Continental Hotel Miami Bayside

I was down here for a conference at the Intercontinental hotel across the street. These two hotels while similar in name are two very different hotels. While the intercontinental was charging over $200 a night I was able to stay at this hotel for $134 for three nights. I had done a fair amount of research and had read all the reviews on several sites before booking this hotel. In fact after reading some of the reviews, I brought along a set of sheets and a towel from home.

The location is fantastic. It was very close to my conference and close to the ports and a short ride to the beaches. It is right next to the metro mover, which is free. It is very close to Bayside which is a conglomeration of restaurants and stores. There are several brand name hotels you can switch to including Holiday Inn and a Courtyard Marriott. Check in is at 4pm but they will allow you to check in at 3pm. I arrived a quarter to three and was told I would have to wait until 3 or they could hold my bag for me at $1 per bag. The front desk person was nice enough and moved me to an upper floor when I asked. He was able to answer most of my questions about the area. There is a bellman there that can assist with your bags should you need it. Customer service is not a strong point of this hotel. The lobby was clean there were several people using the WiFi connection. As a side note one of the elevators was out of order but was repaired by the second day I was there.

The room was small with a pretty good view of the Arena and the bay. The windows were small. The bathroom was especially small but it was clean and in good working order. I did call down for extra towels. It took quite a while for them to come up. The hotel does not have a housekeeping staff. They contract out to a separate company. The bellman had to bring up the towels. The carpet although worn was clean. The walls were scuffed from the bell cart being dragged along the wall one too many times. The towels and sheets were worn but clean. I would definitely not use the bedspread as a blanket though. The furniture was dated and a little beat up. The bed was relatively comfortable. The TV has 8 channels that come in. Four of them are all in Spanish and one is PBS. The mini fridge was operational and cold. I never did use the sheets or towels that I had brought.

The restaurant is open only for breakfast. It seemed to be staffed accordingly to the amount of people eating there in the morning. The bar did not open while I was there and according to the front desk never opens. Close buy there are two drug stores, CVS and Walgreens. There is a Subway, a Quiznos, a McDonalds, a Pollo Tropical, a smoothie place, a Spanish tapas bar, a Starbucks, a Brazilian buffet and a corner cuban sandwich shop all within walking distance. Across the street is Bayside which has a Hard Rock Cafe, a Bongos, A Bubba Gump's and several small restaurants and ice cream shops. There is live music there almost every night. It is worth noting that many of these places downtown are not open on weekends and especially on Sundays.

Parking is a challenge downtown. Meter parking is available on Biscayne Blvd. from 6am to 2am for $3 for the first 5 hours and about $1.50 for every hour after that. Weekends it is more and special events are $15. Bayside parking garage is $10 per 24 hours with no in and out privileges. There is a garage next to the hotel that is $15 a day with in and out but it closes from 9:45pm and opens at 6am on weekdays and at 9am on weekends. The plus is that when it is open you have in and out. The Intercontinental has valet available 24 hours a day for $34 a day.

In short this is a cheap hotel. It is maintained like a cheap hotel. This no frills. Great for a place to stay. I had a great time and as I knew what I was getting in to was not shocked when I arrived.

I recently visited South Beach for what I planned to be a vacation, yet turned out to be an absoloute NIGHTMARE. From the minute I arrived at the hotel I was scared for my safety as well as in shock of the appearance of the hotel. There were no towels, toilet paper, or hot water. Needless to say, the entire hotel smells of mold and mildew. I would never stay at this hotel again. I BEGGED for a refund and the manager stated, "IT"S NOT MY PROBLEM THAT YOU ARE NOT HAPPY." Out of all the years of staying at hotels, I have never in my life seen such a poor facility and level of customer service. While staying in the hotel I learned on the second day that two doors had been kicked in and a female was raped. The hotel is a nightmare and in fact you couldn't pay me to stay there ever again. I advised the management to update their pictures online because I have no idea where they got their pictures from. The pictures are not of the actual hotel. DO NOT STAY HERE!

my friends and I went on a weekend to Miami, and thought due to the location it was a great hotel. I should have know better, when i called to verify my reservation the phone customer service was awful. we checked in at 10:30, we ended up having to look for another hotel at 11pm, and they will not even refund the money evethough, we didn't stay the 2 night. just getting the money back for the parking which was another nightmare, was horrible enough. i recommend to people, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT STAY AT THIS HOTEL, don't give them your hard earned money!!!!!

As the only hotel we found with vacancies New Years Eve, the reasons became apparent. On the good side, the rooms are good sized maybe even large, and the location is on the beach and close to many attractions. On the bad, well the ac/heat was glitchy, no drinking cups in bathroom nor coffee maker, missing towel rack in bathroom, no tissues in the dispenser, the sink faucets leaked excessively, the hall ice machine was out of order, the walls are paper thin and the neighbors talking at normal volume sounded like they were in your bathroom, maids don't vacuum during your stay, pool was not heated, poker chip size fungus growing out the side of the pool's bar, and if this is any indication of the on site restaurant the jelly appeared to be so old that it was the consistency of a thick paste when pulling it out of the little plastic containers. Lastly, the tv got about 6-7 channels, mostly in Spanish, and picture and sound was good on half of them. Speaking of Spanish, though this is Miami, it is still America. Except for the front desk staff, most of the help doesn't seem to know any English.

Think of a stay here as a bit more like camping. Nuff said.

I came to this hotel thinking the $165.00 a night was going to serve us well.

Once we showed up, we found out that the check in time changes depending on whatever the staff wants to do, and to make more money, they charged us an extra $50 just to check in early. This happened to us twice because we had already made reservations here for our cruise and every other hotel was booked.

The first time we came the staff was very unpleasant, they had no understanding of basic English and they were absolutely the most rude hotel staff I have ever dealt with. The first room we were at was terrible, it had scuff marks all over and a blood stain on the wall. Not to mention the dirty carpet that I refused to walk barefoot on, dirty sheets (brought my own thankfully), a dirty bathroom, dirty windows and the room smelled of funk. The ceiling was stained as well.

Anyway that was the first time we stayed here, the second time, the room had all of the above plus the room smelled like pure urine, and the beds weren't made when we came in. When I opened the curtain, the only view I had was the roof to a part of the building in which a homeless man was living. His living area was better than ours. There is no internet in the rooms, the LAN connections don't work, you have to go to the lobby or the second floor. The elevators smell like urine. Food was terrible.

Just an overall scummy place to stay and I don't recommend it for the faint of heart.