My wife and I are on an around the world trip and have stayed in many hotels throughout Asia, Europe and the US in the past few weeks. I would have to say that the Beach Plaza Hotel is the only establishment in which we have stayed, that has not met our expectations. I will be factual in my review but I will say that they will never get my business (or that of my travel agent) again. We stayed for 2 nights beginning 30 Sept 2012.

The hotel is in a great location in the middle of Miami's Art Deco district and for its age, it is actually in great condition. There was a resort fee charged of approx $11 a day accommodating breakfast, provision of in room amenities such as safe/wifi (we did not eat breakfast in the hotel either morning so cannot comment on that). Our fee was slightly less because we booked and paid quite far in advamce.

Upon check in, the service was quite good. They also have quite a good valet service. There were a few minor problems in our room, namely that the in-room safe did not work. We also could not connect to their wifi on any of our devices (a smaller issue in comparison). We brought this (the safe issue) to the hotel's attention the morning after our first night. A maintenance man was sent to repair the safe as it would not operate at all. He said he had to replace the front door on the safe and that he would do it by the time we got back. He advised us to put the "Privacy Required" sign on the door so that nobody entered our room when we asked how our Valubles (passports etc) should be kept safe. When we arrived back that evening, the safe was still not fixed. As we were checking out the next morning, we did not pursue this further.

Upon checkout on Tues 2nd Oct at about 5:30am is really when we encountered the worst service. I was presented with a bill for the valet, as well as for 2 days worth of resort fees. I questioned the resort fees and asked about the fact that the safe did not work and had not been fixed. I advised that I didn't believe I got value for money due to this and the wifi issue as well as the fact that our room wasn't cleaned. Rather than try to alleviate my concerns or apologize or offer any type of explanation, I was simply railroaded by the gentleman. The only response he could give me was tht I should have brought this to the hotels' attention the day I arrived. The day we arrived, we were exhausted and as such we went straight to sleep. He didn't buy it and essentially said I would have to pay the fee and then take my concerns up with management. It was due to his disreectful and confrontational attitude that I decided I was only going to pay 1x resort fee as this is the value I thought I had received. I was again told I had to pay the amount in full. In order to gain leverage, I paid cash, less one of the resort fees. I advised I would be happy to pay it after I was contacted to have my concerns heard. I asked NOT to have it charged to my credit card until I was contacted by management. This guy could have resolved the situation by hearing me out instead of giving me synicism, and I would have paid the fee. In fairness, it's not about the money, it's about the principle. He could have asked management to contact me.

In the wash up, I have not been contacted by management and the fee was charged to my credit card against my wishes and contrary to my authority. I believe that my request was never passed on to management and that this individual decided to just charge my credit card to make his own life easier.

I stayed here for two nights in July, and had purchased a Groupon to get a special rate. The hotel is in a very busy area of Miami Beach, which is good if that is the reason for your trip. However I wasn't there to enjoy the nightlife so it was a little bit busy for my taste. The hotel was one block away from an entrance to the beach, and provided beach towels at the front desk, which was very nice.

The room I had paid for was a "one bedroom suite" which isn't exactly the way I would describe the room. The room was basically a bedroom with a TV/armoire area, with a separate full kitchen. I was envisioning a living room/kitchen area with a separate bedroom. The oven in the kitchen had a large sign that said it was inoperable. There was also a second "back door" to the suite which led to a staircase that opened up to the street. I was EXTREMELY uncomfortable with this extra door since it was not visible from the main area of the room, and there was constant traffic passing by outside it. I was so uncomfortable with this aspect of the room that I asked to be moved to a standard room, which was accommodated. Since I'd purchased the Groupon, I knew that I wouldn't get any sort of refund for not keeping the "suite" since it was my choice not to stay there, but consequently it made me feel like I wouldn't have paid as much as I did to get just a standard room. Had I known what to expect with the layout of the room, I would not have booked the Groupon.

Once I was in my standard room, the room was fine but was very small. The bed was comfy and the bathroom was nice, clean and functional. I had an issue where the deadbolt on the door would not line up with the door jamb, so I had to call the front desk agent to the room to attempt to fix it. He did get it somewhat fixed, but I still had to lift up on the door before the deadbolt would actually lock the room. The problem was that the plate on the door jamb was screwed in slightly too high...which I can only assume means that numerous people had stayed in that room and assumed that the deadbolt was working correctly when it actually wasn't. Not good.

I was never able to connect to the free wifi that was offered in the hotel while I was in my room, though the front desk agent said that his laptop connected correctly (he was watching YouTube videos on his laptop while at the desk, which seemed unprofessional. Once he noticed that I was watching him watching YouTube, he turned the screen around quickly). Breakfast was very standard but was included in the price (only had bagels, muffins, yogurt, coffee and cranberry juice). I knew in advance that there would be additional taxes and fees on top of the Groupon price I paid, but I had no idea that two days worth of fees would amount to over $50! And that's not including the $20ish that I had to pay to park my car each day two blocks away. I feel like I got absolutely nothing for that "resort fee" aside from maybe $4 worth of breakfast each morning.

I would not choose to stay in this hotel again based on the experience I had. I just had too many negative experiences and felt that the room I was initially sold through Groupon was misrepresented. I felt like it was overpriced, even with the significant discount. I would choose to stay away from the immediate beach area and get a nicer, less expensive hotel the next time I'm in Miami.

I booked this room through a Groupon deal. For the price, I feel it is an excellent deal, primarily because of the location. South Beach is only a couple blocks away--easily within walking distance. It's a gorgeous view both night and day, with plenty of shops and restaurants along the boardwalk and nearby. We didn't even need to drive anywhere the entire time.

The room itself left much to be desired. I understand that the building's older, but do not expect a fridge or microwave to be in your room. We had to bring in a cooler and keep refilling it with ice from the ice machine down the hall for our sodas, beers and waters for the three nights that we were there.

When I arrived, it was about 2pm and my room was not ready yet. They were kind enough to hold my bags for me until check-in time. They said they'd call me on my cell phone when my room was ready, but no one ever did. No big deal.

The continental breakfast consisted of store-bought pastries (think: Hostess), Yoplait yogurt, and a couple types of bread. Anyone on a low-carb diet need not apply.

The bar was a hole-in-the-wall. Literally only about 4-5 people can comfortably fit in the room, which is the size of a walk-in closet. The bartender was friendly, though, and even cut up a lime for me that I bought at the liquor store.

The second day we were there, we noticed quite a few ants in the room, which grossed us out. We did have some food in the room, and no good place to put it due to the lack of fridge, but we're not slobs, and I don't think ants in the room should be "expected".

The bed was not very comfortable, but didn't cause any back problems either.

Two of the three days, they didn't have bath towels in inventory when we needed them. I would think they would have extras.

I feel that I wasn't adequately prepared for the price of parking. I probably should have expected it, but didn't even think about it. For three nights, I ended up paying about $125 between hotel fees & taxes, and valet parking. The parking was about $25/day, and you got unlimited use of the valet service. We didn't really need our car the entire time though.

My biggest complaint is that when I did get my car on the 3rd day, the day we left, it was covered with splattered, dried berries from being parked under a tree the entire time. This isn't some beat up old car--it is a brand new 2013 model car that I literally had owned about two weeks. I took it through the drive through car wash twice, and they still weren't off. I had to go buy car cleaning wax, and use an hours' worth of elbow grease in the blazing hot parking lot of my Florida apartment complex to get all of the dried berry bits off of my brand new silver Hyundai Sonata. I think that for $25/day it is absolutely absurd that my car was treated this way, and that they did nothing in the way of cleaning it before it was handed back over to me. It is because of this alone that I will never consider staying here again, at least not with a vehicle.

If you are just looking for a location I guess this place is located in a fantastic area of Miami; however; if you like living like civilized people then this place is not for you.......there is crap everywhere, bugs, filth, terrible odours, no free valet again, extra charges for unwanted things such as a breakfast.....the place is just UNFIT for people who take care of themselves.....the staff at the hotel is very friendly and they try so I don't blame them at all.....the hotel is just a DUMP.