THE CASABLANCA MIAMI BEACH — Hotel in Miami Beach

In October this year I registered on priceline.com to rent an apartment in condominium Casablanca, Miami Beach, for 2 weeks. I admired their advertisements displaying their clean and modernly equipped apartments.|We flew into Miami Beach from New York, rented a car, and according to the condo’s rules arrived to the apartment by 3 p. m. for check-in. But it turned out that the apartment was not ready for us, and we were required to stroll around for an hour or two. We came again at 5 p. m., and they checked us in. However, the apartment was not cleaned, empty bottles were lying all around the floors, the garbage can was overfilled, the wash basins were dirty, the bed sheets were also dirty, and the bed was not done. I had to make 3 phone calls to the owner to request a cleaning lady to come. Finally, at 6:15 p. m. the lady appeared dissatisfied with something. She washed the wash basins and changed the bedsheets, leaving the dirty torn blankets on the bed and a thick layer of dog’s hair all over the floors. It looked like the floors haven’t been washed for half a year. The a/c ventilation grille was covered with a thick layer of soot. We had to stand at the staircase for 45 minutes waiting for the end of the cleaning.|While booking on priceline.com I requested an apartment with a view on the sea and the pool, but they placed us in an apartment with a view on a busy street with a spot for garbage containers removal.|In the kitchen under the wash basin two pieces of cladding were torn out with bare wood showing. The electric stove was in a terribly dirty state, and three out of four burners were not working. There was a stain of mold on the ceiling in the bathroom. Dog’s hair was stuck to the floors over the whole apartment, amd it was impossible to sweep it because it was sticky.|The chairs were very high and uncomfortable; it was impossible to sit on them for a longer stretch of time, to say nothing of having a rest. The beds were also too high, so that it was difficult to sit on them. In this apartment one had to either stand or lie down. So we had to buy a new chair. There was nothing in the apartment except things that were bought by previous tenants. We bought an electrical kettle and left it along with the chair for future tenants. We also bought and left there all household chemicals.|There is a bathtub in the apartment, but it can not be used, so only the shower is working.|From the a/c ventilation grille soot was falling over the floors. There was a heavy stench of stale tobacco over the whole apartment all the time. On the second day we turned off the air conditioner and opened the window, but the garbage containers made themselves known. Besides, there was no mesh on the window, and we had to close it before going out.|Closeness to the ocean that attracted us in the first place didn’t help much either. For the duration of 2 weeks there was stormy weather, and strong unpleasant winds were blowing all the time. We were leaving Miami Beach with a great pleasure and with firm confidence that we will never come back.|Great thanks to the website priceline.com and to the owner of the apartment for the spoiled vacation to which we were looking forward to for a long time. Before leaving I called the apartment owner, and he was very polite. He wished me a safe and happy return home. Well, I am very grateful to him at least...

On the first night, my family and I arrived to this resort at 9:00PM to check-in, only to find that the line of (4) people in front of me took 45 minutes to check-in. When we finally got to our room, the toilet wouldn't flush, the cable TV wouldn't work and the freezer was leaking water all over the floor. The next morning, I went downstairs to tell the front desk that these items in the room were broken. After an entire day, the broken items in the room were not fixed, so I had to go down and ask for these items to be serviced once again. I walked into the "café" for breakfast the first morning, only to find that the staff hounded my family and I like vultures for a silly "breakfast voucher" that we are supposed to get from the front desk every single morning for a breakfast menu that included waffles, dry cereal, juice, ham & salami, eggs and a couple fruits. This remained to be the same menu every single day, while this room was slammed during peak breakfast times with nowhere to sit, as resort guests are not supposed to bring food out of the room. If there's no room, where are we supposed to eat? The following day, as the toilet and freezer were finally fixed, I asked ONCE AGAIN about the cable TV. They sent up (5) different people, whom each time said "I'll be back, 5 minute" and never came back. I went down to the front desk and demanded to switch rooms or get a refund. They told me "we cannot issue refund, we see if room available". We had to get all of our belongings moved from our current room into the new room that night, only to find that there were MORE broken items in the new room! The following morning, I went down to the front desk and asked for a plug for the bathtub (so that we could give my 1-year old son a bath). We did not receive the plug until the following night of our stay!!! I was taking a shower one night, only to find that my fiancé screamed. So I ran out of the shower to find a giant cockroach (see picture) scurried from the room to underneath the stove. The "heated outdoor pool" advertised on every travel site IS NOT HEATED, it was colder than the ocean and surrounded by obnoxious people walking around smoking weed around plenty of small children (like my son). Also, our cable box was disconnected when the room was cleaned by housekeeping, who showed up at random times to clean our rooms each day. To top it all off, on the last day I told the front desk and housekeeping that I was going to pick up a rental car to get my family to the airport and would be back to pick them up at noon. Housekeeping kicked my fiancé and son out of the room and forced them to bring down belongings on their own. As if our stay wasn't completely terrible, this really pushed it to the extreme. Never again will I go to Miami. What a disgusting and terrible city, full of rude, snooty people. Just when I thought Chicago was bad! I went to this resort thinking that the reviews looked OK, only to find that this was the worst, most memorable experience I've ever had staying somewhere. I would NEVER recommend anyone staying at this resort, they should close the resort until someone can afford new...

This was the world famous hotel back in its day. From 1948 through the 70s. But those days are long gone. Today, it is an open source Airbnb of very sketchy rooms that are booked directly through the owners. The cheap prices draw budget travelers from all over the world. Most of the rooms are sparsely furnished with cheap, misfit decor that might be reminiscent of a homeless shelter. Each door has a different type of lock, mostly keypad locks but it’s most unlikely that the combinations are ever changed and well known by random people due to the simplicity of the four digit codes starting 123… We reported a walk-in at midnight on our first night. There are no secondary locks to prevent this. We learned from security that the seventh floor cameras are malfunctioning. When we asked to have the door code changed it became very clear that it had never been changed before. While there is security on site and lots of cameras, Security does not know where the camera feeds are coming from in relation to the building. It took quite a bit of time for them to figure out which cameras would show our floor and we actually had to go up and wave into the cameras for them to identify them. So all of these cameras are effectively useless, although some could be recording video that could be helpful following an incident. It does have a nice big pool and it is on Miami Beach. The pool was in poor condition when we arrived but they did treat it and it cleared up before we left. While there is no housekeeping service, the rooms are supposedly prepared before your arrival, it is quite minimal and we did not even have any soap in the dispenser in the bathroom, even after asking them to fill it. There were very long hairs on the sheets and pillows as well. We had a beach view and there was a huge brown curtain covering the window. If we opened the curtain the room was too warm for the air conditioner so we had to keep it closed all of the time. The maintenance person came to check on the AC while we were gone one day and we returned to find our room left completely unlocked. This is a factor for my one star score. Security was not even able to unlock or lock the door using their key. The air conditioning performs so poorly that we were not able to use the stove top or oven, of course, without heating up the room to the point that we could not cool it back off. It did have running water in the kitchenette and bathroom, though they are reversed, but that’s about the best thing that I can say about that. The bathroom is remodeled with nice tile and a glass shower and is the nicest part of the apartment but even still it appears to be finished by a bad DIYer. The bedroom and kitchenette are quite outdated and worn. Maybe the location makes it worth the price, just be prepared and know what to expect. This is a completely honest review that should help you understand what it was...