Aleksandra S.
Yelp
The only reason why this hotel earns two stars is that the price -considering the trendy location- was OK for what we got.
Be prepared to adjust your expectations when you go there. Friends of ours stayed at the Marseilles next door (sister property) with -compared to us - high expectations and got terribly dissappointed.
We saw the Marseilles room too and it was not a lot better than ours for 50% more of the price per night.
For the price we paid and the reviews i read, my expecations were very low, but then the cab driver dropped us of in front the DORSET (wrong hotel) and looking at it from the outside, we were pleasantly surprised, not realizing that it was not our hotel :-)
So just a block down the road we find the DORCHESTER:
** When we arrived they did not find our reservation, even when we left three days later, our travelocity reservation was not in their system yet. But nevertheless they had a room they gave us.
** Our phone did not work and we asked them every single day to fix it during our 3 night stay. But nobody fixed it.
** We wanted to rent a car for sunday, but surprise surprise - WiFi did not work in our room either. The staff did not make any attempt to fix that.
** The receptionist offered to help us get a car for sunday morning, so we trusted her and postponed the car search to the next day. What she really meant by "helping" us was to call THEIR car rental service to find out at 8.30 am in the morning that it is still closed. GREAT. So she advises us to go to 23rd street cause we would find 3 car rental companies there. Of course we do not find 3 car rentals. Only one. And that one did not have a car for us. So we return to the hotel by 9.30, pissed and without a car and i ask the receptionist if i can call some car rentals from the hotel lobby. "No" she says "you can use the phone in your room". HAHA. VERY FUNNY. If somebody had fixed it, i would have probably used it already."
Probably i should try to reserve a car online with the great wireless service you provide?
** Don t go for the full breakfast buffet, it is not worth it. Rather go to Catalinas next door, their breakfast and ambiente is excellent!
** Air condition in our room was only a small device in the wall that did not really help to get rid of the humidity in the room. So it happened that wet towels were still wet the next morning. Also, the bed cover always felt kind of wet, which should not be the case if the air condition works properly.
** Our Queen bed had the size of a double - They promised to give us a King room the next morning, but this also did not happen.
** The second night we woke up 4 am in the morning cause some of our neighbours decided to party on... So the walls are not really sound-proof if you love to have a good night sleep :-)
As bad as it probably might sound right now, the hotel is not a "un-acceptable" place. It is ok for a budget weekend in South Beach if your expecations are accordingly low. And there are in fact better things to do than hanging out in a hotel room when you spend a weekend in South Beach, ;-). That was the reason why we looked for something basic.
The only nice things were the interior of the lobby, the pool, the pool bar and the fact that the Marseilles also sucked. So we spent at least less money for a similar experience.
But seriously guys: Even though I did not expect any luxury for a 115 bucks, just some competent and friendly faces from the staff members would have been enough for me to recommend it and come back. Thats the basics.