Pestana Miami South Beach — Hotel in Miami Beach

WARNING: Breakfast is not necessarily included in your booking and is $25 per person per day. It is mediocre and overpriced for the offering. Not worth it. Staff did not tell us upfront and we only found out after having it twice when a staff member mentioned it to us as we were already eating the second time. Ask if you are unsure before getting food. Also, the pool had a nasty, musty smell that lingered on our bathing suits long afterwards and there were large clumps of hair scattered on the floor of the pool (it was taken out of service after our first day so hopefully it won’t be an issue in the future).

Review: My partner and I just stayed for three nights in room 3302. My partner booked the room through NEA, as she is a teacher, so the reservation was under her name. Pestana is in a great location in South Beach. Unfortunately, location is the only great thing about the hotel. The room was pretty clean but there were many dead mosquitos smashed against the walls and ceiling, especially in the bathroom. I have stayed in other hotels in Miami Beach at similar times of year and Pestana seemed to have more mosquitos. I killed many in our room over the course of our three nights. Could be a fluke, but the evidence on the walls suggests it’s an ongoing issue.

The pool was quite disappointing as the water left our bathing suits with a nasty, musty smell that lingered long afterwards. There were also large clumps of hair collected at the bottom of the pool. We ended up washing our suits in the bathroom sink afterwards to get rid of the smell which had started to fill our room. By our second day the pool was closed and undergoing extensive maintenance. Hopefully the repairs fix these issues for the future. We were given vouchers to a pool at nearby hotel Marseille which was much nicer, so that was appreciated.

The most frustrating part of our stay was the miscommunication regarding breakfast. The booking site made no mention of breakfast as an option, let alone whether it was included in the booking price or not. When we checked in, the staff also did not mention anything about breakfast — not that it was available nor that it costs $25 per person per day. The laminated information sheet in our room also made no mention of breakfast. When we came down and saw the buffet laid out we went to take plates and were asked for our names and room number. We assumed this was simply to verify that we were guests as the person noting the info did not say anything about any cost. After doing this a second day, we heard a worker mention the $25 per person per day cost of the breakfast as we were already eating. This was annoying because the buffet is not really good, and quite overpriced when compared with the very good cafes bakeries around the corner. After checking the Pestana South Beach web pages, I did not find any information about breakfast or the cost.

At check out, when I expressed frustration at the lack of clarity regarding breakfast and the cost I was responded to gruffly by the staff member. He replied that our third party booking site told us that breakfast was available for an extra cost (it did not, as we tried to show him on my phone) and that it was our responsibility to find out. While he is correct that we could have asked if the breakfast was included before we ate, I pointed out that it would not be difficult to have some signage around the dining area making this clear or including this information on the laminated welcomes sheet with general info in the rooms. I asked: why not make it a standard operating procedure to mention the breakfast and its cost at check-in? The whole situation seems a little predatory.

The staff member at check-out did not even acknowledge my ideas or my frustration as being reasonable and instead became defensive. I never asked for a refund or any kind of restitution. I simply wanted to suggest that I felt taken advantage of by the situation and put forward ways to avoid others having the same experience.

Pestana seems more like a 3-star hotel and the price...

This place is just perfection. From start to finish! I said to my new wife on arrival 10 days ago if I could give them a trip advisor just on the check in id give 6 out of 5 stars!

Daniel - what an amazing man. He set the tone for the place and the tone for our holiday. Always going above and beyond for us and others to help always extremely kind.

Mihaela - clearly the manager but does it so so well. Extremely kind and knowledgeable and went above and beyond for us when she found out it was our honeymoon.

Valerie & Rachael - extremely kind and knowledgeable, again not just to us but watching their interactions with other guests was just so nice, the guest expieirience here is the best I've ever had. So many other staff I didn't get the names of but all of them set and hit such a high standard and were all so kind.

The whole place is so so Clean. It's noticeable from minute 1 but it's kept so clean by outstanding housekeeping. Daily! Fresh sheets towels and water bottles. Lovely robes in the room too. I wish I got house keepings name. We were room 1210 and checked out 26th July if that helps.

Maintenance, we only had one small issue the whole stay but the maintenance man was up in our room fixing it before I even got back to our room! The cleaner then came and gave our room and extra clean once he'd finished!

Another name I didn't get but interacted with daily was the lovely pool supervisor/ bar tender. Extremely kind and curtious and again just like everyone here went above and beyond for all her guests. Helping me with ice / spoons / forks when I needed them. The fresh flavoured pool water was also a huge highlight.

She sets the tone around the pool for the completely Chilled vibe around the clean pool on a daily basis . The pool is quiet and calm but also clean and enjoyable enhanced by the good pool music. Cushioned sunbeds plenty of umbrellas ( though there could be more umbrellas on one side) pool opening times are excellent 7am - 11pm and I believe this is the same for the very well stocked and clean outside gym. Theres also a well stocked vending machine. Reasonably priced and always an option on our pool days.

I can only imagine this extremely good experience is even better for Spanish speaking guests as almost all staff were communicating with us in their second language exceptionally! We need more guest services like pestana miami in the UK. I'm going to try and learn more Spanish before we return! The hotel has reserved beach umbrellas and sunbeds. You just need to ask for a beach pass at reception. Fresh Beach and pool towels are available on request

Away from pestana it is an absolute Amazing location beach is less than half KM. . The town and the shops and amazing restaurants are about the same. IT (I ate here 3 times) Orange blossom, cafe Americano highly recommend. Great food great service. Taco taco - avoid at all costs. The hotel has a microwave! 2 cvs 2wallgreens and 1 7eleven all very close to the hotel. The whole place is very flat. Brilliant shops on Lincoln avenue as well as a huge cinema in stormy weather.

40 min Uber to fort lauderdale ( inter Miami cf & sawgrass mall, highly recommend both) Less than 20 min Uber to downtown Miami ( Denny's Hard Rock, freedom tower, Miami marlins, Miami heat all close together) You can also get the free Trolley service up and down Collins avenue and to south point pier - stunning and to Publix should you need it.

They do everything so well here, and even the little things like a chair in your room which many hotels miss recently! Ideally - floor length mirror in room, more umbrellas around pool, Amazon / Netflix / youtube available on the TV's

Amazing stay and cannot...

There were some really great things about this hotel, and some that weren't very good.

The staff at the front desk were professional and helpful. Frankly, they were really great, perhaps five star level. They were always accessible at the front desk to answer questions and to provide suggestions about places nearby. The staff was a shining point to the hotel.

There were however a few things that seemed a little odd. One was that there wasn't an ice machine (at least on my floor), and to get ice, I had to ask at the front desk. The ice machine was in a room behind the front desk, accessible only to the staff.

There also wasn't any food or room service on site. The hotel itself posts an array of photos of the available food on Google (which should be removed by the hotel pending resolution), and nowhere during the booking (directly with Pestana) was it mentioned that the restaurant was closed. After arrival, I did find mention of it when looking at the dining tab on the website. All the pages I looked at prior to booking made no mention of it. I'll take the blame for not reading all the pages on the site, but the fact that there is no room service or on site dining does impact the overall rating that the hotel honestly deserves. One thing that the lack of an on-site restaurant made even worse was that even though the hotel provided an in-room coffee maker, they only provided a coffee pack on the first day. So, no coffee after that, and no place on site to get a coffee in the morning.

The room I was given was in utter disrepair. It had uneven and cracked tiles throughout the room, with grout missing in many places. One of the toilet seat mounts was broken so the seat wasn't secure. The shower mixing valve had something wrong with it, as it went from cold to hot, with nothing in-between. And there were stains along the baseboards and water fixtures that suggested a lack of regular room maintenance.

There weren't any local TV channel guides, so I don't know what TV viewing was available, but the internet connection was really good, and even allowed enough bandwidth for streaming movies using an Amazon Fire Stick.

One of the key factors in my choice of the hotel was its proximity to the convention center. It is only a block away, but unfortunately to the back side of the convention center, which was not open to convention attendees for my convention. It's uncertain whether this is normal for the center, but not something that necessarily counts against the hotel. It's close to the center, and to the beach. Well within easy walking distance.

As I've described, I had a mixed reaction to my stay. The staff was superb, but the room itself was in disrepair, and no on site food service. My impression of the hotel is a solid...