Royal Palm South Beach Hotel

I stayed there in April 2008. The location was great. However, the rooms were disgraceful. The carpeting was completely stained. The furniture looked as if it came from a rummage sale. It is too bad, because this property has potential. Unfortunately, its owners have let it deteriorate to such an extent that it probably compares to a motel that it is rented on an hourly basis in a red light district.

I was scheduled to stay at this hotel at the end of February for one night. It was supposed to have a 4 star rating, and with a rate of $259.00 per night one would think it would be a quality property, but everything I encountered with this hotel leads me to believe they shouldn't even have 1 star. The staff, with the exception of one person, have no idea what customer service means. The walls are paper-thin....to the point where I answered my phone because I thought it was ringing but it turned out to be the phone in the room next to mine. When I checked in I hadn't noticed that I was missing any towels but when I went to take a shower later that day I saw that I only had two face-cloths and two hand-towels and no bath towels. It took 45 minutes and 4 phone calls (the last three weren't pleasant) before I received the towels...Pretty amazing considering I had just checked in that day and should have been fully-stocked. Additionally, there were stains on the wall that I swear could have been straight out of a CSI episode. Also, the cleaniness of the hotel is certainly questionable as I found pubic hairs on the bathroom floor when I used it the first time. The hotel was so bad that I refused to sleep there that night and instead opted to leave at 10:30pm and drive 3 hours to a family member's home. The only thing this hotel has is location, other than that it has absolutely nothing to offer a traveller. As a professional meeting planner, I have had the opportunity to stay at hotels all over the world and this property, by far, was the absolute worst.

Terrible hotel, roach infested, Security is the worst, hotel should be knocked down and condos put up.

This hotel should be nice, given its location and nice lobby, but it's clear that the owners are not investing in new carpets, updated furniture, and other-than-surface cleaning for such a premium location. Stayed here because of a convention (couldn't get into the Loews - same cost, much better value).

My first room had beat up carpeting, a very small bathroom, stains on the chairs, and a refrigerator that wasn't cold. It was on the balcony side/old hotel side, and there was loud music from the bar area. Don't let them give you a room on the balcony side.

I moved because my key stopped working three times. The next room they gave me was directly across from the elevator - "the only room they had...," so they said.

Ha! The bellman (the bellman!!!) actually got me one of their "great new rooms," which was all well and good, But, the ceilings were moldy and gave me headache. I was given only one washcloth, and there was hair in the tub that stayed there for the two nights I stayed in that room. (I cleaned the hair off the shower curtain myself.) The door to the balcony was tricky to lock. Plus, they only give you one backup roll of toilet paper.

Did I mention that there are no extra blankets in the room? The heat/air conditioning control in the first room I had didn't work well, and I spent the night shivering.

The staff is nice, but the hotel is run down and it's clear no one's investing in the place.

Also, they have no business center, and the gift shop is only open between 10 - 8, plus they do not take credit cards. Guess what, folks...it's 2007.

You are not even going to believe this story, we stayed there just overnight prior to leaving on a cruise. We stayed there September 28th and checked out on September 29th 2007.

The first room they gave us was by far gross. It was a very dirty outdated stinky room with stains on carpet everywhere and horrible dirty scratched up furniture. The bell man called our room to deliver our luggage and I told him I was not happy with the room and he even suggested that I come back down stairs to request another room. I went to the receptionist who was not the nicest person around and requested a new room and he said he didn't have any available and of course he was lying. Someone overheard him and said go ahead and give them a certain room.

We get to the new room and same thing old dirty stained carpet, stained sofa and furniture I was even afraid to sit on. Went to get ice to drink some water and the water in sink did not work! Well I opened the cabinet which is supposed to be a wet bar and it turned out to be a roach haven! No mini fridge, no water, but cockroaches the size of mice came running out at me. I jumped up on a chair and called the operator number and the idiots sent security to kill the roaches. The security guy opens the door to the mini bar and slams it shut when he sees the roach. He then calls maintenance to kill the roaches with a broom and dustpan. Now mind you it is 11:30 P.M. and they suggest we switch rooms again!

The maintenance man arrives with his broom and dust pan and the roaches hide in a hole in the back of the cabinet. Did he kill them? No, he took a piece of a postcard and bent it to fit in the hole to plug them up! No kidding, I am not stretching the truth one bit.

So, after 30 minutes of pure craziness, I get ready to climb into bed and there lays a dead spider on the floor! Needless to say I had a very restless night and the only thing this stupid roach motel did for me was to waive the $20 daily resort towel fee which I didn't even use because the pool had a huge green scum ring around it when I went down to check out the pool.

Oh, and by the way, the photo of the pool on their website is not the pool at the hotel.