The Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove, Miami — Hotel in Miami

On special occasions my wife and I will book a weekend at a Ritz Carlton hotel. Over the past few years we have been to a few, Montreal - an absolute favorite, St. Petersburg FL, also great, and this past weekend, the Ritz Carlton in Coconut Grove, Miami. The best I can say about the hotel itself, is disappointing. Ritz Carlton is part of the Marriott group and this particular location has a Marriott corporate vibe to it, not the charming boutique feeling of the other two. ||As a Marriott Bonvoy member I am offered upgrades when available at their properties. Sometimes that means a modestly better room, other times a big score with a junior suite or something I would never book in the first place. We were offered a "city view" room on an upper floor and were told it was a three category upgrade to the standard room we booked. The room was nice enough, not particularly impressive with a view of two adjacent buildings with just enough space between them for a seagull to fly to the beach a few blocks away. I started to wonder what the lowest category we booked might look like.||About the room. The standards we experienced during other Ritz Carlton visits, was, well, missing here in Coconut Grove. It started with little things, one robe in the closet for a two person reservation, none of those slippers you usually find in upscale hotels, OK, that may seem like nit-picking but the bigger issues were low quality scratchy linens on the bed and a way too soft, lumpy uncomfortable mattress. The "city view" description of the room was inadequate, it was also the "prominent road noise" room from the traffic below. Something the desk clerk could have warned us about before placing us in that room. If the lumpy mattress didn't keep me awake, the trucks and busses roaring down the road through the night did. ||While all of these things were annoying, there was one thing that left me dumbfounded. We forgot a charging cable for our phone and called the desk to see if they had one. While many hotels do, this one didn't. The person at the desk told me they did have charging stations with all the necessary cables in the lobby with a charge of $2.00 for 20 minutes. I said "Wait, you charge your guests to use electricity in the lobby ... at a Ritz Carlton?" Like I said, dumbfounded. ||While I understand that these hotels are owned by various people or groups operating under the Ritz Carlton moniker, they set their own rates and fees. |If you are charging a lowest regular rate of $1,039 a night - for the lowest catagory room, do you really have to ding your guests $2.00 for 20 minutes of phone charging? |Man, that's just cheap. ||After my lengthly diatribe I do want to emphasize one thing. The staff at the hotel is great, they absolutely responded immediately to almost any request. Everyone helpful, courteous and friendly, rising to the Ritz Carlton...

Geovanny,

Thank you for making sure that we had the best time during our stay. I wanted to write to you to let you know that we truly appreciate you and the rest of the staff that played a huge role in ensuring that we had such a memorable stay.

Even though we have recognized these individuals on our own we wanted to see if there was a way that we can get them recognized by the hotel (ie: employee of the month or the like)

If you can recognize the following for us it would be great

Steven at the pool bar- he was super helpful and provided great service with amazing quality drinks that we loved. We were able to relax and enjoy the down time that we had.

Nivris room attendant - she always made sure that we had the things that we needed during our stay. No one could compare to her when she was not there. She always accommodated our schedule, she made sure the room was organized to how we needed it. We also loved and appreciated the personal and encouraging notes that she provided, we kept them all. She went above and beyond since we were there for the surgery and that made a huge impact on our stay.

Humberto and Desmond were also a great help. They were able to provide us the information that we needed to find the stores that we needed which also made our stay that much better. Humberto was instrumental when we were ready to leave. We had so many items that needed to be packed into the car. Humberto was able to help us find the most efficient way to get all of our items in the vehicle.

Last but certainly not least... Geovanny Cruz. A big thank you to you as well. You were such a significant part of us enjoying our stay. You were always available to make us feel welcome and give us advice on great places to eat or order food. You made sure we were all comfortable and had access to the full adminitities of the hotel. It was like visiting with family. I have stayed at numerous hotels and I would say this stay was the most memorable. Thank you so much for all of your effort in making us feel welcome.

If there is anything that you need to support the recognition of the above listed individuals, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Thanks again for making this such a...

I was returning from a cruise and had two days to kill before my flight home. While scrolling through the Marriott app, I was wondering if I needed to sell just one, or both kidneys to be able to afford a room in Miami. Just as I was considering hitchhiking back home, where I would risk a stranger picking me up and probably just stealing it anyways, searched under the government/military rate because sometimes I get lucky that devoting my life to serving my country can get me 20 bucks knocked off the price of a room every once and while. I came across a reasonably priced room in the Coconut Grove area and had to do a double take when I saw it was the Ritz-Carlton. On the off-chance it was a typo or a glitch in the Matrix, I only booked for one night as to not run the risk of unexpectedly getting saddled with a bill that could ultimately bankrupt my children's children.

When I arrived, the front desk staff checked my ID & military status and was incredibly friendly and accommodating. I didn't have a vehicle but that didn't matter as the weather was perfect and I was able to walk around and find plenty of cute little shops, had a lovely lunch and even watched a kids soccer game. I returned for a facial at the spa then lounged by the pool, both of which were 5 star IMHO. I was able to book online for the following night at the same price (!) and when I went down in the morning to re-check in I told her I was fine staying in the same room and that housekeeping wasn't necessary. She looked up my reservation, looked up at me and said, "Oh, you're gonna wanna switch rooms." I was pleasantly surprised to discover I had been upgraded to a suite that was bigger than my first apartment. The bathroom was enormous, the bed was like a cloud and I wasn't at all disappointed when my flight was delayed the following morning. I am in no means any sort of VIP or high-ranking officer but for two days the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove definitely made me feel like one. Thank you for supporting our military and veterans 🇺🇸. I returned home not only with lovely memories of my short Miami stay, but with both kidneys...