I stayed here recently while in Miami on business. My 8th floor “city-view” room was very large, with a king bed, wonderful bathroom, and a large balcony with a water view. There are two sinks (one outside of the shower/toilet room) allowing two to get ready at the same time. The bed was very comfortable and the room – and maybe entire floor – appears to have been recently renovated. There’s a single serve coffee maker, mini-bar (very expensive), and a small microwave. I did not get to try the pool or other facilities. The only problems I encountered were some challenges getting the internet access to work, and the lack of a TV channel guide. Valet only parking is $29/day – if you don’t need a car cabs are always available and a relatively cheap option.

Primos in the lobby is good for a casual meal or quick drink (the calamari appetizer is great!). Or walk two blocks to Biscayne and 18th where you’ll find a nice sushi place and Bin Number 18 – a wonderful, Mediterranean style bistro with an extensive beer and wine list as well as great food (the bruschetta is large enough to be a light meal for one). There’s also a small, very pricy, grocery store and a few other shopping options on the ground floor.

I stayed at this hotel one night pre-cruise with my 3 sisters. We had 2 rooms which both overlooked the bay. It was nice to be able to see the cruise ships in the morning. The rooms were clean and well maintained. I would not hesitate to stay here again.

The hotel was a great location for a short pre-cruise stay. And I have to say that the staff was excellent, as were were especially high maintenance dealing with lost baggage isues. However, the rooms themselves were awful - just drab, worn, weather beaten looking furniture. It's in an dire need of a makeover.

DoubleTree Grand Hotel is located in part of a condo building called The Grand. Its location is good if you have a car.
Our stay was near New Years; however it was not too busy. We booked a Baywiew standard room (room 754) at a unbelievably pricey rate for 303 per night (and it was non refundable...). This is probably because it was New Years.
We had to valet park at the DoubleTree at a rate of 29 dollars per day, which is actually a good deal (you're probably thinking that is overpriced), because places at South Beach, even public parking, cost 20 bucks with no in or out privileges. The only problem with valet was that they were a little slow, and that they mixed up our key (more info on that later on the review).

The hotel lobby is to the left when you enter the entrance. The desk that you see in front is the condo front desk, and not DoubleTree's.

Check in was swift, and three cookies were given to us. Only complaint was that the cookies weren't really warm (unlike DoubleTree Monvrovia) like advertised.

Another slight complaint was the hallways leading to the hotel rooms. The chandeliers were of in the style of the 80's (not what DoubleTree usually is), and the carpets were a little faded. Also, the lighting was flouresent, which gave a spooky feel to the hallways, and not the warm feel like DoubleTree offers.

However, this all changed when we entered our room, which did not look at all like most of the travelers photos. Our room was very modern (unlike the awful hallway), and gigantic! Bayview rooms are much bigger than a regular room...in which we found out later. The rooms looked pretty much like the hotel photos, just a little smaller and a different layout. Our room could probably sleep 6 if configured well. There were two comfy Sweet Dreams Bed, a work desk, a giant down sofa (which could sleep a kid if you wanted to....), and a sofa with legrest (and if you pulled up the work chair to the sofa, it could sleep a teen). There was also Neutrogena toiletries (lotion, shampoo, etc), as well as a face cleanser and a mini tube of sunscreen. In addition, our room had a Wolfgang Puck coffee maker (two single cup style) with complimentary tea and coffee.

Our really big complaint with this hotel was some of the people who were at this hotel (probably the condo people). While we were at the pool, a condo owner person spit gum at us, which was simply disrespectful! No ethics at all. Also, the condo area which is with the hotel seems to be a low end condo. The elevators were so so, and inside the condo area was also like DoubleTree's hallways, but worse. Only plus about the condo area was an atrium, which was cool.

The pool was pretty large, and was as deep as 6 feet near the bay side and 3 feet toward the jacuzzi. The pool area also had a view of the Marriott Biscayne Bay and cruise ships. This was a plus because you could see the cruise ships that were arriving and departing.

One tip that I could see one guest using is that you can get complimentary Zephyrhills Spring Water and as many cookies as you would like just by asking the front desk. This could save you some money by not needing to waste extra money on water.

Another tip is to tip the housekeeping people, unless you want a room that is 90% cleaned up (which means your pillows and linens are not placed back correctly if you moved them to a sofa, and that your face cleaner and sunscreen tube is missing). Also, sometimes towels come later on the day...like 3 PM, so if you come back at noon and don

Check out was slightly slower, but still okay. Then, there came the valet problem.

The valet accidentally mixed up our rental keys with the giant amount of other keys that they have. However, after 20 minutes of us searching with them, a person found our keys (which is actually a "big task" due to the fact there were more than 60 keys that the valet had). After that, we were okay.

So, in conclusion, above average stay. I would have rated it excellent only if some of the condo people were not so disrespectful and had no ethics (but what can guests do about this?), if we had no problems with valet, and that the hallways were updated. Also, if they had put a dispenser of ice water, like the Marriott next door did, in their lobby, it would be a plus because Miami is very warm.