If you're thinking about staying here, it's probably a better idea to just pitch a tent in the middle of Collins Ave and take your chances. We booked a room at the Continental for a girls weekend in Miami, fully realizing that when you're on South Beach you won't be staying in the room much anyway so it just needs to have the basics etc etc. Unfortunately, we didn't even get the basics.

This place was highly recommended by my trip roomie as she had stayed here before and loved the location and pool. When booking, she was told that there were a "few renovations" taking place so the pool might be closed and they would be working on some of the rooms. Gross understatement. When we got there, most of the hotel was visibly boarded up, and it was even difficult getting into the main entrance due to yellow tape, traffic cones, and construction vehicles. The entire lobby was boarded up, so there was basically a walkway from the elevators, past the front desk, and out the front door and that was it. The elevator was broken/stuck for a while when we were there. We had to huff and puff our way up 4 flights of stairs twice due to this. The pool was actually open but the entrance to it was closed due to construction, so you couldn't even get to it on property--you had to walk out of the front of the hotel, down to the corner of 18th Street and around the corner to the back entrance. This was a mile hike.

On Friday we went to the beach and afterwards came back to the room to take a nap. When we woke up and started getting ready to go out, we noticed that although the room had been cleaned they didnt leave us any towels. We called the front desk to ask for some. They told us they didnt have any, housekeeping had already "gone for the night", and that all the rooms were occupied so there was no vacant room to get towels from. Are you kidding me? There is no way the entire hotel was full, actually more than half of the rooms were empty due to the construction. Plus, what hotel runs out of towels? And the kicker--the hot water heater went out earlier that day so when it was time to take showers, SURPRISE! We didn't get the hot water back until the following afternoon.

What bothers me the most is that Continental personnel knew there would be EXTENSIVE repairs taking place, so instead of telling customers they were doing "a few repairs" they should have closed the hotel down for a few days while the bulk of the work was done. It is obvious that they were trying to squeeze every dime out of unsuspecting guests while offering poor customer service, no lobby, faulty elevators, cold showers, inadequate housekeeping, and a mile hike to the swimming pool. Renovations to this extent take away from the guests' experience, and staff should be notify guests upfront. I won't be returning even after these renovations are done!

If you guys a looking for a perfect location, a cheap place to stay and the beach is right in your back yard then this is the place. If you're looking for luxury this is not it! But I stayed here w some friends for about 5 nights and it was ok, nothing fancy but good enough to come shower, get some rest in, and under budget. It's not as bad as people make it seem, its not like you are going to spend most of your time in the room anyway, come on it Miami !

We stayed for 2 nights in this hotel and to say I was dissapointed was rather an unserstatement, even the Hotel name was falling apart & we nicked named it the 'Ontinental' - Rooms were sparse and shabby, bed linen had seen better days and the service was much the same, wheeby the staff wee not in the least interested in their quests. There was no atmosphere in this hotel at all. it was a good job we were moving on after 2 days as I really could not have stayed another night there. Needs a big update.

I am a local and do allot of bike riding on the brickwalk between 5th St and 21st. Every time I ride behind this hotel I wonder how anyone would be scammed into staying in what appears to be an old third world hotel. No landscaping at all and a lawn full of weeds in the pool area. An discombobulated awning that is torn off so only the skeleton is there. With so many beautiful hotels as neighbors, the owners/management of this place should be embarrassed.