Everyone was so nice and polite to us at La Flora Hotel. If I ever go back to Miami I would definitely stay here again. Tasha and Juan our bartender were so nice and they helped us with everything. The people at the front desk were nice and helpful too. Isabella was great. She helped us with letting us know what clubs we should go to. The hotel had a great deal with the open bar service before we went to the clubs as well. Sean was also great with getting us to the front of the lines at the clubs. Overall best experience in Miami.

The room was very nice and clean. The bed was very comfortable. The staff was very friendly. They even let me come back after my cruise and leave my luggage there for free while I killed 7 hrs before I needed to go to the airport (late flight and early debarkation). I definitely recommend it. Oh and good price!

Excellent customer service and great basic hotel get 5 stars, minus 1 star for a few little things that need improvement. (FYI, found the cheapest rate on the actual hotel website rather than any of the other deal sites). Please note that if you have never been to South Beach, this hotel is relatively nice given the price and your surrounding options. It likely won’t measure up to a Hampton Inn in middle America for an equal nightly rate, but this is South Beach!! You make your choices ; ) Ok, here’s the scoop!

First the positives:

1. Requested a quiet room for my 5 night stay when I booked my online reservation, which they happily provided on the top floor. South Beach is very ‘city’ in that it is crammed up with something on every square inch, so I imagine every hotel has some noisy rooms and some quiet rooms depending on what the room is located next to. So make your request accordingly.

2. It was just me, so I had a small basic room on the top floor (307), which was pretty clean and in good shape. It had a queen(?) bed, brand new dark vinyl wood floors, and a large lovely window that was semi-private when the wooden blinds were open due to a great palm tree, and that it partially overlooked the roof of the Impala hotel next door. At a little bit of a distance I think I could see some rooms at the Webster Hotel, but they were a few buildings away and didn’t affect the privacy of the room. Loved that!

3. The staff, down to the bartenders and housekeeping, is very sweet and helpful. Taryn at the front desk was particularly great, giving me good ideas for checking out tourist spots, as well as suggestions for possible areas of Miami for permanent relocation. The other front desk gentleman I saw mostly (I forgot your name, sorry!) was also super sweet and helpful. When a business is happy, that’s all trickle down from the owner / primary manager. So this was a good sign!

4. The location was excellent, and was two short blocks to the beach. The nice thing about Hotel La Flora is that it isn’t crammed up in between other buildings, or on the corner of a busy intersection, so it feels more relaxed there than it does at, say, Whitelaw down Collins. There is a large ground level parking lot between the La Flora and 13th street that helps it feel more open. Also it is catty corner from a large parking deck, so if you rent a car you can park there overnight, although not sure of the in-out privileges with that. But definitely if I had rented a car, I would have valeted it at La Flora since the price is one of the more reasonable in SoBe at $20/day with in-out privileges, just have to factor in tipping.

FYI - If you are in your ‘party mode’ phase in life this may not be the scene you are looking for. Check out Whitelaw or Dream in that case. This 1200 block of hotels on Collins seem much more chill than the ones 3 or 5 blocks down, so factor that in to your decision of where to stay. Hotel La Flora has a few tables for outdoor seating, as well as several indoor chairs, lounges, tables, and a bar, with the Miami-typical techno/dance music playing most of the time. I did get the free drink they offer you right after you check in and it wasn’t very good. Can’t remember what brand they used. This was not important to me though. The breakfast isn’t so great, just get down to Puerto Sagua (see my review on yelp) before 11am – cheap great food, best coffee cake ever! Remember, South Beach is not the place to be frugal!! Splurge on the good food places!


Ok, the following are the things for which there is room for improvement ;) In regards to the room issues, remember each room may or may not have similar issues. Like another reviewer mentioned, they are under new management and are likely making upgrades as vacancies allow.

1. Wi-Fi only works in the lobby most of the time. Got it in my room maybe once or twice during my stay. Mentioned it to the front desk, but nothing changed with it. It wasn’t a super big deal for me though.

2. Safes are at the front desk, not in rooms, and they only have like 5 that are large enough for your laptop, compared to however many rooms they have total in the hotel. Especially in Miami, security is super important, so they really should at least increase their number of large safes. I should know – I had my smart phone stolen while clubbing one night!!! (Obviously not La Flora’s fault – LOL!!!) Ah, it’s Miami though, what do you expect?!?! : )

3. My room was decorated very cute, but had what looked like scuff marks on most of the lovely pale yellow walls, which I felt could have been removed with a good scrubbing and given the room a more finished feel. Maybe these rooms get such beating though, they can’t scrub the walls every time someone stays cuz the paint would come off LOL! If it was reasonable for the hotel to do so, they might want to consider repainting. This was a minor thing for me, and just a suggestion for the hotel : )

4. The closet light didn’t work, which I didn’t much care about, so never thought to mention it to the staff. I have no doubt that they would have immediately changed it out, and now that I think of it, I really should have mentioned it to them or else how would they know! The phone did not work initially, but Taryn was able to get it working.

5. The bathroom in this unit needs a little work. The toilet flush was pretty weak, and while it never stopped working, every time I used it I was wondering if it would make it through! The wall behind the toilet and near the light switch looked kind of gross, like it had been patched up a few too many times. Knowing these boutique hotels are basically renovated buildings from the art deco period that didn’t necessarily have the best quality in their construction, I did not hold this against the hotel since most of the rest of the room was in good shape. Also, there were tiny dots on the bathroom walls/door that looked like (hopefully) red wine that had splattered. In general, housekeeping may want to pay a bit more attention to the presentation of the walls.

Overall a good experience at La Flora, with NO pretentiousness. I am a sucker for business run by good people! Good luck in your selection!! Thanks Hotel La Flora!!

Carrie

I have visited South Beach every year for the past 6 years for an annual getaway with the fellas. As a result, I have stayed in quite a few places up and down Collins Ave. I must say that my most recent stay at Hotel La Flora was by far the most pleasant experience I have ever had!!!! Roz, Carlos, and Isabella made me feel as if they had known me for years after just a few minutes. The accomodations were far more than I expected in comparison to other boutique hotels I have stayed in while visting. First of all, the location is perfect!!! The room was very clean and spacious with very comfortable beds, updated hardwood floors, and flat screen TVs. I enjoyed the ability to turn your air conditioning unit on and off to your liking not to mention it gets very cold very quickly when you need it most. And the bathroom was fresh and modern with marble tops and crisp finishes. The staff was extrememly pleasant, accomodating, and very knowledgeable. It was truly a treat to stay here. I have already recommended this hotel to four other people. I can truly say that this will definitely be my first choice for trips to come!!! It's my new #1 place to stay!!!