Candlewood Suites Miami Intl Airport - 36th St, an IHG Hotel — Hotel in Virginia Gardens

Was my number one for a while for my overnight cruise stay but I’m considering looking for another option.

I have come to this hotel several times. Anytime I take a cruise out of Miami. I even suggest it to friends and family that fly in since they have a free shuttle and is relatively new and modern compared to some other hotels in this class range. The front lobby doesn’t even look like a budget hotel lobby.

However, I will say that the staff and service is always hit or miss. In most instances I run into a language barrier with the same representatives and they always take longer to handle my reservation than others. Luckily I had the young lady with curly hair and glasses because she speaks the best English out of everyone and she is quick. But some of the employs don’t understand that many people will not understand them because of their thick accent. It’s like they get annoyed when you don’t understand and they have to repeat themselves.

Also, I don’t like how the shuttle works. You have to wait until you have your bags and are at the shuttle stuff to call but then wait 30 minutes to get picked up when if you called once at baggage claim, customers would not have to wait so long.

At checkin, I was standing at the counter but a couple steps back as to not make the employees feel rushed (common courtesy). No one addressed me. This guy that speaks Spanish walked straight up to the counter and was spoken to and served first. The young lady did apologize once she addressed me because she should have told him one moment and then served me first.

Another issue was that the walks of the shower were filthy and clearly missed when the bathroom was cleaned. Hair and dirt were on the walls. Also the wood piece that is below where the Tv is mounted was very dirty. The room also had a weird smell, and the heat smelled horrific once it was turned on.

I was happy to have been allowed to check in early, glad for the great service in the airport shuttle, and appreciative for the nice young woman that checked me in and allowed me to get a drink from the cooler due to my status, but my stay was somewhat soured by multiple issues:

-Housekeeping playing music out loud of their phone with the room doors open, music playing in the hall. Nothing being done after reporting to the front desk.

-being helped second even though I was there first

-staff getting smart and snippy with my over the phone about the shuttle because I could not understand what they were saying and just generally seemingly running low on patience with me.

-the bathroom shower not being cleaned properly and some dirty spots below the Tv

-the front desk staff in the evening that gave us some issue with the reservation and does not understand English we’ll. He is an older guy, thick Spanish accent and he never can find my reservation when I come and check in with him. He ends up finding it but it’s always a slow process. He doesn’t under the name so has to look at my license and then he seems like he still can’t find it at first. This time my guest came to get keys for the room because I had already checked it in earlier. She gave her name and I’d but he said he couldn’t find anything with her name but when I went in the morning to check in another room, the lady saw my friends name on the room with no problem, so why I’m the evening the front desk does not see her name? It’s jus the guy who always has trouble. It embarrassed me because it made it seem like I did get things handled well but everything was fine just earlier that day with another employee. And when I told the front desk man that her name was on there earlier and it was fine earlier he shook his head and kept getting smart either saying no it’s not there, it was not put on there even though I kept telling him it was earlier. He shouldn’t go back and forth with guests. Idk. I may look elsewhere for my upcoming stays....

Was my number one for a while for my overnight cruise stay but I’m considering looking for another option.

I have come to this hotel several times. Anytime I take a cruise out of Miami. I even suggest it to friends and family that fly in since they have a free shuttle and is relatively new and modern compared to some other hotels in this class range. The front lobby doesn’t even look like a budget hotel lobby.

However, I will say that the staff and service is always hit or miss. In most instances I run into a language barrier with the same representatives and they always take longer to handle my reservation than others. Luckily I had the young lady with curly hair and glasses because she speaks the best English out of everyone and she is quick. But some of the employs don’t understand that many people will not understand them because of their thick accent. It’s like they get annoyed when you don’t understand and they have to repeat themselves.

Also, I don’t like how the shuttle works. You have to wait until you have your bags and are at the shuttle stuff to call but then wait 30 minutes to get picked up when if you called once at baggage claim, customers would not have to wait so long.

At checkin, I was standing at the counter but a couple steps back as to not make the employees feel rushed (common courtesy). No one addressed me. This guy that speaks Spanish walked straight up to the counter and was spoken to and served first. The young lady did apologize once she addressed me because she should have told him one moment and then served me first.

Another issue was that the walks of the shower were filthy and clearly missed when the bathroom was cleaned. Hair and dirt were on the walls. Also the wood piece that is below where the Tv is mounted was very dirty. The room also had a weird smell, and the heat smelled horrific once it was turned on.

I was happy to have been allowed to check in early, glad for the great service in the airport shuttle, and appreciative for the nice young woman that checked me in and allowed me to get a drink from the cooler due to my status, but my stay was somewhat soured by multiple issues:

-Housekeeping playing music out loud of their phone with the room doors open, music playing in the hall. Nothing being done after reporting to the front desk.

-being helped second even though I was there first

-staff getting smart and snippy with my over the phone about the shuttle because I could not understand what they were saying and just generally seemingly running low on patience with me.

-the bathroom shower not being cleaned properly and some dirty spots below the Tv

-the front desk staff in the evening that gave us some issue with the reservation and does not understand English we’ll. He is an older guy, thick Spanish accent and he never can find my reservation when I come and check in with him. He ends up finding it but it’s always a slow process. He doesn’t under the name so has to look at my license and then he seems like he still can’t find it at first. This time my guest came to get keys for the room because I had already checked it in earlier. She gave her name and I’d but he said he couldn’t find anything with her name but when I went in the morning to check in another room, the lady saw my friends name on the room with no problem, so why I’m the evening the front desk does not see her name? It’s jus the guy who always has trouble. It embarrassed me because it made it seem like I did get things handled well but everything was fine just earlier that day with another employee. And when I told the front desk man that her name was on there earlier and it was fine earlier he shook his head and kept getting smart either saying no it’s not there, it was not put on there even though I kept telling him it was earlier. He shouldn’t go back and forth with guests. Idk. I may look elsewhere for my upcoming stays....

Generally for the price it’s not bad and it has a modern look, so if you don’t care about much and just need something kind of close to the airport or overnight to catch a cruise, it’s not bad. Personally, after my stay, I will be changing my hotel for my upcoming trip in 2 weeks. Reasons: No free breakfast like almost every other hotel in the same class. The market in the lobby is overpriced. The incidental hold is $100 a night! That is ridiculous for this category of hotel! It should be $50 at the MOST. I found a long hair on my bed sheets. There were crumbs on the floor near the bed. The bathroom had an unpleasant smell and the renovations were very sloppy. The pillows on the bed are extremely soft! We had to fold them to get any type of support. The shuttle stops at 11pm and we didn’t make it out of the airport until 11:34p so we had to call an Uber. The front desk agent was just ok. Not friendly and not informative. His English was just ok as well. When I gave him my name it seemed like he didn’t quite understand and had to be shown. He did not inform us of anything really about the hotel at check in; I had to ask everything myself (about breakfast, the incidental hold, WiFi, etc.) I also asked him if the incidental hold was really $100. He had to check the computer to verify and said yes but he doesn’t make the prices. I understand that I was stating that it was a bit high for that hotel and there was nothing he could actually do about it, but his response to a guest with a small complaint should not be “I don’t make the rules.” I’ve worked at hotels before and that is not how we are trained in customer service. Also he did NOT recognize me as an IHG member or ask me if I wanted amenity points or a snack from the marketplace. Since this hotel nickel and dimes, I’m guessing they don’t participate in this… anyway it wasn’t a terrible stay, just doesn’t meet my personal expectations as a travel advisor and...