Foolishly gave it a 2nd chance

Tried to give this hotel a 2nd chance. Not good. Sand in the bed and the air conditioner air smelled like it was being blown through a mold infested, wet carpet. Oh yes, bring your ear plugs for the condo construction next door.

What a dump- Not worth it

The lobby of the Beach House gets it right- its a perfect, funked up Ralph Lauren look with an equally stunning pool area. Too bad the rest of the hotel doesn't look like the lobby. Our room basically looked like a Motel Six that had been painted Ralph Lauren blue with some whitewashed furniture.

The worst part is that a photo crew (about 8 people) were in the room next door- and up at dawn screeching, giggling and partying away. Even after I asked them to keep it down and called hotel security TWICE, nothing was done about it. The walls were so paper thin that I could hear their cell phones ringing. It was so bad I had to switch rooms.

I would not recommend this hotel for anyone, despite the cheap prices.

This is no 4-star hotel!

This place is hyped up to look like a 4-star hotel on the travel websites. In our experience, it deserves a 1-star rating.

The hotel is pretty run down and in bad need of a paint job in some areas. Our room was small and the bathroom tiny. The room reeked from mold so bad that my daughter started vomiting and I had an allergic reaction (sneezing). We debated on whether to stay or go somewhere else because we had a prepaid reservation for four nights. After one hour the smell was so bad that we decided to leave no matter what. Luckily, the Sheraton, 2 blocks up, had rooms.

In addition, beware that even though this hotel has Bal Harbour in the name, it is not in Bal Harbour. It is in Surfside, next to Bal Harbour.

Bal Harbour is an upscale, manicured community and this hotel is a far cry from it.

If you're used to 4-star hotels, stay away from the Beach House Bal Harbour or you'll ruin your trip.

Not worth the effort

My friend and I travel a lot and will book nothing less than a 4 star hotel. The Beach House Bal Harbour is far from a 4 star hotel as any hotel can get. Beware! it is advertised as a 4 star hotel, but should be 3 star are below. The so call Ralph Lauren decor is nothing less than a Ralph Lauren knock off, purchased at the lowest discount store around. We arrived at the hotel to discover that our prepaid room was not ready, and after being told to come back in 1 hr. discovered that not only was the room still not ready but it was the wrong room (asked and paid for 2dbl beds, got 1 king). we were again turned away and told to come back later in the day (after 3pm, which we did), only to be informed by the hotel staff that they didn't have any of the rooms we requested ready. However, other guest arriving after us were given rooms (same as the 1 we requested) immediately without any prior reservations or prepayments. This ticked us off! so, and argument insued between us and the hotel staff until the manager had to be called in order to accomodate us (this incident should never happened, if the staff would have attempted to accomodated us prior). He immediately, said he would get us a room, which he did, but the aircondition did not work in the room, so we had to moved to another room. After we got the room incident clear up the staff was very accomodating, however, the hotel is old and out dated, and not very well located. If the owners would invest in redecorating and renovating the hotel it would really be a nice place. What we saw was there is no effort to improve the appreance of the hotel at all, therefore, it is not worth the effort to stay at this hotel ever again.

Lousy place lousy staff.

Let's face it, things go wrong at hotels, but how the hotel staff deals with them is what matters. The Beach House is the type of place where things are apt to go wrong, it's an old building that's basically been revamped in Ralph Lauren interior design. Given that, you'd think they would be prepared for mishaps. Not so. At the Beach House incompetence and bad attitude reign supreme. Our bathroom flooded on Day 1. They said they fixed the problem. On day 2 it flooded in much worse. Everything was wet. They took hours to clean it up and find us another room. While we were out at a meeting, they moved our things to a new room (wet suits and sandy shoes thrown into suitcases of clean clothes) and in the process lost many of our belongings. We spent the night trying to track down our things from housekeeping, members of whom slowly handed them over one by one (multiple trips to the room) after no less than 5 phone calls. The man at the front desk, Rocco, was unbelievably rude and unhelpful. And, room service? Forget it. Our order was never correct. Never did we get an apology. Three times did we hear other guests voicing frustration and disbelief. Bottom line: You can dress trash up in Ralph Lauren, but it's still trash.

Beach house gets mixed reviews

The Beach House has a nice casual atmosphere with a decent restaurant - great mussels and pizza. The hotel however does seem lacking in upkeep and the staff is not that helpful. Don't ask for restaurant recommendations -- you will be sorry. Also, don't look for state-of-the art technical amenities. I believe their Internet system was implemented before Bill Gates was born.

A bit unclean

Visited April, 2003. Overall, pretty grim. Dirty room and bed. I'm convinced the carpets throughout the hotel had not been cleaned..... ever. On the bright side, the staff was very friendly. The Colombian restaurant around the corner was fantastic.

Beware of the rough trade!

Have stayed at the Beach House 4-5 times. The clientele is going downhill fast. Because of the cheap deals advertised on the internet, 4 noisy teenagers get together and rent a single room. We once had people in a fist fight next door--the police had to come to break it up. Every stay, we've had to change rooms to get a shred of peace. A pity, as the property & staff are perfect!

Loved the Beach House

I had a wonderful time. The hotel is very lovely and the staff was delightful and helpful. What a hotel and view of the ocean you will never forget. The rooms are like your home, seashells, lots of pillows and very comfortable. The hotel makes you feel this is your home. Good value for the price even in busy season. Lots to do in Miami and Bal Harbour shops are a block away.

Perfect place to relax

The Beach House Bal Harbour is sold as a laid back hotel that is low-key, unpretentious, smiling and human. It is all of these and more. The rooms are a good size and beautifully decorated. The private beach/hammock area is the perfect place to relax and catch some sun. Should you get caught in a Florida shower, simply retire inside and lounge around with a coffee on the beautiful leather sofas. The staff were the most polite we'd encountered and couldn't help us enough. The shop is well stocked and open 24 hours a day, though some items are a little overpriced.

I would definitely recommend the Beach House Bal Harbour as a perfect get away and if your budget will stretch, pay a little extra for an ocean view. It's about a 20 minute bus ride from the commercial South Beach, but this is a definite plus. One note of caution, work is due to commence soon on a new hotel next door to the Beach House, so you may want to check this out prior to booking.