Jeanni J.
Yelp
As a frequent travel, I have never received the awful treatment I received at W Miami. It was so upsetting on so many levels. I will stick to the objective first, then get into what felt extremely personal. Check-in was supposed to be at 4:00 PM EST. It occurred well after 5:30 PM EST. There was no sense of urgency from the staff at all whatsoever. There where some empty apologies however and a definite empty promise to provide a $100 credit for myself and my partner to enjoy due to the inconvenience. I will get back to that later...
As we waited quite a long time (over 1.5 hours as I noted above), we were taken to the bar, told our drinks would be compensated. Instructed to enjoy the property, tour it and relax, until our room could be prepared. We tried - I promise. We were stopped by pool staff, told we needed a wristband (you need a room key to gain access, we had no room key, as we had no room), we went back to lobby to talk with the hotel concierge staff, we were told we did not need a wristband just a room key, which they could assign without a room. They did. We went back up to the bar and pool to try to enjoy and make the best of things. We were once again accosted and harassed this time by hotel security about this wristband. We explained to security that we had room keys and were told this was all we needed by the concierge staff (apparently no one talks to each other). He did not want to hear us, he insisted on escorting us off the pool grounds to get a wristband. The look on my partner's face haunted me the entire trip, he was so upset and I heard him whisper how embarrassed and humiliated he felt (we are Brown people), everyone was staring as we were policed again and again. It was so upsetting. Staff (Sanjit) was apologetic, let us know our room was ready, informed us we would be compensated $100 credit to the bar for our troubles and we should charge services to our room. He leaves us, we go to the room and await our things, which he says will be sent along shortly.
We arrive to a room that is in complete disarray. There are half-consumed and empty water bottles on the desk, empty snack wrappers, the bedroom is worse, as the bed is in complete wreck, sheets and blanket bundled up all together, clearly used and visibly soiled, there are soiled sheets on the desk in the bedroom as well, the bathroom is a complete mess, towels on the floor, garbage in the bins, some type of suggestive (paraphrenalia) in the sink. It was so upsetting and overwhelming. We called about the issues and the manager (Michelle) came up, not sure if this was coincidence or what, she had our belongings and we immediately asked her to come in to witness all that we noted. At this point, I am looking at my partner who I planned this romantic getaway for Valentine's Day, as it was his first trip to Miami, and he looks so upset. I will never forget it. I get overwhelmed and begin tearing up. It was bad.
We were again led out of the room. Given another empty apology, led once more to the bar and told we would have compensated drinks or bar food, etc. My partner was so upset and frustrated he wanted nothing to do with anything - only to have our room prepared so we could get food and rest, we had been traveling since 6 AM. Another hotel staff (Sanjit) came to us, apologized as he had led us to the wrong room (not his fault), we were led to the correct room, he walked with us and came in to ensure all was well. Great right - the nightmare is over - right? No, very wrong. He notes the thing about the $100 credit to be used anytime on our room and gives us his cell should any further issues arise. My partner in all the fray thought he lost his backpack, which held my laptop in it. I texted, he responded, turns out this was just in our rental car. All good. Nope!
Anytime we went to take the rental car out it took over 30 minutes . Once it took about 40-45 minutes. Other days who knows when the car was coming or placed for us to take out, it was like a big secret, as the staff never updated the text messages to let you know the car was there if you did not stand waiting 20, 30, 40 minutes outside watching for it, you just came downstairs and hoped it would be there. It costs like $50+ tips per night to park at the property.
Our last day there, I reviewed the bill and noticed everything we charged to the room (~$60 worth of drinks + tips) was billed to us and not compensated. I texted Sanjit, he CONFIRMED that it would be fixed at checkout. We checked out and I told this to the woman at the concierge desk, another staff (a male) person seemed to overhear me saying this and whispered something to her. I have no idea what it was but I know when I reviewed the new bill (sent via email) those charges remained. I was and remain absolutely FURIOUS. We were treated so poorly, with no recognition of our humanity, like we did not matter. We rented a suite, spent over 3K, we were treated like they were housing us as a last minute favor.