First impression - not, sure, but rooms a huge... Then after a while, you can totally see why it's worth staying here. I mean, there're plenty of way more luxurious hotels out there... Like Mondrian hotel (which would be the best for vogue seekers), but this hotel makes you feel a little bit more like locals. Very nice rooms (ain't fancy at all though, but eventually we all get tired of that too, right?)... It's just very livable. I would say it has the proper vibe.

Pros:

-Great location right at the beginning of the Ocean Drive restaurant area and directly across from the beach (although it's a 4 block walk to Bentley's stretch of the beach).

-Nice rooms. Spacious with lovely marble floors. The bed was extremely comfortable.

-The rooms are well equipped. I was impressed with the fully stocked liquor and snack bar. The items were very reasonably priced for a hotel. There was also a fridge, microwave and sink.

-Excellent housekeeping staff. The rooms were very clean.

-The Bentley Beach Club chairs were very comfortable and the food and drinks were excellent and reasonably priced.

-The complimentary breakfast was quite good and could be eaten on the nice little patio overlooking the beach.


Cons:

-Although the beach is across the street it's a 4 block walk to the Bentley Beach Club.

-The hotel needs to renovate the hallways, which are very grubby looking.

-The website is misleading in terms of the pool area, which in reality is quite run down and not very large. The pool is only between 3 and 4 feet deep. While doing laps in the pool I kept scraping my knee changing direction.

-The hotel sign is not easily seen from outside and to get to the lobby you must take an elevator. To get to your room you must walk down a different hallway and take a different elevator. This doesn't seem like a big deal but gets tiresome very quickly.

-The temperature in our room seemed to fluctuate constantly even though we did not touch the temperature dial. Each morning we woke up feeling extremely warm. The air conditioning was also very noisy.

-There is no shelf in the shower to place your toiletries on.

-The phone was ancient and very dirty (although generally speaking the room was extremely clean and the housekeeping staff was excellent).

-The key cards were very temperamental.

-There was one front desk staff member who was very warm and welcoming while another that we dealt with was not exactly welcoming and our presence seemed to be a nuisance to him.

Overall was just an ok hotel. Probably wouldn't stay there again to be honest.

This place was just plain awesome. My wife and I left another hotel to stay here for the night. The room was a suite. It was very spacious with a huge walk-in shower. Best place we have ever stayed in Miami Beach!