Fontainebleau Miami Beach — Hotel in Miami Beach

You Do NOT wanna stay here!!!! Let me share you my experience (and my family) of how you ruin your getaway by choosing to stay at Fontainebleau Miami, FL. It is considered an overrated 5-star hotel that will rip you off along with probably some of the most horrible customer service I’ve ever experienced. We have stayed in room #1456 on December 16th - 18th, party of 3; two adult and a toddler. Walked in and hoped to book directly with the front desk when we realized that same room booked through Expedia was over $300 cheaper (don’t worry, they still take those money from you regardless while you stay and more) and booked through the 3rd party. Check-in and front door was very welcoming, if you don’t consider people sniffing lines of the white powder in their cars with doors open and smocking whatever is now, I think, legal in state of Florida. Sketchy out there, did not feel safe. We had booked an ocean view which was not even 30% of any view we reserved, side of the tower looking at the other tower, no balcony. Attempted to request a room change with an actual view, were nicely told to go screw ourselves, unless it’s another $350 fee for a room with a balcony which was the only option they offered. I’ve witnessed a couple unhappy guests asking for a manager the GSA pretty much told them he/she ain’t coming out, lol (in a professional way of course, the front stuff is very skilled on how to handle guests complains). Tried to move on and finally enjoy my stay when I decide to go to the pool bar and order a couple drinks. Have you ever paid $70 for a Bloody Mary and a Malibu Pineapple?! Even if you have nothing else to do with your money, try to be reasonable, it wasn’t even organic, like come on… the most hilarious part is not my drink was just about 3/4 full of the glass and I asked the lady to fill it up and add more juice and the male bartender goes like - “More money!”, and I’m like please charge me, just fill up that half empty cup! What’s the problem? And just laughed it out cause what else you’re gonna do… The hotel has three towers and it’s huge, but did not look busy at all. That might be reason that not all the pools were heated, just the one closer to the building along with the hot tub and all pool sofas and gazebos blocked for reserve only, about $125 for a sectional patio couch. So, you’re forced to sit on the chairs only, while the rest of the pool furniture is blocked and empty in a barely booked place. It’s not all bad, don’t get me wrong; great location, right on the beach which is very well taken care of by the stuff and the ocean is amazing. Rooms are dated, dirty windows from outside, which made my “ocean view” less desirable. For $1K a day, rooms don’t get clean daily, but what you get is sensors on the snack and drinks, so if you just touch one of them and move it for a will automatically be charged after the midnight audit is processed and you’ll see at least another $500 popping up in your account - Yey, Make it Rain!!! Expedia advertises it as all resort fees included besides security deposit. Nah, fool… Parking fee - $70.62, Hotel Fee - $53, State Sales Tax, Occupancy City & County Tax - 7% + 4% +3%. Tell me why am I pissed? I have a cherry on the top; after check out we left some clothes behind: some skirts, pants and two winter coats (as we came from a cold state) worth about $600. Called the hotel and got connected with lost and found which were more worried to interrupt me and tell me what they found instead of what I think I left behind. I stopped by to retrieve my items a few days later, the lost and found officer just puts the bag on the counter at the concierge and makes me sign, I asked if I can look what’s inside the bag, what if those are not my items?! He’s like here sign, and about to leave, that’s when I couldn’t handle the ignorant approach anymore and demanded a manager to contact me. The winter coats that I personally put on the hangers in the closet were no where to be found, they did return the rest of the clothes though. Larry Clemens was in touch, but...

I can't believe I'm writing such a negative review for Fontainebleau, but here we are. My husband and I were visiting from NYC, and we have been to this place multiple times for dinner, and it's always been such an elegant and glamorous part of our trip. We had seen many ads about this hotel, featuring cool and glamorous adults having the best time, but our stay ended up being anything, but cool and glamorous. We stayed here last week (March 25-29) and quite frankly when we walked in, we thought that we were check-in to an expensive daycare center.

PART 1. Children, children everywhere! Our plan was to spent most of our time by the pool and the beach, but both places were overrun by babies, toddlers, kids and teenagers. They had over taken all the pools and on the beach they were running around, throwing sand everywhere and shouting.

Both the pool and the beach open around 8am and by 10am, we discovered that most guests had run down to ”reserve” their free sunchairs and then disappeared for hours on end. My husband and I spent a day on the pool and a day on the beach and we were there by 9.30am to get a good spot. Several guests around us who had ”reserved” their chairs before we got there, didn't show up until 3-4 hours later (put a pin in that). Tuesday and Wednesday were very sunny days and since the pool umbrella is included in your resort fee (they charge $26 on the beach) we and other guests near us asked to use it to avoid getting burned. However we were told that it's too windy so the staff is not allowed to open them. ”What wind?” I said, there was barely any wind to speak off on both days, and no kidding when the other guests asked to have an umbrella too, they were told ”it's too windy” and they all answered ”what wind?” We had observed that all the other beaches and pools next to Fontainebleau (the Soho House is there too) were using their umbrellas, so my husband later talked to both the pool manager and the beach manager about their umbrellas (because we both got a nasty sunburn even though we wore SPF70) and why we can't use them when there is barely any wind. The beach manager said that the Fontainebleau umbrellas are too old and they can't withstand ANY wind. My husband asked why they cannot upgrade their umbrellas, and this MANAGER, said that my husband is welcome to email Fontainebleau's managers. I didn't realise it was the guest's reponsibility to request that the equipment at a ”5 star hotel” is not from the 1960's. If you pay for the beach umbrella, they told us that if they have to take it down, you won't be refunded, so keep that in mind! And the worts part happened on our last day on Friday. My husband chose to spent time at the beach whilst I stayed at the pool, and this time it really was windy! And surprise, surprise the umbrellas came out and we were allowed use them for 1 hour or so. Why is this place so inconsistent!? At one point my husband went for a swim in the ocean and when he came back after 10min, all his stuff had been removed from the chair and the spot had been given to other people! My husband went to the staff and asked them to remove the other people, but they told him that he had been away for too long. Apparently their rule is that if you are away 45min, you lose your spot! My husband told them that for 3 days now, we had observed people booking their chairs from 8am and they wouldn't show up until 12 or 1pm and nothing happened to their stuff/chairs so why did they take my husband's spot? The staff said nothing and told my husband to find a new seat, yes there were PLENTY of seats around my husband's spot and HE was told to go sit elsewhere. My husband is Asian, and I have never seen such discrimination come from ”a 5 star hotel.” Why are all these other White Americans allowed to book their chairs for 4 hours, but my Asian husband goes for a swim for 10min and suddenly his spot is taken away and he's told to go sit elsewhere??!

The pool and the beach are stunning, no doubt, BUT I'm sure, you wouldn't want your stay here to be as difficult as...

Worst Hotel I have ever experienced. By all means.. STAY AWAY from Fontaine Bleau! I am not even trying to be funny when I say this, you can get a much better experience at a 3 star hotel with better amenities and friendlier staff than what this 5 star hotel claims to be. You can literally spend $0 and have more fun than trying to do a fancy itinerary. Ain't nothing about this hotel is 5 star at all. Just because you have a big vicinity with luxury items does not make you 5 star. Terrible Management and Poor Communication.

I came here on my birthday excited. I booked through VRBO with a host. We did get there a bit late around 1AM. When we got there, we had to check in, then after that do valet parking. When I checked in, they stated it was a $200 refundable security deposit. Later on, you will find out that about $150 goes towards the cleaning fee plus tax and you probably get about $14 back. This was not mentioned AT ALL by the receptionist when we first checked in. All she said was a $200 REFUNDABLE security deposit.

When someone checks in to your hotel, you need to make sure your staff is very clear with what a guest is paying for. All I was told was that it was a refundable security deposit of $200 that I would get back in 2 business days.

So, I pay the refundable security deposit of $200 and get back to the car. We are trying to find the valet parking for the Tresor hotel. We ask the staff on site where it was. It was a nightmare trying to find it. We had a party of 4 and went in circles for 30 minutes trying to find it only to just end up back to where we started. We were given directions to follow streets and look for bridges to get to the valet parking. No clear and concise directions so we could get there reasonably. I went ahead and called Fontaine Bleau while we were in the car. Tell me why, I didn't know but its a call center.

When I asked the agent on the phone how to get to the Tresor Hotel valet parking, and that we were going in circles for 30 minutes, and that if there are any clear directions or address we could put in a GPS to get there sooner.. tell me why this agent is literally reading a script, and is laughing in the background. I am asking very specific questions and each time I ask I get hit with "Rest assured..." along with the street names and where you see the bridge and NO directions whatsoever on "turn left here" and "Turn right there". You need to have signs on where these valet parkings are. It's so hard to find it especially at night. There is no reason my friends and I should be trying to find parking for over 30 minutes.

Our friends in the back pointed the way so we finally get to valet parking... on VRBO it says parking is FREE. When we get there, I ask the lady do I need to pay anything for parking. She tells me to not worry about it. We make it inside the hotel, it was nice I will give you that. Next day time for check out. My checkout was at 11am but we were still allowed to do other activities there according to the host. We needed a bellhop to come and get our stuff. I call the bellhop, and they have an attitude on the phone not sure why. The bellhop comes around 10am like we requested. Friendly, nothing wrong here.

When we reach the lower floor to get our items from the bellhop, tell me why they don't have a tag on which cart has our stuff. The staff member asked is there anything that stands out to know which stuff is ours... Why not just have tags around the actual cart with the hotel room number and name/contact on it so we don't have to go through all that trouble. That would be common sense in my opinion. On top of that, they put our stuff on the ground OUTSIDE! Two friends stay with the bellhop items while me and the friend who drove go get the car in valet. Tell me why... they said I owe a $70 parking. When VRBO says free parking and lady from yesterday told me not to worry about it.

We had to get a manager to waive it off. While that was happening, I found out that a guest was given the wrong car at valet. Valet gave THEIR car to someone...