Marriott Vacation Club, South Beach — Hotel in Miami Beach

Marriott Vacation Club is a gorgeous boutique style hotel on the famed South Beach strip in Miami’s Art Deco district. Literally across the street from South Beach beaches, this hotel, on Ocean Drive, is surrounded by fine restaurants, night clubs, cigar shops and upscale boutiques. Almost everything you could want or need is within walking distance - Fine art galleries, upscale eateries, swim shops, sub shops, pizzerias and even a pharmacy! South Beach comes alive at dusk when the historic Art Deco buildings that line the main drag are illuminated in bold neon lights. You can expect to see the streets fill with people, strollers, animals, conga lines, electronic cars, cigar smoke, ballon and flower vendors, street performers, stoners… even a drag show!

This Marriott hotel is a nautical themed Vacation Club featuring several different layouts and floor plans from traditional rooms to multi room suites for families. We stayed in a studio room with kitchenette, sink, refrigerator, ice bucket, dining table and sofa bed for our daughter. Every amenity that you could think of was included like free Wi-Fi, free cable tv, a rooftop terrace, free bike rentals, laundry service and more!

Pros: Located across the street from the famed beaches of South Beach! Our room had a complimentary Tommy Bahamas rolling beach cart complete with beach umbrella, built in ice chest, beach chairs, beach towels and wheels designed for sand which made our days at the beach an absolute DREAM! It’s central location on the main drag made everything walkable and convenient. The hotel also offered free bike rentals and our teenager thoroughly enjoyed riding up and down on the strip while we enjoyed the beach. Less than 13 miles from the airport, there’s no need for a rental car.

From the scenic wall murals, pillow top mattresses, down pillows and duvets in the rooms to the gorgeous nautical rope lights in the lobby - every single detail of this hotel has been thoughtfully planned. They offered complimentary mixed drinks at happy hour, guided walking tours and free access to washers and dryers. The hotel shares a lobby with a wonderful Cuban restaurant called Havana 1957. They have the most affordable breakfast on the strip - the Big Havana Breakfast: 3 eggs any style, choice of breakfast meat, croquettes, breakfast potatoes, Cuban toast, salad, fresh squeezed orange juice and Cuban coffee for $12.00!

Cons: The staff and Parking. The hotel staff was unwelcoming and overwhelmed. When I called on our drive there to get directions to the parking garage that’s NO WHERE NEAR the hotel, the lady who answered acted like she couldn’t speak English and didn’t help me. The “valet” parking isn’t actually valet. It’s located about a block away from the hotel, in an unattached parking garage. They’ll park your car for a tip, but they don’t work for the hotel. They also don’t help with baggage or check in/outs. Prepare to overpay for that daily service at the exorbitant amount of $40.00 a day. Roll up your sleeves because dragging all of your bags up and down curbs, side streets and the strip in the sunshine and 90% humidity is the ONLY way they’ll get to the hotel. They do not offer bell hop service or baggage trolleys for luggage, so come prepared to haul everything you own! The staff is also on island time, so be mindful to allow extra time for basically everything that involves hotel staff. Thank goodness the hotel room is set up for self-sufficiency because it helps offset the lack of enthusiasm and help from the people at the front desk. Many of the staff that we encountered in our 3 day stay only spoke Spanish. We will visit South Beach again, but we will likely pick another hotel...

GREAT Location. They give you a fantastic set up with the Tommy Bahama beach chairs, towels and umnbrella. If you cant find a fantastic meal within a 2 minute walk, you've got a problem. Rooms on the back of the hotel are a bit annoying as it seems trash is being picked up 24-7 but I will definitely stay here again. I've spent more than 1,000 nights at Marriotts and have been a Vacation Club Owner for 25 years.

That being said, the ridiculousness of having to sit with a MVC sales person, get my worthless welcome gift and be shaken down in order to book a sales presentation is a complete joke and MVC should frankly be ashamed of itself.

We arrived at 11:30 AM. We knew that check in was at 4:00. Our room was not ready. No problem at all. Just wanted to drop our stuff. We planned on grabbing lunch and going to the Royal Palm pool for the afternoon. So we get ushered over to "Brian" who was there to give us our "welcome gift." We knew what was coming. 15 minutes later, we still were sitting with Brian, who by that time had told us that we did NOT have access to Royal Palm hotel and pool unless we sat for the ol MVC sales presentation. Brian knew nothing about us and had no idea or care that we were owners and by my estimation have spent close to $100K with MVC and its properties. All he wanted was that tour booking. BTW the welcome gift was some cheap 40th anniversary Marriott bag.

Brian just couldn't understand why we didn't want $200 in resort credits to sit through some unbearable sales pitch for two hours. (I made the mistake of doing this in Hawaii. We left the presentation furious. Despite our $200 in resort credits.). This is not an exaggeration. The salesman literally blocked the door of his office with a chair to try to prevent us from leaving.

Note to Brian: My time, especially when the weather is perfect is more valuable than $200.

So what did we do? We got lunch, and walked to the Royal Palm where we proceeded to spend the whole afternoon. Its a freaking Marriott property!!

Again, similar to Hawaii, we were not happy. The dude totally lied to us.

Of course the next morning, there was a flashing light on our phone from another sales person asking if we wanted to book a tour. Ignored.

I did some research while we were there and discovered that all the people who sit at the Marriott Vacation Club desks (not the check in desk) are contractors. They don't even work for Marriott. They look like concierges, and wear Marriott name tags, but trust me, they aren't. These people are incented to do nothing but convert you to a sales presentation, where you will be showered with "points, Amex card offers, which pay you more points for buying" and fill you with dread that you are missing out if you don't buy.

I also have a theory that the "lobby mixers" they do are nothing more than to expose you to the MVC sales people, whose desks are convenienty 10 feet away. (We never go to those things.)

Its such an insult and I am saying that as a 25 year old MVC owner who is a fan of MVC's. I deal with the maintenance fees that are now 2.5X of what they were when I bought and a program that is completely different than what I purchased. They are wonderful resorts and my wife and boys had amazing vacations!

But Marriott Vacation Club, you need to get your act together when it comes to selling your product. You should be better than this.

So to close. Beautiful location, nice staff, great beach set up. But unless you want to spend two hours of misery in exchange for $200 of resort credit, decline the welcome gift and don't take a seat.

I hope someone from MVC reads this. If they do, I expect...

We had a WONDERFUL vacation at Marriott Pulse Miami South Beach! It is in the heart of South Beach and in the middle of everything. To top it off, -- it's oceanfront!

We took our family for a four-night getaway in December. Our room was lovely and we had views of the ocean. We slept in the king bed and our son slept on the pullout couch. We still had room for all of our gear. There was a lovely welcome basket full of treats awaiting us! The room is laid out well to maximize space and the bathroom is super cute! It was super hot outside, but the air conditioner worked perfectly in our room. Having use of free washers and dryers was an added perk that we did not expect, but were extremely grateful for!

The STAFF was world-class! Our Bellman: met us at the parking deck (at (ZOcean Hotel) with a cart, pleasantly loaded our stuff, and led us to the hotel. In all we were traveling for three weeks, so we had A Lot of stuff (yes, we tipped generously). He was great! We saw him from time to time throughout our stay and he was always busy wiping down the elevator buttons, handrails, bikes, and everything else. Even though covid was still happening, we felt really safe there. The Front Desk Staff: was Delightful! From the time we arrived they called us by our name... wow! They kind of sang our name in a pleasant hellooo Ms. ---. It was rather interesting and felt lovely. They were eager to answer questions and help. There was always a smile on everyone's faces.

The LOCATION: We loved being immediately on Ocean Drive because we could walk outside of the hotel and be able to see and do everything around us! Immediately outside the front door of the hotel is Havana 1957 restaurant. I would've liked to have eaten on their patio, but there was always a wait, so we ordered carryout and to the hotel's ROOFTOP Experience. We LOVED eating our family meals on the ROOF of the HOTEL! The view was GORGEOUS! In the mornings we had breakfast on the roof and in the evenings, we had dinner there. It's a perfect place to sit because we could see everything and were often serenaded by the music below.

Things To Do: The hotel supplies each room with a cart and all the beach supplies you'll need for a good time! Walk outside of the front door and there’s the South Beach! The hotel has bikes in the lobby and you can check them out for 2 hours at a time. We did this multiple times and rode along the beach, paths, or Ocean Drive. We often walked to Lincoln Mall 5-7 minutes, Venezuelan Bakery for breakfast (3-5 minutes), or to Washington Avenue to catch the Big Bus. We ate several meals on Espanola Way... LOVE IT THERE! The Mexican restaurant on the corner is our favorite! Try the Molcajete! It's big enough for two people to eat and it's our fave!

We can't wait to return to Marriott Pulse Vacation...