Grand Beach Hotel Surfside West — Hotel in Surfside

Four night stay Overall: 3 Stars Rooms: 3.5 Stars Location: 4.5 Stars Services & Facilities: 2 Stars

The Good: Location is very close to the beach; Literally across the street (Collins Ave) and thru the main hotel, Grand Beach Hotel Surfside, is the ocean. From our suite, we can see the ocean (just a peek between the other hotels but you can see it), and downtown Miami in the distance.

The rooms are comfortable, but there are some quality details that are absent or not well maintained; the carpet edges between the bathrooms is frayed and coming up. We also had some kind of mechanical malfunction our first night where water had soaked underneath the bed (presumably from the A/C closet to the right of the bed, but could have also been from some folks who flooded the hallway leading to the rooftop pool [see photos]) and saturated the floor between the bed and the balcony.

After noticing the soaked floor, we contacted the front desk, who was very courteous and sent up an engineer quickly to assess the situation. Condensation was also building up on the vent, which normally would be fine, however in this suite, the vent is directly above the bed, and it was dripping from the ceiling to the bed [see photos of vent above bed]

Because of the late hour (11pm EST) a manager was not available immediately to speak with, but the front desk assured me that a manager would contact us. Fast-forward ten hours, no call from the manager and instead we're awakened at 9am EST by two more engineers, who want to come in and reassess the situation. A simple phone call would have been the appropriate choice, to a) see if we're even awake, dressed, etc. and b) complete the process of having a manager contact us, as the front desk stated would occur.

Unfortunately, there was a slight language barrier between us and a few of the staff, which made communicating challenges and room issues even more of an ordeal. The pair of engineers were not fluid English speakers, and when I told them that now wasn't really a good time as my wife was currently in the shower, one of them actually picked up my room phone and made an outbound call. Absurd.

The remainder of the morning and afternoon was spent going back and forth between the hotel staff, waiting on return phone calls from both engineering and hotel management. We finally were moved to another suite, which was nice but also had it's own, separate issues, in particular, cleanliness. This would not have been a big deal, if the staff here were on point and well trained in hospitality. Sadly, it seems that the majority were not. As soon as we were in the new room, we noticed it wasn't clean, and called to the front desk again and requested housekeeping. We then went to the beach for an hour to try to relax. The pools and bar in the hotels are very nice. The beach staff was excellent, friendly and helpful.

Upon returning from the beach, the room was not clean, even though the front desk assured us that housekeeping had been back as requested. We then showed pictures of the toilet and other items that needed attention, and she apologized profusely and resent housekeeping. We went for a late 3:45pm EST lunch to try to relax and again let housekeeping perform the requested tasks.

Obviously, this is unacceptable, and when we brought this to the attention of management, we were met with resistance and the implication that we were fabricating or exaggerating or flat out lying about our experiences. That was really unfortunate and so I've posted pictures here as confirmation, and hopefully to aid and assist the next...

We spoke to the hotel manager in order to book a room and we paid the deposit for one night as required. We flew to Florida and when we arrived to the airport, I had several messages that read that our room was cancelled because of insufficient funds!! Our one night refund had gone through and we had received a confirmation the day before and also a welcome note saying that they hope we enjoy our stay. Upon arrival to the hotel we were told that our room was cancelled and that we have no other option!! I started arguing with her and she told me that they have two king size rooms available for double the price we had originally agreed on 9to be more specific $850 and not 400 a night! We had originally booked two queen sized suits. Turned out that they misspelled our name and could not process new payment even though our one night payment went through We asked to see the manager but she kept on backing the other lady and told us that while we were speaking to them the two king size suits were gone!! After being in the air for five hours and unerring for one hour, we took the double bed suite and I told the lady that will post a horrible review, she didn't care!!!! Funny thing is when we swiped our Amex it went right through with no problem!! Unbelievable what a horrible service this hotel provides at the desk. The next day, as we were moving out to another hotel, we were offered a king size suit with balcony to replace the small room we were given, and we opted out by staying there for the rest of the week. ||The area is really nice around there, with restaurant and Bar Harbor around the corner and we enjoyed our walks to the beach, Hotel is exactly opposite to the Grand Beach Hotel and its beautiful out there. There is also Grand Beach Bay Harbour, about 20 minutes walk away and management is very nice and very helpful, beautiful view, but no beach front, manager on duty is...

Responde:

Thank you for your response. I must clarify that my complaint was specifically directed to your property lack of cleanliness and never intended to receive ANY complimentary upgrade. While we appreciate the upgrade that we were offered, your cleanliness standards still need major improvement. In addition, your Managment team also need to be better trained not to mock the guests when they present a concern. Fernanda was very attentive but Scott Gilbert was terrible and condescending towards me. I am a sixty years old lady and disregard my concerns with mockery’s made me feel very humiliated.

Resposta do proprietário 4 horas atrás Dear Monica Freitas, thank you for taking the time to share your experience through this channel as well. We do appreciate you taking the time to express your concerns and dissatisfaction, while you were still on premises, as this has allowed our management team to focus efforts on following up and making sure that we better serve you to meet your expectations and thus ensure you are able to enjoy a more pleasant rest of your time at the hotel. We very much hope that the complimentary room upgrade, which was extended for the remainder of your hotel stay has lived up to your expectations and that you can now enjoy the restful, pleasant and satisfying experience that you deserve as one of our valued, repeat guests at the hotel. Thank you once again for alerting us of your experience and giving us the opportunity to turn this around for you. Should there be anything else we could be of assistance with, please do not hesitate to reach out to Fernanda or Scott at the Front Desk. Have...