Miami River Inn By Renzzi

The restaurant attached to the hotel has a short menu, but the pizza was good and I liked the decor. The pool looked nice, though it was too cold for me to use. We were there nearly a week, and parking was fine every day except Saturday, when the restaurant was packed and we had to park off the lot around the corner. It’s an older place and some things need fixing, but it’s still a lovely space with nice staff. The location was perfect for day trips, Ocean Drive, and getting food. My only real letdown was the cleaning. Corners and kitchen cabinets, the less obvious spots, could have been cleaner, but it was bearable. I absolutely loved staying here, highly recommend it, and will definitely be back.

The door’s electronic lock had dead batteries, so it wouldn’t lock when I left. I managed to get it working long enough by taking the batteries out and putting them back in, but that’s not something a guest should have to deal with. The area felt pretty sketchy, and I wouldn’t come back. The room was hard to sleep in, too. The overhead fan was so loud, even though it was needed to make the room comfortable, and a bar right next door played loud music late into the night. They also wouldn’t let me adjust the temperature. I wasn’t expecting the Hilton, but I did expect better. By 8 p.m. they block the entrance with cones to keep people from parking in their lot.

We ended up taking an apartment with two rooms, but our room had no light. Its window had no screen and faced the bar, where loud music played for most of the night. We had an early flight and got no sleep. The kitchen cabinets had peeling contact paper, and there were no hand towels or washcloths. It was a true nightmare. We arrived early in the morning, and the staff were friendly and let us leave our bags until the 4 p.m. check-in. Our room still wasn’t ready at 3, though our cousins’ room was. The room we were first given was cramped, with nowhere to sit, hot and suffocating, and smelled like mold. There was no air conditioning, the windows had no screens, and we couldn’t figure out how to turn on the ceiling fan. We went back to change rooms, which took another hour. The office was full of people complaining about their rooms.

It’s a quiet, quaint little gem, and the oldest hotel in Miami, dating from 1908. I booked through Airbnb, though direct booking is also available. Some rooms are small and have shared bathrooms for guests on a budget. The building is older, so the air conditioning is controlled from the hallway. Staff were very helpful in getting it adjusted. The place was very clean, and housekeeping refreshed the common areas daily and the rooms every other day. There’s no coffee or fridge in the room, but the lobby has a small snack bar and a microwave guests can use.