Eurostars Winter Haven — Hotel in Miami Beach

Part 1 The Service: My experience at the Winter Haven hotel on Ocean Drive was one I’ll never forget for all of the wrong reasons. If you are a person of color, especially African American, save yourself the headache and check into a different hotel in South Beach. My friend and I are both Black women, and we were coming to Miami for the day to explore the city and have a good time. From the moment we checked in to the moment we checked out, we dealt with racist behaviors from the staff. We were the only black people in the hotel, and you can tell that they didn’t want us to be there. You would not believe how many stares and looks of disgust we received from the faculty at the hotel. The people at the front desk didn’t give us our welcome goodie bag during check in (my friend had to go out of her way to ask for one at checkout and they reluctantly obliged). Secondly, our room was awful. Ours was small, and at an extremely inconvenient location. Our reservation specified a room on a high floor. Not only did we not get a high floor, but they also put us all the way in the back on first floor. This room was located near their public restroom and the facility break room; it was also adjacent to the boiler room and it was next to loud traffic. The chatty staff and the heavy traffic woke up my friend and I from our sleep. Our room also didn’t have any hot water, it was cold and took 5-10 minutes to become lukewarm at best. The following day during checkout, when we were ready to leave, this hotel still kept giving us a hard time. My friend called ahead for the valet to bring the car to the entrance of the hotel (keep in mind, I have a flight to catch). It took them over half an hour to get our car even though we called fifteen minutes prior. The wait was so long they that had no choice but to refund us for their valet services. This hotel has a great location, but its overpriced, prejudiced, and has a rude staff.

Part 2 The Dining: My friend and I also made the mistake of dining at the hotel’s restaurant on Thursday night. The food itself was good, but our waitress was apathetic and stand-offish (and clearly prejudiced). We were the only guests eating inside at the time, yet it took her over 20 minutes to refill our water, and over 10 minutes to get ketchup for my fries. The restaurant wasn’t very busy, and my friend and I noticed half of the restaurant staff was huddled by the bar having personal conversations without any regard to me or my friend. When it was time to pay for the food, our rude waitress hastily grabbed the check from the table (giving us the impression that she wanted us to hurry up and leave). Needless to say, we didn’t want to give her a tip, but the hotel gave us no choice because it was automatically included in the bill. My friend finished her meal before I did, so she decided to kill time by asking the manager about any fun clubs nearby the hotel. He was nice enough to give us free admission passes to a club called Mangoes; however, he stated that we should attend because it was “hip hop night.” The stereotypical assumption that we wanted to go to a club featuring a “hip hop night” rubbed us the wrong way. Overall, the dining experience was just as bad/racist as...

The room was small and clean, and the service appeared to be great in the beginning. The ONE elevator needs maintenance. The first notification that the hotel was corrupt is when we paid $32 per day to valet park our car in their garage. We were told the wait time to retrieve the car was 40 minutes each day. We did not use our car for the first two days. On the third day, we looked out our window and saw that our car was parked on the street. We went downstairs and asked the valet why it was outside since we did not request for our car. The valet simply stated that "it must have been brought out on accident". Later we took our car for a drive and returned it that afternoon on a full tank. When we received our car upon checkout, the gas was noticeably lower than when we returned it. Also, the car looked as if it was parked outside for a long period due to the residue all over the car. Also, it took exactly ONE HOUR to receive our car upon checkout. We did not report the incident. After returning home, we noticed that the hotel charged an additional $128 to our card. After several avoided phone calls, emails, and a call from our bank, the staff stated that we drank $128 in alcohol in the room and at the bar. We did not consume any goods from the hotel except for our separately paid breakfast! We only had two drinks the entire 4th July weekend, and they were not at this hotel! The management staff refused to speak with me and TOLD ME BY EMAIL TO TAKE IT UP WITH MY BANK. I DO NOT understand why fraudulent charges from your hotel should be taken up with my bank. The management staff still continues to ignore my calls and emails. Our bank is in the process of trying to dispute the charges. ONE TIP: TAKE A PICTURE OF YOUR ROOM WHEN YOU GET THERE AND LEAVE! I assume someone used our room number to charge their fun for the night, so I am not sure how to prevent the hotel from not accusing you of something that you did not sign or consent to...but this place is a disgrace to the Marriott chain. I am considering canceling my next Marriott reservation in 3 weeks until someone...

I’ll give one star for the location - which is hard to beat in Miami - 2min walk from the beach. Everything else is a disaster at this hotel. I’ll list just an extract of things which shouldn’t be: Resort fee is a scam. The narrative of “free water and free beach chairs” is ridiculous. Water is free at every Marriott hotel and should not be a privilege. The “beach chairs” is a nicely hidden scam, because the only thing included is literally a chair. For the umbrella you have to pay $25 extra. Enough said. The rooms are smaller than NYC’s mini apartments. To the level that it is ridiculous. You pay a super heavy nightly rate ($400/night) and you get a 150sqft (12m2) room with a bathroom where i couldn’t even stretch my arms The views. Are non-existent. 90% of the rooms have one small window with a view of the next building’s wall. Like my room - see pic attached The old AC equipment is installed under the window and blows full force cold air onto the bed. If you don’t turn it off overnight, have fun waking up with a sore throat or a cold (worst case). Ridiculous design. Service for a Titanium Elite Member: non-existent. I reached out 24h in advance and asked if there are any upgrades available for my anniversary celebration. The answer was: we will try our best. I’m not angry that i got the standard room despite my effort, but the fact that nobody informed me that there are high chances i will get a small standard room with a view of a wall. They didn’t give me a chance to cancel and book another hotel with decent rooms. Simply because they didn’t care that it is a special occasion for me, and this circumstance could ruin my whole trip The interior does not pass any minimum standard of a typical Autograph Collection hotels. I’m astonished that this hotel was approved for the Marriott Autograph portfolio. US standards are just not what they were anymore…

I will give a small shoutout to the manager, who reached out to me at the end and offered some small compensation for the disappointing experience. Thank you, but my morals force me to be fair and open with my reviews for potential...