I just booked an AXON award for next summer in London and the supervisor that I spoke to never mentioned anything about ending the award -- although the 2 junior people that I had spoken to had never heard about it!!!

I think that the OP's confusion and his minimal post count which is solely confined to this thread, as well as his own doubts that he was speaking with a supervisor, point to this not being ended. Moreover, the discount is not very much over 4 nights at a Category 6 hotel.

If it is still listed as a benefit by AMEX, then I think that it is going nowhere.

Hi folks. I'm here at the property right now. I'm on the 9th floor (10 floors in this tower) in a large-ish room with a partial view of the ocean and a fantastic view of the rooms in the tower next door. :rolleyes: I chose this property because other hotels I considered reported issues with noise from nearby clubs. As I don't want to listen to booming bass all night long I thought I'd give the Hilton Bentley a try. Well it is quiet here in the sense there's no street noise out there. So that's a plus.

Also on the plus side - the room is spacious. There's a kitchenette here which is kind of nice even though I have no intent of using it for anything. The kitchenette is pretty well appointed; if I wanted to have breakfast or make a simple lunch or dinner I'd be able to. The mini bar seems fairly well stocked and the prices are surprisingly reasonable. Beer is $5 or $6, juices are $3.50 and pop (soda) is $3.

The desk I'm sitting at is a decent size and the lighting is adequate for computer use, though certainly not for working with paper documents. (The room overall is a bit dark.)

Downs - not enough plugs at the desk. Not enough shelf storage in the bathroom either. You can put a toothbrush + toothpaste by the sink and that's about it. The shower leaks like crazy so I used up 50% of the towels to soak things up. The sound insulation between the rooms is frightfully inadequate - the guy next door is watching TV and I can hear it pretty well. Oh - check that. He just turned the TV off and now he's talking to the wife / girlfriend. They're discussing where to go tomorrow and whether or not they should try to rent a car. They don't know where to go to rent a car. I suppose I could tell them about the Avis office I just saw down the road. But no, she wants to just shop and hang out a cafe for lunch ...

The property strikes me as a bit frumpy. The room itself is nice enough but not particularly luxurious. The staff is adequately friendly but not really sincere.

I think the thing I dislike the most about this property is the location. It's basically at the end of nowhere. You'd have to walk / drive several blocks to get close to anything interesting.

On the whole, this property is OK but it's just not that great. I'm an SPG guy mostly so I would compare this Hilton with a Four Points Sheraton or lower. Basically, set expectations low and you'll be OK here. Or for a better location and likely a better stay, aim higher and go for the Lowes down the street. If you can find a decent rate, check out the Ritz Carlton. But if you're looking for an OK place to stay and you don't mind hearing the guys in the room next door, then this Hilton will be adequate for a night.

Wow, that's pretty terrible sound insulation!

I never had an issue with sound when I stayed there. The location is also good. It is at the end of Ocean at First, but there are all kinds of places on Ocean to eat at.

This hotel treats their guests great. You have a welcome letter waiting on your counter in the kitchenette with two bottles ofwater(the expensivestuff in the glas bottles) and a nice bottle of red wine. It'snice enjoying a glass of free wine on the balcony after your trip or at night.

I do agree with the poster on the shower though. I had the same problem with water leaking all over and it seems to be a problem complaint on TA.

Its one of my favorite properties. I would just ask them to switch your room if noise is a problem. Or just enjoy your free wine and that will block out any noise:)

Over the long weekend, I redeemed 3 Q3FNs from the fall promotion to stay at this property.

Check-in
We used the "Airport Flyer" bus to get from MIA to the hotel; for $2.35 each, the bus brought us to 2nd and Washington, which is less than a 5-minute walk to the Hilton. The ride was quick and painless and I would recommend it.

At check-in we were upgraded from a Studio King to a Partial Ocean View King 1BR Suite. For each day of our stay we received a breakfast chit good for two, and of course internet was also free. Check-in was fast and unremarkable.

Room
Our room was very large and contained a small full kitchen, a large bathroom with a stall shower and separate tub, a living room with a small dining table, and a bedroom. The room looked to the south and we could clearly see the water. We were disappointed that the room did not have a balcony, but the front desk told us that the hotel was full and the only rooms with balconies did not have a good view.

I thought that the furnishings and finishes in the room were very nice and of good quality, and the hotel felt high-end overall. As others have mentioned, there was a bottle of red wine and two glass bottles of Acqua Panna waiting for us on the dining table.

Breakfast
Our breakfast chits were good for the full hot buffet (eggs, breakfast meat, pancakes, and breads/cereals/fruit) for each of us, and cooked-to-order eggs and omelettes were also offered. The breakfast spread was average and the food quality was also average. Our first two days, breakfast was offered poolside but the third day (which was the warmest, incidentally), the waitstaff said that no outdoor tables had been prepared so everyone had to sit inside.

Pool
The pool is heated and was very warm when we were there. There are about 20 lounge chairs around the pool along with a few couches and beds. The pool was small, but the area was never crowded when we were around.

Location
The hotel is located right on the beach and I felt that it was a great location for taking in South Beach. You do need to walk about a half-mile to get to where the bars and restaurants are at the densest, but it's an easy walk. The beach is right out the back of the hotel and it was very easy to go running and walking on the beach each morning.

There is a club located immediately south of the hotel and although we weren't bothered by the noise from the nightclub the first two nights, we did catch a lot of noise overnight on our third night. I would recommend bringing earplugs if you are a light sleeper.

Other

• Cars and Parking: I don't think a car is necessary unless you want to go somewhere other than South Beach. We got a car for our last day to go to the Morikami Museum & Gardens from the Avis location a mile or so up the street. Aside from that, we did not need a car at all. Parking at the hotel is $35/nt. We parked overnight on the street for $17.50 in a metered spot.
  
• Happy Hour: The hotel's restaurant has a pretty good happy hour special that we took advantage of our first night - $5 mojitos and $5 tapas starting at 5PM. The food was pretty tasty and we were able to eat and drink poolside. When we tried to order off the Happy Hour menu while poolside the second day, we were told that management had decided that the Happy Hour menu was no longer available outside and we'd have to go inside if we wanted the Happy Hour pricing - so YMMV on Happy Hour.
  
• Restaurants: We tried several restaurants in the area but especially enjoyed Fratelli la Bufala (which it appears is an Italian chain) and Puerto Sagua.

Conclusion
I was very satisfied with my stay and would gladly return. Although we did not do this, the hotel would be very handy for a group looking to have a few meals in since the kitchen is fully equipped with a stove, pots and pans, and a full-sized refrigerator.

I was planning to stay there this past weekend as well but had to cancel. I was surprised to find out they have a 7 day cancellation policy (at least during that time) and almost got burned by it but the diamond desk was able to get my points back. Just beware of that if you book here...

Can anyone confirm if the kitchenettes have a stove (traveling with a little one and just trying to plan out a bit)? Many thanks!

The 1-Bedroom Suite that we had early last month did have a full oven/stove - I'm not sure about the other room types.

When I have stayed there it has been in a studio which didn't have a oven or a cooktop. Just a small kitchenette with a decent sized mini fridge and microwave and there were dishes, glasses, etc, and I can't remember if there was a dishwasher.

A friend of mine has been upgraded to the 1-br suite and said the kitchen does have a stove. Whenever I have travelled there it has been when the hotel was full, so no upgrades avialable (and I am very thankful they will let me use qf3n vouchers and/or 50k points a night when rooms are going for $999 a night). They still give you the bottle of red wine if you aren't upgraded:)

I could be wrong on this, but I really don't think of the property as a family hotel. Once in a while I will see kids at the pool but it is usually only one family.

Do they still give bottle of red wine?
 

In the past at that property I have always had a bottle of red wine, a couple bottles of water and a nice note waiting for me on the counter when arriving to my room. A friend of mine stayed there last week and said he received nothing (not even bottled water). Did the bentley stop giving out the wine and water or was it just an oversight at his stay?

Last year we had a six (6) night award stay for our 4th anniversary (Mid-March) at this hotel. I certainly can not find anything to comment negatively about at this hotel, but instead offer only praise. The entire staff was very accomodating during our entire stay. I'm only a Gold HHonors member and we were upgraded to a corner studio partial oceanview, which was easy enough to see from our vantage point. The hotel itself is located close enough to the heavily touristed area of South Beach, and we would just walk the few blocks in the evening if we wanted to dine in that area.

No problem making the award reservations whatsoever, of course I made the reservations as early as I could possible once they became available.

The complimentary breakfast for being a Gold HHonors member was excellent if you'd like to compare this breakfast to any other complimentary breakfast you would receive at your normal Hilton property. The two resturants that we ate at onsite (Prime Italian, and the De Rodriguez Cuba on Ocean) for dinner were well worth eating at. I noticed that Prime Italian can get busy in the evenings.

Our room was quite large, and had a large balcony which we had two chairs, two reclining loungers, and a small table. I have to admit, I spent quite a lot of time in the morning on the balcony reading and watching the ships go in and out of the nearby waterway. Being only a studio we didn't have the full kitchen ensemble, but did have a microwave, sink, and mini fridge which we did have to move a few items out in order to move our items in (which didn't cause a problem, as we refilled the fridge with their items at the end of the week, with no malfunctions on the bill).

Valet had our vehicle ready within minutes at all times, which someone had commented earlier on this thread that they were overcharged which must have clearly been a mistake. We were charged $35.00 daily, and that was it. In fact for the entire stay, we only had the two resturant charges, and the valet parking on the bill.

Although I don't recall which evening it was (Friday?), they had a welcome reception which they served Mojitos, and the hotel staff on hand were asking the guests if they were enjoying their stays.

I think the only complaint there is, is from my wife who complained there wasn't carpeting in the room which is quite funny, because I tried to explain to her that a lot of beach hotels don't have carpeting because they don't want to have to clean up all the sand you track all over them. The Hilton Bentley has Italian marbled floors in the guest rooms, so why in the world would you throw a carpet over that anyway.

In respect to jamesteroh's question, I do believe we were given water, and had a nice note laid out welcoming us. No wine though. Could be a Diamond welcome amenity?

This hotel is definately on my short list of hotels to return to sometime in the future.

S/F
-John

Yeah the wine is (or sounds now like was) a diamond welcome gift. The diamonds I know that stayed there always got wine and gold didn't (although they were still treated very nicely as you were).

While I didn't get an oceanview room (and I always go when the hotel is sold out and am happy they let me stay there with just 50K points or a qf3n certificate, I am not going to complain), I loved the balcony for reading at late night or using to check my mail, etc on in the morning.

I am glad to hear they are still doing the free mojitos on Friday night. And the free appetizers they serve with it are better than anything I have had at in a hilton lounge.

I love the floors also. My only complaints were no ice machines (which may have changed) and I had trouble with the shower door leaking (which is complained about a lot on TA). Also had bad service my first night at the bar and couldnt get waited on but every other time it was great. The front desk staff is the best and I am looking forward to my return there next month. This is the only property I will stay at in Miami now.

A question: How good could a complimentary bottle of wine be, anyway? I have to imagine its about as good as the Bota Box. Although I've never received any complimentary bottle of wine at any Hilton establishment, I'm doubting they're throwing out the Caymus at elite members. I'd be interested to hear.

A while up in this thread I stayed at this place as a Gold and was upgraded to full ocean view - during high season. Don't know how this was managed, but wowee.

Actually, it's quite good. Perhaps you shouldn't dismiss it until you've experienced it.