Hotel Breakwater South Beach

The photos on Kayak are really deceiving!

The only thing I liked about this hotel was the location. It's across the street from the beach. On Kayak this looks like a beautiful luxury hotel, but quickly upon arriving you realize it only looks like that from a distance and they have an amazing photographer for their site photos.

Kayak was great but Breakwater is a sleezy lemon. Upon our arrival at 1 am Saturday we were tired and eager to get to our room. The receptionist strongly persuaded us to upgrade to a much more expensive room for $180 + tax so it would be quiet. He then proceeded to charge my card but forgot the tax so asked me to give him my credit card again so he could charge the sales tax. He also informed us upon arrival there is a $22/day resort fee but this was not stated anywhere on Kayak. Also as we were dealing with check in another guest came up to the desk and asked for ear plugs because the club music outside the hotel was too loud. And YES it was VERY LOUD. We were in a room that was pretty quiet for what it was but on Sunday night, by boyfriend WHO IS A DJ wasn't even able to fall asleep until 4 am because it was so loud! The room itself had a nice view but it had a lot of issues from lazy upkeep. The bed sheets had stains on them, the bench at the foot of the bed had weird sticky dirt marks from removed tape stains, the bathroom tub was worn down cracked and stained (didn't use it unfortunately because it looked so gross), and the shower floor was cracked. Using the TV was also a mess. The remote didn't work and no channel guide. We tried multiple times to dial the front desk from the hotel phone to have these addressed but the line would disconnect every time we hit the front desk or 0 button. Not sure if they don't want to hear from you, the line is inundated with calls, or something was wrong with the phone. The staff has not been trained to be friendly and welcoming to their guests. They view us as a bother and just want a fast interaction so they can quickly move on to the next opportunity to make money. The waiters/waitresses at the front of the hotel in the morning were more concerned with snagging passersby (as every other restaurant on that street) for business than greeting their current guests eating breakfast. I said good morning to a few of them and received very cold and snobby responses. They didn't make eye contact with me and didn't offer any interaction. So rude! One day I was using a computer in the lobby and a manager was severely scolding a server right there in the lobby for doing something that wasn't appropriate. She was very nasty and mean to him, and the one way scolding went on for literally 10 minutes. It was so unpleasant and uncomfortable to witness that as a guest. The employees should have a private area they use for this kind of thing, not out in the public lobby! This hotel is appropriate for frat boys/college aged kids that want to party hard, trash rooms, and recover on the beach afterwards without making much effort in getting there. We were paying over $300/night for this room and it's evident the Breakwater heavily relies on their location to make visitors happy and turn over business quickly, but does not put in any other effort. Definitely won't be staying here again. :(

Used to be good

Location and staff.

Place is dirty. Stayed there in the past around 2 years ago and had a great experience. Place Has not been kept up. Rugs dirty, bathroom wall stained with something I would rather not mention. When checked in was told we got upgraded to Penthouse at no charge. Penthouse was old, dirty, filthy rugs with hot tub that did not work. Really??? Not an upgrade but a way to get someone in that room no one else would take. Declined upgrade and demanded the room we booked. Great location and staff but dirty. Also toiletries not replaced daily. Bring your own supplies