Review: Whitelaw Hotel (Miami Beach, FL)

We kicked off our cruise vacation last month in the booming city of Miami.  Shortly after flying into MIA, we caught the free shuttle to our hotel for the night, Whitelaw Hotel in South Beach.  We had booked ahead of time for our one night stay at the Whitelaw, and our check-in process was completed quickly and efficiently with the friendly front desk staff.  We were happy to arrive in our room, and quickly got settled in.

In general, I liked our room and the hotel a lot.  The decor at Whitelaw is very unique, and gives the hotel and each room a specific personality that is refreshing when compared to the usual drab Holiday Inn or Marriott.   The first thing I noticed after walking through the door was how hot our room was.  Much to my dismay, the thermostat revealed that the air conditioning was already set on the lowest setting, and we would have to live with the current temperature.  I did acclimate to the somewhat humid and warm atmosphere after about an hour, but I am not sure I could stand the underperforming A/C during one of the summer months.  The room had two double beds separated by a mini-fridge/nightstand, with both beds facing a 42 inch LCD TV mounted on the opposite wall.  The TV was a great feature, but we didn’t spend much time in the room watching it.  The dresser under the TV had a stereo with an iPod dock, which was also a nice feature that we didn’t get a chance to use.  The only other piece of furniture in the room was an antique-style chair next to the bathroom door, which made a good place for a laptop bag, or bathroom supplies.  The floor length mirror mounted on the wall was useful and decorative. The white-painted hardwood floor, bright colored walls, and interesting drapery helped round out the eclectic style of the room.  Right inside the door was a giant closet, the perfect place for storing luggage.  The closet featured a very roomy electronic safe (big enough to fit my 13 inch widescreen laptop!), a feature I love to see in any hotel room.  The beds in the room were very comfortable, although seemingly shorter than a normal bed, as my feet didn’t quite fit.  The bedding was also very comfortable, and I slept reasonably well (despite the lack of adequate A/C).

The bathroom was very modern with large limestone tiles covering the floor, walls, and shower, and a glass vessel sink.  While the bathroom looked nice, it unfortunately wasn’t 100% functional.  If the sink faucet was turned on more than half way, the water jettisoned out of the sink, creating a very unpleasant puddle on and around your feet.  The shower seemed high-scale at first glance, but had a shower curtain on a rod rather than a glass shower door, which wasn’t very fitting for the shower configuration.  Because of the shower curtain issue, it was impossible to take a shower without once again soaking the floor of the bathroom (If all of the rooms have these water related issues, I imagine the housekeeping staff spends a majority of their time in each room mopping up the bathroom).  Also, the shower was quite small and had no storage for shower necessities like soap and shampoo, so we had to use a portion of the already limited floor space to store our supplies.  The bathroom door didn’t shut easily, possibly due to swelling of the door frame, or bad carpentry.  When opened, the bathroom door made a loud high pitched squeal - which wasn’t conducive to un-interrupted sleep at night.  Despite the problems, the bathroom was manageable, and it fit well with the style of the rest of the room.

The amenities provided at the Whitelaw were nice - starting with the free shuttle from the airport (despite the somewhat grumpy driver).  The room had nice robes and toiletries available, as well as a good selection of mini-bar items including snacks on a shelf next to the bathroom door, and drinks in the mini-fridge.  Free wifi Internet was available throughout the hotel. Free drinks were offered to hotel guests between 7 pm and 8pm in the lobby/bar, and the atmosphere at the bar during the “happy hour” was fun (obviously, tipping the bartender was highly encouraged).

The Whitelaw has somewhat of a reputation for being a party hotel, and the music in the lobby definitely had the potential to be too loud for rooms located near the front of the hotel - we were luckily in the back, and we weren’t disturbed by the volume and late hour of the music.  Unfortunately, we were disturbed early in the morning by a trash truck in the alley outside our window, making more noise than I thought possible by a simple trash pickup.  Yet another trash truck showed up about an hour after the first, making nearly as much noise as the first.  The lesson learned was that noise pollution is a consideration for anyone planning to stay at Whitelaw Hotel, and if you are a light sleeper, you should probably ask for a room far away from the lobby (or party late enough every night so that the lobby music is no longer an issue).

The hotel is in an ideal location - 2 blocks from the beach, and centrally located in the art deco shopping area of South Beach.  We were happy to go exploring around this unique and fun area in the evening, without having to travel more than a few footsteps out of our hotel lobby.  We had fun looking around at a few stores and walking to the ocean before succumbing to hunger.  As you can see in my previous review, we found a great pizza place in the area, and had a good dinner back in our room.  I was also able to quickly locate a CVS pharmacy, in order to purchase 11 days worth of soda to take aboard the cruise ship. Unfortunately, we only had the one night to check out South Beach, and I am sure we missed a good portion of the night-time sites and experiences - I look forward to going back at some point to explore the area more in the future (we did find the time to walk to the beach in the morning before heading to the port of Miami, and it was beautiful (see pic)).

Overall, our stay at the Whitelaw Hotel was good, and I would recommend the hotel to anyone interested in staying in a unique South Beach hotel - as long as you can secure a cheap enough price (we paid $79 for the night), and deal with a few quirks in your room.  Also, I have to warn you ahead of time that I was charged $19 for mini-bar items that we never used, after we left the hotel.  After a few phone calls I still haven’t received a refund for these charges, but I am confident that I will in the next few days.  If I don’t receive this refund, I will update my review to reflect the fact that I was ripped off and accordingly drop my rating, as well as contest the charge on my credit card - let’s hope for Whitelaw’s sake that they do the right thing.

 ***UPDATE***

I have decided to lower my rating for the Whitelaw Hotel from 3.5 to 1, because I never heard back from the man who was supposed to be looking into a refund of my $19.  I called and left him messages, as well as sent him emails, with no response.  I have since had to file a dispute through my credit card, instead.  Any hotel that mis-charges for minibar items, and then never responds to their customers about the issue, isn’t worth staying at - if I had stayed for a week, how much extra money would they have tried to squeeze out of me?

Whitelaw Hotel (Miami Beach, FL): 1/5

Have you ever stayed at the Whitelaw Hotel?  Have you visited Miami Beach? What hotel did you stay at? What did you think of the area?

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