The Palms Hotel & Spa — Hotel in Miami Beach

My family and I booked this hotel specifically for being on the beach and having a nice size pool. There were many rocks in front of the hotel, blocking guests from going in the water that was in front of the hotel.

I was very disappointed in the lack of pool hour consistency. Our family routine is to spend the day at the beach, get dinner and then spend a few hours in the pool. However, this isn’t possible at this resort. The hotel claims to close at sunset, however this causes them to close it whenever they feel like it. One night was 6, another 7:45. Everyday was different. When I spoke to the hotel manager about my concerns she said the pool closes at sunset. The gentleman that closes the pool also comes and announces that it is closed in a very rude way. Many guests were shocked at the early announcements because we heard other hotels/guests listening to music and swimming nearby. (Close resorts)

I was baffled at the many hidden costs at this hotel! First, I was not aware that everything ordered at the hotel was a 18% gratuity charge. I ordered food on the beach and the waiter never brought me my check. When I asked him he said it would be charged to the room and I just had to sign. He never brought me anything to sign, so eventually I just left the beach (3 hours after I ate my food). When I checked out I saw the charge, 51 dollars for a burger, fries and 1 daiquiri. I often tip more than 18%, however I tip based on great service. I don’t think forcing people to pay 18% for everything is fair. They even charge 18% for getting a gelato!

Next, Valet parking at this hotel is 42 dollars a day! That is more than the cost of renting the car for the week! When we get our car it takes at least 20 minutes almost every times They require you to do valet because there isn’t anywhere to park. It’s unfortunate that when I’m paying over $4000 to stay at this resort that I have to pay an additional 42 dollars a day for valet. We also noticed on our Bill that we were charged for Valet for a day we weren’t even there! We arrived at 2am and were charged for valet the day before.

The hotel rooms were also very small for the price. The bathroom was split into two smaller bathrooms. (Sink and toilet on 1 side and sink and shower on the other) The room had two double beds and a small table with two chairs. I liked how they gave you big bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body gel. (Larger than most hotels) I paid 150 dollars more a night for an ocean view room and we could barely see the ocean. We saw many palm trees and a piece of the pool. This type of view shouldn’t cost an extra 150 a night! On our last night my son had dirtied the blanket. We tried to call housekeeping for almost an hour straight and nobody answered the phone. We gave the blanket to the kids and ended up sleeping with just sheets because they wouldn’t answer. Some good things about this hotel was the fact that they provide umbrellas, chairs and set them up for you each day. The atmosphere is beautiful around the poolside bar and pool. Housekeeping comes to your room twice a day, the second time to do a quick check.

Overall, this hotel was well overpriced for what we received. I recommend looking at a more luxurious resort if you plan to spend large...

• The staff were all nice people- this review is not about them. • We chose The Palms for F1 weekend and paid 3x the going rate (usually $199, but we paid $700/ night) • Checked-in around 11 pm Thursday after 7+ hours of traveling. I just wanted a hot shower. There’s no hot water even after letting the water run for 20+ minutes. I had to take a quick & unpleasant cold shower. • Friday morning, I notified front desk staff that we didn’t have hot water. They sent someone up around 10 AM. He troubleshooted, was unsuccessful, said he had to go down to check something and will be back. I about an hour for him to return before I left and told front desk what happened. I gave them permission to enter while I was away. • I returned around 7pm and still no hot water. The shower was dirty from them working on it and the dirt from his boots was still on the bathmat. I politely notified front desk again and they sent another engineer up. He troubleshooted and got the water temp up a few degrees from cold to slightly below room temp. He asked me if I wanted the water “hotter than this?” which was confusing because the water wasn’t even warm!! Flabbergasted, I replied with a polite yes. He left after he though he increased the temp. Hubby showered before me and said the water was warmer. We went out, got back around 2 AM, no hot water. • Saturday around 10 am- I politely notified the front desk that we STILL don’t have hot water and it’s been like this since Thursday. Saturday evening around 7:30pm, we get back to the room, I followed up with front desk, reiterating our situation to a new front desk person. They said we have hot water now. FINALLY! • Our room was a mess, including the dirt from the engineer’s boots and stains in the shower. Housekeeping didn’t clean our room. We were out of bath towels. I called to confirm we had hot water, but our rooms weren’t cleaned. They said it was too late for housekeeping but could offer us turn- down service. I accepted. • We went out for a few hours; when we got back, our room was still a mess. No turn-down service. I got in the shower and no hot water. I let the water run for about 15 minutes and finally the water got warm [still not hot]. • The Palms is supposed to be an eco-friendly hotel; having to run the water is wasteful. • Sunday morning during check out, I politely summarized the fact that we hadn’t had hot water for most of our stay and that normally in this instance, people are compensated somehow. The front desk girl said they removed 1 days’ worth of incidentals: roughly $300. Considering we paid $700/ night, the going rate is $199 and this is supposedly a 4-star hotel, the “compensation” doesn’t feel commensurable to lack of basic things. Even a 1-star hotel has hot water and regular housekeeping. • I wonder if I had been rude or entitled instead of being respectful and polite while speaking with the front desk, we would have been compensated properly. I read another review which stated that “if we didn’t stay for free my review would be much worse…” I don’t expect our entire stay to be compensated, but they could have done better than taking $300 off the bill considering others have...

THE PRO: Kathlem the server at the beach made this place worth it!!! If we came back we would go back just because of her. She went above and beyond for us and the people around us. Very hard worker.

The beach was nice and clean! The umbrellas and chairs were free and first come first serve basis. We never had an issue getting one even on a holiday weekend. The beach was not crowded and had perfect amount of spacing between other guests.

ROOM ISSUES: Besides the fact the room was small… The fan in the room probably had at least half an inch of dust on the fan. It made my allergies crazy every time I was in the room. We kept the fan off due to this.

The AC Unit made a loud door slamming sound every single time it would turn off. It was very uneasy feeling. We told the front desk of this issue to see if maintenance couldn’t check it out for us. They never came and we were told they had a long list before they got to us. We stayed three nights and they never came.

The room was small, city view was not a view I would recommend at all. We had a room that was kind of in a corner and when we opened up our window curtains, we could literally see 2 feet from us inside the next room. People and all. The window was not tinted at all even in the day time, We weren’t impressed with it.

STAFF: Front Desk- We had one couple ahead of us when we checked in. The girl who checked us in at the front desk, was very short with us and seemed annoyed. We were not told any details about the hotel like the people had gotten in front of us. This should be happening and mentioned by every single guest at check-in.

The Concierge was useless and informative. Hire someone who actually knows the area!!! We asked questions about restaurants and things to check out besides the beach in Miami. He had nothing to say besides there are just hotels around us…. Okay, really? Miami as a whole there is nothing besides hotels? Give me a break. We also asked if he recommended restaurants in the area and he told us it depends on what we are in the mood for. We asked him 1 of each of his favorites on each cuisine and seemed appalled that we even asked him and couldn’t narrow things down for us. We lastly asked if he recommended any beach stores in the area that sold bathing suits as we had a last minute trip to Miami and didn’t bring one. He told us they have some in the store in the hotel (they only had 3-4 to choose from) and were very pricey. When I walked back over to him for other recommendations he told us he wasn’t sure as there are just hotels near the hotel…. He was rude and annoyed at this point we came back to ask him of other places. I’m sorry, as a beach town he didn’t know of just one place besides the store inside the hotel?! For those wanting to know there are TONS of them even by the hotel but also a mile down the road in South Beach.

I also feel like the guest should be a priority. We got skipped not once but TWICE to take the elevator to our room by the staff when there were clearly room for us in...