Z Ocean Hotel, Classico A Sonesta Collection — Hotel in Miami Beach

My wife and I stayed here for 3 nights in January 2019. We enjoyed the location on Ocean Drive, and our room was very nice. We had some problems that made our stay less enjoyable.

When we arrived at Z Ocean, the front desk lady told us the pool is closed and that our room had been upgraded. The pool was being repaired, but staff offered free use of the pool at the adjacent hotel, the Betsy. The pool at the Betsy was worthwhile and nice, but not easy to get to, involving a lengthy walk through the hotel's hallways and up multiple flights of stairs. When we went to the pool we also learned that the Betsy is a finer hotel than Z Ocean in every respect.

At Z Ocean Hotel our upgraded room had a gigantic balcony with huge hot tub, but the hotel has a strange system for operating the hot tub. When I checked in the front desk lady said that when I want to use the hot tub, I must make a phone call to reception, requesting use of the hot tub. So I did. The hotel sends an employee to your room to fill the tub with water, and he stands there for a half-hour while the tub is filling. I certainly did not appreciate the convoluted way that the hot tub must be operated. I wanted privacy but had an employee on my deck for a half hour. Maybe some people enjoy having it done this way?? When I asked the lady at the front desk why it is done this way, she said it's because the water will not stay hot, after the hot tub is filled. Weird.

Service is poor at Z Ocean Hotel. When you walk through the lobby, you see that often there is nobody manning the front desk. After staying at Z Ocean for a few days you realize there seems to be very few staff at the hotel. After you check in, you start getting text messages from the hotel's virtual assistant, saying that if there is anything I need, just send a text message to the virtual assistant. So one day at midday I asked for 2 things (deliver fresh coffee the next morning at 6:45, and repair a light that will not go off), but I got no response from the virtual assistant for more than 12 hours. So the virtual assistant is useless.

When I checked into the hotel, I asked about coffee service in the early morning hours. The front desk lady said there is no coffee in the hotel lobby, but there is a coffee machine in the room, and if I ever need a pot of fresh coffee delivered to the room, I can just call reception and ask for coffee, and they will send me a complimentary pot of fresh coffee delivered to my room. Great! So the next morning at 6:45 I called reception to ask for the complimentary pot of fresh coffee, and the front desk clerk had no idea what I was talking about, saying this hotel does not provide fresh coffee. I was highly annoyed. There is a Starbucks across the street, and there is a french pastry cafe and coffeehouse (open 24 hours) one block to the west.

There are several things I liked about the Z Ocean hotel. The location is superb: close to the beach and close to all the action of the Art Deco district along Ocean Drive. Our upgraded room was large, and the bathroom was amazingly good. The huge bathroom is divided into 3 sections, with two separate sinks, an elaborate design, and multiple sliding doors for privacy. Also the balcony was spacious and enjoyable. Another plus is Z Ocean's setup on the beach: the hotel has an arrangement with Esteban's Place, one of the beach chair rental operators. When you show up as a guest a Z Ocean, Esteban's staff takes you to your free chaise lounge on the beach, with free umbrella and towels. I was happy to give that guy a tip! Terrific service at the beach.

I paid about $1,300 for the three night stay at Z Ocean Hotel, or about $430 per night. This is the total cost including the $25/day service charge (not shown when booking online) and taxes. In addition, I paid approx. $30 each morning for breakfast for two, downstairs at the Front Porch Cafe. This is not a good value, considering the poor service I received, and I will not be...

My wife and I stayed at Z Ocean in early 2017 and had a wonderful time. We decided to stay again these last few days (10-21-18—10-23-18) and rent a balcony penthouse for a relaxing getaway. We were very disappointed with the whole experience- a big let down. Firstly, we were not allowed to check-in early (315pm) and were told the room wasn’t ready and we would be contacted via phone. At 5pm (standard check-in is listed as 4pm) we still hadn’t heard back so we went to the front desk and were told it was ready..ok a call would have been nice since they said they would call when ready but not a huge deal I thought…we proceeded to take the only working elevator to head up to the room (the other elevator had a broken sign). Room wasn’t cleaned well, if at all. I tend to be less harsh in my reviews than others but the walls and baseboards were covered with obvious dirt markings or worse. The floor had visible stains, as well as on the doors, chairs and more. The furniture was very scuffed up and worn down. At least we have a hot tub we thought..not really…the tub had many huge cracks and was filthy with debris from the eroding step grip, missing knobs/broken buttons, and dirt and leaves inside. Not to mention the visible ant problem on the roof, and loose electrical wires nearby. I had to call the front desk twice to get it cleaned again and filled and I’m not convinced it was cleaned. Not relaxing to think you might get sick from using the hot tub you paid for.

The worse part is that I complained to the front desk and got to look at two other penthouse rooms. Same thing—run down rooms and damaged hot tubs. Too tired and broke from traveling across country to find another hotel, we decided to stay in our room since the other rooms weren’t better and we already had our bags carried up. I did notice that other rooms were at least provided a hot tub cover which ours did not have. Our roof service entrance to the hot tub didn’t properly close either so anybody else with roof access could have strolled right in. Additionally our room’s tv was programmed wrong with faulty wires (cut outs), extra/confusing universal remotes and even the phone lines sounded garbled when the front desk called. No real free amenities. Breakfast not included this time but it was last year.

Another weird problem—they were doing construction downstairs with no notice so we couldn’t leave out the front door and had to walk around the building in the opposite direction, as well as having all customers listen to loud drilling and sawing while in the lobby and when talking to receptionists. Not to mention the visible dust particles in the air—they put up paper signs that said “pardon our dust while we renovate” but I’m not sure that is enough for construction dust by most health department requirements. However, I understand that they are in desperate need of renovations but should have started with replacing the hot tubs and cleaning rooms better.

Also—The 2nd night our roof smelt like sewage most of the day, no joke. Maybe it had something to do with the mysterious construction or maybe it was a unrelated problem from somewhere else on the street but it was bad enough to mention.

This level of room quality and service absolutely does not justify the extreme nightly prices we paid to have a private roof top that we could barely use due to ants, sewage smell and a dirty, potentially hazardous hot tub situation. The ocean view was very obstructed and partial at best. I would not recommend another person pay $500 a night for this.

At 1050am we were called via phone to see if we needed help checking out, in effort to rush us out despite the delayed check in and dissatisfactory room/experience. The office manager was affable, but I was not offered any consolation for the bad service and...

We arrived to this property on 5/14 when we were checked in we realized that we were checked into the wrong room type. I called downstairs and spoke to Angel a very rude front desk agent when I told him our room was incorrect he showed no empathy and simply said “that’s not what your reservation shows” I was supposed to have a king suite with the rooftop jacuzzi terrace. When I came downstairs to show my reservation confirmation he again showed zero empathy no apology no nothing and his first option was “I can check you out and you can go somewhere els” He asked where I booked my reservation I said directly through the hotels website then he said “oh it’s a reservation issue you have to call them” he refused to call to get the situation sorted and continued to tell me he was going to check me out and I could leave the property. My wife then called reservations to get the mishap sorted. We spent over 30mins going back and forth since Angel was adamant about checking me out I asked if we could just keep the room we were checked into and have our price reduced he refused the suggestion and again threatened to check me out and make me leave not only did he keep saying I could leave he had the nerve to stand up and slam his hand down on the desk as if I was his child and raised his voice this was between 6-630 so whoever needs to can check to cameras to watch him slam his hand on the desk at me. Once I made it clear to him that he had no right or reason to have me removed from the property he finally started to get me to the correct room. Once we got to our room it was filthy with dust build up on the TV stand soap scum from previous guests on our shower door the sofa pillows were peeling very badly half the lights in the room didn’t work there was no lamp on my wife’s side of the bed our towels were even dirty! When you go up onto the terrace the speakers in that area didn’t work we did not have our privacy shades to be able to enjoy the jacuzzi area the jacuzzi it’s self was dirty with cracked paint inside of it and it was empty the website also didn’t disclose that although you’re paying top dollar door this rooftop suite you are not allowed to use the jacuzzi at your own leisure they wait until you arrive to the property and give you a waiver to sign stating that you have to call to have the jacuzzi set up and you cannot use it after 9pm the one time we attempted to use it and had it set up the water didn’t even get hot after it was set up this hotel is a total and absolute ripoff I spend close to 3k on this room for my wife’s birthday and it was a total nightmare the elevators did not work we had to call down to the front desk and wait forever for somebody to come get us off our floor and to top it off the ice machine on our floor didn’t even work which wouldn’t have been a big deal if we were able to use the elevators without having to call down to the front desk and to get back to the ignorant desk agent Angel who immediately hangs up the phone when you call to the desk and doesn’t give you a chance to say anything my packages that I purchased was to have parking included as well as a $25 gas card which is shown on Zoceans website when we asked for the gas card his exact words were “I’m not familiar with that” and he made no attempts to honor what I had paid for he simply kept repeating that he wasn’t familiar with it although I have it on my reservation to show. I also asked for a manager several times and no one allowed me to speak to them I asked for a supervisor as well and no one allowed me to talked to them Either. I could’ve spent half the amount of money for a way...