Azul Key West — Hotel in Key West

I booked this property based on the reviews and I am so glad I did! Nothing is ever perfect so I will talk about the pros AND the cons overall. We stayed in the Fontana room.|My first piece of advice is to never ever never book on "booking.com" or the like. I admit that I have used them to book rooms in the past- the convenience of the pay at the property feature, and the sometimes lower price can be alluring, but the problem with having a third party involved is not worth it. I booked directly with the property and the experience was easy and the price was as good if not better than the third party sites. The instructions were clear and the property was easy to find. We were able to check in almost 2 hours early which was great. We grabbed a parking spot right across the street and we never moved the car until we left. |You will need to plan to Uber (cheaper than taxi fyi) if you are going more than a few blocks from where you want to go. It might not look far but in the Florida heat. We rented a double seater moped to get around (Pirate Rentals, ask for SEAN!) they will pick you up, super convenient. And you will see Sean while you're out and around and he always asks if everything with your bike is good. Great service and there's alot of places to rent these things.|As far as the room goes- it is super small, but you're not going to be in the room much! We unpacked the bags and took the empty luggage back to the car to give us more moving around space. There's not a lot of room for snacks and drinks and all that in the room, but the house has a large kitchen with a big fridge if you wanted to put stuff over there, you could. I can't imagine anyone would mess with your stuff. They provide water pitchers that keep the water really cold. They have an ice machine but you don't really have a place to put an ice bucket in the room. The pitcher does its job nicely. |They provide towels out by the pool. The pool is small but nice. Saltwater which is much better. It was never crowded in the pool, we came across a few other people, but no one stayed out there long. You can get in the shade while in the pool which is good if you're pale!|The chairs around the pool are comfortable. There's no smoking on the pool deck which is good.|And staff we ran across were super nice, but you really check in on your own, and you come and go without needing anyone which is good.|The AC is GREAT!! Nice and cold. It is loud, but if felt like a good white noise machine. It is a pretty quiet area, if you're super sensitive to sound, you may want to pack ear plugs. I always travel with eye masks because I am sensitive to light- they have great black out curtains, so the room was nice and dark at night.||THE CONS|The bed needs to be replaced in this room. It is wayyyy too soft and we would roll down to the middle of the bed because it swayed in the middle. You can't LOOK at it and see this, you have to be in the bed with someone for this to be a problem. We were so exhausted at night that we slept fine, but and more than 3 nights in that bed would not have been good especially if you have back troubles. We both slept right on the edge as the bed was a little better there. The pillows and the bedding and all were nice.|The bathroom is very small. There is nothing they can do about this, so you have to just go with it. If you are on the larger size, I can see how getting in and out of the shower itself would be a problem. I am not a skinny girl and it was a tight squeeze for me. I have a massive bruise on the front of my leg where I ran into the toilet. I was just hanging up the wet bathing suits and rammed my leg. I learned how to carefully shuffle around. The water pressure was a little low, you can change the flow on the shower head and that helps. I have super long thick hair, and it worked fine for washing my hair. |You can't do a pass by like while one is brushing teeth the other can scoot in behind to get into the shower- this bathroom is for one person... again, nothing they can do, just FYI. This would not prevent me from booking again.||My biggest hidden gem from this trip was Karlita's Cafe. It is a block up across the street. They have the BEST BREAKFAST!!! It is a little hole in the wall, with a few seats at a small bar and three tables, maybe four. We were able to get a table every time we were there, they have a bustling take-out business, but sitting in was great, and it was cool in there! We went in every morning while we were there. They have wonderful delicious food cooked fresh when you order. We had the breakfast burritos and the huevos rancheros (MY FAVE!). The cafe con leche was really good too- and without the Cuban Coffee Queen price tag!||My biggest letdown was Seven Fishes. It is so convenient, literally right next door. The reviews were good, so we tried it. Everything about the experience with them was terrible- the drink was terrible, the appetizer, the food, the atmosphere.... we ordered scallops for an appetizer. It was 17 bucks for three tiny scallops. They tasted terrible. We ordered the chef's special seafood for 2. It came with shrimp, scallops, and mahi over rice with veggies and two pieces of bread. It's $93. It was terrible- absolutely terrible! It is caked with rosemary, even the bread has rosemary. Nowhere on the menu does it mention rosemary. Rosemary is one of those spices that tastes like dish soap to me. That is what was wrong with the scallop appetizer as well. It looked blackened it was so caked with rosemary. Absolutely horrible. |This place is described as "fine dining"- yes, price wise. But it felt more like a cafeteria! Uncomfortable chairs, loud music.... we were dressed nicely, there were people in shorts and flip-flops. Go to Conch Republic for dinner. Best place in Key West for dinner! |I would absolutely book here again...

Be careful when booking. The way you book on their site says "arrival" and "departure", but after you select the dates, it no longer says those words and only shows the dates, so it can appear like you've chosen Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights, when you've actually chosen to arrive on Monday and LEAVE on Wednesday. I was extremely careful booking, but it still tricked me and 2 days before our flight home from Key West, I received a text message about the check out process and soon realized that we were booked one less night than we thought. Now, it did say the clear dates on my rental agreement, but that was sent to me after I had booked and paid. My receipt for payment doesn't even show the dates or the number of nights that were selected. ||||The staff is not on site and communicates with you through text message. Although this was not ideal and again, not made clear before booking, they were very responsive and helpful when we realized we had booked one night less than we intended. Thankfully, no one had booked our missing night and they quickly added a new reservation for us through email/text conversation while we were relaxing in the pool. ||||The exterior of the building was beautiful and private, surrounded by palm trees, and a small pool. The pool was clean, there was adequate seating around it, and I never once felt unsafe in our little neighborhood. The location was ideal, as we could walk absolutely anywhere in Key West.||||The room itself was extremely bland. The bed was comfortable and there was adequate space because we spent most of our time outside anyway, but there were hardly any surfaces to set our things on. There was NOTHING in the bathroom to set items on. There was a sink basin with space to set a bar of soap. There were no shelves or tables and the bathroom was huge! In the bed area, there was a super tall dresser. I didn't think such a tall dresser was necessary. I would rather hang my clothes on vacation (and there was a spot for that), but the dresser was so tall that it was inconvenient to set our things on top of it. So, we basically had the 2 end tables and the top of the mini fridge. It was decorated very minimally and not what I'd expect for a romantic getaway vibe. ||||There was no housekeeping whatsoever. This is stated in our rental agreement, but was not made clear on their website before booking. So, we were provided one roll of toilet paper, one bar of soap. a...

Azul Mansion is a beautiful house with a great layout. It definitely has character in a good way, The main house common areas were all great and they provided what we needed in terms of ice, filtered water, clean poolside towels, extra coffee supplies, a nice clean pool with lots of seating, etc. When we had an issue, the people looking after the home responded very quickly. They have an efficient communication process (text, email, and an app). ||Our room (Clark) was very nice . It was generally very clean. There was a Keurig coffee maker that worked well and was appreciated. It was nice to be able to sit in covered comfort just outside our room. The bed was very comfortable.||So why was I disappointed? I thought this place was very expensive but I understand it is high season in Key West in January. Never-the-less, for over $500/night (after all the ridiculous extra fees that VRBO charges), I expect more. There were only 4 clothes hangers available in the room, so it became a challenge to dry our bathing suits and other wet gear from a snorkeling adventure. The remotes for our fan and AC didn’t work consistently. This might be related to the mixed batteries they were using, but even using my own batteries didn’t help matters, We never did figure out how to get the overhead light to work, but at least we could get the fan to work. It was relatively chilly in KW so it took is a couple days to notice that our AC unit wasn’t working, The previously working AC remote had stopped working. When we arrived, the light over our door was dead, and when I mentioned it, they quickly replaced the bulb. However, we then could not turn it off! There are 3 switches beside the door when you walk into the room… and only one of them does anything. The bed obviously dominates the room, but the bed legs are square and kind of stick out from the bed itself, and are great targets for toes on bare feet. I stubbed my toes several times while i was there, but when I was in a rush to get out to an appointment, I managed to crush my big toe on the bed and will be limping for weeks (and that hasn’t done much to enhance this review). In all fairness, I know that if I highlighted these things, they would have worked to correct them. When is am paying $500/night, I don’t expect to...