My husband and I planned to stay at the Ritz South Beach for 3 nights starting the Sunday of Memorial Day. Luckily, a friend warned us about a hip hop festival on South Beach, and after confirming the atmosphere with the conierge at that hotel (bad news), we decided to move to the Rtiz Coconut Grove. I am not sure who would be best to stay there. It's a lovely property, with good service, and if you like Coconut Grove, then this would work. The hotel is steps away from all kinds of night life, but has little life itself. The pool area is rather concrete, and being that the ocean is near, it seems wrong to not be able to see the sea!

The rooms are nice, and all else is as you would expect from a Ritz, but there isn't much atmosphere in the hotel.

The staff were kind when we said we'd rather take our chances on the beach, so we switched (via the Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts program) to the Ritz South beach for the last 2 days, and missed the worst of the hip hop festival.

One warning. There is a Sunday brunch in the only restaurant (other than the pool grill). We get a free lunch during our stay, as part of our Amex program, so we went ahead and lunched (brunched) at the hotel. I am a vegetarian, so ate little of the mainly fish and meat offerings. It's an extensive buffet, and as it was our only choice that day at the hotel, we ate. We couldn't believe it when the bill came. $175!!! No joke. Ok, we didn't ask the price, but assumed the usual hotel fee for brunch, $40-50. We had NO ALCOHOL and it was $175!! We did get credited our program rebate of $85, after explaining to the front desk that we had no other "lunch" choice. But still......

We stayed over the Memorial Day Weekend at the Ritz-Carlton, believing that our hotel stay would be deserving of the five star rating the hotel has received. Boy, were we wrong! I want to begin by saying that the staff are courteous and friendly and the rooms are nicely decorated, but I receive the same at any Marriott that I have travelled to and that is quite often.
To begin with, our room was suppose to have two double beds as booked, but the hotel put three of us in a room with a king bed and insisted that the reservation was based on this selection. We did get a roll-away for the third adult in our party, but it was quite uncomfortable and the hotel, oversold, was unable to provide an alternative room. Simple things like coffee cups and enough towels were never in the room and calls requesting same went unheeded. Parking is $30.00/day, valet only. One night, I stood around for 15 minutes after pulling up to the hotel for one of three attendants who were engrossed in conversation to finally acknowledge my presence.
Don't get me wrong, I would expect something like this from a Motel 6, but the Ritz? The hotel reduced my daily rate to compensate me for the eventful weekend, but one should never expect this kind of service from a five star hotel. Do yourself a favor, stay at the Marriott. You will be alot happier and will have saved a bundle!

We usually try and stay in the Four Seasons whereever possible, but as we didn't want to stay in downtown Miami, we chose the RCCG.. Had heard great stuff about Ritz Carlton and how they were on a par with Four Seasons so were really looking forward to seeing if that was the case - it wasn't.

The hotel itself is beautiful and the facilities and location are great. The staff are all really really lovely - especially the concierge who was fabulous- however there just wans't that extra mile that you get with a Four Seasons. If we rang down and asked for eg extra towels, it took quite a while for them to come up. Also the housekeeping was quite sporradic time-wise - one day we went out until about 4pm and when we got back they were only just doing up our room which I felt was unacceptable. Also there didn't appear to be any turndown service - or if there was it went unnoticed as there were no weather cards/chocs on pillow/slippers by bed etc.

All in all it made me realise have become spoiled and I do notice the little things however The RCCG is a wonderful hotelbut I would only recommend it to anyone who HASN'T stayed at a Four Seasons!!!

My husband and I decided to do a last minute getaway to Miami and a family member recommended the Ritz as a great place to stay. We were very excited to make reservations there, the hotel was full via their website but we were able to get in at a very good rate via AA vacations. com. After booking the trip but before going to Miami, I purused Trip Advisor to see what people thought. Lots of negative reviews and I approached our hotel stay with trepidation and shared that with the staff as I registered at arrival.

Well, nothing was farther from the truth! We had an absolutely fantastic time at this hotel! We were greeted with open arms, came in relatively later in the evening and were greeted in our room with a spectacular food platter full of fruit cheeses, and chocolates. Delicious!

Our room was great, the staff was great, pool area was great. Also used the fitness center which was fabulous. Concierge service was excellent. They gave us great restaurant recommendations. Rooms looked brand new, great bed and balcony was wonderful. Very quiet spot which my husband and I loved.

The Ritz has a high quality service ethic. I was by the pool and left my i touch (value of $350) by the pool and after we went back to our room we got a call from the staff at the pool saying they had my i touch and they brought it back to our room. I thought that was extremely classy.

I would highly recommend this hotel. We are baby boomer travelers and I think this was perfect for our needs and the price was relatively reasonable compared to the expensive South Beach hotels.

We are frequent travelers around the world so we have seen many hotels and many Ritz's If you are visiting the Miami area, stay there! You will not be sorry!