Beacon South Beach Hotel — Hotel in Miami Beach

My husband and I recently stayed at your hotel from October 16th to October 21st, 2025, to celebrate his birthday. After researching numerous hotels in South Beach, we chose The Beacon Hotel based on recent positive reviews, location, the onsite bar, and the photos featured online, which appeared beautiful and inviting. Unfortunately, our actual experience was far from what was advertised.

Upon arrival on the evening of October 16th, we immediately noticed that the hotel appeared outdated and did not resemble the photos posted online. We were not informed that the elevator was out of service until after making payment and receiving our keys. Our room was on the 5th floor, requiring us to carry all our luggage up the stairs. The stairwell was in extremely poor condition, with filthy, stained carpet, scuffed walls, peeling wallpaper, and unfinished drywall repairs. When we reached our room (506), we were disappointed to find that it looked entirely different from what was advertised online. The room was significantly smaller, the microwave did not work, and the window seal was broken and hanging loose.

During our stay, we also experienced issues with the toilet, which malfunctioned after every flush. We had to manually adjust the flush valve to allow the tank to refill. Although the night shift desk clerk, who was very courteous and attempted to fix it, he was unsuccessful. He kindly offered to move us to another room, but due to the broken elevator and the amount of luggage we had, we declined. While we appreciated the hotel’s offer of complimentary beach chairs and towels, our experience was again disappointing.

On multiple occasions, we were either told there were no chairs available or provided with broken chairs that were unusable, requiring us to walk back to the hotel to exchange them.

On the evening of October 20th, we visited the onsite bar for a drink. My husband placed an order while I requested water and a menu. However, after the bartender’s friend arrived, he became preoccupied in conversation and did not return to take my order. I eventually had to interrupt to request our bill.

To be clear, every staff member we interacted with was friendly and courteous aside from the bartender. However, the condition of the property, misleading online representation, broken amenities, and poor maintenance made our stay extremely disappointing.

I reached out to the hotel management in hope they would be willing to take the proper steps to make things right (requested a partial refund) and the hotel declined to do so, stating their are “costs associated with each persons stay). This blatant disregard to my concerns just proves that this hotel lacks basic empathy and they truly don’t care about their customers experience. It’s all about money for them.

There are plenty of other hotels on Ocean Drive. I strongly encourage you to look elsewhere. Your trip to South Beach will likely not be what you expect if you choose to stay...

DO NOT STAY HERE YOU WILL BE SO DISAPPOINTED!! My cousin and I booked a room here for the weekend of 10/11/24-10/14/24, when we checked in we were given a room on the 5th floor and then told the elevator was out of order. What?! That might have been good information to give us straight out of the gate to see if we were even capable of walking up 5 flights of stairs, multiple times per day. When we got to our room we were disappointed, it looked nothing like the pics online. It was tiny, the view was of the ugly rooftop, the toilet paper roll fell off onto the floor because it wasn't even attached, the only mirror in the room was a tiny one in the tiny bathroom. We decided to go check out the pool that we were allowed to use at The Victor Hotel. That hotel was exquisite and we decided we would rather stay there, so we checked to see if they had a room available and they did. We went back to the Beacon and told Nesrine at the front desk that we wanted to cancel our reservation because having a non-working elevator was not acceptable, especially when they didn't know when it would be fixed. She understood and said the money would be credited back to my account but it probably wouldn't be until Mon, I was ok with that. When we went to grab our bags from the room, my cousin noticed there was hair on her bed, disgusting. So Monday came and went with no refund. I called the Beacon Tues and left a message, I called Wed and spoke to someone who said they would have someone call me, no one ever called me. Thursday I spoke to Sylvia who told me where to send an email about this. I mentioned that we ended up staying at the Victor and that's when I found out they are all part of the same group. She said to make sure to mention that in my email. I sent out an email on Thursday saying I was supposed to get a refund and had not, gave them my reservation number, let them know we spent much more on the room at the Victor, ate at both of the restaurants there multiple times and also utilized the on-site spa. No one responded. Saturday I sent a not so nice email regarding their lack of customer service. Sunday I got a reply from Maria and it was very apologetic and she asked me to give her until Monday afternoon to reach out to the hotel in regards to my refund. Surprise surprise Monday came and went with no response. Tuesday I emailed Maria asking when I could expect my refund. Today I emailed again. Here it is Wednesday night and I have not heard from Maria since that one email on Sunday and I have not received a refund. This is the worst customer service I have encountered in a long time. If you don't care about the view from your room, the quality of your room, or whether or not there's a working elevator, then by all means, stay...

I have stayed at countless hotels around the world, from boutique gems to five-star icons, and I can say with unwavering certainty that the Beacon Hotel in Miami is without question the single worst establishment I have ever had the misfortune of setting foot in. To call this place a “hotel” is an insult to every actual hotel in existence — it is a festering parody of hospitality that should, in all honesty, be condemned. Let’s begin with the front desk: Marsella — the alleged “guest service representative” — was utterly incapable of completing the most rudimentary task of finding my reservation. I stood there for FIFTEEN minutes while she clicked around her screen with the charisma of a traffic cone, never once offering so much as a smile, apology, or basic courtesy. Her demeanor suggested that I was inconveniencing her simply by existing in her line of sight. The bar? A catastrophic joke. They were completely out of wine and champagne. Imagine that: a so-called hotel in Miami unable to provide even the most basic beverage one would expect from a cheap gas station cooler. The bartender, when he eventually bothered to appear from the bathroom after five minutes of leaving guests stranded at the bar, was useless in every sense of the word. Watching him attempt to function was like watching a fish attempt to ride a bicycle. And let’s be perfectly clear here: communication was an ordeal. Not a single staff member I encountered seemed capable of speaking fluent, coherent English. Every interaction was painful, slow, and borderline incomprehensible. This is not merely inconvenient — it is unacceptable for an establishment claiming to cater to international guests. Now, the rooms. My God, the rooms. Vile doesn’t even begin to describe them. They are offensive. Filthy, outdated, reeking of neglect, with an ambiance that screams “motel on life support.” To charge money for these accommodations is an act of fraud, plain and simple. I am not merely leaving this review as a warning — I am actively reporting this abomination of a “hotel” to every possible channel I can find. TripAdvisor, Yelp, Booking.com, health departments, tourism boards — you name it. In fact, it is my personal mission to see this disgrace of an establishment shut down permanently. Miami deserves better than this embarrassment. To anyone even remotely considering staying here: save yourself the horror, the frustration, and the insult to your dignity. There are dozens of reputable options in Miami Beach. The Beacon Hotel should not be one of them. This place is not a hotel. It is a...