My wife and I stayed at the Loews Miami Beach the final weekend of September for a quick babymoon -- our final restful vacation together before we have our baby. Unfortunately, 700 employees of T-Mobile also stayed at the Loews Miami Beach the final weekend of September for their Q4 Kickoff. Now, nothing against T-Mobile or cellphone store employees, but I really don't want to spend my weekend hanging out with 700 people of any one particular group. (And truth be told, on my list of "Groups of 700-or-so People to Avoid," 700 chirping cellphone store employees ranks somewhere between 700 used car salesmen and 700 kids in dire need of ritalin.) I don't fault the cellular carrier (at least not for staying at the Loews), but I do fault the hotel for subjecting the rest of its unwitting paying customers to second-tier treatment.
Among the offenses:
1) Closing the pool area at 3pm Friday so that the hotel could set up for the big T-Mobile Q4 Kickoff rally. We paid somewhere north of $500/night to enjoy the hotels facilities. Instead, we are intercepted by hotel security telling us the pool is closed and we can't even pass through to go to the beach. Are you kidding me?
2) Keeping the party going 'til late on Friday. Not only could we not enjoy the hotel's outdoor facilities, but we couldn't even enjoy our own beachfront room! While I'm all for properly recognizing the nation's penultimate sellers of cellphones (honestly), I didn't need to be able to hear the whole gala from my room. I called down to the lobby to complain and was assured that it would be over by 10pm. Oh, no. T-Mobile's crooners karaoked until midnight! At 5am the following morning, the hotels staff started the noisy work of cleaning up after the prior night.
3) Loud halls and guests partying until 6am almost every night. So much for R&R; we left our vacation more exhausted than we started it. While unruly guests can happen anywhere, it should be the hotel's responsibility (not mine) to quiet them. We endured three straight nights of drunken parties in the rooms around ours. While I can't prove this was related to our favorite 700 person group, I strongly suspect they were the culprits. It is my experience that most (though not all) people paying $500 for hotel rooms out of their own pockets have the ability to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate activities. For what it's worth, threatening to kill someone -- and looking like you mean it -- is not an appropriate way to behave in a fancy hotel at 3am.
4) And the single greatest offense? Not telling me about this 700 person gathering when I booked the hotel. I booked my room directly through the hotel maybe two weeks in advance, and I strongly suspect T-mobile planned its confab before I did. While I know that hotels want to keep their occupancy as high as possible, they should also recognize that non-convention travelers have a right to know that there is a very large event occurring at the same time that might impact their enjoyment of the hotels facilities, for which they are paying.
The hotel did comp me the karaoke night (after initially offering me a free breakfast - hardly fair recompense for subjecting me to Rob Stewart songs sung in all the world's accents!) While comping the night (begrudgingly) was the right thing for them to do, I wish they previously had "comped" me the knowledge that this giant gathering was going on during our mini-vacation. Vacaction days are a scarcer resource than cash, and I would have prefered to have taken my $500 elsewhere - to a hotel that values its individual paying guests as highly as its corporate groups.
The hotel staff were fine; I suspect the problem is with management (or mismanagement), who are more concerned with making tons of money than making guests happy. The facilites are nice and well-kept. The location is good. Until the new spa is completed, the massages are outsourced, expensive, and not particularly good.
We won't be back. You can make your own call, but do yourself a favor and ask when making your reservation if there are any large group functions of which you should be aware. There are plenty of nice places to stay in South Beach, so make sure you're going to get the experience you paid for.

We stayed at the Loews September 22-24 and it was absolutely the best weekend that I have had in a long time. The hospitality cannot be compared. We were checked in by Mercy, who was the best!!!She upgraded the room for us to a oceanview with balcony.Everyone was wonderful, polite , friendly and accomodating.We plan to make this an annual event,and staying at the Loews will be top on our list. Kudos to this establishment!!!!!

I think we might have expected a bit too much from the outset. I suppose what we really felt was that the small 5* touches were missing. Firstly, check-in was like standing in a queue at the supermarket no pampering here anyway. Secondly, we had a room in the tower, it was much too small. Thirdly, we rang the reception with some issues at various stages & just everything seemed to be a logistical nightmare owing to the size of this hotel. Finally our biggest gripe was the fact that other guests were allowed bring their dogs to the pool side. Well I'm pretty sure that the dogs did not wish to be there in the boiling heat & I'm positive that we did not wish to listen to them barking. Something that really took the biscuit though was when we saw a dog being wrapped up in the towels that were handed out to everyone. the thought of being given that towel the next day just freaked me out!!! Check out again was like a trip to the supermarket.

Spent a excellent weekend at the Loews South Beach from September 29-October 1, 2006. The Loews property actually consists of two hotels - the main property (where the check-in is) and the St. Moritz property a few steps away. We were booked in the St. Moritz property and were concerned that the main building was better - the staff promptly located another room in the main building but after seeing the rooms there (which have balconies), we decided to return to the St. Moritz. Despite the lack of a balcony (which really only matters if you have a beach view), the decor, bathrooms, etc. was much more aesthetically pleasing (the main building is a bit over the top Miami garish). Bathrooms were well-done and very clean. The staff, both at the front desk and poolside, was more than helpful. Of course, food and drinks were expensive but, my friends, you do happen to be in South Beach so unless you are having cafe con leche and a Cuban sandwich down the street at La Carrejeta, dining bargains are hard to find. The location could not be better - all of South Beach is just steps away - the shopping, dining, and nightclubs of Lincoln Rd, Washington, and Collins Ave.