Lisa’s Travels

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.

This is a hotel I have to recommend that you never ever stay at. If you are young and in Miami Beach to party, it may be okay. Beyond that, this hotel is your worst nightmare. Rated as a 4 star hotel, I was expecting luxury. What we got instead was a dump. The employees were rude, the walls are paper thin, and the parking is nonexistent. Let me tell you my story.

Check in is at 4 pm. We got there to find that there is no parking anywhere. You have to use their valet parking whether you like it or not and I think it was around $26 a day. Instead of saying hello to us, the guy at the front desk barked at us “license and credit card”. No hello. No please. It was customer service at its finest. NOT. The person I was staying with gave him her stuff and they proceed to copy it and put both on the same page! She asked them not do that. She has had her identity stolen and was a bit leary having all of that information about her photocopied on a piece of paper and stuck into an unlocked file cabinet! She had to argue with them to get them to black out her address and other identifying information on the copy of her license and her credit card number too! With the information they had copied on the same sheet, an identity thief would have a field day. Their response? The front area had a camera on it. Of course, we don’t know how good of a camera it was or anything. The first room they gave us was next to the bar. We marched back to front desk and explained to them again that we were here for business and not partying. They then gave us another room on the other side of the bar. After this, the bellman quit carrying our luggage. That’s how bad the situation got. They told us about the suite they had that had a pullout couch and a double bed. We didn’t think that sounded too bad. However, instead of giving us the keys to that room, they gave us a room on the third floor above the bar. We asked the bellman if we would hear the bar, and he told us we would. He also informed us that not only was it a bar, but it would have karaoke the next couple of night. It’s bad enough to have to listen to music all night. Bad music would be even worse! We went back to the desk and asked about the suite they told us about. A different guy said to us that they did have a suite, but they wouldn’t be offering it to us. He didn’t know why the other guy even told us about it. Yes, he really did say that to us.

Besides their lack of service, let me tell you about the rooms. They were tiny. We would have no place to put our suitcases at all. The bathroom came from the 1960’s and was tiny. Their website says they have free wifi. Guess what? They charge you for it once you are there. There were no phone books in the room. The walls were also paper thin. When we were trying to decide what we were going to do, a cell phone went off. I looked at my roommate and she looked at me thinking it was the other person’s phone. It was in the room next door. It sounded clear as day. There also were no closets or irons in the rooms.

Needless to say, we left. It was bad. I would highly recommend staying as far away from this hotel as you can. The rooms and the customer service were both crappy, and you can do better than this expensive hotel. I have stayed in one star hotels that were better than this!