, with easy walking access to all of South Beach, nightlife, and the beach itself across the street.

We got to the Cavalier and they let me check in early without any charges- which was fantastic. They did automatically take my credit card to put a hold on it for "incidentals" which was frustrating- but this was Spring Break and though I am not a college student, I do look young.

The room was okay, nothing spectacular- basically what I expected (which was not too much). We got a great deal and were aware that this was not the Marriott. The location is SPECTACULAR! You walk across the street and hit the beach- it's amazing.

We had one problem and that was our Spring Break going neighbors had some domestic dispute turned violence issues from 5-7am. We repeatedly asked the front desk to call the police or tell them to be quiet (we didn't want to get involved!) but alas they didn't until about 7. So we asked for some sort of compensation. We were given excuse after excuse which was a little frustrating but we persisted and finally got almost 1 night's stay worth of compensation.

As far as the food at the restaurant- we never ate a meal there but we had their chocolate cake...TO DIE FOR! It was seriously amazing.

Not the place to lodge, look somewhere else. Dirty and nauseating. Expected the bedbugs to come out at any time. Being a South Florida resident I am appalled this hotel is permitted to be open for business. Take it from someone that travels extensively and has never encountered such an horrendous experience. Fortunately only had one night reservation.

We had a reservation at this hotel and later decided to cancel the trip. I called a week before arrival to cancel the reservation. They couldn't find me in the system either by confirmation number or by my name or by arrival date. The woman I spoke to said she couldn't cancel my reservation because I was not in the system. I told her I was concerned about being charged for no show because I had given my credit card number to them. She said since I was not in the system I shouldn't be charged and that I should call them if I did. Well, I was charged and I called and talked to the manager. He said he still couldn't find me in the system and that he will try to resolve this and call me back. He never did. Couple days later I called again and this time spoke with the same woman (her name is Lilian) and she denied ever having that conversation with me and she was rude enough to say that she is very busy and had no time to talk with me and that there was nothing she could do. I am disputing the charge with my credit card company. But I just wanted to put this story out here so people are aware of the kind of fraud and attitude they can have to end up dealing with.