| From: Reviewer has requested to be kept anonymous. |
| Date of Stay: August, 2008 |
| The hotel is in a great location with easy beach access. The rooms in the old building are average. There is a mixed bag of people that stay here from families with little children to groups of young people partying. The location, beach and pool area are the strong points of the Royal Palm. |
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| From: Betty |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| The hotel was fine - nothing fancy but great location for the money. We were disappointed to have to pay a resort fee each day Drinks at the bar was ridiculously priced. The pool area is not nice. Beach access is nice. |
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| From: Reviewer has requested to be kept anonymous. |
| Date of Stay: July, 2008 |
| I purchased the room for my son and his girlfriend for a mini-vacation. We frequent Miami Beach once or twice a year and usually go in the early Spring or Winter. When my son checked in, the hotel staff indicated they had been "upgraded" from the Cityview Room to the Oceanview room, which they thought would be nice. As it turns out, the Cityview rooms are much nicer and much cleaner. The room they were given was very dirty--stains all over the carpet, furniture and walls; the shower backed up with some sort of black water flowing out of it which ended up all over the floor. My guess is that whoever had the room previously probably complained and were moved to my son's room--even though I paid in advance and there were no other rooms available after he arrived. Since the travel agency requires full payment at the time the reservation is made--the hotel was paid in full regardless of what type of room they gave him. The travel agency was advised there was a delay and they would arrive one day late but could not make any adjustment for an additional day or a refund of one day. I probably will not pay in advance again, as the cost for only three days was ultimately too high and the quality of the room was absolutely unacceptable with no recourse! Had they paid directly through the hotel, the hotel would have only charged them for that day and they could have checked in somewhere else. I regret I did not have them stay at the SoBeYou Bed and Breakfast. At the time, they only had suits available which would have required moving each night. The rate would have been comparable given the fact they were one day late--and much cleaner! |
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| From: Katie |
| Date of Stay: September, 2008 |
| Great location, nice pool and great beach access. Rooms were not the greatest, mattress was very old and worn down. Mold all over bathroom ceiling, fixtures in shower were broken down. Overall we stayed one night, room served it's purpose. |
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| From: Reviewer has requested to be kept anonymous. |
| Date of Stay: June, 2008 |
| It is a decent hotel to stay at. The staff was friendly and helpful. We had a problem with our a/c unit and we called the front desk and they sent someone right away. It was our first time in South Beach and it was a very nice experience. The bed is very comfortable and clean. the only thing is that they need to do is make sure the carpet in the room is clean. Overall we enjoyed the stay and the location is perfect!! I would stay at this hotel again. |
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| From: Santos |
| Date of Stay: August, 2008 |
| Its great location on South Beach did little to mitigate the total lack of attention given to the bedrooms. We asked two rooms and each smelled of smoke. The mattresses reeked and one shower was unusable as the handle was broken. Both bedrooms had sizeable holes in the sheet-rock giving the rooms an unhealthy slum look. I would never stay at this hotel again and could not recommend it to anyone. |
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| From: Reviewer has requested to be kept anonymous. |
| Date of Stay: May, 2008 |
| We chose the Royal Palm Hotel based on some decent reviews. After arriving at the hotel at 2 p.m., we were informed that our room wouldn't be ready until 4. At 3:45, we were told to wait another 20 or 30 minutes. At 4:30, the room still wasn't ready. After inquiring a fourth time, we were finally given a room. (By the way, this room was booked several months in advance.) The carpeting was stained and very wet, there was a chunk of plaster missing from one of the walls, and there was an inexplicable squeaking noise coming from the vent. We asked for and received another room, which although not perfect, was much cleaner, drier and in better condition. (My sister and her husband, who came from California to spend the vacation with us at this hotel, also had a similar experience, and ended up asking for another room as well.) I must admit that security responded pretty quickly when we were awakened (and kept awake) by some young ladies next door who had stopped by their room at 3 a.m. on their way out to another club. We were awakened three out of the four nights we stayed at this hotel. On Saturday night, we awoke at 3 to find about 10 teenagers sitting in our HALLWAY, having a party. I'm not really clear whether or not they were guests in the hotel. I would advise that if you plan to go to sleep earlier than 2:30 a.m. in Miami, you might want to go there between Sunday and Thursday...they take their weekend partying very seriously. The one good thing about this hotel is the location, but since there are a HUGE number of hotels in the very same area, my advice is to keep looking! |
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| From: julie |
| Date of Stay: August, 2008 |
| This hotel was disappointing. I was traveling with my family and the hotel could have been much cleaner. The lobby was ok but the rooms needed a good cleaning and a paint job. The smell of cover up spray was very strong. |
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| From: Reviewer has requested to be kept anonymous. |
| Date of Stay: May, 2008 |
| Location was great with an easy walk to Ocean Drive and Lincoln Ave and right on the beach. Had nice little pool bar with good drinks and decent lunch menu. Room was nothing great - bed was very comfortable. Beach chairs and umbrellas are available at beach. Staff will bring food and drinks (same as pool menu) beach side to you in your chair which was real nice. Drinks a little high (but no different from anywhere else in Sobe). Only dislike was the air conditioning in the lobby and hallways was on too high - it felt like the arctic! The desk clerk was even wearing a jacket one night. Overall would recommend this hotel. |
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| From: Colleen |
| Date of Stay: July, 2008 |
| This was a horrible experience. I got into bed and there was already sand in it. They had not changed the sheets from the previous guest. I called the front desk and asked for the manager. The front desk told me that the manager was busy and would call right back. (They never called.) The housekeeping manager showed up with a maid. When I explained the situation- he told me they did not offer turn down service (I had not asked about that nor had I been in the bed prior) I told him this. He had the maid, remake the bed in front of me (without changing the sheets) he had to tell her to change the sheets. It seems to me that they do not change sheets between guests. This hotel was disgusting! |
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| From: William |
| Date of Stay: June, 2008 |
| For the price, the hotel is overrated. The decor is old and fixtures are out of date. They force you to use valet parking and the bell man. Also, that charge you a additional fee for resort fee. |
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| From: Matt |
| Date of Stay: May, 2008 |
| We booked here for one night post-cruise. And overall I'm glad we did and I liked the location. But I am glad that we only had one night there. When we first got to the hotel it looked really nice. The lobby was pretty nice and you could tell that it had been around a while, but was still kept up. That was until we got to our room. They said when we got there they had a 'poolside suite' that was available and we could go ahead and take that one, which at the time sounded good to me. This 'suite' was in a separate part of the hotel and was more of a motel style with doors on the outside. We thought it was weird when we had to go around the gift shop and down a little hallway to get to our elevator. The room was kind of dingy looking, a couple of mold spots in the bathroom and an unexplained puddle on the floor. Looking out our window we had a lovely view of the dumpsters and the term 'poolside' was used rather liberally as while it was on the side of the pool, you couldn't even see the pool unless you walked outside and walked down to the end. The final straw for us in this room was when my wife went to take a shower and the tub was not draining. Luckily they gave us another room on the nicer side of the hotel on the 14th floor. This room was much better, almost like we were staying in a completely different hotel. My only other complaint has to do with our neighbors from that night. These girls came in late from a night out and were slamming doors and talking loudly at 4 in the morning. Very inconsiderate of anyone around them. All in all, it was a great location and while I wasn't particularly crazy about the 'resort fee' it was nice to have wireless internet and guaranteed beach chairs on South Beach. |
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| From: Hotel Guest |
| Date of Stay: May, 2008 |
| Excellent location but poor quality rooms. |
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| From: Mark |
| Date of Stay: May, 2008 |
| A very attractive hotel, less than 1 block from the Art Deco district. While info shows it as one block away from the beach, in fact it is right on the beach, just behind the sand dunes. It appears that every room has a pleasant ocean view from their balcony, the length of the hotel is perpendicular to the beach, so when you step out onto the balcony you can see the ocean quite well. The furnishings of the room were rather out of date and worn, but the bed/mattress were very comfortable. The public areas of the hotel are extremely nice. It is a very short walk (probably less than 1/2 block) to the Art Deco district with all the restaurants, etc. available there, and 1 or 2 blocks to the Lincoln Blvd outdoor mall area, so we did not eat at the hotel or visit the bar. The location of the hotel would be hard to beat (the Ritz-Carlton is nearby). We found the staff to be pleasant and helpful. The valet/greeter took the time to discuss parking options and recommended a public garage 1/2 block away that would save us about $20/day vs. the Valet Parking. When we wanted some beach towels at 10:00 p.m. so we could lie on the beach to listen to the surf and look at the stars, the front desk immediately had some brought to us. |
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| From: Jose |
| Date of Stay: May, 2008 |
| I would say that the room is a 2-star but the facilities are definitely 3-star. Most non-chain hotels charge a resort fee and I expected that from the reviews. The location is fantastic and the staff was very helpful. I arrived in the morning and they pre-checked me in, left my bags with the concierge and changed my room to include a sofa-bed when they saw I had children. |
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| From: Gary |
| Date of Stay: May, 2008 |
| We were very pleased with the hotel staff, location and rooms that overlooked South Beach. |
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| From: Diane |
| Date of Stay: May, 2008 |
| Pool and beach access were great. Staff friendly. The rooms were large and clean, however, spoiled by the very stained carpets. |
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| From: Lori |
| Date of Stay: May, 2008 |
| Room was clean and neutral, but in need of a coat of paint and some renovation (chips and scratches on furniture, cracked sink basin). Our room opened onto a skinny balcony that had a sideways (but clear) view of the beach and ocean. Location was excellent (on beach, nice French bakery and Walgreen's 1 block N on Collins). |
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| From: Mindy Gretty |
| Date of Stay: May, 2008 |
| When we got our rooms they were not the two bed rooms we ordered and confirmed twice with the hotel, two weeks before and two days before we got there. The room was old and dirty with stained carpet and broken furniture and only 1 bed in each room. We complained and they moved us to a re-modeled room but it still had only one bed. I was not impressed with this hotel or their staff. |
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| From: Noe |
| Date of Stay: May, 2008 |
| The hotel room was dirty and in need of new paint and rugs. I've seen cleaner floors at the soccer fields during a rainy day. The additional "resort fees" high and quite ridiculous. The staff was friendly though. |
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