rooms are small but well appointed. it is a nice safe place to stay and close to the beach.

The front desk service staff was not friendly. They ask for $ 150 deposit as guarantee for any incovenience guests may occur... but after having seen our room located at the second building (the Villas, not the Plaza) we should have asked them $ 150! The smell of humidity was so strong that an automatic home spray was fixed on the wall spraying parfume 4 times per hour; we had to search for a key we lost under the bed and we found a lot of trash of every kind ..
General setting of the room is dark (old furniture and dark blanket and curtains) and very oppressive. No daylight.
Too loud music in the garden.

I wont get into this whole story, because I feel like I have told it a dozen times, But I will say that this is ahorrible place me and my two friends were sent two after we booked through travelocity to the "Suites on southbeach" only to find that they Didn't have two beds, only ONE (Appparently one of us had to sleep on the floor, or maybe they expected three to one bed) After changing hotels TWICE, we ended up here (Also travelocity Added another 80 dollars to the stay because it was a "suite" althought it wasn't our fault the previous place didn't accomodate the stated amount of patrons. (3).
So everything was fine, until the second day, we came home from the beach, to find Maitenence in our room, without us knowing , claiming "Your door lock was broken", and infact it was not, and that was just a little unnerving, until I found out a few hours later A designer pair of marc jacobs and 200 dollars had been stolen from the room!!
No joke, and after calling the police and everything, absolutley NOTHIGN was done. It was apparently my fault for having the ridiculous notion of keeping my BELONGINGS in my own [-] room!!!
... Anyway, Don't trust these people, and BTW the Italian concierge guy (after harassing me and making me almost cry about this horribly stressful vacation) tries to make a pass at me in the Garden! I can't believe this place, the room wasn't SO bad, considering. But Please don't stay here, and give the people the business, they STOLE from me and the cops said the only thing that they coudl do was make the police report, which they did, and offer me a particular guy who gives money to travelers sometimes who get robbed.. DOn't ask, I didn't know what that was about. Luckyly my boyfriend wired me the money I was robbed of, and the Glasses, I never saw them again. now I know to NEVER leave valuables unnattended.
If I wasn't robbed maybe I would have given a better rating.

First off, we stayed at the South Beach Plaza HOTEL, which is the same place. They just either assign you to a villa or hotel room. The initial reviews we read through hotels.com were fairly neutral. We then went on tripadvisor the night before our trip, and I almost had a heart attack. The reviews were AWFUL!

So I just wanted to calm people down. The place is small but charming. Our room/stay was nowhere near perfect (broken lights, broken TV) but it was also not as bad as everyone else said. Our room was clean and comfortable. The water pressure was awesome. The staff was 70/30. We met some very nice staff and others were polite but not too friendly. The bartender we had almost every night (a man)made amazing mojitos, which we took to the garden area while we played pool. You can't beat the location, it is a block from the beach and a short walk from the shops/restaurants. The parking was expensive, but that's South Beach for you.

I wouldn't go back just because it was too expensive for an "okay" hotel. But had it been a little cheaper, I would consider it in the future.

MUST GO TO: Joe's crab house, Puerto Sagua (Cuban food), Le Sandwicherie
AVOID: Cafe de Arts across the street (worst lunch food we've ever had! ), Shoji's Sushi (rolls were okay but TINY and overpriced)