B Ocean Resort Fort Lauderdale Beach — Hotel in Fort Lauderdale

So I had high hopes and expectations for this place... but not many were met. The overall layout of the resort was confusing, with few directional signs or maps, so we had to guess and explore to find things.

Room: The room was dated and plain—certainly not what you'd expect from a 4-star hotel. Our view was of the street and the parking garage. The room was sparsely decorated, and two of the canvases had questionable "spots" on them. It was gross. The bedding left a lot to be desired. The duvet didn’t have a real duvet cover—just a top sheet placed over it. There was also no microwave, which was frustrating since we couldn’t reheat leftovers. The bathroom was tiny, with very little counter space or places to hang towels. The shower had one of those half-glass partitions, so water sprayed all over the floor anyway. And to top it off, the room didn’t have curtains, beyond sheer ones, so we were often woken up early by the sun.

During our stay, there were a couple of storms—and our room had qater leaking from the closet ceiling and walls(which had some of our belongings inside) and covered the entryway. We called the front desk the first night it happened and were told an engineer would come up. No one ever did, so we cleaned it up ourselves using room towels. It stormed again the next night, and we woke up to more water. We called again—same response, no follow-through. This time, we went directly to the front desk to complain. They finally sent someone up, but all they did was mop up the water and lay towels in the closet.

Restaurants: The resort restaurants serve good food, but the prices are steep for the small portions you get. On top of that, the open hours for each restaurant seemed inconsistent. We ended up eating at the sports bar most of the time because the other two were frequently closed. Once again, there was little to no signage explaining any of this.

The beachside bar closed during a storm (understandable), but then never reopened even after the storm had passed. Wait times for food were a bit long—not terrible, but you probably wouldn’t want to arrive starving.

A couple of highlights: • The food service staff were fantastic—friendly, helpful, and efficient across the board. • The breakfast buffet (included with our room) was delicious. We did have to go back to the front desk to get the vouchers they forgot to give us at check-in, but once sorted out, it was a great start to our mornings. • The mermaid show was amazing and quite the experience!

Special shoutout to the bartender at The Wreck Bar (wish I caught his name!). He was quick, funny, welcoming, and a true cheerleader for the mermaid show. Just an all-around great human being.

Beach & Pools: The private beach was beautiful, and swimming in the ocean was a blast. Again, food and drink service staff out there were excellent.

Be prepared, though: beach umbrella rentals are $32 per day regardless of when you get there—even if it’s 2 PM—and they remove them around 5 PM. Either budget for that or bring a lot of sunscreen.

The pools seemed clean and well-maintained. There were plenty of loungers and a few cabanas available—some of which require rental, so keep an eye out. Depending on when you go, you might have to hustle to find shade.

Final Thoughts: When I read the management responses to critical reviews, they all sound the same: “Sorry about your experience, we’ll pass this on to management.” But if that were true, wouldn’t there be fewer bad reviews? It doesn’t seem like they’re truly interested in making things right—just saying the right things and moving on. Making things right with the customers that had these bad experiences could go a long way!

TL;DR – The room was dated, underwhelming, and flooded twice—no one cared. Food is overpriced with small portions (but still good). The beach and pools are nice, but umbrella and cabana rentals are pricey. The one saving grace is the food service staff, who were consistently excellent.

If you’re deciding between this place and another resort, I’d recommend going with...

3 couples stayed at this hotel recently and had a mixed experience. All three couples reserved different rooms so we got to see all parts of the hotel. In short, this hotel is connected to another building across the street and they just have a walkway goes over the street. So some people who reserve rooms are actually in a building across the street with a private walkway that connects everybody. All the room sizes were very similar if not exactly the same. The very top penthouse has a beautiful ocean in the main building. It was similar in size to the cheapest room across the street (not very close to beach but saved a few hundred if you didn't mind not having a beach view and walking the small hotel walk over). Nobody had complaints about cleanliness. It had a modern decor. Overall the hotel is clean and has a great setup on the beach with umbrella rentals and attentive waitstaff. They also offer bikes, which is a nice touch. There are plenty of tourist attractions, boat tours, and restaurants just a short walk down the road.

However, there are several drawbacks. For a place calling itself a "resort," it lacks many amenities you'd expect, such as entertainment or a complimentary coffee station. The restaurants on-site are very overpriced, and there are no real standout offerings. The staff at the front desk including the manager was very rude, though the staff in other areas, like the beach and restaurant, were more friendly and eager for tips. A cleaning lady walked in my room without knocking and I had a do not disturb sign on. We reserved a package directly from the website and it included food and beverage credit and champagne and I had to ask for that multiple times to be honored. And they kept saying that they don't see that package anymore because it's not on their website. But when I reserved it it 100% was so I had to go back and find screenshots of it.

One major issue was the resort fees. Be sure to carefully check your bill, as the "total stay" listed doesn’t include daily resort fees and tax on those fees. It's important to print out your confirmation email and pay attention to all charges before you arrive. Read and understand the fine print.

Overall, while the hotel is clean and offers a great beach spot, I’m not sure I would stay here again. If you're looking for a true resort experience with more amenities and better service, this might not be the place for you.

Tips: For transportation, we found that taxis were the cheapest option from the airport, but make sure to clarify with the driver that you’ll only be paying with a card—some drivers may assume (or scam their employer) and say they can accept cash only. Once at the hotel we used Lyft and Uber, which worked well and were convenient for reaching more distant destinations. It was no more than 15 to 25 bucks to go most places. Usually only 20 to get around. We ordered Publix subs and beverages with Instacart. The market is close with good Egg BLT Sandwich. We recommend bring a sound machine just in case as is a...

DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE OF STAYING HERE!!!! If I could give 0 stars, I would. The staff was mostly rude and unhelpful. They don’t have to give you good service because they charge you gratuity either way. The restaurants all have mostly the same exact menu, which isn’t good. The veggie burger is like wet dog food with less flavor. We waited over an hour at the sports bar here for my sister’s Shirley temple and about an hour and a half for our terrible food. The rooms are much smaller than they appear online and are outdated with mold in the shower. We arrived to find a clump of hair in our shower also. The sink doesn’t drain properly, which we also heard other guests complain about. When we checked in, she wrote the wrong room number on our slip so we were trying to get into a random person’s room who opened up and was kind enough to let us use her phone to save us a trip back down after our 12hr travel day.

The elevators are problematic and slow on their best day, but leave people trapped on their worst day. The state the infinity pool has been left in for the night is appalling; so many food remnants that there were cockroaches running around. But no one cares so…

They will let anyone blast their music - enjoy hearing other people’s noise the entire time. I would say the location is good because of the beach, but most of the restaurants nearby are as terrible as our hotel’s with little to no fun shops within walking distance.

Sally was one of the only staff members who really seemed to care about our bad experience. She gave us some free drink tickets. They have a $15 max value, which the bartender in the main building wouldn’t let us use and pay the difference on more expensive drinks, but the staff at the pool area had no problem honoring.

We had to switch rooms midway through because of a booking mistake we made so the first two nights we were in a balcony room and the last 3 were in an ocean view without balcony. I would not pay extra for the balcony rooms as they are about half the size and further from the better pool. It would be nice if this hotel would invest in a property map because it’s hard to know what all is where otherwise. They also don’t seem to invest enough back into the property in my opinion for what you pay.

They let people throw towels down at the pool to “reserve” loungers even though people may only use them for 2 hours later, which I didn’t really like, but if you make sure to get down there by 8am, you can usually find a chair to “reserve” with a towel. The pool area waiters and staff were all really nice.

I hated my stay here so much that I tried to find a reasonable flight to leave early. B...