The first thing to understand about the Whitelaw is: this is a YOUNG person's hotel, oriented towards SoBe partygoers. Its website makes this fairly clear, but it's worth restating. I would NOT recommend this place for older travellers or those with young children.
The location is unbeatable - 1min walk from beach & Ocean Drive, Collins St shopping on the doorstep.
But a warning: the lobby bar plays very loud music until very early every day, & the walls are very thin (at least, the room's door lets in a lot of noise). I highly recommend you DO NOT STAY ON LEVEL 1 as this is virtually in the bar's hallway - I can't imagine how loud those rooms must be. We were on level 2 & our aircon drowned out most of the noise so for us it wasn't really a problem but beware there are noise issues. A bigger problem for us was that we could clearly hear everyone in the hallway through our door (we were near an elevator), and I think if the place had been busier that would have been a big problem with people coming & going at night. One night our neighbour had a huge domestic, and we had to listen to them screaming at each other for about an hour. Nice.
Our room was clean & cheerfully decorated, although some might find the "trendy brothel" decor off-putting. There was a well stocked mini bar at very reasonable prices. Our king sized bed was AMAZINGLY comfortable, really great linens & pillows. The towels, on the other hand, were a bit shabby.
A major disappointment was the shower which for some reason frequently refused to spray anything other than lukewarm water. We complained & were told a plumber was working on the problem, but it never got fixed & we had lukewarm showers for the rest of our stay. A bit of a disappointment, not least because the Whitelaw's website actually specifies "hot water" as one of their specialties! (ie: "clean sheets, hot water, stiff drinks" - hmm!)
We were very pleased with the free airport shuttle service.
Give the free nightly happy hour a miss - the drinks might be free but they're crap.
Overall: location is a winner, bed comfy, shower dodgy. 2 out of 3 ain't bad?
- Whitelaw Hotel Miami Beach
- Whitelaw Miami Beach
