The Tides on Hollywood Beach — Hotel in Hollywood

I have traveled a lot over the years. Both in the US and out of the US. Vacation within the US I always booked through VRBO and private homes. This was the first time I stayed in a condominium and probably the last!! This place treats you like a kid with all their rules and regulations. Yes, I get having rules but they go overboard with them. 1. You can only use the service elevator if you have anything besides yourself, luggage, beach stuff, coolers, etc. 2. You must wear your wrist band ALL the time as staff will stop and ask if you have one and to put it on. 3. You must pay $20.00 for a key fob and additional ones must be purchased for every 2 adults. to get through to just about anywhere you need to go, even to get onto the beach there is 2 gates you need the fob for. Plus the beach is ok but very narrow. The beach 2 1/2 miles up the road at the boardwalk is a lot nicer and wider. There is no public access besides the front door, so why do you need to carry that dam key fob with you everywhere you go?? But you do or your not getting anywhere inside or to the beach. You pay for laundry and not cash or by debit card. You must take the card that’s in your condo and go to the front desk to put money on it and a minimum of $5.00. It cost $1.85 per wash and dry. You DO NOT get your money back for any unused portion and if it’s your lucky day the machine at the front desk will be working so they can load the card with money. Not sure why you can’t just pay with quarters or debit card? There is NO bar so don’t look for a nice frozen mixed drink or anything because your not getting one unless you make them in your condo. The cafe sells beer, wine, and champagne and that’s it. No bar. If you want any type of night life or something to do you must go 2 to 2 1/2 miles up the road to the boardwalk. So it’s NOT within walking distance unless you don’t mind walking 2 1/2 miles up and back. If you stay here you pretty much need a car or call an Uber. The strip has nothing but condos on it and nothing else besides a 7-11 across the street and Wal-Mart across the bridge. The furniture in the lobby is discussing as its so dirty and gross that you could find better furniture at Good Will. Check in is more complicated than it needs to be and no one tells you where you have to go to get to your condo. You have to then walk back to the front desk as that is not where you check in but I walked back there to find out how I get to my room, how to get to the beach, pool etc. at check in that lady tells you nothing but is fast to tell you that you need 20.00 for your key??? Also, if you do have a car your paying to park your car here as well!! I’m sorry but when I’m on vacation I don’t need all this aggravation and rules. I will go back to renting my private homes with private pool as they don’t cost any more than these small condos and I get a whole house and pool all to myself with a lot less rules and no one watching over me every time I’m at the beach or pool. Oh yeah and they have a total of only 26 lounge chairs at the pool and a few sitting chairs and tables with umbrellas and that’s it. Thankfully our condo was nice and clean just not as equipped as what I’m use to in the private homes I’ve rented. I’m sure I’m probably forgetting something but hopefully this helps you decide if this place is right for you. As for me I wished we would have stayed 2 1/2 miles up the road by the boardwalk instead where there is some nightlife because there is nothing here when it comes to nightlife and 5 miles round trip plus all the walking up there is a bit much so we had to Uber it just to go out for a drink. The beach up there is also a lot nicer and wider. So if you like being told what you can and cannot do while on vacation, staff watching you all the time and want no nightlife then this place will be perfect for you. Otherwise I would go 2 1/2 miles up the road and stay on the boardwalk. I hope you found this...

*This will be a long, detailed review. If you are on the fence about staying here because of reviews on here, let me tell you about our time. We stayed 10 days at The Tides. We got there on a Wednesday around 3pm. We pulled up to the valet and he had us fill out paperwork pertaining to our car. This is for security reasons so they know what cars are parking on their property. Which makes sense! Took no time at all. Every valet employee for very nice! Then you take that paperwork to the registration office and finish up registration there. The whole thing took maybe 30 minutes or less. You can unload luggage in front of the door before you go park your car. Once inside with your luggage, take the SERVICE ELEVATOR. This is also used for pool/beach equipment. The service elevator is significantly bigger to accommodate luggage. The other elevators are for people only. That is stated by the elevators. Once you get registered, you pay for a key fob (which is another security measure so no ransoms walk in off the street and have access to the pool and beach.) The key fob is good for two adults (or) 1 adult with 1 child. This gives you access to the pool, beach, other tides building where the cafe is. No issues what so ever with the key fobs. There is a maximum capacity for the pool, so there isn’t always enough chairs for everyone, especially during the holiday weekend when we were there. But if you get to the pool early enough you have plenty of chairs to choose from. There is a 30 minute rule at the pool which I’ve seen reviewers complain about but I like it! You are not allowed to leave unattended towels on a chair for more than 30 min. It prevents people from hoarding seats at the pool, then going to the beach for 60-90 minutes while people who are actively using the pool are missing out on chairs. All of the pool rules are listed in the pool area, in English and Spanish. It very clearly says “no pool toys/inflatables.” Again, common sense because if 20 people in the pool have rafts their laying on, there would be no room for anyone to swim or walk through the water. People seem to think this pool is their own personal pool. Well, it’s not it’s for everyone so respect everyone’s space and don’t bring tubes in or throw toys around the pool. I saw the same 2-3 guys on security at the pool during our stay. Never once were they rude to any guests! Yes they had to tell people to get their floats out of the pool but were very nice and respectful. They did a great job watching over the pool. The location of the building to the ocean is 10/10! All you do is walk past the pool, and the door to the beach is right there. The beach in front of this condo building isn’t crowded at all unless it’s a holiday weekend like the 4th. We never had trouble finding a spot. Our condo was clean, fairly up to date and spacious. It was a great room for 10 days for 4 of us. Overall, our stay was a 10/10. We didn’t have one issue. Staff was great! All you have to do is follow the rules that are set in place for a reason and use common sense! I’m assuming people leaving bad reviews thought they could act/do whatever they want and go upset when they were corrected. We definitely recommend this building and will be...

BUYER BEWARE: This is without a doubt the most unhappy I've ever been with a vacation condo or rental.

tl;dr - There's nothing about this condo that stands out and every thing is inconvenient, expensive, and underwhelming.

SURROUNDING AREA: There's nothing around this condo. Barely a place to eat, nowhere to get a drink, nowhere to buy anything nearby if you forgot something, you have a minimum of two miles to get to anywhere that resembles a place to spend any time. Just stay further up the beach and you'll get all the same benefits plus you won't have to walk or drive two miles just to get a drink.

PARKING: Parking costs $75/week for valet, but the valet doesn't park your car or help with bags or provide any assistance. Instead, their "valet" is just a way of saying pay for self parking. In order to get a tag to get into the parking lot, you have to visit a separate office with $20 cash between 9am and 5pm Monday-Friday. So when it's time to leave, you can't get your $20 back unless you go return everything within office hours.

CONDO ACCESS: In order to get into anything you have go to that same separate office and pay $30 per two guests for a little fob that buzzes you in. Without it, you have to ask security or the front desk to let you get to the elevators and pool and such. Then, they make sure to mark you as a tourist by making you wear a wristband the entire stay with the literal name of the property you're staying at.

AMENITIES: Absolutely nothing about this place is accomodating or helpful. There is no bar on-site, there is no restaurant on-site, there's a little cafe that's open during the daytime that serves mediocre coffee and some basic baked goods. The pool closes at dark, and naturally nobody works there so there's no lifeguard or towels on site. Want to carry your luggage to your room? You have to use a separate elevator and you have to check in your ID at the front desk to use the cart.

CONSTRUCTION AND NOISE: During our entire stay someone was drilling and working on their unit which meant there wasn't really a quiet moment to be had during our stay...