Kenmore Village Hotel — Hotel in Miami Beach

This was my second stay at this hotel. This time I came for Art Basel. The staff is always incredibly kind, helpful, understanding, insightful and overall just amazing. Security also does a wonderful job at making you feel safe while on this resort property.

The location is right by the beach/strip area, right off of Collins Ave. Lots of great locations in walking distance (I feel like it’s in the heart of everything enjoyable off of Collins). Car sharing apps find the hotel with ease. Security also informed me that you can take the bus for $2 right across the street. There’s also trolley rides. And bikes available at the police station across the street.

I love that you can access your room by using the app in an awesome tech saavy modern way. Truly amazing and super easy to use. You can also enter a code to access your room, if you prefer that option. The app is so easy to use and beneficial. You can also extend your checkout time with a fee. I think the latest checkout may be 1pm for $30 for example. To request room service/free touch up there’s literally a barcode on your bathroom mirror you can just scan to request the service. Easy easy easy. Everything is at your own fingertips.

The restaurant inside of the hotel cafe area is delicious every single time! There’s breakfast that lasts until 11am. Great little menu of items ranging from tacos, pizza, burgers and salads. There’s coffee and lattes (w/flavor options to choose from). There’s a full service bar with happy hour pricing specials from 4pm-7pm (correct me if I’m wrong). The workers at the bar are always super fast, helpful and have all hands on deck. They will bring your food out to you and before your food comes to your table, they will bring all the condiments, you may need for your meal. There’s also a free water and ice dispenser w/paper cups avail. I’m not a hookah smoker but they do offer hookah at the restaurant cafe for those who do enjoy this.

The rooms are a great size. The first time I stayed in a king room in the first building. My only gripe is that there was no sink space for your toiletry items. On this trip, a friend of mine got a king room in the 3rd building. Same space for the most part, just a different set up. On my second trip, I was upgraded to a studio. I loved it. Spacious beyond belief included with a balcony! The balcony had a table outside and 3 chairs. However, my room was a conjoining room that I did not ask for. There was an issue because of this, but I used the chat service and staff AND security handled The situation promptly and reassured me that everything would be okay after that. They were correct and I am grateful for their quick and professional response.

On this last visit, the elevators were not working, but that was no issue for me during my solo trip. I love to walk. Due to my job that requires me to sit all day. So walking is no issue for me. I use it as an excuse to get my steps in! Cardio is a good thing, so always look at the bright side and situations like this! Fourth floor! Jon on the security team assisted me with getting my bags up :).

Speaking of workouts, there’s a gym in the second building!

Wi-Fi is available. It’s super fast. I have never had any issues. The TV in the room is a Roku and you can sign into your own account safely.

If you arrive before your room is available, the staff can hold your luggage in a locker room. Also if your departing flight is later after your checkout time, you can have staff hold your luggage in that locker room while you walk around and enjoy the city and waste time!

Overall, this is the best hotel I have stayed at in Miami. Mainly for location and service. I also forgot to mention that they have a pool and a very large Sitting area Outside. It is incredibly nice to enjoy during the hot seasons. I feel very safe at this hotel. Everything is...

My goal is to provide a balanced review as I think there are clear benefits and advantages, clear compromises, and potential hazards of staying at the Sonder the Deco. First, though, I have to get this out of the way: the most lasting memory I will take from this place is the smell. It’s the overpowering odor of something like a chemical toilet (think port a potty) that kicks you in the face as soon as you open the door. It remains in the room like a humid soup in a poorly ventilated room penetrating the walls, your hair, clothes, and somehow only gets stronger during the duration of your stay. It’s also kind of silly to see the owners respond to previous complaints about the smell and ventilation with promises they will look into these issues and address them. Given the number of complaints about this, the hotel is clearly just offering lip service. More on that later, but as promised here are some points on balance:

The good:

The location is a dream. You are super close to the beach, Ocean Drive, awesome clubs and restaurants. Everything is at your fingertips within a 3 block radius. For troubled sleepers worried about the noise that comes with a party town, you are conveniently a block away from the noisiest streets on the beach (Ocean and Collins). We had a lower floor and heard practically no noise from the street. This is very rare for south beach, especially for a boutique hotel.

The beds are comparably comfortable. We stayed for a week and were generally pleased with the bed and sheets. For me the comfy King size bed saved this from being a two star review.

Contrary to negative reviews I’ve seen on here, our room was actually very clean. Practically scrubbed down. Contributing to the mega clean vibe was the overpowering smell I alluded to earlier. It was a thick humid wall of odor that was a mix of urinal cake, Lysol and Fabuloso. It was the kind smell that you can taste in back of your throat and makes your eyes water.

The bad:

It’s impossible to overstate how stomach turning the chemical smell is after a week. As others have stated, the fans either do not work or do not discernibly circulate the air. On top of this the windows do not open, so you don’t have the option to ventilate the toilet air. We also got the impression that there was actually a blend of smells from poorly filtered or poorly circulated central air (meaning if someone 2 rooms over had a bad reaction to spicy food, you would ultimately be the beneficiary). This is especially important and potentially hazardous as it relates to my next point:

As others have stated, this is not a traditional hotel. There is no phone in the room to call the front desk for assistance. There are no key cards, you need a code to get around. And importantly, there is no housekeeping. Similar to pandemic-times, this hotel requires you to schedule and pay a La carte fees each time you want to clean your room. Imagine multiple rooms going uncleaned for days. Imagine the chemical toilet smells, left out food, mold, stale air, etc that continuous to waft in the poorly ventilated air that dozens of people across several rooms are sharing.

This hotel has the markings of management that prioritizes turnover over the guest experience. This is not a hotel for people looking for more than a couple nights. For us the idea of having a pool and fitness center was very attractive. I can’t comment on the pool as we stayed there in December. Unsurprisingly the fitness center was a classics small room with 4 sad machines that no one has checked on in months

Wow. That was way longer than I intended, but I’m hoping this helps anyone considering this hotel. I definitely will not be returning, but I do think there are travelers out there for whom the hotel offers the right balance....

Mine and my husbands stay at Sonder was mid at best. Here are my positives and negatives about staying here for three nights and four days

POSITIVES Sonder is pretty cheap compared to other places on South Beach - we booked a last minute trip to Miami from Toronto to fly on Christmas Day, and Sonder was the most reasonable option. We paid about 780ish in total for our stay (206.49 per night via Expedia before taxes and fees). The location is great - you’re walking distance from South Beach and all the major party places like Mangos and Palace. It’s pretty safe - in order to get into our rooms there was a lockpad on the hallway for our floor and there was a number keypad for our room. Also you’re right next to the Miami police station! Our room, while small, was clean when we arrived - no frills and matched the pictures we saw online. Customer service through the app was decent and the front desk staff were all pretty easy to work with - I asked for extra towels and when I came back from an excursion they were at my door. We didn’t hear any noises throughout the night (I think we were just lucky to not have partygoers on our floor). They do have free luggage storage - which was helpful since our flights at 9 PM and checkout was 11 AM.

NEGATIVES When we walked into our room, there was an awful smell like a mixture of chlorine, and fish - we got used to the smell but I’ve never walked into a hotel room that smelled before. Unpleasant. The elevator was broken during for most of our stay (it was fixed temporarily on the Wednesday, however went out of service again at night) - we stayed on the second floor in the kenmore building, so it wasn’t an issue for us going up and down the stairs but if you have accessibility issues it might be. They were issues with hot water - so both me and my husband had to shower with cold water - we were told on Wednesday afternoon it was fixed, however upon showering around 6 PM we found out it wasn’t which was a bit frustrating. You have to pay extra for cleaning! You can see screenshots of my conversation with their staff via chat. They couldn’t schedule me in for a cleaning during my stay and offered to have my room cleaned on the day I was checking out for free (which I’m guessing they would have done anyway after I left so really no point). Check your email as soon as you book - because they will give you instructions on how to check in which is through their app. The email went to my husbands junk mail so we had to spend an extra 10 minutes after a long day of travelling to check into the hotel by filling out details on the app. This is also minor - but there’s no breakfast included. You can eat in their cafe downstairs. This is really minor but there’s no shelf in the shower so if you have your own products you have to put them on the floor - there are also no bath robes!

Conclusion: Would I recommend Sonder Deco after my stay? No, not at all. Would I try out Sonders in other cities? Potentially, because I think they have the right intention, it’s just this location wasn’t the most well managed. I think if you’re just looking for a place to sleep, be close to the action on South Beach, while on a budget and some security - then Sonders is an option, however, it would not be my...