Okay, for the price you pay, this hotel is freaking amazing!!! However, you have to go in knowing that the hotel is a themed and touristy and cheesy.
The PEOPLE were super nice. The people at the front desk, the waitstaff, the bartender always asking "do you girls want some shots?" - all super nice.
We stayed in room 303, which is a Queen Suite with an Ocean View. If you go on their website, you can see that the room is (uh) kind of mod-themed, with dark green leather furniture and wood/chrome detailing. Super cute. It's hard to tell in the photos, but it's a super LONG room. You walk in - in front of you is the flat screen TV, to your right is a queen bed, and to your left is a little table with chairs, a chaise, and a giant window of PALM TREES AND OCEAN! It was such a treat to have a comfortable room to sit and relax and enjoy a beautiful view of South Beach. Oh, and all along the window and one side of the "room" part of the suite, there was a tile counter. This was SO convenient! There was room for my friend and I to each put our luggage on the counter, lay out our clothes and toiletries, and sit in front of the window (which doesn't have a screen or anything, so be careful!) to people-watch.
Oh, and the shower in the bathroom was soooooo nice. Rainfall showerhead. Ugh.
Now, I know that this has been mentioned in basically every review, but it bears repeating: The freebies are AWESOME! They include:
1) 1 free bottle of still water and 1 free bottle of sparkling water EACH day for EACH guest. Why is that amazing? Because then you have water to drink, and when you finish you can re-fill your bottle downstairs with their giant vat of water. And because sparkling water + flavored vodka/rum means having a drink with you at all times. (On the beach. In the ocean. Shopping. Walking.)
2) 1 free towel to check out to go with your daily free beach chair rental.
3) 2 free drinks EACH anytime between 4-6 PM. One day, we got there at 5:50 PM, and our sweet waiter put in both orders at the same time but staggered the drinks so that they wouldn't get warm! So nice. And the drinks are ordered from where ever you wanna sit (inside, outside, at the bar) so it's not like they know you're getting free drinks so they're weak. Oh, and the free drink menu is ridiculously large. Probably at least 20 choices?
4) 1 free breakfast, with real food. Plus all the coffee you'd like, all day long. What can you order? If I remember correctly, 2 eggs any style with cheese on top + meat option + potatoes + bread. Or an omelette with meat, veggies, and cheese + potatoes + bread. Or eggs benedict + potatoes + bread. Or a croissant + cappuccino. Now, would this satiate a 200+lb man? Probably not. But it's freshly cooked and tasty and the perfect amount of food for a morning meal if you're not a body-builder.
Okay, okay, there were some un-awesome happenings as well. We stayed 4 nights. One morning, at about 8:30 AM, there was some kind of noise going on outside. Drilling? It was loud enough to wake us up, but we were able to fall back asleep. Another morning, the drilling started at maybe 5 AM. It was louder - I was able to go back to sleep but it bothered my friend enough to go downstairs and ask, "What is that noise? Can you make it stop?" The answer from the night shift guy, "No, it's from the city. Sorry." Except, he was LYING! When we got up at 6:30 to go watch the sunrise, we saw that the drilling was caused by work on THEIR OWN SIGN! Oh, you big liar, you. But I have a feeling you will always be at the mercy of the construction-gods while in South Beach. A. LOT. OF. CONSTRUCTION. Just beware. And bring earplugs. read more