Natalie C.
Yelp
In short, this was the worst hotel experience of my life. I now have fungal pneumonia and will be calling the health department on this hotel. Oh, and paying for breakfast included? What a joke - There's only 4 options to choose from, and they all suck. Waste of money. So is the "resort fee" - scam. Details below + pictures included. Lastly, having been to Axel in Barcelona - which was glorious - this one in Miami should be avoided like the plague.
Arrive. Wait 45 minutes for check in. Endless unnecessary paperwork and signatures. We were then placed into a dirty room (wall panel said the fan filter needed to be replaced, floor was dirty, blood stains on the bedding) that looked NOTHING like the advertised pictures on Hotels.com or the original website - and more like a prison cell. There were also multiple small flies everywhere in the room and no hangers in the closet. But it was late, so we unpack, go to eat dinner, and figured we'd talk to the manager the next morning.
We wake up, I have a dry cough from the dirty air filtration, and we also both have multiple bug bites from the flies. I go to shower and the shower faucet FALLS OFF THE WALL. I go downstairs to show the manager, and he says he will have it fixed. We go out to breakfast, return to find it not fixed. Demand a room change. He agrees. We pack up and move to another room. Mind you, there are NO elevators. All stairs and HEAVY doors - multiple heavy doors that close on you as you're trying to go through. New room looks less prison-y, but still full of flies. We unpack and I go to shower (again)... and the faucet just spins and spins without turning on. SO, I go downstairs AGAIN (because they NEVER answer the front desk phone) and he agrees to move our room AGAIN. We have now been "upgraded" to a two bed (not necessary) room. We have to once again, pack up all of our stuff, and move it.
This third room is bigger, looks the least like a prison cell, but has more flies, still is dirty, and has pubes all over the bathroom. But hey, the shower worked and the air conditioner didn't state that the filter needed to be replaced, so we figured we'd open the windows and deal with the flies. At this point I'm full blown coughing (since I've been home, I've been diagnosed with fungal pneumonia).
At the end of the day, we're covered in bug bites (hoping it's the flies and not bed bugs, but taking precautions to wash everything before bringing it into the house), have pneumonia, and feel 100% scammed and taken advantage of by the false advertising of this "hotel".
Also, the pool area is run down and there were use condoms by the hot tub. We were told they were going through a management change blah blah BLAH. Then don't open the doors until you have the fundamentals under control. Fundamentals = CLEAN air, working showers, PEST CONTROL, cleaning, etc.
ALL of that said, the front desk staff, while ridiculously slow, was always helpful/seemed to sympathize with our pain. And the pool staff was very nice/attentive/etc. I hope they all find employment at better establishments. We made sure to tip them extra/on top of the 18% service fee already included.