I was in Miami Beach for a wedding and one of the hotels that they reserved a block in was the Royal Palm South Beach. It was listed a Tribute Portfolio Marriott property. I did some quick research and found that most people consider at or on the same level as Marriott’s Autograph properties. I have stayed at some Autograph hotels and found them well maintained and enjoyable to stay at.
When we checked into the Royal Palm South Beach, we found a bunch of people waiting at the front desk for their rooms. It was approximately 3:30 pm and the hotel was starting to release the rooms for this night. It seems that several people checked in earlier but their rooms were not ready. It seems that check in is stated as 4:00 pm. I did not realize that check in was so late (so my fault on that one). Our wedding was at 5:00 pm so this would have created an issue for us if we had to wait until 4:00 pm. The check in personnel were really nice and set us up with a room and some information.
We booked a standard king room which was very colorful. The major problem with our room is that the air conditioning did not work. We had a maintenance person look at it. He first changed the filter which should have been replaced a month or two beforehand. Then we found out that there was some issue with the unit that would take some time to remedy. With out limited time prior to the wedding, we went down to the reception and changed rooms. The reception personnel were extremely nice as was the maintenance personnel.
Our new room had a working air conditioning unit but it was not on. As a result, the room started with a temperature of 79 degrees. We turned it on but the fan and power of the unit was limited. As a result, it took a considerable time to cool the room down. Our issues with our new room is that it was dated and needed more than a refresh to bring it up to a midrange to luxury hotel. The furniture and the beds looked and felt like they were out of the 1960s. They needed to be replaced. As with all older hotels, there are never enough power outlets so we struggled to find enough places to charge our devices. Funny enough, they added a charging spot to the side of the bed tables.
On to the bathroom, it was both dingy and in need of major renovation. There was not fan to it steamed up really quickly. The shower provided limited water pressure. The grey subway tiles felt like I was in a NYC subway. Not the best feeling. The bathroom had one of the siding barn doors to save space. It was a challenge for my wife to close and open it. Of course, there was no lock on the door.
The closet doors were right across from the bathroom so it you opened them, then you were not able to enter or exit the bathroom. A bad design. As small as the bedroom was, it felt even smaller with some of their design aspects.
I understand that Royal Palm South Beach is in a desirable location on South Beach with direct beach access which makes it attractive. The hotel building was designed and built in another era that does not transfer over to our time. While you can play up the art deco colors and themes, it is hard to present rooms that were last renovated in that art deco era to guests in our time. It just does not work.
I have a few recommendations. First, to the owners of the hotel, they should massive upgrade the hotel. It requires, a refresh of the furniture, bathroom and ac units. Just installing new tv’s is not enough to meet your client’s needs. For guests, I would recommend finding a new and modern hotel on South Beach. The Royal Palm South Beach is a tired hotel in need of a major upgrade. You will thank me after your stay!