Marquesa Hotel — Hotel in Key West

Not the experience I expected.

Obviously, when someone writes a review, two aspects should always be combined: on one hand, the objective quality of the place or service, and on the other, the personal experience of the guest. That is what I will try to outline here.

First of all, I am giving 2 stars because I want to be fair and acknowledge that The Marquesa has attractive facilities and a fairly good location.

However, regarding my personal experience, I must be very critical because we are talking about around $600 per night. At that level of cost, and considering the category the hotel claims to represent, customers are entitled to demand high standards, and the property must be meticulous in meeting them.

In my case, I was surprised that, for this price, no breakfast was included (beyond tea or coffee). I was also quite bothered by the fact that the hotel strongly recommended their parking when, in reality, I was able to park for free without any problem on the same street (I do not appreciate being misled). Additionally, I found it disappointing that they did not even have the courtesy of leaving small bottles of water in the room. It is not about the water itself—it is about the gesture.

And now, the serious issues. I booked a suite of higher category, but it was exposed to both the visibility and the noise of the entire pool area. The room had a significant amount of dust (photo attached—and I must add that beyond the inconvenience, I am allergic), the bathroom door did not close (video attached), light came in at 6 AM because there were no curtains (photo attached), and worst of all, there were cockroaches, which made our night unbearable and disgusting to the point that we could not sleep (videos attached).

On top of this, the Wi-Fi connection did not work properly. I had an important work delivery scheduled during my stay, and it was impossible to complete it using the hotel’s internet. For a hotel in this price range, reliable Wi-Fi should be a basic requirement.

Finally, although the suite included what was advertised as a “kitchen,” there was not a single item of basic equipment: no plates, no glasses, no cutlery, nothing at all to make it functional. This felt like another inconsistency between what was advertised and what was actually offered.

Of course, I do not believe the entire hotel is in such condition, but in terms of my personal stay, it was extremely disappointing—especially given the price per night. Cleanliness and cockroaches are non-negotiable at any price, but beyond that, for what we paid, I expected much more, or at the very least, more attention to detail and elegance in line with the category the...

Disappointing Stay Despite Being a Nice Property

Our recent stay at The Marquesa was a let down due to several service issues that took away from what could have been a pleasant experience.

Communication and Service Failures

Before we arrived, we reached out to guest services twice for help with a tricky dinner reservation, but we didn't receive any follow-up or callbacks. While we know this was a special request, a quick acknowledgment or a simple "we can't help" would have been nice. At check-in, there was confusion about our room assignments when we were shown to our three-room reservation, the person taking us to our rooms didnt know which room was which for each name, creating an awkwardness & unwelcoming first impression. We understand mistakes happen, but the situation wasn't handled with the care we would have expected. Throughout our stay, staff interactions were noticeably unfriendly, with little to no greetings or acknowledgments as we moved around the hotel or pool areas.

Unresponsive to Guest Services

Two friends tried to send wine and champagne to our room as a birthday gift, but the front desk was either unable or unwilling to help with this thoughtful gesture. Both friends later expressed their frustration speaking with guest services.

Inadequate Amenities and Poolside Experience

The water pressure in the shower was very poor. Additionally, the pool areas lacked any atmosphere, with no music (even spa like music) to make the experience more enjoyable. By the main pool there was also a recurring smell of garbage - presumably from a dumpster or other garbage storage area directly behind the fence where the lounge chairs were placed.

Positive Aspects

On a brighter note, the hotel grounds and rooms were well-kept and comfortable. Housekeeping did a great job, including turn down service at night. Plus, the bartender at the restaurant was fantastic during our brief visit on our last night before dinner.

Conclusion

While the hotel itself looks great, the lack of attentive service and responsiveness to guests really took away from our experience. Given the price and hotel ratings & reviews, we expected better hospitality...

We ate at the restaurant, which was relatively small but had a great atmosphere. I had let them know in advance we we're celebrating a special occasion, and they had decorated our table for us, which was great. When we got there, there weren't many other guests, and the waitstaff was extremely attentive. I think we interacted with every person who was working the front of the house in the first 15 minutes. My partner loved the signature cocktail. The food was excellent. The compound butter served with the bread was a fantastic way to start the meal. We had the shrimp and grits appetizer and it was delicious. The beef tenderloin was delicious (if a bit overcooked) but the scallops were out of this world. Unfortunately, this is also when the service started to slide. The restaurant got much busier, and so the other members of the waitstaff were tending to their own tables, which was fine and to be expected. However, our waiter was nowhere to be found for a significant part of the second half of our meal. We had to grab another server to refill our wine glasses, and she didn't know which wine was ours (thankfully she found our bottle, which oddly wasn't kept at the table but at the pass). When we did see our server, he mentioned something about having to deliver room service to rooms in the hotel, which was very surprising to us. Why are waiters running room service orders when they have tables in the dining room? Towards the end of our meal, we got the pot de creme, which was also lovely, but we couldn't get our server's attention to ask for the check for almost half an hour. We weren't in any hurry, but it was another oddity that after receiving our dessert we were forgotten about by him, and after our dessert plate was cleared, we were forgotten about by everybody. Short version: food is excellent, as is the ambiance and wine list, but service declines as the dining room fills up and room service orders need to be delivered. Still would highly recommend, but plan to be there for a couple hours for...