Beacon South Beach

The location is the one bright spot, directly across from the beach. Otherwise this was a horrible stay, and I wouldn’t recommend it at the price or at all. The elevator didn’t work the whole weekend. We kept hauling our luggage up and down the stairs, and each time we asked, we were told it would be running shortly. It never did. Before arrival, we’d been told valet parking was $25, but at the hotel the price was suddenly $50. The front desk manager said valet was a third-party service and they couldn’t control the price. The valet also damaged my friend’s car. The listing promised a robe and ironing board, neither was in the room. The booking photos seemed heavily edited or AI-generated and didn’t show how dated the hotel was. The beds were clean but very uncomfortable. The bathroom was old, moldy, and unsanitary, with a bathtub clearly painted over to hide rust and other defects. Housekeeping didn’t properly service the room, and the smoke detector was missing, a safety hazard.

The only bright spot was the kind man handing out beach towels. Ocean Drive is a great location, but the hotel itself was old, dirty, and poorly maintained. We had no hot water, the toilet was a struggle to flush every time, and repeated requests for extra towels went nowhere. The hallways were dirty, the elevator was out, and rain left the upper floors literally flooded. For the price and location, I expected better standards. In its current state, the place badly needs a full renovation. Avoid it.

The AC deserves credit, it stayed cold and reliable like it was campaigning for employee of the month. And the location was amazing. The rest of the stay was a stair workout with a soundtrack of squeaks and smells. We were on the fifth floor and the elevator was broken every single day. By day three, I felt like I was in South Beach Bootcamp. The bathroom setup was ridiculous, you had to maneuver over the barely working toilet to turn on the shower. The smell seemed to move in with us, and the bed squeaked if you so much as thought about sitting down. The online photos made the place look chic and coastal, but the camera must have done some work. Booking one hotel and arriving at another is what it felt like. I’ve learned my lesson about trusting those photos.

The beds were soft, and the location right by the beach was good. That’s about it. We didn’t even have trash cans or enough bath towels in the rooms. We had two rooms. Neither ceiling fan worked, one fridge was broken, and only one room had a microwave. Both bathrooms had rust and terrible paint jobs. The website said there’d be beach towels and chairs. There were no chairs, and getting towels meant asking staff who seemed completely disengaged. The hotel photos were a lie, apparently AI-assisted, and the lowest standards weren’t met. The elevator was out, so after a long delayed travel day we carried our suitcases up four flights. The lobby and hallways smelled musty, and the front desk carpet was disgusting. Our groceries, which I’d called three times about earlier in the day, were left on that carpet. No one answered the phone on any of those attempts. When we opened our room doors, the disappointment was immediate. The online pictures had led me to expect something very different.