Grand Beach Hotel Surfside

May revise later but for now — room outlets dead, smoke detector chirping and slow to fix — very slow and offer nothing BUT TO SIT IN THE LOBBY and WAIT — ugh. — update — got another room — air conditioner is loud and does not work well. Looks like mold on the vent … You can’t make up this stuff
Saga continues — room 3 with not view and they will move me tomorrow
This place is not a serious place, location is its only asset.

Will not be returning… I read a few reviews about the staff being rude and unfriendly but didn’t think too of it, until I experienced something similar myself with the hosts. When we asked him a question he acted like he didn’t want to speak to us and I thought maybe he’s having a bad day. But later that night they had shift change and it was adifferent guy at the front desk. I went to the main pool at night, not knowing they close the pool at 9pm (I’ve never been to a beach hotel/​resort where you can’t go to the pool at 9pm, but that wasn’t the big deal). The guy came to inform me in this unsually condescending tone about the pool being closed at sunset and I can’t be in the pool.
I will not be returning or recommending this place to others as they did not create a welcoming atmosphere making me, the guest, feel uncomfortable and my stay an unpleasant experience.

I was so excited about staying here but it was a huge disappointment. The 2 best words to describe my room were loud and dirty. Gross! The staff are young and inexperienced and know nothing about customer service.
I was supposed to stay 5 nights but was so unhappy I checked out after just 1 night. I spoke with the night manager and made sure that I would not be charged for the other nights. In fact I spoke with 3 people to confirm. When I checked out the clerk gave me a hard time and said I needed the manager’s permission to leave! Then she said it was «OK» and I signed a bill for $ 384.00. The next day they charged my credit card $ 1912.00 and they refuse to return my phone calls. I told American Express that I did not authorize the charge and there is no way I am paying.
Do yourself a favor and do not stay here. It is not professional and not honest.

I can’t speak for the hotel although the restraunt was horrid. The service was good although when I ordered a chicken sandwich, the meat was dry, bland, and tough there was also some cheese thing in the sandwich which was terrible. I ended up only eating half of the overpriced meal
I changed this review from a 2 to a 3 because the nice response I received for there attentive staff

GORGEOUS HOTEL !!! We had the best experience here ! Everything was great !!! I love that you can see the Ocean from the Lobby and restaurant ! Our room was incredible, it had 2 full bathrooms, i think all rooms have that. We had wrap around balcony with stunning views. The service was great, everyone was so nice and polite and lovely ! The Concierge staff were all incredible, so helpful and professional ! The Food was outstanding, you never expect great food at a Hotel but every meal was delicious especially the Breakfast Buffet which was lavish ! The Gelato/​Coffee Bar was great too if you want to grab a coffee and sit outside or get lite Breakfast or snack. The Gym is so nice because it has an ocean view, all new equipment. The Rooftop Pool deck and Sky Bar are my favorite, you can really relax, no kids up there and you can have a cocktail by the pool. Service was great, towels etc. Very clean hotel and everything is new. I did not want to leave !!! We have stayed in South Beach which is great, but i really liked being a bit away from the «scene» but being close enough to taxi there and enjoy the nightlife. The Bal Harbour Shops (outdoor mall) are 2 blocks away– amazing-​with great restaurants too! And Publix Supermarket is 1 block away. Gorgeous bike/​walk path right at Ocean so you can bike/​walk to Bal Harbor bridge in one direction or all the way down to 63^rd Street in the other direction. A wonderful experience all around ! The only thing i would tweak is: lighting at the lobby bar would be better if it were lower– dimmer. See my pictures below.

this is the worst hotel i’ve ever stay!
the bedding is dirty and the chair has dirty finger prints on it. the most ridiculous thing is our sunglass is missing and some quarters in the car when they valeting. we filed a report for the police. the maneger treats us with such a patronizing attitude. he didn’t say anything to apologize for what happened. we have to wait for the investigation result until that we still have to pay $ 35 daily valet parking fee to them! wht the fxk!!!

Me and my boyfriend stayed at the GBHS last year and loved our stay so now we’re back again. Staff is friendly, quick and helpful. Food is very good and to a reasonable price, the drinks as well! A bottle of prosecco is only $ 36!
The rooms are great as well. Big, clean. Two bathrooms, comfortable bed, sitting area and balcony. Tv both in front of the bed and in sitting area.
There’s a fridge as well so you can go and buy some water at the store (which is close) or maybe buy some cheese and wine to enjoy on the balcony.
We had a pool view room last year which was fine but this year we have a beach view room and it’s absolutely stunning to wake up to.
I can’t really say anything we don’t like so far except that we came at 3.30 yesterday and we couldn’t go to our room until 5.00 — annoying but we were in a good mood and had some complementary drinks by the bar. Also the receptionist who took care of us didn’t understand us so we had to call the manager. She was friendly and fixed everything very well.
Will be back!

My check in experience at this hotel was absolutely unacceptable and profoundly unprofessional. We arrived as a part of a wedding party for the weekend of April 10^th. After walking into the main hotel, the front desk lady told me and my pregnant wife that our room is booked for their ‘sister’ hotel across the street. We asked about staying at the main hotel since my wife was not feeling well and we wanted to just settle in. She told us the price difference will be a 100 dollars and that the hotel next door has the exact same set up. Well that was a total lie. When we went there along with our luggage, we noted the sister hotel had no lobby and no restaurant etc. Okay so I asked the girl there to call over to the main hotel and see if we can switch to that side. After being on the phone for several minutes she told us that they will honor the 100 dollar extra a night to stay in the main hotel. So we went back. We walked up the the reception area and the girl behind the counter was not only not understanding what we were trying to do but was totally dismissive. I asked her to bring out her manager. You would think the manager would handle this situation politely and professionally. But no! she spoke down to me and was very rude. She said the rate can’t be only 100 dollars extra and quoted me a whole new rate. I told her the girl from the sister hotel had called and confirmed and that is the only reason we walked all the way back. She refused to call there and speak with he other girl. This totally blew my mind. It obviously was a total scam and a very disgusting way of treating a guest.
I am a business owner with over 100 employees and several hundred clients on a daily basis. The level of unprofessionalism, disorganization, lack of common respect, and lack of effort was totally disheartening and unacceptable.
The manager that handled the situation in this manner was Stephania Coello.

Let me just get the negative out of the way. About two weeks before arriving I received an email to request an the opportunity to upgrade to the beach front view for 47 dollars a night. I pressed the link to request and was brought to a screen saying my request was submitted. I then called the hotel and was told by the front desk staff she would also put a request for me.
Check in day arrives and you are not able to check in until 4. The website says if room is available prior you can check in but you can almost guarantee room won’t be available. But that’s whatever. So my first conversation with front desk is that there is no request shown and I can upgrade for 100 dollars a night. I explain how I called and submitted the request online and she tells me she doesn’t see it and the room is only available for 100 dollars a night. She tells me any request made would be from reservations and not through the hotel itself… the email came from the hotel itself but ok.
I call reservations and then tell me they see the request for a high room and an upgrade. I go back to front desk and explain it to the girl who is now on the desk. The original girl comes by and tells «Yanet» to do the upgrade for the price if she wants to. She said it prob 3 times so obviously it’s something that could of been done. Yanet tells me to forward her the email because at this point I am frustrated with her explanation. She first tells me the room isn’t guaranteed. Clearly the room is available if you’re offering it. And then she tells me the price of the upgrade isn’t available. So then why would the hotel offer the price? It’s false advertisement.
She tells me to forward the email and takes note of my situation and says she is going to have me speak to ANDREW the manager. I requested a manager and this guy was apparently in a meeting. So fast forward to 4 when its time to get room and I see this guy ANDREW at front desk walk away. You wear a name tag bro. Yanet tells me ANDREW says he doesn’t see it in system the price is 100 dollars a night and that’s it. So reservations sees it but you guys don’t and you can’t even figure out if the room isn’t guaranteed or the price isn’t guaranteed. ANDREW isn’t man enough to come out and speak face to face. You are a manager of a business and a business that is about to swipe my card for 1400 dollars the least you can do is come and talk to me yourself.
BUT besides all that the hotel is beautiful room is spacious pool deck on roof has plenty of chairs you have direct access to beach you’re away from all south beach craziness but a short cheap über ride away if ur tryna get involved in it.

I’ll give this hotel 4 out of 5 because I wanted to love it so badly. I had a great time here but there was definitely a rough start.
We book our room via
about 6 weeks prior to our arrival. We receive an email a few days before our trip offering an upgrade for $ 47/​night. We accept and the request goes through. We call to confirm that they received the request which they did and reservations says she’ll put one in for us also. Great!
Though check in isn’t until 4 PM, we’re told early check in is possible if the room in available when you arrive. We get to the front desk a little after 9 AM and of course the room isn’t ready. but we can upgrade for $ 100/​night. We let the front desk know that we received an email stating that we can upgrade for $ 47. Not $ 100. She is that she doesn’t see that request the computer system. Of course. We told them to contact us when the room is ready. In the meantime, we call reservations and we’re told that they could see our request for the upgrade in their computer system. Around 2PM, we returned to the front desk to let them know it is in their computer system because reservations is able to see it and can we at least get the upgrade for somewhere in between $ 47 and $ 100 since they aren’t willing to honor the price they mentioned in the email. (NOTE, we have showed them the email). An employee that had helped us earlier now tells the current employee helping us, that if she wants to do the upgrade for us, go ahead and do it. This tells us that the upgrade IS available and she could do it if she wanted to. Not only is this sketchy, It’s unprofessional to have this conversation in front of customers. While having this conversation, we overhear the customer next to us complain about her card being charged a fee for checking out of the room late though she says that she was not even in the hotel and had personally checked out earlier. We had asked asked to speak to the manager to see if we could resolve this issue. Since we are already spending $ 1500 at this hotel, you would think that they would at least something with the advertise. Needless to say, the manager, Andrew, did not have the same respect for his customers to come out and speak to us. Again, unprofessional.
Another con, no one speaks English there. Literally. Brush up on your Spanish before you arrive.
Now, the rest of our stay was great. Though we had a rough start, the hotel itself is beautiful. The rooftop bar and pool are great, especially since they’re +21! The bartenders Patricia and Kel are fantastic! I wouldn’t tell anyone to not stay here. I would just recommend that you don’t arrive before check in time and be aware what you’re getting yourself into. The hotel looks exactly how it does on the website beautiful and spotless! The location has everything you need, Beach, CVS, Starbucks, Liquor Store.
I had a great stay there, just wish they honored what they advertise.

We loved this hotel… I was there about a year ago. It’s more north, away from the «elite,» loud, young, Kim Kardashian type culture. (not my thing) There is a very pleasant mix of people here… business professionals, foreigners, and older people. It’s slower and quiet. There’s an amazing Italian restaurant down the street called Café Ragazzi (we went to Prime 112 the night before and actually preferred this restaurant) and a great Irish pub close by. The hotel is gorgeous. There’s a nice Espresso Bar inside with wonderful macarons, great beachside service. It’s a great place to stay. Room service was very good too. That’s hard to come by in hotels. We were actually terrible (needy) guests… and they accommodated us so well. lol I still smile at the great memories that we have there. It’s an amazing place.

The rooms are clean and spacious.
The service stood out the most in this hotel. From the moment we walked in, exceptional service was given. I almost missed the elevator trying to juggle a one year old in one hand and a coffee in the other, the bell boy came running out of the blue and held the elevator door for us. It’s the little things, the car service was very good and polite.
It’s about 7 miles away from south beach but the beach right outside is beautiful and you have a 2 chair and an umbrella waiting for you.
Servers are on point and made sure all needs were met.
The only thing I did not like was our room was warm and you can’t get into the air conditioner to adjust it and room service came when we were in the room but never came back to clean the 3 days we were there.

While the location should earn the hotel more stars we were disappointed by a number of things which I will highlight while standing in the hallway waiting to have my room cleaned at 2:45pm. We were woken every morning by 930 including this morning by the cleaning staff as we were every morning despite the hotel clearly being more of a resort than a business type hotel.
We enjoyed the beach which is secluded but didn’t like having work hard for the staff to notice us to place our order. Our food once it did arrive was cold and average quality.
The pluses are the location near bal harbour, myriad of easy eating places and not even two blocks from both publix and Starbucks. I may return simply that it was a lower priced options than other places in the area but my friend said no more.

Stunning rooms, great accommodation, we were helped at the front desk by Lugenia — she really worked hard to make our stay as good as possible, we had a «Beach Front» room and it was 100% worth the price.
Cal the bar tender on the roof was amazing — we had great drinks and he really does know his trade.
See you soon I hope

Tuve una muy buena experiencia. Viajamos con un niño de 8 años y todo el personal fue extremadamente paciente y atento. Especialmente con El Niño. Vuelvo seguro!

Stayed at the hotel and this restaurant was SLOW and understaffed the entire time. After two overpriced meals, we had enough! Pizzas by the pool were sad, as was the jarred sauce they topped the kids pasta with. It was tragic, really.
There are SO many good place an walking distance, run there! The Japanese place in the mall was fantastic

WOW — blown away by the customer service at the room service department of this hotel!!! GF is visiting Miami for Art Basel and staying at this hotel — wanted to surprise her with some room service and champagne — connected with Fintch and he was, simply put, incredible! Emailed me a menu, took my order, paid for it over the phone, sent me a pic of the order with a copy of my receipt, and got my order delivered in less than 30 minutes — srsly blown the fck away! Now I just can’t wait for my baby to come home so I can collect some of those kisses I just scored!

Our stay at this hotel had been such an amazing and pleasant experience. The services from ALL staffs are excellent and we definitely felt like home. Not only all the facilities are nice and clean, beautiful decorations inside and the adult only rooftop pool area allowed us to relax to the fullest. We dined once (lunch) at hotel’s restaurant– overall good food. Portions are on the smaller side… Most of the time we either walked to the next street to dine at different restaurants or drove down to SOBE.
Valet parking 35 $/​night– quick and easy in and out
Plenty of towels all around so no need for beach towel!
Only complaint I have is… Complimentary drink (sangria) was just ok and the gelato they sell are nasty!
Other than these minor things that nobody really cares I recommend this place to anyone !!

The Grand has the Sky Bar on the 12^th floor. It has views of the town and the bay and a happy hour that goes to 7, where drinks are 35% off.
I went with two girlfriends and Kal greeted us promptly and asked our names, then remembered them all night, as well as what we were drinking. He was very friendly and attentive, without being intrusive. He also made a fantastic mango margarita.
If we had gone up one level, we could have accessed the adult only swimming pool, which has beach views. Maybe another night!
After a few hours at the bar we decided to head downstairs to the restaurant. It has tables inside and outside, beach side. We went outside. It was gorgeous, but they need some live music!
They have a nice drinks menu and a great food one. We all ordered flatbreads — I got a salmon one, one friend got the grilled chicken one and my other friend picked the short rib BBQ with jalapeños. They were all fantastic. The bread was perfectly toasted and they were piled high with ingredients. And only $ 13 each! Very reasonable price considering its a hotel restaurant.
Great place to go for a relaxing evening with friends, even if not staying there.

Very clean and nice hotel. This hotel was obviously remodeled. Has a lovely clean and «vanilla» like smell. :) there are two buildings. We didn’t get to stay in the building that had ocean front. But the building we did stay in was just as lovely.
We were greeted right away when we pulled in for parking. And having a gorgeous valet staff doesn’t hurt either. Lol. When we came into the lobby area for the 2^nd building, the gentleman at the front was very nice and helped us get checked in.
Our rooms are clean, sleek, and kind of sexy. Two bathrooms. Both with nice showers. This place is nice. Two TVs in the room and the bed is nice and soft.
My favorite thing about this place, is they have their own beach access. And when you get out there, they have guys grab you chairs and get you set up with an umbrella. Kind of like beach valet service. Nice, cuz it helps prevent those selfish people who get up early, grab chairs and put towels on them so they can reserve them all day. Uh uh… not here. And of course, they had a beverage and food service too. The beach was nice. No rocks. And the water was warm. Very nice. And the chairs had cushions. Very beach friendly.
We didn’t get a chance to really check out the main building. But this hotel is nice and next time we are in Miami, we will stay here. Can’t really ask for much more. I saw a review where the guy said he could hear his neighbors. Not sure where his room was, but we couldn’t hear our neighbors at all. I recommend giving this place a shot

My friends and I came here on a group vacation. We stayed in the «West» building, which was cheaper and still had a rooftop pool.
Beach access was awesome. The ground floor pool in the main building may seem beautiful and tranquil in photos, but really it’s overrun by children and hard to relax there. We also got incredibly slow service by that pool; we ordered our food around 2:45pm on a Thursday afternoon and didn’t get it until about 3:30pm. At one point we realized our food was taking so long and raised the little flag by our chairs, which is meant to get the attention of the staff, and no one came by. See below for food review.
The gym is really nice, basically empty, and has a view of the pool and ocean.
They have free baskets of apples everywhere! That was nice. Overall service is pretty spot-​on. The neighborhood isn’t quite the heart of South Beach, but within a block are tons of restaurants so we definitely had options for eating out and we weren’t really looking for a partying/​clubbing type of vacation anyway. It was good for a relaxing time.
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THE POOLSIDE FOOD:
* Cheeseburger with provolone — 2.5 stars
pic:
The fries seemed old and lacked any crisp. The burger was overcooked; we asked for medium-​rare and it was cooked all the way through.
* Cobb Salad — 3.5 stars
pic:
This didn’t suffer as much as the burger for being late since it was a salad; the chunks of chicken were huge, a tad on the dry side. The bacon came in big pieces, super crispy. I found it a little weird that they laid out all the ingredients separately. Made for good presentation at least.