First off let me say I very rarely right reviews, only when a place is super special and only when a place is very bad! This hotel falls under bad! My husband and I stayed here for our 15yr anniversary. Based upon reviews we read about this hotel we were very excited to splurge and stay at this upscale boutique hotel! First off it is very hard to find, tucked away in the corner of the road with no big signs. Once we valet, we checked in, there is alot of staff just standing around doing nothing but looking pretty. After a 3 hour convertible ride up from the keys, my husband and I were dressed casual and hair a little wind blown, the looks we received upon check in were just plain rude. Why? because we weren't dressed to the nines in the middle of the afternoon? next they ask you for a credit card to hold until check out, which is typical, however what they don't tell you is they PRE CHARGE your credit card $250 for any hotel incidentals you 'might' have. And this hold on your credit card stays until days after your departure. It's ridiculous! We get to our room and it's very nice and unique (I'll give them that), but for a $684 night stay I expected a view of something other than a roof and a small sliver of the ocean. After we freshened up a bit we decided to explore the grounds. First and foremost, the splash pool and bar on the 9th floor is a complete joke! The pool was filthy and the bar was completely closed down for the day (this was 4pm). Come to find out it is only open certain days and certain hours. This is also another place where we received stares, I guess our swim wear wasn't grand enough! So, we decided we would head downstairs and try the other pool. oNce again , it was deserted and not a drink to be had insight. We walked thru the 'garden' which is a bunch of weeds and a deserted bar with some broken down wooden chairs, and some xmas lights. The bar was closed as well! What the heck. Everything they advertise on their website is a joke. The only place we could find a drink was inside at the restraunt bar and we certainly weren't dressed to go in there. At this point I just wanted to shower and get out of this hotel and start our night out on the town. When we were getting ready we requested the ever so popular drink while you get ready that they advertise. I can't tell you how that was becasue our bartender never showed up to our room to make our drink. Our night out was very fun and when we returned to the room we did notice they came in for a turn down service which was a nice touch. I decided that tomorrow is another day and we should start fresh again. So, the next morning we showered ( they give you cowshed products to use, while the bottles are huge , the products are not that great). After getting dressed we went downstairs for breakfast. Once we were seated we noticed something very interesting. We were seated in a section where there were other men and women eating. Across the way there was another section of seating where only men and men ate or woman with women! While I can't prove it, it was very clear that they sat gays in one section and hetersexuals in another section. How very rude!! Seriously? Let me start by saying I support gays and have several family memebers who are gay and are married. They would be insulted to stay at a place like this where they are seperated. Another thing the reviews on this site fail to tell you is that this hotel was mostly gay people (not that I have a problem with that, it's totally fine). Me and my husband were definetly a minority. Having said that, there was alot of PDA, both with straight and gay people, so this is not a hotel for children!! I'm getting side tracked here - breakfast was horrible. our Italian accent speaking waiter was rude, rude, rude! our breakfast was small and overpriced. i ordrered a side of bacon for $9 and they sent out 3 pieces of burnt, burnt bacon. I asked my waiter if this was the typical way they served their food and if he would eat it like this. He of course said no, and I said...then why would you deliver this to my table and expect me to eat it?! I just can't express enough how much the service sucked here. My last review will be the only positive one. Their beach service was awesome! I give credit where credit is due. The towel and chair boys were friendly and happy to get us set up immediately. We were givena cooler with oranges and fresh water which was an awesome touch. We got our own watering can to sprinkle the sand off your feet before sitting on your chair. anther nice touch. They gave you magazine options. They came around and served a tray of nice cold watermelon slices, so nice on a hot day!! At that point I just wanted to live on the beach for the day because this is what I envisioned the hotel stay to be like. If you take anything away from this review, there are so many other better options in miami to stay. if you do get sucked into this hotel by all the good reviews like I did, book the cheapest room you can find. Who cares what your view is like when the hotel service sucks!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.