Property: Andaz Miami Beach, FL
Tier: Globalist
Booked: Standard King with Suite Upgrade Award Applied
Received: Skyline View Suite
Such a disappointment! I partially went all the way to Florida for this new property as I LOVE the Andaz brand but the management of this particular hotel seems to be hell bent on destroying the brand. It started with a passive aggressive welcome email a few days before (don’t expect this, don’t count on that, extra fee here, extra fee there) which set the tone for a truly sad stay overall. Free non alcoholic drinks from the mini bar as it is standard at Andaz properties world wide? Nope. Friendly service and decent housekeeping? No. Getting your coffee cups replaced daily? Definite no, even after several complaints.
The hard product of the room was great (I had used a suite upgrade award for a fancy Skyline suite) besides the shower which did not even a rain shower head (wtf in a hotel like this?) but otherwise all great. But the service! Atrocious and most staff clearly did not feel like coming to work which hints at a really bad management. Overall, processes and staff behaviour was inefficient and purely managed. I know the hotel is still new-ish but the hiccups were systemic. Of the three main elevators, only one was operational during my stay which led to endless waits.
The worst was the pool and beach set up- by the (rather small and mostly shady) pools, you could not avoid the pesky staff trying to sell you their overpriced food and drinks but by the beach (Miami beach being the REAL highlight here), it was near impossible to ever get staff attention. Two of the seat and towel guys at the beach who ignored me for almost an hour (after tipping generously tipping earlier when they initially set up my beach chair) finally approached me to ask me weather “everything was alright”. This was AFTER I had finally walked up to the little booth myself to ask one their other chit chatting colleagues for assistance, and now those two suddenly had the audacity to push me for a Tripadvisor review (hey my name is Oliver and I’d really appreciate…). A convenient pre-printed QR code key tag was available right here so this is obviously wanted and aggressively pushed by management.
I had many other complaints about slack service and overall bad management and after complaining to several staff members, I finally got the attention of a friendly but very robotic “Front desk supervisor” who apologised profoundly and in the end offered a very generous compensation in Hyatt points which I gladly accepted. However, I can’t help but doubt that management will really heed the feedback as it felt too much as if all this is rather wanted and encouraged by the “higher ups”. Very sad for a new-ish Andaz, I sincerely hope that Hyatt corporate will step in to sort out this mess.
