SoBe Hostel & Bar — Hotel in Miami Beach

I could give a negative rating if that was an option.||I had reservations with SoBe hostel Miami 2 times in the past. One very recent experience and one was last year.||I will list out each experience in detail, do read it with patience as it will save you a lot of money and a very bad experience.||||Our Latest reservation - Feb27th to March1st with Hostelworld.com||Our Booking: We reserved the 6-Bed dorm for 5 people. ||||Our issue: 2 of us were travelling from NJ and other from Philadelphia. Now due to bad weather in NJ that day out flight got delayed and unfotunately the airlines was overbooked and other 3 people couldn't travel that day and the airlines booked a ticket for them for next day.||||the Checkin Experience: So the 2 of us reached hostel around midnight, which was 3 hours later than we expected to arrive. First of all the guy on the reception, I can't recall the name but he had a beard and only top half shaven mustache. This guy lacked basic talking skills and manners.||He said that we cannot checkin without the guy who made the reservation. Well that makes sense, they must have their own rules. So we asked if there was a way we could checkin. Well you would think there must be some way since we paid in full. He said that there is no other way and since we arrived after midnight, he would not even make a new reservation for us for an extra pay. We asked if we could check-in the next day once the guy who made reservation is here. he plainly refused saying we are already late and our booking will be cancelled anyways. On asking what are we supposed to do since we don't have any place to stay, he rudely replies " I don't care. Just go to some Holiday Inn". ||When asked for a solution, his only reply is contact hostelworld to get your money back, we cannot do anything, which we cannot do immediately as they don't have an US number.||He never even mentioned to contact someone from SoBe customer service saying they won't do anything about it.||Now when after the trip we contacted SoBe customer care, guess what their answer was. You could have emailed us the same day only. like seriously. you expect people to email you when they are stranded and worried like hell in the middle of the night?||We still don't have any money refunded or as little as an apology from SoBe hostel.||Solution :-So after roaming around for 2 hours we were able to find an alternate accomodation at 2am for a ridiculous amount as it was a busy time and every place was fully booked.||||Overall Experience:- SoBe has a very rude and very unprofessional staff, who will not even listen to you. They don't care about customer service or anything else over the fact that they can make money over people's misery.||||Our Reservation : - Nov21st to Nov 23rd 2018||Our Booking:- We booked for 4 people in an 8-bed dorm.||||Checkin Experience:- We reached a little early than the checkin time. The person who was there at that time was very nice. Offered to store our luggage. guided us that we can use the common restroom and common area until the checkin time.||At checkin time everything went smoothly and we were checked in no time.||||Stay Experience:- The first night was ok. No problems. although the beds are really noisy, mattress too thin, and almost no hot water in the showers. I ignored those facts and enjoyed my first night's stay anyways.||The second night, we returned from a party and I find someone sleeping on my bed. On going to the reception and asking the person there, he says that he asked that person to sleep there "thinking" that bed is empty. When asked to wake him up and get my bed back, he say he cannot do that as a customer is sleeping. very well then . I am your customer too, what am I supposed to do? He literally said just sleep on some other bed. So again at 2am in the night I am making my bed because of staff's mistake.||||Action:- I did complain about the guy at the reception, but no solution and no contact from SoBe customer service ever.||||overall Experience:- It was average, like I said, beds were noisy, mattress were too thin, and the staff...

Ohhhh.... I have to find a place to begin. Well like any knowledgeable traveler, i checked out places around where i was going and saw this hostel. It seemed very impressive. Its only a hostel after all, right? i mean its website boasts beautiful pictures and includes great amenities such as free breakfast, free dinner, an airport shuttle, a business center, even smoke free. Well do i even have to tell you that none of these are true? So lets start from the beginning. We book online like the website tells us to. And it states ALL taxes and fees are included including the resort fee and cleaning fee and all the other funky fees they put in there. So you see the amount and you're like," Okie this is my total amount and it even tells you what you pay online and then the final amount due at the desk. So i pay and then we check in later that night. And they tell us its actually 11 dollars more per night because they add taxes and fees as well on top of taxes and fees from before. So we say we already had them included and the hotel tells us they know that but they don't control how the website works but they charges taxes and fees there too. So we pay. Then we get in the room and here's a few things we discovered during our stay

CONS-----------

-No free dinner -Breakfast consists of 1 waffle, coffee or a cup of water. That's it -BEST PART: the butter for your pancakes was bad. it had turned sour and was frozen but had separated and was chunky. When you ask the staff and let them know they say oh its definitely bad we will make you a new waffle. YET THEY REFUSE TO TAKE IT DOWN AND CONTINUE SERVING RANCID BUTTER TO OTHERS AND CLAIM"I told the manager." REALLY???? Dont you think it should have been taken down once the manager was holding rancid butter in his hand? Oh no just make the guy a new waffle and forget it all happened. -No airport shuttle -No business center -Definitely not smoke free. Don't be out at night and sensitive to smoke or have asthma because cigar and cigarette smoke fills the common areas up front. -Urinals in the bathroom don't actually work _Showers may occasionally work but only 1 out of 3 during our stay -Power outlets are either friend our shorted out -Finding ripped or cut extension cords with exposed wires is normal in the bar area -"Air Conditioning" consists of VERY OLD window air conditioners. Some dont work some dont even have buttons to operate them. Only at night is it cool. -The little restaurant attached consists of a little window where you order, and let me tell you all about the food safety they follow. The frozen foods truck and the fruits and veggies truck rolls up and the staff verify what comes off the trucks. Now you would think in 89 degree weather that it heads directly into the fridge or freezer. NOOOO , quite the opposite. For ONE hour and FORTY minutes i was downstairs watching those boxes sit in the heat on the sidewalk with open boxes and people walking by it animals doing animal things and still no one paid attention to it. I left after that so who knows when it actually made it into the refrigeration. -Those lovely pics of beautiful furniture you see all over the internet? Not anymore my friend. Now its broken down beat up couches, chairs, tables and dirty floors that dont see a good cleaning often. And I GUARANTEE you wont be impressed with those beautiful dorm rooms either with falling apart metal lockers that dont close, ripped and torn mattresses, doors that dont close.... Ohh and i woke up to a maintenance man walking around with a can of white spray paint spraying anything that might not look white or was peeling or stained.

There is so much more to tell but i guess i have to leave that for you to discover on your own. And yes this post will be shared on all other social media and booking sites. You might as well have an honest review instead of people writing good reviews because the staff offer a discount for good reviews.

P.S. Yes we took pictures of the butter and food and the delivery left out. Figured the health department might...

With no any doubt, THE worst hostel/hotel/accommodation I have ever been to. Yes, it's cheap and that is the reason why I was forced to stay there as the prices were too high elsewhere due to the super bowl weekend in Miami.

STAFF - rude and incompetent and will give you an attitude every time you approach them about something. During the super bowl weekend, they were selling already taken beds multiple times so we had people coming to our room 3 times on the same day saying that they were assigned our beds... Each time we had to show proofs that we have booked and paid the beds weeks before... Instead of apologizing for mistakes caused by their own incompetence (or greediness), the staff was yelling and acting as if we performed some kind of a fraud or trick just to stay in the room!!!

ROOMS - Prison-like experience. Windows cannot open. Beds too short and too narrow, mattresses extremely tin, pillows dirty. I was able to sleep only after my third night there when I have become way too tired not to...

KITCHEN - nothing to use. No stove, plates, pots, utensils or pretty much anything but I mean anything you might need to make the most simplest dish on earth. Like, if you want to eat a bowl of cereals, sorry, no can do - no spoons, no bowls, and oh yeah, the fridge is not cooling well and it was broken one whole day sooo, sorry you can't even keep your milk in it for the cereals. Of course, the kitchen is dirty too.

RESTROOMS - most of the toilets you can't flash, they get clogged all the time, and just to be fair, you would expect them to be dirtier considering the overall experience. Probably because most of the guest who stay here don't shower frequently (we'll get to that later).

AMENITIES - this is one big lie. Everything you can find listed on their website that is included in the price is, hmmm how to put it nicely, fraud! Towels? You get one during the check in, if you need more, you have to pay $1 for every additional one. So-called "Free bus shuttle to MIA" is a joke - this does not exist anymore (if it ever existed). Free bag storage - don't fool yourself - you will have to pay $5 fee if you want to leave your luggage after check out for a while. Free breakfast - for six mornings they served the exact same thing every time: toast bread (with a note begging us to take only 2 slices per person!), butter and the cheapest and grossly tasting jelly. Oh yeah, there's undrinkable coffee too and a basket with bananas - again - begging the guests not to take more than "one piece of fruit per person". Every morning the same.

OTHER GUESTS - You will think you mistakenly ended up in a homeless shelter. Half of them are old weirdos, freaks and junkies that smell and fart loudly wherever they please (sorry guys!). The rest of the guests had the exact same face expression as me at all times: how did I end up here???

LOCATION - this is the only thing that made my stay at SoBe hostel not entirely miserable. It is not a 5 star location, but is 4, which is very decent.

ALL IN ALL - no matter how cheap this place is and no matter the good location, everything else is so bad that will eventually ruin your vacation/weekend/or whatever reason you came to Miami Beach. From the bottom of my heart, I advise you to skip this nightmare...