The Fritz Hotel — Hotel in Miami Beach

If you want to have your reservation botched, only to be gaslighted by a very weird guest attendant, this is your place. I booked a Th-Su say over a month ahead of time, and called ahead to confirm I would be getting an ocean-front room (some reviewers had said they had been surprised by this at check-in). I received no answer in several tries, and no return call from two messages. I finally caught Fernando a day before my trip, and he graciously upgraded me to a room that wasn’t ground floor with no view. So far, so so. When we showed up, it was Fernando on the front desk, but he seemed to have no idea who we were. He said he’d needed some time to sort things out, so to go ahead to the room, get settled, and catch him to sign stuff on the way out in a while. No problem, all good. When we stepped out to eat after a while, we stopped by the desk to get squared away, and he said he couldn’t find our reservation, saying we must have booked it incorrectly. Nope - I had the confirmation from Hotels dot com. Turns out he had my name confused earlier with another guest, and that this guest was the one he thought he was upgrading by phone the day before. The only record he had of our reservation was that he had canceled it. So instead of just saying “Give me a moment while we get this figured out”, which is all it would have taken, he instead goes through this strange progression of blaming me in various accusations and walk-backs. First, he says my card must have declined (not possible, didn’t happen), because they wouldn’t cancel for no reason, and that “if you call the number on your card”… I replied, “let’s call them, then”, followed by “what, you don’t call or email a guest when that happens??””, and so he walked that one back. Then, he says I must have canceled the reservation myself (whatever, total lie). I then look at my phone and see that Hotels dot com had sent an email earlier that day—while we were on the plane—asking if we had meant to cancel our stay. At this point, it was super clear they/he had somehow fumbled the reservation, then canceled it for whatever unknown reason. Hey, it’s Miami — I used to live there and know what to expect. But, again, all he had to do was apologize for the mistake, put the reservation back in and get us square. Nope, Fernando isn’t built that way, and needs a guest to think it’s somehow their own fault things were messed up. I was keeping super calm, while my +1 was texting me saying how hilarious it was and how surprised she was that I was staying so cool. Meanwhile, every time it seems we might be heading toward a resolution, Fernando would go into a pearl-clutching episode over how mean I’m being mean (I wasn’t, at all), how he’s just trying to help (hardly the case), that I’m putting him down (I hadn’t, at all), and how I can ask anybody and they’ll tell me he’s the nicest guy. Each time he did this, I would suggest that I wasn’t over-reacting at all, and hadn’t once raised my voice — he was doing all of that, and at one point even said “are you SURE this is ok, SIR??” with a VERY condescending tone and glance after I had already said “yes” to the solution three times, as if I’m the one making the process difficult. I’ll admit to almost losing my cool at that point, but somehow managed not to. Fernando shouldn’t talk to guests....

This is the WORST hotel I have ever stayed in my whole life. So bad that I decided to lodge a complaint with the Miami Health Department - seriously that disqusting!!!! This place is an absolute dump, you would be better off in some motel in the ghetto - seriously.

There were tiles falling off the baseboards – a lot of them. The closet was missing the door! The futon was filthy, normally dark grey now had white spots all over it (didn’t even want to begin to think about what they were) The walls looked like they had not been painted in 20 years, they were dinged scuffed and destroyed – throughout the whole place! There were holes in the wall that still had joint compound in them and had not been painted, I mean come on! Hats off to you for filling a couple but at least paint the wall. The stove (which was the reason I rented the room to warm our infants bottles) was shattered to pieces and did not work The elevator looked like it was going to take me down into some dark rave party – absolutely destroyed and disgusting. Assuming by the overwhelming smell of chemicals the staff is hoping to make the appearance as at least clean even though its destroyed. The fridge was not working and couldn’t keep the bottles cold (another reason we rented the room) The shower and tub was filthy, still had black hairs in it from what must have been the previous guest (along with the bathroom sink) The tile around the tub had gobs of caulk layered on there, clearly to cover up the nasty caulk that we both know is underneath All of the woodwork around the doors were chipped and showing bear wood – around all of the doors. The door had a hole in it The SHEETS ARE PLASTIC!!! I MEAN SERIOUSLY PLASTIC? Go to Wal-Mart at least, crinkle crinkle every time you move around at night, worst night sleep of my life. I wanted to iron a shirt to wear out until I noticed the Gray-now-turned-black ironing board. So I figured I would iron on the floor – oh wait the iron doesn’t work either. The ceiling was falling off in the corners The faucet in the bathroom could be pulled out by lifting up on it

The patio is connected to the room next door, so if you go out on it and turn around you are looking at the bed of the person next door, and vice versa.

I sent an email to the General Manager Camillo after I got home asking for a response or appology or something before I left my review on the travel websites, at least an explanation. He came back to me and said that he was not going to do anythign about it since I (verbatem) "was blackmailing him with my review to gain further compensation from him". Mind you no-where in my email did I ask for compensation, just asking for an explanation on how they can justify renting a room like that. They offered me a mere 20% discount on my room, after refusing to allow me to cancel my reservation and go to a different hotel.

If you go back to their website and look at the gallary, you will get a laugh from the fact that there is not a single picture of a room on there, all of them are some off-beat out of focus picture, or footprints in the sand etc.

The GM is an absolute Jerk, his hotel mirrors that of his managerial abilities, absolutely bottom of the...

This hotel was a surprise ... I had business meetings in Miami Beach and wanted to stay in the heart of the action. I have a business and don't always like to be spendy to stay at top of the line places when doing deals, which may not yield results. I knew I'd be dropping some coin at Joe's Stone Crab (within walking distance) so I wanted a budget hotel. There were a few about a mile away but I wanted one close enough to walk to the restaurants and beach.||||First off ... this is not a luxury hotel. It's a basic hotel. But it's cleaner and the rooms are bigger than a lot of the Art Deco dumps which look great on the outside but are grimy on the inside. If money was no object, let's be honest, I'm not staying here. But on a budget, this is better than what you'll find at 90% of other SOBE hotels.||||The staff is great here. Both the manager and the owner are fantastic. I was upgraded upon arrival to a full apartment from a studio suite. The manager gave me both keys to check out each room before committing to one, which I actually loved! I travel a lot and often 'upgrades' sometimes don't always mean a better room.||||The studio suite I booked, I expected to be tiny and closet-sized as it was the lowest category of room. It was actually 350 sq feet and bigger than my room at the airport Marriott I stayed in the night before! The apartment was ridiculously big. 750 square feet and perfect to walk around in.||||The rooms had bad views and I had to keep the drapes closed the whole time, or neighbors could stare in ... but who cares because the beach was literally across the street! Trust me ... if you are in Miami, you want to stay in this area. At night, you can walk up and down the strip to many bars and restaurants and it always feels safe. Other parts of Miami ... good luck to you.||||The hotel has valet parking. (Which is rare in SOBE) It's $35, which is about on par. I paid $30 for a spothero at the Target garage, which was a short walk (10 min.) or 5-6 blocks. I did so because the hotel resets the clock at 11 a.m. and I got a few extra hours of beach time by using spothero. A lot of hotels had no valet parking, so it's nice if you are in a rush.||||The top floor pool was completely closed during my stay, which is a bummer. However, when open, this will be a huge perk to guests. Although the pool is small the views of the ocean are great ... and there would be a lot of space to relax. I can't wait to return when the pool is open. Overall, I was very surprised and pleased with my stay here and would stay again. Budget hotels can be scary in Miami. This...