The Grand Wonder

The location was excellent and the facilities were first class. Loads of bars and cafes and shopping centres close by for your necessities. Only $20 or less for a cab to either south beach and Brickell. There’s also a free water taxi and right behind hotel that takes you to South beach and the free monorail 500 yards away that takes you to Brickell.

Nothing

The property was clean, comfortable, and in a great location. The check-in process was easy, and the space had everything we needed for a relaxing stay. I especially enjoyed the atmosphere and convenience of being close to local attractions.

There were a few minor issues, but nothing that significantly affected our stay.

I loved the view and the exits from two of the rooms.

The construction that was going on.

The heated swimming pool and hot tub deck were very welcome. For Grand apartment tenants, had been restored and operational and accessible from the 10th floor doors, even though the Doubletree signage still said they were closed. The unit comes with enough beach towels to take down to the pool; hang on to them since other hotel guests and apartment tenants may not realize they are for your apartment and not common towels. The staff were also excellent. And the location while it could be better was easy enough to hail Uber and Lyft to quickly get to most of the attractions, and/or walk to the MetroMover at the Arsht Center stop (though it closes at 10pm). There is also a Publix supermarket in walking distance but you’ll need something to carry groceries; if you go, I wouldn’t be embarrassed to just roll a suitcase instead of lugging stuff frankly. There’s an impressive amount of space for unit 3741 which was the 3 bedroom/2 bath unit with 2 twins, a queen, and a king. There are two huge bathtubs in each of the bathroom suites with separate showers. The queen suite has its own separate sink area outside of the bathroom suite.

The Grand is under significant construction and getting to and from the apartments is a bit of a maze. The best way to arrive if you don’t have a car is to ask Uber/Lyft to drop you off at the Marriott then proceed through the double doors to the left to the Retail Plaza, then up escalators to the level where the Doubletree temporary reception is, where elevators then take you to yet another transfer floor where you can then get the main apartment condo elevators. The apartment we had — a 3-bedroom unit #3741 — smelled when we got there and also throughout our stay if we left the doors closed. Some rooms smelled like mold and the master bedroom smelled like urine even. There were sandalwood aroma sticks and air fresheners placed to try to cover up the smell but they were too much. The closets seemed to not be completed; one side had some shelving with hangars but the other had no hangers. It basically smelled like someone had taken a dirty mop to the tile floors around the apartment. So much so, that I bought a wet swiffer and redid the mopping myself and skipped the extra-charge cleaning that StayCozy had offered. The swiffer cleaning pad was pretty dirty even after just doing one bedroom and bathroom on the 2nd day, which wasn’t explainable by ourselves — clearly the cleaning service they use isn’t quite getting everything. Appliances were broken eg dishwasher but StayCozy was very responsive, and although the building engineer got it working it failed again later. The clothes washer was old and only did hot water. The handyman got the garbage disposal going again. But it’s a full kitchen with a stove and refrigerator and so forth. It was easy enough to drop trash down the chute in a hallway trash chute room. There is a set of dishes and utensils but I would wash them thoroughly before use, since it’s unclear if the dishwasher actually works, and the cleaning service may not be thorough.