Wonderful service for medium size meeting

We scheduled a business meeting here and it was one of the best experiences ever to combine a meeting with a pleasant venue. The service was perfect and the settings and accomodations were excellent.

The best rooms are newly renovated room in the main hotel facing on the ocean. They are not spacious, but are the appropriate size for an historic hotel. All of the amenities are present. For evening turndown service, they not only leave chocolate, but also fill the ice bucket.

The NY Times is at your doorstep daily. There is free internet access in the rooms and in the lobby. The location is superb with lots of places to visit and things to do within walking distance. I have also stayed at the stylish hotel next door, which had more interior design, but was much less comfortable. Hey. I can do without a white orchid in my room.

Miami Beach vacation

National is a nice hotel. The hotel is well situated in the South Beach area. It is close to Ocean Drive and Licoln Road. This area is expensive and if you have a car you will need to pay valet fees for parking at the hotel. The pool areas at the hotel are nice. I often had the pools to myself. The hotel has its own beach chairs and beach service. I only ate lunch a couple of times at the hotel and I found the food to be fine. I found the room to be perfect. It is not large by American standars, but it is clean and well decorated. I had a walk in closet. There is a $7 daily charge that the hotel charges for the NY Times and I am not sure what else. I would stay here again, but I plan to explore some other hotels in the area before I return to the National.

National, what a dissappointment.

From check in to check out, the problems kept adding up. Couldn't find reservation upon arrival. Had to provide confirmation from their own website. Not the room we booked. Air conditioning did not work all weekend--95 degress outside. Forgot wake up call on morning of departure. The hotel was nice, but some places, especially the hallways on the floors smelled of mildew. Be cautious.

Had A Great Time At The National!

The national hotel is a GREAT place to stay in miami beach! I booked the room through the hotel's website and i got a really good deal. (even better then the prices on expedia, cheaptickets, etc.) When i arrived at the hotel, I was a little bit early..but instead of making me wait, they UPGRADED my room at no extra charge so that i didnt have to wait for another room! The staff was reallyyy friendly and always helpful. The rooms were very clean..especially the bathroom and bed (which is a BIG PLUS!) the TVs even had DVD players in them...which i was pretty excited about since I had brought some DVDs with me to watch on my laptop. The pool was simply gorgeous and the perfect temperature. I suggest going during the week...because thats when i went and the hotel was pretty empty..its almost like it was all mine! The staff said that it gets really busy during the weekend though. I only have 2 complaints about this hotel....the first one is that the hotel next door was doing some MAJOR construction, so it was kinda noisey. The second thing is that the drinks are expensiveee! I got 2 drinks out by the beach and it ended up paying $20! I guess thats what i should have expected since it IS Sobe..but just be aware before you go ordering a ton of drinks! But other then that...it was PERFECT! It's in a great location...everything is just a short walk away. I would definitely reccomend the national hotel!

Great location, nice hotel

We stayed at the National for just one night on our way back from the Caribbean. Had a wonderful time. The location is perfectly located - relatively quiet and away from the South Beach madness yet close to everything and right on the beach. The pool is wonderful, especially at 2AM and the bar serves up some of the best mojitos I've ever had (expensive but 2 for 1 during happy hour on Friday night). The room was fine, not huge but big enough for a king-size bed and a rollaway. The staff was very helpful - when we requested the rollaway cot at 2AM, they didn't bat an eyeball and 15 minutes later it appeared in our room. We definitely recommend this hotel especially if you get it through an internet special.

Great Hotel for a relaxing vacation

My wife and I stayed there for part of our honeymoon. Originally booked a oceanview room for 3 nights. We were given an upper floor, corner room which had an adjoining door to the next room. The room itself was adequate, but like a previous reviewer stated, the walls were somewhat thin. We could here the people next door through the door. We went to the front desk and the helpful staff upgraded us to a 1 bedroom suite overlooking the fabulous pool. The room itself was large with a king size bed and a balcony overlooking the pool. The pool is indeed fabulous. Its a 205 foot long infinity pool. The water is just the right temperature. So great in fact we never even wanted to go to the beach. Never ate at the hotel itself, although it looks classy. Many great shops and resaurants within walking distance on Lincoln Road and still close enough of a walk to south beach without the noise and traffic. The grounds are also well kept and the staff friendly and helpful. I was so impressed with our treatment there that I plan on returning to the hotel again this summer for our 1 year anniversary.

Relaxed atmosphere, beautiful surroundings

Some of the negative responses to this property seem without significant merit. I have stayed at this property several times and have never been disappointed. My most recent was a 7 night stay in early March. We were pleasantly greeted at the front desk on a Saturday evening and upgraded to a Cabana room. The new Cabana rooms are great, with a modern Asian-inspired theme, first rate beds/linenes and flat screen WEGA televisions. Internet access and Nintendo are also part of the package. The standard tower rooms are not as luxurious, but better than average and certainly better than traditional chain hotel rooms such as Hyatt or Marriott. The hotel is beautiful having been restored to it's former art deco glory in the late 1990's. I believe that Ian Schrager, owner of the neighboring Delano, bought the property several years back. I'm glad that not much was changed. The pool area, lobby and grounds are beautiful. Service is overall helpful. The location is nearly perfect, with direct access to the beach and a short stroll to Lincoln Road Mall. In short, if you appreciate architecture and historic renovation you will like this property. If you seek the mainstream styling and comforts of traditional chain hotels, look elsewhere.

Thoroughly disappointed !

I wasn't expected much, but this hotel still disappoints. Services were good, pools & lobby beautiful, but that's about it. Rooms in main hotel were *very* old (nothing like website's pic). Toilet & bathroom fan was extremely loud (we've to close door to sleep). Minibar wasn't restocked. Walls so thin I was awaken twice by next room's cell phone ring!

I definitely would not recommend this hotel for business travel. There is absolutely NO electrical outlet in our room. I have to unplug the dryer in the bathroom to charge our cell phones. Ridiculous.

The lady standing in check-in line before me had to change room 3 times because phone / lamp / TV won't work, and cockroaches.

The staff tried to be friendly, but they miss all the details - Check in/out takes forever (with no line). We've to sign slip to ensure beach towels are returned. Extra mandatory charge for NY Times & use of pools. $20 for daily parking. That's on top of the $200 room rate!

The website picture does NOT show regular room. It looks nothing like that. Very dark and gloomy. Also, they send us wake-up call at 6am on the check out date. Very cheap act to want us out.

This hotel has the potential, but need really good management and some serious renovation.

Heaven in paradise

From the first day that we had arrived, we had excellent service and hospitality.

The rooms were clean and neat, our beds were touched up in the evenings with a robe set out on our beds that included the next day's weather!

The concierge and bell hops were top notch! always giving us great recommendations for dinner. The pool was heavenly and the close proximity to the beach with availability of beach chairs, towels and umbrellas made our stay pleasurable.

I would definately go back!

Perfect place in a perfect location

We booked a City View room on the Internet at a bargain, and upon arriving at the hotel were given a free upgrade to an ocean view room b/c the hotel was not full. That room was on the small side, but clean and comfortable and would have been fine. The next day, we upgraded to a much larger poolside room with a balcony and ocean view for only $30 a night extra. The pools are wonderful, the staff was very friendly and the concierge helpful, the poolside food service was tasty and convenient. And we didn't have to rent a car - we were just a block from the shops and restaurants on Lincoln Road and a quick walk from the Ocean Drive strip. I would definitely stay at the National next time I go to South Beach.