Hotel Breakwater

In 35 years of coming to this incredibly city, we have never experienced such disgusting accommodation and totally incompetent management. We booked a 4 night mid-week stay at The Hotel Breakwater. Firstly, this is not as advertised, it is not a boutique hotel and the images of the pool area are misleading. To say that it’s shabby, run down would be an understatement. I have seen cleaner and deeper public fountains in and around Miami. This pool looked and smelt as if no care or cleaning had been done. And forget about relaxing there… it is impossible as they have the loudest generators I have ever heard running 24/7… in fact my wife thought at first that an emergency helicopter was about to land. It is impossible to relax there. The images are so mis-leading. At 1.30am one morning we heard the loudest banging, the about 5 minutes of sawing… When we called down to security, they investigated and the noise stopped. 20 minutes later security very kindly called us to wake us up again to tell us the noise had stopped. Idiot. Reception explained that this had been due to maintenance but this excuse was then retracted by the GM. The next day the hotel upgraded us to a non-existent room…. When we came back down the receptionist was looking a little worried as our old room AND the new room my wife was previously shown and agreed on had been sold. So we now didn’t have a room with two more nights to stay, for which we paid for. A few angry moments and some frantic calling and the reception team had managed to find a room and bought a small bed for our daughter to sleep on. Our room had a pull out sofa so rather than sleep on the dodgy old looking wooden bed we started to make the pull out bed… and that’s when we discovered the state of the disgusting mattress that the hotel expected our daughter to sleep on. See images. They made that bed for us, they would have seen the state of the mattress..,and yet they expected someone to sleep on it? So I dragged the mattress back to reception where I left it on display there. I’ve seen matrasses like this before, but usually on the side of streets, or in murder scenes. To be fair the reception team were as shocked as we were.. and apologetic and assured us we would be comped so nights for the inconvenience. We were ‘comped’,a breakfast at The News Cafe as a way of an apology. When we got there we were told it was on their restrictive menu and our menus were immediately removed…. Not much of an apology. We paid for a proper breakfast. We complained to every one, but no one was getting back to us. In desperation I spoke with the GM at their sister hostel, The Victor… who looked so shocked and we felt was truly sorry for the incompetence. And organised a meeting with the GM at the Breakwater. I have to say that encounter was a complete waste of time, and it soon became apparent why this once iconic hotel was now a disgusting, run down shadow of what it had been. TheBreakwater GM was so blasé, so unhelpful, and his lack of understanding a would suggest that complaints like this are not uncommon. His team really did feel for us though and continued to be apologetic. Shame the GM couldn’t man up and take responsibility for his disgusting, shameful hotel. We were told this would be sorted out by Monday at 12pm… and in true character of this hotel, we have not received any form of communication or offer of compensation (except for a lunch at the Versace restaurant, which they knew full well we could do as we were leaving) from the incompetent team at The Breakwater. This in it’s self is not unusual as we would have to chase several times to get a response whilst booking.. Please, if you are considering this hotel, DO NOT BOOK. There are other hotels, that are cleaner, quieter and where the management team respect the fact that they are working in the hospitality business and welcome their guests and perhaps have pride in their hotel. Some hotel pros even use mattresses that haven’t had a hard life in the adult film industry. The Breakwater is not one of them Read less

I had the pleasure of staying at Hotel Breakwater in October 2024, and I was thoroughly impressed. The room and bathroom were exceptionally clean and maintained to a high standard. The quality of the furnishings and amenities exceeded my expectations, and the bed was incredibly comfortable, with soft, clean sheets that made for a perfect night’s sleep. The overall experience was fantastic, and I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Miami. Great service, cleanliness, and comfort make it a top choice! Read less

When checking in, our credit card was charged twice. The clerk said the charge did not go through the first time. My phone immediately registered two charges from my bank. I showed the clerk, he said only one would be the final charge. Three days later when checking out, I again showed the clerk we had been charged twice. He claimed his system only showed once and to take it up with my credit card company. Today I received notice from my credit card company that it has been 25 days since they reached out and have not heard a word from the Breakwater. We are not surprised. The Breakwater was difficult to work with from the beginning. We never received email confirmation of reservation, even after several phone calls. Read less

The good: Staff, location, price. The bad: Nobody tells you that there is excellent live music in the courtyard nightclub at night. When it’s acoustic, it’s fine, even super fun working in the room knowing that the two sets of windows and heavy drapes will block it out when you want. But after 11 until 1, they play horrible edm, and the windows and drapes don’t stand a chance against the bowel rattling bass. And, btw, a gin and tonic in the nightclub is $25, tip included. They offered to move me, but by that time it was 12:30 and not worth the hassle. The Worse: Room 226. The next morning they moved me and in a rush I dropped my stuff before a looong day of meetings and dinner w a client. When I returned I discovered, no closet to hang my work clothes! Iron but no ironing board! Weird stains on carpet and on the flimsy, not blackout curtains! Saggy bed like they stole the mattress from your grandmother’s mountain cabin. I passed out in bed chuckling feeling like I was being punked. Though I had prepaid three nights, I checked out the next day, happy to eat the $125 to stay elsewhere. Note to self. Don’t book hotels through since the hotel cannot refund you if there’s an issue (who knows it the Breakwater would have). Read less