The Catalina Hotel and Beach Club

The following is a response to the hotel itself:Hello, Thank you for inquiring about my vacation along with my girlfriends at you resort.... Unfortunately I must say that our stay there was somewhat of a disappointing experience. From the moment of check in there were 3 bellboys outside of your resort and not one offered to help us with our luggage to our room. The attendant that took in our registration didn't look at me once while he was entering the info. in the computer but to give me the key and to point toward where our room would be. Not even a welcome or a smile. There was however another attendant that was nice enough to refer us to the nearest IHOP for breakfast since we got there so early. His name was [...]. The pictures online were deceiving. The rooms were way smaller then how they looked online & were disappointed to find out that there wasn't even room in the small closet to put 1 pc of luggage. There was nothing but hot water on the shower and the knob kept falling off. Also the lighting was horrible. Nothing but a red light and some reading lamps. we needed more lighting to get ready at night. The room was so hot we had to sleep in underwear and your staff didnt have a fan to offer. The lobby however was always cool. A couple of times I woke up with bites. hope it wasnt from you bed. We didn't even get in the sheets. The room we were given was right next to the bar and there was always noise right outside our door. It was something we had anticipated when we checked in and asked for another room but they didn't have any more available. When we asked for extra towels or ice it was like a major convinience and always felt hesitation. Even for extra cups. Once we went out to the beach and found out that we had to pay extra for chairs and umbrella but yet you charge a $15- daily facility fee. I still don't get it. The towels we received had holes in them, rust stains and were brown instead of white. The pools were much smaller then they had looked online too. Also we were disappointed to know that there was no hotel parking for our rental. We had to park 5 blocks away at the public parking because your valet fee was rediculously high. No one told us about the hotel amenities nor the surrounding attractions. we had to find out on our own... However when there was a change of staff and more people started checking in I heard them getting a whole explanation of the hotel and were being recommended places. No one except for one more person asked how our stay was. His name was [...]. However no one asked if we needed anything through out our stay. I'm sad to say that because of the lack of attention we received at your resort, we are discouraged from staying there again or recommending it to anyone else.

The hotel was horrible!!! I wouldn't have stayed at a supposed 3 star hotel knowing that they would provide -1 star service. When we first came into the hotel it looked great, their were doormen there to open doors the lobby looked nice and chic but once we got situated in our room it was far from comfortable. There was no a/c in the rooms only in the hallways and the lobby. The maintenance guy had moved the vents but no cold air came thru. Shortly we found that other guests were experiencing the same issue. They also had poor lighting. There was one lamp which made the room all red from the lamp shade so we had to ask for extra lamps which still wasn't enough for a girl to do her hair and makeup and speaking of hair, if you want to blow-dry without frizzing you have to do it in the hallway because it got way too hot in the room. Since we had no a/c we had to open the windows at night which opened to the pool area where people would sit and talk thru all hours of the night so don't expect to get a good nights sleep. Finally the kicker was that they didn't clean our room for the last two days of our stay, the first day when I noticed that our room wasn't clean (around 3pm) I called to ask for housekeeping they told us they would come right away, I waited over an hour but no one showed up. The girl who cleaned all of the other rooms in our section said our room wasn't assigned to her and refused to clean it. Finally when someone came at 6pm to clean our room I told her we were getting ready to go out so she would have to come back later, but she didn't speak English so she left and never returned. We assumed that they would clean the room the following day but when we returned from the beach at 4pm our room was untouched. We called down to the front desk and they told us they would send someone immediately so we went shopping till 6pm and again came back to a dirty room. When I went to the lobby to complain they told me we would get VIP cleaning service the next day, but we were scheduled to check out the next morning. It is unacceptable to have to hunt for toilet paper and towels from nearby cleaning carts and request them from the front desk a handful of times when housekeeping is a service that is required. The amenities were nothing to brag about either. The restaurant ran out of chicken one day, their drinks at happy hour were watered down, their pool was dirty and the rooftop pool was the size of a bathtub! Outside of the hotel we had a great time.

I stayed at this hotel with 3 friends the first weekd of June. The rooms are tiny but 4 girls can make it work. Maxine's is the best resturant in ALL of Miami, surprisingly enough, but everything their was delicious. Im sure you will run into problems because its so easy to do that at this hotel, so when you do , ask for [...]. He is amazing and will help you with anything and everything you need. The conciege is also really food with helping you decide where to go an when. She definately hooks it up! Back to [...] though, he is the only reason im even writing this review because if it werent for him, I'd be crazy nasty right now about this place. [...] - you need a raise!! Legit!

The Catalina Hotel is located right on Collins Avenue within walking distance to all of the great shops and restaurants. The rooftop pool was dirty and hot, however the courtyard pool was wonderful. The staff were very helpful and friendly. The most frustrating thing about this hotel was the lighting in the rooms. It seems trvial but they were really dark and there was virtually no natural light either. After a while this became very annoying! All in all a great holiday experience and great value for money.

It was not what I expected. Yes the rooms were small but that is what I expected. It is very old and even the lobby and bar area is small. I got past that because that is what most of the hotels were in Miami - that I saw. However, the room that we got had no a/c. After having maintenance up 3 times I finally put my foot down and said either give me another room or I want to cancel. We got a room behind the bar (in the next building)and it was great! If I went back to Miami I don't think I would stay here again.

Nice hotel, not amazing but good, had everything we needed including great location, easy for the beach & shops..2 nice pools, great food in maxine restaurant & good service, very friendly, helpful staff. Room was comfortable & cleaned everyday. Free beach chairs was a bonus as was happy hour with free drinks. One of the busiest hotels on south beach with a good buzzy atmosphere. Would recommend.

Great Hotel, Great Rooms, really nice, chilled out swimming pools. Would defiantly return!!

the beds were very comfortable but not a lot of room to move around. They were remodeling the hotel while we were there and that did make some noise outside of our room in the morning. Also it was $32 a day for parking and the $15 resort fee was absurd.

Noise from neighbors at night time was horrible, hotel staff did nothing to help, we had to move to another hotel, [...] Never staying at Catalina, [...]!

Great hotel, would go back in there again!!!!