The Palms Inn & Suites Kendall Miami — Hotel in Kendall

I rented a room here for two nights when the other hotel I was staying at had jacked the rates up for the weekend. I’m a travel nurse, just starting a new contract in Miami, so I haven’t found housing yet, and just needed somewhere affordable, safe and clean to stay while I was in town working. The hotel was located in a nice area, Kendall, not too far from the hospital, and had plenty of food and grocery options around. When I arrived for check-in, a man approached the front desk right next to me, and interrupted my process and the lady checking me in allowed him to do this and even started helping him while also helping me, which I thought was rude and unprofessional and took away from my experience and my first impression of this hotel. I will say that they allowed me to check in early because I called and asked if there was a refrigerator I could keep my salad in for the few hours before check-in so it wouldn’t spoil, and they did not have a refrigerator for me to use so they offered to let me check in early, at noon instead of 3:00 pm. Once I arrived to the room, I noticed a couple of small ants on the desk but as a Floridian, I know there are bugs everywhere and sometimes they get inside, so I just squished them and went about my business. I left the room to go have lunch with a friend for a couple of hours. When I came back to the room, I got comfy and prepared to get cozy in bed, when I saw there were larger black ants IN THE BED!!! This of course started me on a hunt to see if there were more and boy were there….! I found many, many ants - in the bathroom, coming out of the cracks in the grout of the shower/bathtub, on the floor by the toilet, on the desk, under the coffee pot, in the bed, on the nightstand… I killed as many as I could and took pictures and videos to show the front desk when I checked out the next day. The next morning, when I was leaving, I did tell the man at the front desk and showed him the pictures and videos and all he said was he would tell the manager. Because I was leaving the hotel on my way to work at 6:15 am, I didn’t expect to speak to a manager then, but I did expect to hear from a manager later that day (Sunday March 16, 2025), but I still have not heard from the hotel. I sent the hotel a message via the Hotel.com app, which is how I originally booked the room, and I had communicated with the hotel about an incidentals deposit via the app already, so I knew they’d receive the message, but they have not responded. I gave them an opportunity to make this gross sleeping with ants situation right, but they have not even tried. So here I am, writing this review to say DO NOT BOOK HERE UNLESS YOU WANT TO SLEEP, SHOWER, AND EAT...

Bad hotel.

Pros: Plenty of space outside. Nice area. Quiet. Many shops nearby for food, drink and shopping (don't expect high end stuff though). A 30' drive to downtown miami and more or less the same for Miami beach.

Cons: Breakfast is non existent. Only things they got are bread, butter, philadelphia spread, 1 type of cereal, marmelade, ham, cheese, bananas, coffee and boiled eggs. They also couldn't care less to renew them as soon as they are gone and the stuff is rude. The breakfast area is small and cannot accommodate many people at once...many of us had to stand and wait which felt a bit awkward... Wifi is bad and had to reconnect many times to establish a somewhat decent connection. The room could be cleaner, the beds although comfy could be bigger and hardly accommodate two people each . Windows don't open hence they are also dirty as its hard to clean and ventilation is poor. Cleaning stuff has skipped a day of cleaning our room even though we asked them to. The elevator is very slow and sometimes we had to take the stairs to get to breakfast or go outside the hotel. Moreover its hard/expensive to go to downtown miami and miami beach without a car as an uber drive can be anywhere from $30 to $45 and you will have to switch 2 to 3 different types of public transport on an one hour journey to get there which isnt really worth it especially if you aren't familiar with using the means of public transport.

Overall:

Nice and quiet area. Good for walking around. Sufficient free parking space. Close to Miami Beach and Downtown Miami if you have a car. Quite some things to do around the hotel. However I would rather spend some more money and go somewhere...

The hotel is conveniently located in a nice shopping mall where dining and shopping are convenient when needed. It's not far from FIU, about $15 Uber ride, so that one does not need to worrying about parking at University or in the city. The hotel does have plenty of parking spots that I haven't seen it full during the duration of my stay. The breakfast is included, but unfortunately, terrible during my stay. There is only cold boiled eggs (already shelled, not not fresh), cold ham and cheese, with some berry yogurt (the best of the breakfast), 2 oatmeal options (sugar corn flakes and raisin bran), white bread, plain bagel, and those store-bought blueberry/banana-nut muffins (depending on the day). I ended up not eating breakfast at the hotel at all. The room is OK, although I got a room near the front of the hotel (even I request a quieter room); it gets loud whenever there are cars or people near the entrance. It's near the highway; so you also got morning ambulance that helps prevent you from oversleeping if you are on a schedule. AC is also super-loud; I had to turn if off a few nights to be able to sleep. They have 2 kinds of pillows but they are really too small to work well. The pillows in the extra pillow and blanket bag can basically function as pillows; I used those for the duration of the trip. The room also has microwave, fridge, safe, etc. so that's convenient to have. The fitting room is located on the 2nd floor, near the elevator but it's very small, only enough space to fit 3 machines. There is a guest laundry onsite for those who plan the...