Albion Hotels
A couple posts ago you may have read about our terrible experience with the Catalina Hotel in Miami Beach. The hotel we end up staying in was the Albion. It is run by Rubell Hotels. When you check out their site, the first page has a list of characteristics they are not (arrogant, formal, intimidating, robotic, or snobby) and what they are (sincere, low key, unpretentious, smiling and human). I have to agree with the assessment of themselves. Granted, this is not a 5 star hotel. However, it had everything we were looking for.
When we arrived, the valet met us — we didn’t have to go up to them to get service. We told them that we had called ahead and that we needed to make sure we still had a room. The front desk guy was very nice to us. When we arrived, he couldn’t guarantee us that we would have a room for the entire time we were in Miami, but he told us to call down to the desk at 9:30 in the morning to see where we stood.
The room was very nice. It had two double beds, a tv, wifi, a closet, a bathroom — everything we needed. The beds were very comfortable. There was a restaurant located inside the hotel plus there were several places within walking distance too. Both Walgreens and CVS were withing walking distance also. The other plus was that the Miami Convention Center (where my conference was) was also within walking distance. It is nice to be someplace where you would not have to rent a car.
When I was getting ready the next morning, we decided to call down to the front desk early to see if we could work a deal to stay in the same room. The man at the front desk was extremely helpful. Though he couldn’t give us a room, he told us to call back at 7:30. That is when the shift change happens and that person books all the groups. He would know for sure if there were any availabilities. We kept our fingers crossed and had breakfast at the restaurant. At 7:30, we stopped at the front desk and were really nice to the guy behind the counter. He worked it out so we didn’t have to change rooms, and we could stay there our entire trip! I wanted to kiss the guy but refrained. I know, it was good customer service to keep us there. However, after being at the Catalina with their poor customer service, I was prepared for anything.
The rest of our trip was pretty uneventful there. When I needed a cab to get to the airport on Saturday morning at 4:30 am, they arranged for that. This is a hotel I would definitely use again if I was even in Miami.
