I have mixed feelings about this super cute boutique hotel…read more
Many pros. Some cons. The cons made our first night there completely awful. Then through lots of service recovery and redemption, our second and final night was great.
Parking was a tiny bit tricky. Here are the exact coordinates: 25.77301° N, 80.13396° W
I received photos of the parking lot entrance after I messaged them that I was a little lost. Should've sent them before. You'll find it through a one way alley between Collins and Washington Ave. it's a left on a yellow older building. I parked there and walked into st Augustine hotel. No one was there but I assumed I parked in the right place. Small walk to 321 Collins after we jay walked.
Entrance was fine. It's self check in. Beautiful lobby area with a microwave and some cutlery and cups. Magazines with gal gadot in the front page were everywhere in the lobby. Met some nice people. Beautiful table.
So. Unpacking the first night. Our room was VERY small. Cute. Not impressive. Just... small and cute. I wonder if we got the smallest room in the hotel. Walked barefoot as we do at home to avoid dirtying the floor. Our feet had lots of dirt and visible dots of unknown floor substances. Ok. Fine. Not a perfect floor. Killed a small bug in the shower. Sorry, bug. Management messaged me for our rental cars license plate after we had settled in. Take a pic of the plate before you leave the car.
Bathroom was nice. Small. The tv worked fine, thankfully a smart tv. The outer curtain to block light was stuck and we could not close it that night. Lots of light came in from the outside. It was not good. Light sleeper here.
When the person I traveled with and I were ready to go to sleep, we laid down only to find that the comforter and sheet were damp. We could not sleep with heavy, sticky, damp bed sheets and comforter. We were cold. So, naturally. We turned off the AC. We tried to sleep only with the dry top sheet. With the AC off, I heard every single noise coming from the hallway, The room next door, phone calls, conversations. I could not sleep. I complained to the person who answers messages and they sent out someone to help quiet down the first floor. A man kept coming in and out on speaker phone, and I could not sleep mainly because of him. If by some miracle you read this, man on speaker phone, it is extremely rude and bad etiquette to speak loudly on your speaker phone at 12, 1, 2 am in hotels!!! Especially this one which seems to have thin walls. I heard everything you were saying in your conversation and their responses. Also, the door slamming.
At one point I was losing my mind. This noise part was not the fault of the hotel BUT, due to having the AC off because of the wet bed sheets, we could hear everything. I'm not sure whyyy our bed sheets were placed wet. They did offer to come change the sheets at
12 or 1 am in their advantage. But the person I was there with was tired, already asleep and I kindly
Declined. I really had awful sleep that first night. The cherry on top was at 5:30 am, next door neighbors woke up, were speaking extremely loudly and there were 2 crying and screaming kids. I about had it and messaged the property again. I really was losing my mind.
Next day, management came to the room. We showed M that the sheets were damp. She brought with her one of the maids whom I said good morning to and who ignored my greeting. She touched the sheets and said, "well they are new that's why this happened". I'm not sure what this even means but a 'sorry I'll change it,' would have sufficed. We said thank you and she ignored that too and walked away.. we felt we were bothering her. Was promised a coffee and tea but it never came :(
Sigh.
Manager called and was extremely nice, apologetic, tried hard for service recovery and let us check out at a later time. I felt we were at a loss of an entire night.
So. Long story short. First night was awful because we had to turn off the AC. So we heard everything. We spoke Spanish to the maid next day but she did not speak to us. Strange interaction. Next day we had clean floors, dry sheets and we had a very good night with the ac on, which helped block alll noise. Oh I tried the outter light blocking curtain again and this time it closed.
We left with good sleep but a regret of the first night loss of sleep and exhaustion. So.. I feel mixed about this and unsure if I'd come back. I want to. Maybe.
Parking 20/day. Close to south beach strip, very convenient place to stay. Affordable. Many pros. Some big cons. Would have been a great and easy 5/5 stay if it wasn't for the bedding that created a chain of events. No fridge. Microwave in the lobby.
Also to note. We opened our luggage in our next destination and the clothes we had out in the room were damp... ventilation and moisture issue in the room or? We had to dry those clothes out in our balcony at the next hotel.