Riviera Hotel South Beach

Last year, I had a good stay here on business, so I booked it again this year. However, the experience was terrible. First, I requested a corner room when booking, but we were given the very corner room. It was quiet, but the included breakfast required walking three blocks to another hotel. It was very basic and the same every day. One day, I had a stomachache all day. Back to the hotel, one night, when we opened the door, we found a ton of flying insects in the room. They looked like ants, but with wings, and they were huge. My friend and I were terrified, so we went to the front desk. They sent someone to catch the insects, but after two attempts, a few kept popping up. We asked if we could change rooms because we were afraid of them. The front desk said no, saying that this kind of bugs is common in Miami and that it was our fault. We had left the window open. My friend and I hadn't even opened the curtains since we stayed in the room, so how could we have opened the window?! We negotiated with them twice but they refused to change rooms. Later, they simply said there were no rooms available. We had to work during the day and were exhausted when we got home at night. We didn't have time to argue with them. We checked and found out that the insects were flying ants, which were not aggressive or poisonous. We endured and stayed. However, after confirming that all the windows were closed tightly, a few of them still flew out for two days. It was very annoying.

Overall it's okay, it's more like a B&B, and it's a relatively cheap hotel in South Beach. We have all the necessary infrastructure, and don’t expect anything extra. It's a seven or eight-minute walk from the beach, and there are restaurants, dessert shops, and pharmacies along the way. Maybe we come here to avoid the cold in winter. It was packed with people. We arrived at night and couldn't even think of adding an extra blanket. The service attitude is very good, but the level needs to be improved. There were three people in line before check-in, and they waited for half an hour. I am very grateful for the patient explanation to everyone, but there is no explanation about free drinks for half a day, etc. The important information is still not explained clearly. It took several people to find the building where we live. The entire South Beach in Miami is just a resort base, with basically no residents, and the newly built buildings are also hotels. If you are financially well-off, it will be much more comfortable to stay in a high-end hotel. If you don’t have enough financial resources, Sarasota’s B&Bs are relatively cheap and are much closer to the beach. You can go there with just your slippers. The white sand beach is also very beautiful and comfortable. If you go directly to Mexico to enjoy the exotic scenery, you can spend less money and enjoy it more comfortably.