Upon returning from my annual "Girls' Weekend Trip" where we stayed in Miami Beach at The Palms Hotel & Spa, I decided to wait a few weeks before writing my review because we had such mixed experiences there. After giving it some thought, I ranked the Palms as average and the following is why:
Upon arrival at The Palms, the bellmen immediately ran out to our taxi and gathered our bags from the taxi's trunk and handed us our bag claim ticket. No problem there. We then had a smooth check-in for our rooms and then went to head up to then when we found out that a couple of the hotel's elevators were broken - this wasn't a good sign. This caused a true traffic jam of people waiting to take the elevator up. Additionally, it didn't appear that the hotel had a service elevator - so the housekeeping staffs, bellmen with luggage carts and guests were are vying for the same operating elevators. My friends and I went to our respective rooms (Between 8 of us, we had booked a bank of 4 rooms.) Well, nearly an hour passed and still no delivery of our bags - the front dest had said they would be delivered shortly. We decided to call down to the bellmen area - and we promised they would be up shortly. Time passed, still no bags. So we decided to go down to see for ourselves. The elevators were now all working. Went to the luggage area and no, our bags had not been on the way up - they were still sitting there. We asked for our bags - to which the bellmen looked as if he was waiting for a tip - which we gave - he then got our bags and didn't even make the pretense of taking them to our rooms for us - we wented up carting them up ourselves - Really not a good sign of our hotel choice.
The rooms - out of the 4 rooms that we reserved for the weekend - 2 rooms were very nice in size decent sized bathroom facilities. The other 2 rooms were not - much smaller and the smallest bathrooms ever. These smaller rooms had what we referred to as a "toliet sink" - meaning on top of the toliet tank was a sink - the strangest thing ever - so small that you could barely wash your hands in it. Also, both of these rooms had problems with their toliets continously running and maintenance had to be called in over our stay. (All rooms had minimal bathroom counter space.) While 2 of the rooms were way less desirable than the other 2, the room prices were all the same. Which leads me into the room cost.
Out of the 11 years of "Girls' Weekends" in various parts of the US (NYC, Chicago, Park City, Key West, San Fran, etc.) - our rooms at The Palm were the highest price we ever paid per night - approx. $ 380 per night including tax & resort fees. While this seems to be the average for Miami Beach, $ 380 a night for our overall experience at The Palms is really not justified.
Housekeeping - When housekeeping showed up and actually cleaned the room, they did a good job. Out of the 4 rooms reserved during the weekend - each of our rooms missed getting cleaned at least once.
Hotel Restaurant - Very good food and reasonable prices (for a resort hotel).
Hotel Lounge & Bar - Good food at reasonable prices. Okay drinks at high prices - Beware of asking for Cosmos made with Absolut Vodka - $ 20.00 (tip included)
Pool Area & Private Beach - These are really the highlights of The Palms - beautiful beach area and very nice pool area. Very enjoyable - felt like you were in your own private oasis, with exception of Pool Police listed below.
Pool Area Drink/Snack Police - Probably the biggest complaint about the hotel. Starting from the moment we sat down in the Pool Area - workers began patrolling the area looking to see if we brought in contraband drinks - one of us made the mistake of bringing down a can of coke from our room along with a small bag of pretzels - immediately a worker came over and was looking at our bags, etc. No hello, smile, etc. Didn't say anything - but then awhile later another guy came up and announced, "No outside drinks or food are allowed in the pool area, however, you are allowed to have these things in the privacy of your own room" What????? First of all, nothing was posted in plain view of bringing anything in - second of all, a member of group had a cocktail next to her that she had bought at the pool bar for a cool $ 15.00! Thoughout our time at the pool area, there was constant patrolling of these dolts. Why I say dolts, we did end up order lunch at the pool area 2 of the 4 days there and each time the worker didn't have a personality and got the orders wrong. For the price of the hotel rooms, price of the drinks and food - I would expect the workers to have a personality and to be customer oriented.
Hotel Common Areas - Very, very nice. Nice sitting areas, lobby, etc. Another high point
Location - Stinks - Off the beaten path - no where land - yes, you could walk to more populated places like Lincoln Road, but you had to walk through construction areas - very, very undesirable.
Spa - Out of the 8 of us, 4 people took advantage of the Spa - prices were about the norm - but no one came out raving - ordinary - not good or bad.
Concierge - Very helpful. The gentleman that worked the desk during the day was very helpful as well as the lady that assisted us one evening.
Elevators - Ongoing problems throughout our entire stay. At least 2 of the 4 days we were there, one of two of the hotel's 4 elevators were broken, causing major jams. Also, I noticed the orange inspector warning stickers on a couple of the elevators - just like a couple of other reviewers noticed.
Front Desk - Average - Very nice - but definitely could use some training. When I arrived, I worked with the clerk indicating that I would be sharing the cost of the room with another friend. She took my credit card, input all the info, including me name and assured me that I would be charged half of the weekend's room cost and any lounge/restaurant charges I would sign for over the weekend. Well, the morning of our departure the bill came and no - my friend was billed for everything 100% - nothing for me. We went to the front desk and they had nothing on me - no credit card, etc.???? The manager on duty stepped in and proceeded to tell me their procedures that they wouldn't have taken my card when I checked it, blah, blah, blah and they could only have one card on file, etc. Finally, after a bit, of running my card once, twice, etc. - things got straighted out and my card was charged appropriately - but never once did the manager apologize for confusion, thank me for my stay, etc.
So to sum it up, while I thoughly enjoyed South Beach and plan to go there again - The Palms will not be on my agenda. Overall opinion - The Palms is fortunate that they are the receipients of a lot of foreign travelers that visit Miami - because foreign currency goes a long way in the US. If international visitors dry up they will definitely have to step up their game if they were to compete for domestic travelers.