Smart Brickell Hotel — Hotel in Miami

This is going to be very detailed, but it's worth the read if you're considering staying here.

Unfinished condo complex that is being rented as a hotel, presumably until the construction is completed and they find buyers for the condos.

The condo itself is gorgeous, brand new, spacious and clean with a small balcony and chairs outside the bedroom, which I loved. Fully stocked with cookwear, cooking and eating utensils and silverware. Would be perfect for 2-4 for a getaway if you wanted to cook meals or be able to reheat takeaway

Check in was kindof a mess.. people were mobbing the front desk instead of waiting in line to be helped, but that's not the fault of the staff. The staff did have control over the order in which they were serving people, and the way they could have handled people mobbing.. they did not handle it very well, although the woman at the front check encounter did a great job keeping her cool.

One guest ahead of me was given keys to a room that wasn't cleaned and still had beer bottles etc all over the room. He came back down to tell hotel staff- an oversight on behalf of housekeeping and the check in staff.

One highly concerning thing I want to note- upon check in I could clearly see paperwork on the front desk that had someone's full name and full credit card info including the cvv written in plain text. This is very alarming and a huge personal identity risk. I could have easily stolen the credit card info. This made me very uneasy and makes me feel as though this business doesn't have smart, safe practices. I also noted that any bags that were held by the hotel so guests could get lunch etc before check-in were just kept behind the counter, not in a secured area. 2 marks for lack of safe and smart business practices. Yikes

We booked a condo for 4, and were told we would get 2 sets of keys, which we needed because our group was two couples. We were told there was only one key available, which means we couldn't really split up or go to bed without the others in our group, else they won't be able to get into the rental. Less than ideal if you're a group that plans on splitting up, but we had a short stay so we worked around it. I did end up having to wake up the people I was staying with so that I could get back into the condo.

Each unit is supposed to have its own wifi. We were put in a room without wifi and given the password for a unit next door... But it was the incorrect WiFi password. Not a huge deal, but because there are no phones in the rooms (since it's not actually a hotel) we have to go all the way down to the front desk from floor 17 every time we need something. We ended up being given six or seven different passwords for Wi-Fi, and none of them worked. We ended up figuring out the Wi-Fi on our own after some playing around.

I'm glad I checked in before my friends joined so they could have a more seamless experience than I l did

Overall I do not recommend staying here unless you don't mind a single key, potentially no wifi and maybe risking your personal identity information. They seem to be short staffed, it's not actually a hotel and doesn't provide services or amenities of a hotel even though that is what they advertise as..their advertising is misleading.

It has a lot of potential and the condo itself is gorgeous. But everything else was lacking. We got better service and amenities from the Hampton Inn the night before we checked in to Smart. It might be worth checking back in a few months when they (hopefully) have their...

This Smart Brickell Hotel is very conveniently located in a trendy area, as well as close to the cruise port. The hotel is relatively new and modern. It has valet paid parking with excellent parking staff (Ronald, Iven and Diego) who ensure your car is brought to you quickly, safely and with a smile.

The hotel has a good breakfast option from an attached lovely coffee shop with excellent staff.

Our spacious 18th floor room itself was amazing with a wrap around patio deck and killer views of the city and partial view of the ocean. My family spent time on the patio relaxing and enjoying the views throughout our 8 night stay.

The only constructive comment I would make is the floor in the condo unit is not overly clean with a film of dirt on the tile. This is understandable given that this surrounding area is under construction with neighboring buildings being built. Still a good sweep/ mop would have provided a cleaner room environment for their guests. Bring along a pair of slippers for this.

I will finish this review by mentioning one of the front desk reception staff. Her name is Isabela. After much frustration with my original Expedia booking trying to alter my hotel stay dates and also experiencing a very difficult time to speak to someone at this hotel, I was finally able to speak to Isabella over the phone two weeks prior to our trip to explain my situation.

Isabella was a real professional. She not only tried to call Expedia herself to sort this out, but when this didn’t work out, she booked us directly with her and guaranteed we would be looked after. Isabela definitely cares about her customers and it showed with her time and patience she provided to help us out. My family was very close to cancelling the Smart Brickell Hotel booking due to our frustration in reaching anyone in the hotel, but Isabela really came through with her outstanding customer focus.

We were fortunate to reach Isabela and the hotel should use her as a model of what a front desk agent should strive to be. I hope she gets recognized by the hotel for her exceptional abilities. Well done Isabella and thank you for making our stay happen.......

Please hear me out. This is one of the WORST hotels to stay when attending Miami.

I recently just lost my daughter, her heart beat just stopped randomly 3 months prior. So this was my birthday trip that honestly while I was in Miami at the smart brickell felt like horror.

Upon checking in we were hit with a 250 deposit on top of the resort fee. We paid $150 because I mean we called to check and confirm everything was paid and nothing else was needed. But to our surprise they were not honest to we worked it down to $150.

Rooms were very basic and glassware was dirty as well as the shower. Balcony is so small. Not worth it for the pool (that’s what I really loved) it’s not really much to do and it’s really boring. Also, you can’t bring food or drinks to the pool area either. Which forces you to buy from a little small bar there IF it’s open. If you are going to have fun most definitely NOT the hotel.

There was a lot of racism and adversity, disrespect and exclusion. Even to the point of speaking in Spanish when discussing our concern to another English speaking employee even though they all speak English too and stopping from assisting us to handle Spanish speaking customers. I felt like the service was so poor and we were treated like we didn’t matter… as a black women I truly felt defeated, what do I have to do to get some respect? I had to just walk out and let my fiancé handle the rest, I was in tears.

The biggest issue was we left from there to go to whitelaw hotel which was GREAT! We checked out of Smart Brickell Hotel August 2nd and I’m still waiting on my deposit back.

I’ve been calling emailing and now I’m being ignored. I paid with cashapp so be careful with paying deposits with it. If the hotel tries to take your money you have to wait 30 days for it to drop off. We used a card for Whitelaw hotel and got our deposit back 1 day later. So they said 5-7 days then 7-10 and currently we are at day 13.

So all in all.. please trust me DO NOT GO TO THIS HOTEL!! You will definitely regret it.

EDIT: 08/26/24 I’m STILL waiting...