This fall I had the opportunity to visit Miami for a few days. The goal there was to attend a technology get-together and to simply work. After the social event I stayed in my hotel room to read, study, write, and plan for my business and for the Fall semester courses.
I picked this hotel because it was close to the social event venue. Since I hadn't visited the property before I had little idea what I was really getting into. As usual, the website seemed to gloss up the hotel's location.
That's not to say the experience was bad; it turned out a pleasant trip for me despite a few little hiccups.
I did come into the property with the idea of hotel management and guest services in my mind since those are two of the courses I am currently enrolled in, so my mind, without really knowing this assignment existed, was ready to look at the property in these ways.
Booking
After searching a long time for an adequate hotel online, I booked this property. The website was easy enough to find a location near the venue I needed to get to on foot, and the booking process was easy. Websites make this work simple. As I mentioned above, I feel like sites do a great job of smoothing over any wrinkles in the actual location. But all went well in the booking process.
I appreciate hotels' different levels of payment. Non-refundable, breakfast packages, and other pay levels make the choice fairly easy. I know what I'm looking for and their flexibility gives me the chance to pay the best prices.
Check-in and enquiry
When I arrived in Miami around 10am, I took an Uber from the Brightline station to the property. My driver had no problem finding it, though the property was located at the intersection of two streets downtown that were very busy during the morning rush-hour. Or maybe rush hour was over and the traffic was just always like that. The driver had to wade through a lot of traffic, tight turns, streets that angled off in every direction. But he got me there and helped me unload my luggage.
I arrived at the location in the covered driveway. The exterior was decent. I could tell the building was rather old, but it looked well-kept. The main entrance was right next to the convention-center entrance as well.
The lobby was large and bright and clean. There were many lounge chairs and desks around the multi-floor lobby, and the floor-to-ceiling windows looking out over a canal lit up the room. Everything was in this area: the grab-and-go market, the restaurant, the entrance to the river-walk, and the entrance to the convention center.
I don't know if Hyatt has an app for check-in; instead I went to the front desk. Since it was earlier than the checkout time, there was no line. The front desk person was there to greet me. I let them know I was there to check in. I didn't expect a room at that time, but she saw one was available and gave it to me.
The attendant inquired about my stay here: two nights for pleasure. She took my payment and my ID and processed those. Then gave me my two card keys. The whole check-in process took maybe 10 minutes and then I was off to the room.
One note: she did fail to inform me my key was necessary to choose my floor in the elevator.
Housekeeping and maintenance
Everywhere I walked was clean, and there was nothing I saw that was out of order in the public spaces. My room, on an upper floor, was a suite (just one large room) and it was clean. The AC was on, and the drapes were pulled back to let in light.
In this room only one of the lamps beside the bed seemed burned out. Upon inspection I saw its cord was unplugged. I handled that.
The bathroom was spotless and, while the tub was an old-style tub, the shower had great pressure.
I didn't ask for room service as I knew I'd be in the room most of the day.
No one showed me to my room, so I had to figure out how to view restaurant menus on the TV, and the AC needed some examination. But I don't consider those issues.
Check-out and overall experience
Checkout was simple. I just checked out on the TV early Friday morning, left my keys in the room, and went to the lobby to leave. I did not interact with a front desk staff member, though I did see a few there at 5:45 am when I headed back to the Brightline.
Throughout my visit I did wander the property some. I checked out the pool and the fitness room. The latter was barely a closet in the basement, but it worked for those that were in there (I did not work out). The pool wasn't that inviting as it was kind of stuffed in a corner of the property grounds where there was space between it and the road over the river. I wasn't there for swimming.
When I did go for a walk, I purposefully wanted to get help from the staff. There was a concierge standing in the middle of the lobby dressed impeccably in a suit. I asked him how to get to the venue I was heading to, and he let me know the river walk outside would lead me there. He was swift to answer, had the answer available, and was confident and assured.
I asked him about other things: the hours of the market and the restaurant, and he knew all of those.
The hotel building is old and probably in need of some upgrades but it was comfortable, calm, clean, and bright. It felt good.
Restaurant breakfast
I ordered the breakfast buffet each morning I was there and the food was fresh, well cared-for, and plentiful. The buffet was in a room in the middle of the restaurant, so I did have to leave my table unattended as I went for more food. But that just can't be helped given the nature of the building (it does really seem to be built in the corner of two very busy roads and the river). The servers there were attentive and answered my questions. Once when I was getting food, the chef came out to see how the buffet looked. I said hello.
I enjoy a quiet breakfast. This restaurant had that. As we learned in our course text, Food and Beverage may not be busy the whole time. This one, I noticed, did have signs outside the property naming the restaurant, but from what I saw, the only patrons during breakfast and dinner were hotel and convention guests.
Restaurant lunch and dinner
The food was fine; it filled me up and was hot and fresh. There was a small mistake on one of my dinner meals there and they fixed it quickly and without issue. Servers were attentive and seemed to respond well to the progression of my meal. The food came very quickly, and the server was ready with the check even before I signaled for it. They did well with this; they didn't push the check to finish the transaction on me.
The seating area was clean and bright and mostly quiet.
The hostess was attentive and led me to my choice of table (away from other tables and near the windows).