precruise hotels in miami - think about this!

[dkort]

just wanted to add some thoughts about pre cruise hotels in miami. over the years we have used many web site services (priceline, hotwire, web deals) to get whatever lowest price we could, analyzing that it was, after all, "just for one night." for those of you who use that logic, you may want to seriously reconsider. before you say, "they're crazy," a little background.... we live on the west coast and are always cruising out of miami because we're pretty much addicted to caribbean cruising. after a long flight and yucky airline food, we always end up at the miami airport late at night, exhausted and spent, sometimes arriving with one of those humid evenings that will steam up our glasses. and of course, we've had lots of interesting times flying - missed connections, weather delays, terrorist threat levels raised, bags sent to who knows where, etc. ad nauseum. as i said in the beginning, we USED to just pick a web service or deal and go for it. and if you think this isn't written from experience, we've stayed at: the holiday inn bayside, formerly the best western; the radisson, formerly the doubletree; the sheraton biscayne; and the hyatt. after soooo many caribbean cruises, all with precruise stays, we continually have used the hyatt on 2nd ave. why? we have NEVER had a problem with this hotel in the multiple times that we've stayed there. at the other hotels, one or two tries produced nightmarish results. with the other lower brand hotels it's a hit or miss with your room. sometimes the room was okay, but the other services were very sloooow or completely nonexistent. no towels, telephone broken, no room service, no bell man, no front desk clerk (had to hit a bell to get someone), faulty fire alarms, wet floors, bad beds, etc. other times the rooms were so bad that we had to leave in the middle of the night - no kidding. broken air conditioners, faulty fire alarms, door locks broken, you name it. and if you seriously think about it, these downtown hotels are used constantly. look at how many cruises are out of the port of miami each week, and look at how many people are on each ship. literally thousands and thousands of people in ONE week. think about the people you met on your last cruise? how many drove to the port? need i say more. so now also think about this: when we get to the miami airport late at night our options are as follows for food: a cold sandwich or vending machines. maybe if we're lucky, a cup of coffee we could make in the room. add to that a miserable hotel experience and that one night could turn into your night from he**. bottom line is choose wisely and seriously think about your one night. if you don't sleep and feel like you were hit upside your head, that picture you take walking onto the ship is going to look pretty rotten. not to mention what a way to start a vacation. incidentally for our upcoming cruise, the hyatt was sold out. we have picked another hotel, 4 star bordering on 5 star, the downtown jw marriott. of course if your flight is one or two hours, you'd probably be okay if you ended up in a bad room kind of situation. at least you'd be awake enough to change it if something went wrong. but for those of you on longer flights, just seriously think about what i've written.

[SueSea]

Wow! I guess the gist of your post is to alert folks about using Priceline/Hotwire if they are concerned about which hotel they might get? If that's the point, I agree--folks have to be aware that they are pretty much stuck with whichever hotel Priceline or Hotwire gives them. However, I've used Priceline often, always after doing some research. I can say I've never gotten a bad room in a bad hotel. I book with the understanding that Priceline customers are not going to get the best rooms or upgrades. My last Priceline hotel was the Caribe Hilton in San Juan. We got an upgrade upon request at check in and the room was clean and well-appointed. We didn't get the best room in the hotel, but we didn't get treated like second class citizens because we used Priceline--in fact, I've never been treated poorly as a Priceline customer. It's possible that I could have a bad experience with Priceline, but then again I've had bad experiences at non-Priceline hotels that I paid much more for.

 

Yes, you do have to be aware of Priceline's policies & the hotels it offers, but Priceline works for the majority of people who use it.

[bajalover]

dkort, You are from my neck of the woods. We too love the caribbean! The pacific can't hold a candle to those clear blue waters!!! I am curious as I am looking for airfare for July to Miami. What airline do you use? The non stops are soooo expensive! Also, the hotel I am looking is the Holiday Inn downtown, they are the only hotel that will let us sleep 5. (3 kids) How is this hotel? Thanks

[dkort]

dear suesea: the hotels that i discussed were used with priceline and without. the point of the writing was to really find out (reviews, etc.) about a hotel before staying there in the downtown district for the one night. i can tell you that we have definitely used priceline for other parts of the country and have never had problems. i am sorry if you thought that it was just a writing about priceline. the only reason i referred to priceline is because many people use it to obtain one of the downtown miami hotels. for some odd reason, that downtown corridor is so laden with people that the rooms tend to turn over very quickly without much attention to maintenance, detail, etc. for this reason, picking some of the iffy hotels are a real gamble. i also rely on two services before i make a reservation: tripadvisor.com and expedia.com for their reviews. my policy is to take a look at the most recent posts (from the last year). the positives have to outweigh the negatives dramatically before i will book the hotel. for example, if there are 6 reviews of the hotel and 3 people said the hotel stunk and 3 people said it was great, i would definitely not stay there as it would be too much of a gamble. and when i say "stunk" i mean rating the hotel with 1 or 2 stars. if you look at the reviews on those sites regarding the hotels i mentioned that i would not stay in, the reviews are all hit or miss. there is absolutely no consistency. that is what i mean by it all depends on the room you get and management's response. hope this makes sense??

[dkort]

dear bajalover: as i explained in my writing, i would not stay at the holiday inn. if you look at the online reviews, they are completely hit or miss for the hotel. you could get lucky and have a room that would meet your expectations. then again, you could end up having a nightmarish evening. i just would not want to risk the start of my vacation like that. the time that i have off is extremely precious. and then, lets take a look at the pricing. if the holiday inn room is $80, you can probably get one of the marriotts or hyatts for about $150-175. worth 2 x the price? absolutely. here's the first difference: the time we stayed there, the bell man never showed up, so there we were lugging our bags with our kids. i remember someone at the desk saying that we could get a bell cart. we said okay. the cart never came. after all the marriotts and hyatts that i've stayed at around the world, i have never walked into any one of them late at night (after 10pm) and had someone tell me to get a bell cart. no matter what time i've arrived, someone somewhere was available to help me with my bags. remember what i said about long flights and coming in to the miami airport late, tired and hungry. first of all, i do not stay at any hotel precruise that does not have 24 hr room service. that criteria alone eliminates the majority of the hotels in the downtown district, definitely the holiday inn. even just to get a hot cup of tea or toast would require such an ordeal in the late evening.

as far as the flights themselves, we fly on frequent flyer miles since we do a lot of business flying. however, if i had to pick, i'd try to get an american more room plane if you sit in coach. just took one of those from dc, and it definitely had more room.

take care.