Lyfe Resort & Residences — Hotel in Hallandale Beach

Edit- in response to Hyde: we booked through Airbnb but our host was amazing and helpful. What I described are the hotel's rules and had nothing to do with the Airbnb.

Pros- The building is beautiful, pool and beach are nice. It’s convenient that cabanas are first come first serve, instead of paying an extra fee. We also never had an issue finding lounge chairs. We were allowed to use amenities as soon as we checked in.

Cons- They give you a card that you leave with the towel attendants in exchange for towels, and you get the card back once you give the towels back. If you have seats at the pool and want to run to take a dip in the ocean, you have to give up your seats because you can’t take the pool towels to the beach. So you’d have to go to the beach and not have something to dry off with. We had 3 people staying with us. They only allowed us 2 beach chairs! No conversation, not even allowing us to pay for an extra chair in order to enjoy the beach comfortably. So we got 2 chairs and one of us sat on the floor in the hot sand. The pool doesnt let you bring outside food. The pool staff bombards you with getting to order from their illogical high priced menu. You can order from your lounge chairs and they will bring you the food. When you finally do order, you pay an 18% mandatory gratuity fee. The second day, they bumped it up to 20%. One day we wanted to take the food back to our room. We still had to pay the 20% gratuity fee even though we wanted to pick up the food. Maybe whoever owns Hyde resort should pay their staff better instead of sucking more money out of resort guests. When we did order for them to bring the food to us, they bring you the food with extra ranch if you ask. But it comes with sucking teeth sounds and eyes rolling. One of the days when I was trying to order food to-go to take to my room, the hostess and waitress clearly started talking about us in Spanish, most likely because I was asking if gratuity is still included even if I take the food to-go. At least wait until I leave to gossip about me. It was unprofessional and made me uncomfortable. It’s clear that the employees at this place hate their jobs. Now if there’s anything that you do wrong, you get charged a fee. If I don’t wear my bracelet on my wrist in the lobby, CHARGED. If I don’t wear pants or a shirt on top of my bathing suit inside the building, CHARGED. It’s crazy. Sometimes it’s difficult to put a shirt or pants on a wet suit. It felt like a military camp, anything you do wrong you will be charged $100, or at least that is what they threaten on the “policies” billboards. Speaking of the “policies”, one includes no toys or balls in the pool. I’m not sure how they decide who gets to follow policies and who gets leniency but while I was sitting by the pool I was very concerned about having a football thrown at me while eating my $30 burger. They make you wear these fabric bracelets throughout your stay. I guess it’s convenient because it’s like a key card and I understand the safety aspect but they make a big deal if you have the bracelet in your hand instead of on your wrist. Moving onto our last day at the facility: check out is at 11. We booked a later flight so that we could spend more time at the hotel/relax. In all of my experiences traveling, we were always allowed to use the facilities after check out. We paid so much money that we expected to somewhat be accommodated in regards to still being allowed to use the pool/beach chairs for a few hours after we check out. Since we were allowed to be at the pool and beach as soon as we got to the hotel and way before check in on our first day, we expected somewhat the same experience on our last day. They basically told us that we needed to contact our Airbnb host in order to pay a late check out amount, then we would need to pay the resort a fee as well. It is important to note that we did not want a late check out because we did not need the room anymore. We did not need towels or anything either, we just wanted to at least sit on the beach/pool chairs until we...

My biggest regret on vacation was staying at the Hyde Resort. I don’t expect any response to this review since no one cared to do one single thing to resolve the issues during my stay. My only hope is that I can help someone else avoid ruining their vacation experience and money at this awful resort where you won’t ever receive anything as simple as a greeting.

The door on our suite was warped and wouldn’t open until after multiple attempts. The bolt lock wouldn’t function. The carpet smelled. The bathroom door handle fell off. The kitchen had food stuck to the counters and walls. The bathroom had hairs in the glasses and on the counters. The toilets were dirty. Disgusting to witness that a hotel doesn’t even clean the bathrooms between guests. The beds were advertised as queen and were just full. Locks on the patio doors wouldn’t lock.

I called the front desk and asked for a manager and there wasn’t one available even though it was Saturday. Left with no choice, I spoke to the woman on the phone. I asked if we could just change to another comparable suite due to all the issues. The only other suite she said she would offer was a non penthouse, partial ocean view. This was not comparable, therefore I just had her send housekeeping and maintenance. Housekeeping made a 30 second attempt to clean and maintenance couldn’t fix anything other than the bathroom door handle. After multiple hours traveling, we ended up cleaning our hotel suite ourselves and feeling unsafe due to the front door not being bolted.

They were also doing renovations so be prepared to be awakened by those noises or by guests around you partying and screaming half the night. They have security who don’t do anything to reduce noice at 3am, however they do police normal hotel guests walking to the elevator and make you scream your room # for the world to hear and show your armband each time you pass their podium. Double standard dress code which you are made aware of upon security shouting at you. Males can’t walk through the lobby without a shirt but a woman with a bikini top and no cover up can walk right through and nothing will be said.

Beach is regulated to a ridiculous standard, crowded and they take your chairs every time it sprinkles rain. Closes at 5pm. Multiple bedroom suite only guarantees you 2 chairs!! No rod to hang your clothes in 2 of the closets, no ledge in the showers to set items. They changed the pickup location for valet 4 times without notice.

I’ll end on the worst and most unacceptable issue of this stay, THE ELEVATORS DO NOT WORK and haven’t for months according to other reviews. Additionally, there are only a total of 4 for 40+ floors’ guests and service staff. One day you could get to the elevator and if you’re lucky there would be a sign posted about the call button not working. It would tell you to go to another floor where that call button usually wouldn’t function either. So every time you left your room, you could guess how many flights of stairs you’d need to run up or down to get to a floor where the elevator would work. The floors that worked one day wouldn’t always work the next day. Just such a complete absolute waste of a person’s time and health for the family members who aren’t as mobile. After day 3 of this, I asked the guy at the desk when they were going to be fixed and he didn’t know but they were working on them again. At the end of our week, they still were NOT fixed. Finally, if someone needed emergency medical treatment on one of the top floors, how would they be transported and given timely medical attention when EMS would be forced to use valuable time taking the stairs?

I never got to talk to a “hotel side” manager during any of our stay, only “owner side” managers were available and wouldn’t help.

How do the owners allow all this madness?! I am just absolutely perplexed at how a supposed 4 star resort got the four stars when they cannot fulfill the most basic requests and needs of the...

My family and I (5 people total) stayed for five nights in May at the Hyde Resort in Ft Lauderdale, in a two bed two bath room on the 8th floor. For the money I spent, I thought we would enjoy ourselves- but this experience was more like staying in a $35/night motel on 441.

Property: Beach was beautiful, and a primary reason for our stay. Pool was beautiful and water temperature was perfect. But we felt like we were micromanaged the entire time we were trying to enjoy ourselves by the pool. Two different staff members on two different days were constantly after us about where to place our children’s pool toys, what food and drinks were allowed, and we noticed they were hovering over parents with children especially. Even when we were ‘behaving’ to their standards, we kept seeing their eyes on us- waiting to come back and correct us again. We were not being inordinately loud or raucous AT ALL. Tthey have rules around bringing your own drink and food to the pool area- even very small snacks like those for toddlers. They want you to spend $25 on their burgers and $27 on their drinks. A SINGLE elevator in a 40+ floor building?? We would have to wait 15-20 minutes for an elevator each trip (NO exaggeration). We had to plan elevator rides carefully. Taking 8 flights of stairs was not an option since we had a pair of toddlers in our group. Your property needs at LEAST 6 elevators, not ONE! There are reviews going back 5 years on Google that are complaining about the elevators.

Room: Floors were ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING. Within minutes our feet were BLACK from walking around. One of our local friends came over and literally brought a Swiffer mop and pads to clean the floors- and they were still gross. We opted to keep our sandals and socks on. Other reviews for this property have similar complaints. We had a 2 and 3 year old with us – completely and utterly unacceptable. Where is the room cleaning fee being used?? Outlets on one whole side of the living/dining area were not functional. I can understand one, but FOUR separate outlets were not working. Televisions were unnecessarily difficult to operate (we’re not boomers- we know how to operate remote controls and TVs; and we kept having a hard time figuring out the menus and connectivity of the remotes) Master bath toilet got clogged easily – and it’s clear that the staff knew about this because they kept a plunger by the toilet which was there upon our arrival. They couldn’t be bothered to fix it beforehand.

Check-in and staff: We have never felt so unwelcome and treated with this level of aloofness at a resort/vacation property before. We even took it upon ourselves to make eye contact and flash a friendly smile to staff (managers, valet attendants, cleaning crew, front desk crew, etc) and NONE of them even acknowledged our existence; as if we were an enormous inconvenience (and if hotel staff is reading this and saying “well you are” – please find a role better suited for you outside of the hospitality industry). There was one exception: a young man who helped us get our luggage upstairs was very kind and helpful and made us feel welcome. (forgot his name, but he was working when we checked in on 5/7 around 6pm) In addition to the room charge, and the various fees for the privilege of staying there – we had to pay an additional ~$200 for 5 nights to valet park. This is not necessarily an issue, but it’s NOT OPTIONAL. Your choices are: Valet or good luck on the streets of Ft Lauderdale/use the Walmart parking lot over the bridge. Very frustrating and very lengthy process to retrieve our car (the text message system made this a little more bearable, but it’s absurd that we don’t have the option to self-park and get our car immediately).

If you want a nice hotel on the beach of Hollywood, FL, please consider ANY other property (a tent on the beach would probably give you a similar experience). Needless to say, we will NEVER...