FlyerTalk Forums - Hilton Miami Airport Blue Lagoon {US-FL}

Hilton Miami Airport
5101 Blue Lagoon Drive, Miami, Florida, United States 33126
Tel: 1-305-262-1000 Fax: 1-305-267-0038
AAA Rating: <><><><>............... HHonors Category 4 (30,000 points / night)
General Manager (ex-Cancún and New Orleans Riverside and Airport hotels): David T. Smith

Stays: Thursday January 4 and Sunday January 7, 2007

http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hote...orida/index.do

I made two bookings at this hotel for January 2007, a few days part (I had business in the Fort Lauderdale area and used this hotel for flight arrival and departure from MIA.) Deciding the price wasn’t prohibitive, I reserved Executive level rooms in both instances, and annotated my booking record to “please hold for possible late arrival” due to our projected early evening arrival.

We arrived at Miami International early evening Thursday January 4 – I am loath to use this airport but sometimes it is necessary. Going to the Terminal A hotel phone banks revealed they were dead. Signage led us toward hotel shuttles and then ran out – asking personnel revealed “some hotel shuttles stop on the second level, some downstairs.” Helpful! Calling the hotel, I was told to wait on the second level on the inside lane by the airport terminal building, as the shuttles passed by every fifteen minutes.

After forty-five minutes a hotel shuttle passed by on the outside of the two roadways and I had to flag it down. By the time we had passed Terminal G, we had every seat full and a number of standing passengers, with large bags filling the bag racks, next to the driver and blocking the only egress from the shuttle – a definite safety hazard. As well, a family was told there was no room, but another shuttle would be along “in fifteen minutes.”

Arriving at the hotel finally at about 9:00 PM, I was checked in, the desk clerk handing me my card key and cover with a standard room on the fourth floor for the same price I had booked the Executive room ($165 plus taxes;) when I inquired about my Executive room, I was told they were “all sold out.” I stated this was not an upgrade request, this is what I had paid for, an idea he resisted – so I hauled out my paper copy of the booking. At this point the clerk became flustered and unable to decide what to do next, until supervisor came over and asked what the problem was – he assigned us corner suite # 1430; the clerk asked “really?” and the supervisor said “do it.” No apology from the clerk, of course, who seemed disappointed his supe told him to give us a suite. Amazing – a booked Diamond reservation, with a credit card deposit, annotated to indicate possible late arrival and – no room!

The 13th and 14th floors are the Executive Level, and are accessed via the keycard. The suite itself was a corner suite, with nice views through windows that had not been cleaned in many moons of the airport and Miami itself (north and east.) The living room included a wine-colored sofa sectional with a white leather drum table, a large "D" shaped armchair in the corner by the window, a dining area with round dining room table and chairs for four, minibar, desk and LCD – the LCD is positioned in such a way there is no comfortable place to view it from, other than perhaps from the desk, at an angle! Décor included blue floor coverings in a brick pattern, dark blue sofa, highlights in wine red. There is a broad expanse of windows, including a curved section with nice views north and east (Airport and Miami) though very streaked and dirty.

The bedroom was very spacious, so much so it seemed spare, with two armchairs, bureau, CRT television, an open clothes area with bathrobes and slippers, all leading into a large bath with oversize tub (no water jets.) The room was marred by scuff marks on the wall and some blood spots on the curtain I assume were from insects :confused:. The toilet made screeching noises, and the 10kt breeze caused wind howl in the loose window frame. An occasional cargo aircraft departing the southernmost runway caused considerable noise as well. In all, this would be a nice room for someone wanting a separate bedroom and interested in entertaining or carrying out business, if Hilton paid more attention to cleaning and some sound reduction.

The next morning before leaving, we took breakfast in the 13th floor Executive Lounge, comprised of two rather disorganized rooms connected by a kitchen with island, which also holds three small tables. Breakfast was comprised of a goodly selection of cereals, fruits, yoghurt, “Danish” pastries, hard-boiled eggs, juices, coffee, etc. and was certainly filling enough. The biggest problem is this lounge gets crowded pretty quickly, and there is lots of cross-traffic with people passing from one room into another to find all the very spread out breakfast items.

Sunday January 7 we checked in at about ~3:15-3:30 PM (check-in time is listed as 3:00 PM) and were told our Executive room (# 1305) was not ready yet; “please proceed to the Executive Lounge and wait – the room should be ready in about an hour, please contact us to determine if it is.” The lounge is unspectacular, consisting of two rooms with tables and chairs, plus a sofa or two, in a somewhat haphazard placement, connected by what appears to be a bar and fridge area with a few drum-shaped two-tops sandwiched in. The lounge fills up quite rapidly, and offers some soft drinks and water for free, light beers for a price, and hors d'oeuvres between 5 and 7 PM. Service is fair, with absences from the staff on occasion.

Sidenote: a woman asked me if she could "borrow" pages from my newspaper, then became upset when I asked for a couple of sections back so I could read them - she had decided to work the crossword puzzle, and I was intruding. :rolleyes:

When we called at ~4:15 PM, we were told the room was ready and we could proceed - the keycard accessed it. Later, when we attempted to check the television menu, it would not work. Calling revealed the hotel system indicated we had not checked in yet.

The room was spacious, done in warm tones of mustard, burnt umber and royal blues, darker wood tones. The bed was adorned with a matching set of shams, bolster and quilt in a similarly colored pattern. A desk by the wall-sized window was equipped with a leatherette-covered task chair, and an upholstered armchair was nearby. The usual wood cabinet with four very large drawers, television and minibar faced the bed. (Iirc there was a sliding door in the window that was inop.) Temperature control was pretty useless – the HVAC thermostat was set to 51F / 11C, but the room itself was not very cool at 72 / 22. The ice bucket set and tray held a large bottle of Zephyr Hills water at $4.50; no courtesy bottled water was provided. The clock-radio was the newer Hilton minitower.

The bright bathroom included a Mr. Coffee set and the usual LaSource amenities, shower-tub combo with bowed shower curtain and one of the original plastic WaterPik showerheads, and a retractable clothesline. Plenty of HH collection towels were provided, though again, the toilet plumbing made noises and had a very squeaky lid. This west-oriented room was considerably quieter in our experience than the suite.

Departing the next morning (with a 6:30 AM departure, I had been assured the shuttle departed every fifteen minutes,) we waited 25 minutes for the shuttle with a number of apparent cruise pax from the day before – many bags with cruise stickers, etc. When a taxi arrived an discharged three drunk guests, I asked how much the cabbie would charge us to MIA and we used the taxi to avoid further shuttle issues. This hotel is in desperate need of larger shuttles than the vans they use, and some semblance of timeliness.

There are a fitness room, and an outside pool with a view; I used neither, nor did I use the $9.95 + tax for 24 hours WiFi. Self-parking is $7.00, valet parking $11.00. We also did not use the restaurants on site.

Executive summary: This hotel looks good and is fairly clean, though it seemed the suite was not so clean – but the service aspect is severely lacking. In particular, airport transport is unreliable, and unsafe at times as well. If you try to board during a busy time at the E-F-G terminal area, you may be inconvenienced, or even left behind. The hotel seems to have a surfeit of cruise passengers, and elite HHonors members with bookings don’t seem to matter that much. I may use the nearby Homewood Suites the next time.