Loews Miami Beach Hotel

2007 - 2008

Above and Beyond

• Loews Miami Beach Hotel does a great job in maintaining the art deco feel of South Beach.
• The lobby is very pleasant and a great place to watch a spoting event with many TVs and full food and beverage service.
• The staff at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel offers very friendly service and they are fairly attentive.
• The bedding is very comfortable.
• The rooms have good workspace for the business traveler, with great internet connections.
• Very nice size flat screen TV and plenty of convenient electrical outlets for the equipment one must charge today.
• The rooms also have great drawer and closet space.
• The beach is beautiful and the Loews Miami Beach Hotel provides full service, including food and drinks, at the beach for a nominal charge. I found the beach service to be excellent. They also encourage you to take a towel from the towel hut located at the pool before you head to the beach as the beach concierge will only provide you a towel to cover the chair.
• The gift shop is one of the more expansive gift shops in a hotel.
• The Loews Miami Beach has a beautiful spa and fitness room.

A Matter of Taste

• This is a BIG hotel – perhaps the largest in South Beach. If you are looking for a boutique hotel, look elsewhere.
• The Loews Miami Beach Hotel is located right in the heart of South Beach, just a block south of Lincoln Road.
• Within walking distance of many of the hotels in South Beach as well as some of the best restaurants in the area.
• A lot of convention business.
• The rooms are adequate. I have always stayed in a balcony room as I love to sit out in the morning or late in the day and have coffee and read. The balconies are too small to accommodate a lounge chair, but adequate for two chairs and a table.
• The bathrooms are way too small and as such, they squeeze in the sink, toilet and shower/bath combination.
• A haven for families and they are everywhere, including dominating the pool area during holiday times.
• Pool chairs are taken very early in the day and the pool is very crowded. Great for children, but this is not a relaxing environment.
• The fitness room does not open until 6 AM. This is not great for someone like me who loves a daily workout, but must be on the road by 7 AM to fight the South Florida traffic and get to my business meetings that usually start at 8 AM. What shocks me here is that Jonathan Tisch, President of Loews Hotels is reputed to be a fitness junkie as well as a hard worker. I wish this hotel would open their fitness room at 5 AM.

Needs Improvement

• Be prepared to wait up to 25 minutes if you park a car at the hotel. The good news is that if you call ahead, the car will be there waiting for you most of the time if you budget 15 minutes.
• Room service trays litter the room floors in the morning with food remnants several hours old. I cannot understand why a hotel cannot track where the used room service trays are since they had to deliver them at some point. It is not pleasant waking up at 5 AM and walking past hours old food scraps.

My Conclusion

I have stayed at Loews Miami Beach Hotel 5 times in the last 3 months. Overall, not a bad hotel given its size. But think BIG, not boutique. With BIG, you clearly sacrifice on service, but this hotel certainly tries. I have found that the Loews Miami Beach is fantastic at apologizing for its missteps.