My husband and I decided to stay at the StR Bal Harbour while celebrating his birthday gift to attend the Ft Lauderdale Boat Show. I'd booked our 5 night stay before the Aug. 18 loyalty integration for 120K Starpoints; after the loyalty integration and concomitant drop in rate to 60K Marriott points/night, I received a refund of 120K Marriott points. What a steal for a mere 240K Marriott points total.

I ended up inviting two friends down to join us for 2 nights during our stay and used the 120K Marriott points for their room. 

I applied 5 SNAs for our stay only because I had SNAs that otherwise would expire at the end of the year. They didn't clear the day before our arrival.

Fortunately, I had asked my Ambassador about the Royal Suite--since it had 2 bedrooms. I mentioned my interest since we had our 2 friends joining us and it still looked available online, but I didn't really expect such a monster upgrade.

Nevertheless, we got the upgrade to the Royal Suite. Whomever believes Ambassador status is useless might want to think again. 

The hotel is a modern set of 3 towers, the middle one of which is both hotel and residences and the outer towers of which are entirely residences. 

From the street:

From the beach:

The front of the center tower is entirely residences, aside from the Presidential Suite on the top floor. The hotel incorporates the sides of the center tower with the actual hotel rooms/suites. 

Entrace lobby with reception and concierge, as well as residence concierge:

The La Gourmandise brasserie and pastry shop:

The main hallway isn't subtle:

The St Regis bar wasn't my favorite of the brand, as it was an oddly laid out room and lower ceiling. But the actual bar area was nice:

On the lower level was the Atlantikos restaurant where breakfast is also served. It was a nicer space for breakfast than dinner IMO:

Across from Atlantikos was the gym:

The main pool deck opened just outside the hotel from the gym and Atlantikos:

The Atlantikos restaurant opened to a bar area adjacent to the pool deck:

One level up above the Atlantikos bar and pool deck were the beachfront villas--set far back from the beach, so we were glad we didn't bother to rent one. Above those villas was a very shallow adults-only Tranquility Pool, of which I somehow didn't manage to get a photo. 

All in all, the hotel had very nice facilities, but the whole thing was a bit too decadent Miami ambience for my personal tastes. 

Check In

Check in was friendly and efficient. We were advised that we'd been upgraded to the Royal Suite, much to my surprise. I then advised the front desk agent that we could cancel the 2nd room for my friends and return that to their inventory, since they now could stay in the Royal Suite's 2nd bedroom. I even said they could keep the points, since we still came out ahead, but she insisted on returning me my points for that 2nd room. That was extremely gracious. 

The butler they assumed would take us to our suite wasn't available, so a student intern butler took us to our suite. That would prove to be the hotel's first blunder. 

Room

The Royal Suite was very nice and spacious, indeed. You exited the elevator into its own entry area with the doors to both the main suite (2001) and the 2nd bedroom (2003) as well as a 3rd door into the main hallways of the 20th floor. It was like we had our own private elevator entry.

To the left of the hallway was extensive closet space (where the butlers stored our friend's luggage after their arrival). To the right was a pretty nice sized full bath with shower.

The living room was spacious, with a full dining room and kitchen area, not to mention a spacious balcony with a great ocean view:

To the left of the living room was the 2nd still very spacious bedroom:

The hallway closet also included a full kitchenette!

The second bedroom had its own similary sized balcony and furniture and wonderful ocean view.

The master suite was on the other side (more central to the hotel) of the suite. The master bedroom was more spacious and felt more like a proper junior suite. It had a huge closet space with laundry facilites, too.

The master bathroom was pretty much the same as the 2nd bedroom bathroom but with a bit more space and with a larger bathtub.

The master bedroom had the same spacious balcony as the 2nd bedroom, but with an even better view as it projected out farther than either the living room balcony or the 2nd bedroom balcony.

The lighting and shade/drape controls were nice when they worked, and annoying when they didn't. Thankfully, the Crestron control panels also usually worked.

We had numerous air con issues on our first two days. Ultimately, the air con in the master bedroom and 2nd bedroom worked very well but the living room air con didn't. We usually kept the 2nd bedroom door open into the living room to help cool it down (since I like it very cold). The master bedroom only got down to 67 F or so despite being set at 61 F. 

WiFi was blazing at an average of 30-35 Mbps down and up. 

Overall, barring the air con issues and the lighting controls being a bit annoying/confusing, it was a very comfortable suite for the 4 of us. The full kitchenette in the living room turned out to be quite useful for us storing and eating leftovers, for my husband to make his own excellent Manhattans, etc. The 3 separate balconies allowed us plenty of chances to hang privately or together and enjoy the views.

Service

Service was a bit of a mess here. This has been true for almost all luxury properties at which I've ever stayed in South Florida and most of the Caribbean. But I was pretty disappointed here. 

(1) The first mishap was the intern butler sent up with us on arrival. She was too inexperienced, and it showed. That wasn't appropriate for a hotel where only suites get butler service, nor for specialty suite guests or for someone with Ambassador status. She didn't know how things worked, told us a few incorrect things (I can reserve beach chairs for you in advance...but you can't), and did one of the worst unpacking jobs I've ever seen. 

(2) The second mishap was with the air con fails. We first notified them of the issues soon after arrival and asked them to fix those while we were at dinnder our first night. They didn't fix them; I awoke in the middle of the night to a very warm master bedroom and had to switch to the second bedroom so I could sleep comfortably. I then notified them the next morning and spoke to a manager who promised they would fix it when we left at noon for the boat show; yet the engineers showed up at 11 am before we'd left. Stupid. Then we returned after the boat show--and it still hadn't been fixed. Only the third bitchslap call to a manager finally got the air con fixed for the master bedroom--even if they didn't ever really fix the living room air con even after several more tries. 

(3) The next mishap was with the front desk office management. After dealing with so many things going wrong, I was speaking with a very helpful front desk agent Jashmina (apologies for getting it wrong) who genuinely was trying to help. The front desk manager basically took over and couldn't have been more unhelpful. He basically was defensive and showed little interest in acknowledging the problem, that the hotel had failed already on multiple tries, and in finding a way to solve the problem. He was an ass. On another occasion, I spoke with the front desk assistant manager--and he was just as defensive and just as much of an ass. I couldn't have been more patient in trying to make them realize how poorly we were being treated and how unresponsive they were being. They were tone dead. So I asked to speak to the GM or Director of Front Office. 

Victoria, the Director of Front Office, was a gem. She helped to resolve all of our issues. She knows service. I told her the rest of her front office management team needed urgent lessons in luxury service. She totally took care of us. She basically single handedly saved us for the remainer of our entire stay. 

We had other service mishaps. (4) The tranquiity pool service was non-existent. (5) We never had anyone deliver a welcome amenity. (6) When I asked the front office assistant manager about that, he actually blamed us, saying we'd turned on our DND light--but it was the air con engineers who'd done that. (7) When I tried to let the front office know about a credit card processing problem, the front office manager simply ignored what I was saying and was rude. (Victoria later seemed to solve that, but it turns out to be an issue for all Marriott hotels, not something specific to this StR.) (8) Service at La Gourmandise restaurant for lunch in the lobby was tragically slow. 

(9) Last, and also quite distressing, my husband and our girlfriend also had massages in the Remede spa. But they were distressed to learn afterward that there was no hot water in either men's or women's spas, and our girlfriend was disappointed to then learn the jacuzzi didn't work, either. The fact that the staff knew this to be true for several days and didn't mention it is unacceptable. The fact that the staff didn't offer any sort of discount after they complained is also unacceptable. It really was disappointing, especially since both said their massages were actually amazing. Fortunately, Victoria later credited 50% off each massge as apology and compensation for not fully delivering a great spa experience.

There were some highlights, though.

(1) Housekeeping was amazing. They always got it right.

(2) Beach service was excellent. We spent 3 afternoons at the beach and absolutely were treated like royalty. 

(3) Our server at Atlantikos, a Frenchman with tons of panache, was extraordinary. He knew the menu in and out and also gave amazing recs for matching wines. He was a delight.

(4) The butler who packed us up was fantastic. The butler who unpacked our friends was fantastic. 

(5) Butler coffee was also delivered promptly and correctly every morning. 

(6) The breakfast staff was excellent. Some of the best breakfast service I've had for even a crowded restaurant. Very impressive. 

(7) We tried to eat lunch at BH Burger Bar but learned it wasn't open until 5:30 pm by a lovely woman who led us there. She suggestede La Gourmandise and walked us there to show us--and waited to see if we'd need any other suggestions. Never got her name, but that's 5 star service. She gets it. 

(8) I asked for a 3 pm late checkout, something at check-in they suggested would be no problem...but was told no late checkout was possible on our final morning. I know that resorts such as this do not guarantee the same Platinum late checkout benefit as regular hotels. But after all the service mishaps and fails, I didn't think it was inappropriate to insist on some late checkout, especially as we were having a 1 pm lunch across the street previously organized with their concierge. After 2 texts to Victoria, Director of Front Office, she called to confirm that they'd provide the 3 pm late checkout for us. (She also did indicate that the hotel was completely sold out for the coming night and week...so not providing late checkout would not have been a fail, mind you.) I was very pleased by Victoria's making that happen for us. 

(9) Our welcome amenties did finally get delivered to us later on our second day. They were wonderful--though the champagne we got later was horrible!

I may have missed some misses and fails, but I think you get the idea. There are many here who need a spanking on what luxury service means; the fact that some are in management is quite alarming and disappointing. The senior leadership team has its work cut out for it. That being said, Victoria and some of the others mentioned definitely give me hope.

Concierge

This should be a subsection on service, but I wanted to express my specific general disappointment with the concierge team here. 

I booked almost all of my restaurant reservations in advance on my own well before our arrival in Miami. I often do that.

(1) Our first concierge experience. Because our friends decided to extend their stay for a 3rd night in our upgraded 2 bedroom Royal Suite, I had to change our booking at Stubborn Seed for our Sat night dinner from 2 to 4 persons. While on the beach around noon, I called the concierge to ask them to make the change. Several hours later, I still hadn't heard from anyone, so I called Stubborn Seed to make the change myself. At 6:30 pm, back in the room, I got the call from the concierge team that they'd been able to change my booking. I wasn't impressed at all.

(2) Our second concierge experience. We wanted to meet a friend for lunch on our final day. Called the concierge, which was busy. Called back and was busy. Finally after 3rd call, got a concierge. Arranged a booking at the Grill at Bal Harbour for 1 pm, having indicted I wanted casual. Before that, my husband read a review that indicated a dress code. Tried to call back the concierge 3 times via butler service to reconfirm the dress code issue, to no avail--I never could get in touch with any concierge. The butler knew I was frustrated, so the butler called the restaurant on my behalf and confirmed that we'd be fine with our intended dress. Score one for the butler's initiative, and score negative again on the concierge team for being generally unavailable yet again. 

I wouldn't place too much confidence in the concierge team--when you can even get through to them in the first place. 

Dining

Dining was phenomenal all-around, as usual for St Regis. 

While we didn't love the Atlantikos space for dinner, the dinner was excellent!

Breakfast buffet was surprisingly spacious, with lots of great offerings and very high quality ones at that. Their omelettes were just about the best we've all ever had; we had them every morning, they were that good! We also preferred the Atlantikos space for breakast. 

Our breakfasts were included as part of my Platinum benefit--a very good perk. They also graciously extended that to our friends for their 2 mornings, partly because 1 didn't eat much and partly to make up for the many service fails. 

Beach service food and drink was also excellent. They were brought in these wooden trays, which also helped protect the food from the aggressive birds!

Our final lunch at La Gourmandise, while service was slow, was delicious!

We may have had issues with the service here, but we had absolutely no issues at all with the food and beverage!

Remede Spa

I don't understand spas at all, but I know most love them. My husband and our girlfriend said it was a very nice spa (other than the hot water and women's jacuzzi not working!). My husband was disappointed that there wasn't a jacuzzi on the men's side. Both loved their massages.

Location

The location was good for our purposes, as we wanted to split time between the Ft Lauderdale Boat Show and spending time in Miami. The Bal Harbour mall is right across the street, so there are plenty of other restaurants and shopping to enjoy. It took us 50 min to get here from the MIA airport on arrival at 5:30 pm on Tuesday; it took us only 25 min to get back to the MIA airport at 4 pm on Sunday. It was about a 45-50 min drive to the boat show in Ft Lauderdale. 

It was a mere 5 min drive to the Four Seasons Surf Club, where we had dinner at the Le Sirenuse Restaurant (we loved the ambience but weren't as overall impressed with the food or menu). It was a 30 min drive to South Beach for our final night's dinner at Stubborn Seed. 

Overall

Overall, we absolutely enjoyed our stay, but we would be cautious for any return. To be fair, I know all too well that luxury hotels throughout South Florida/Miami are not known for excellent service. But I still was quite disappointed with the many service fails we experienced here. I expect more from St Regis. 

The hotel's decor may be flashier than I would prefer, but that's Miami for you. 

That being said, the food/beverage and Royal Suite were amazing. The beach was amazing. The beach service was amazing. My husband's and friend's massages were amazing.

The St Regis Bal Harbour isn't perfect, but it was a steal of a birthday getaway for us. If we were going to be in the Bal Harbour area again for any reason, we'd likely stay again. But I am would not choose it if wanting to be closer to the South Beach craziness or to downtown Miami.