Shelley Hotel

Loved the location, liked the room marginally, hated the hall lighting, hated the bar service, loved the free airport shuttle. Very dubious choice in South Beach. Rooms are marginally clean, shower floods bathroom, lighting ok, none for closet (nor door on it). Bar has "free" drinks from 7-8 pm, beware. I was charged $635 for 2 bottles of champagne on Christmas Eve. Should've seen it coming, didn't ask price before. OUCH! Management is not at all receptive to complaints, requests, queries, etc. STAY ELSEWHERE than South Group properties!!

I've stayed at this hotel before with very few problems in the past. The staff is nice, but they are not helpful at all. There are no trash cans to throw away your garbage which explains the presence of roaches. Also, the bar in the hotel is managed by an outside owner who trains his bartenders to rip people off. I was headed out of the hotel with my girl friends, but was stopped by the male bartender who asked, "hey ladies, let's do shots." Anywhere else in the world, this would mean that the bartender was offering us shots. We went to the bar, took a shot that he suggested and then got stuck with a bill that totalled over $50 (for five shots!!). He even made us pay for his shot. I told this story to someone in the airport who stayed across the street at Chesterfield. He said that the female bartender did the same thing to him only she stuck him with a $100 tab for two shots. Avoid the bars in the hotel at all costs. They will overcharge you or scam you into buying shots when they lead you to believe they are on the house.

I stayed at Hotel Shelly from 4/26/-4/30/2007. My toilet flooded 3 out of the 4 days I was there. The cleaning crew spoke no English, my room wasn't cleaned but one day out of 4 days. I spoke to the Management, he didn't seem to care if I left or stayed he offered to give me a half off my last night stay. I didn't have a choice but to stay the hotels were booked up. The hotel staff was nice and tried to help! This was the worst hotel I have ever stayed in, I have stayed in hotels all over the 50 states, this was the worst one I have ever stayed in and the worst vacation I ever had

I would like to comment on two aspects of this hotel.

First, my room was broken into, it was not a forced entry. All of our stuff was thrown around the room, and my passport was taken. Luckily, we had our wallets on us. The hotel told us to call the police ourselves and they did nothing to make the ordeal easier. They did not allow us to change rooms and have not reimbursed me for any of my added expenses.

Second, despite the $1.5 million "upgrade" in 2005, this hotel is not the boutique hotel it says it is. The hallways are painted dark brown, the floor, walls and ceiling. And they have very low lighting. The stairways are also extremely dark. They do not have security cameras in the halls and do not employ a 24-hour security guard. As a female, I felt threatened walking in the stairwells by myself, and feel certain someone could hide at the end of a corridor without any of their staff noticing.

Needless to say, we left before midnight.

I would definitely stay here again. It's in a perfect location and at a decent price. It's good if you're just coming to South Beach to party for a night. They have a very cool bar in the hotel lobby. The rooms are nice, but the bathrooms are where you can see the wear and tear the worst (it was still pretty clean though, just a bit worn).