February 2020, weekend-weekday, 1-night, king club guestroom 1053
Platinum perks and check-in
I reserved a standard room with points, and received an upgrade to a club floor room before I checked in on the app.
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| Looking south from club lounge at Sheraton Miami airport |
The morning of our arrival day, our cruise ship arrived at the Miami cruise port earlier than scheduled. Even though we took our time disembarking and preparing to leave the port, we still arrived at the hotel very early--before 9:30 AM, and I had chosen an expected arrival time of 11:00 AM when I checked in on the app. The front desk agent provided a key to the club lounge, and we checked our luggage with a bellman while we waited for our room.
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| Snack box delivered to guestroom |
I received a call at noon telling me our room was ready. I returned to the front desk to finish checking in. The agent provided a coupon for continental breakfast in the restaurant, and she offered late checkout. The agent did not say whether the breakfast coupon would be better than the food severed in the club lounge. A small box of snacks was also delivered to the guestroom a couple of hours later.
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| View looking east from Sheraton guestroom 1053 |
Club lounge guestroom 1053
This guestroom is located on the top floor in the northeast corner. It overlooks the parking garage to the east, and the transportation center across the street. Although we did not have a golf view, I was happy to have a corner room with two windows; one facing east and one facing north. The bed and bedding was super comfy and plush. Airplane noise was minimal.
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| Guestroom diagram on back of door |
Unbelievably, I did not take any photos of the inside of our guestroom! The king guestroom description and photos on the website are an accurate representation of the room. The square footage is not provided in the club room description; I imagine it is the same as the other king guestrooms since the room was not very spacious. Some info that is not on the website: there was a safe in the guestroom, and the shower is a nice stand up shower with glass doors (small bathroom overall, however). This hotel has bi-level rooms and Jr suites, so I am not sure how accurate the guestroom diagram is. The diagram also shows that the stairwell is located up against our guestroom, which would have blocked the view looking east, and that is not correct. This guestroom has a window on that side overlooking the parking garage.
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| Cuban sandwich at Sheraton Miami airport hotel |
Food & Beverage, Club lounge
We had lunch in the hotel lounge: a cuban sandwich, mahi mahi tacos, and a local draft beer. The food was good, although I thought the cost was a bit high, even for an airport hotel. The [3] tacos were $15, the sandwich was $14, and the beer was $7. When the bill was presented, a 15% gratuity had already been added.
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| Sunset looking toward the airport from the club lounge |
We had breakfast in the club lounge, so I do not know if the continental breakfast in the restaurant is more elaborate. Breakfast in the club lounge included scrambled eggs, meat, potatoes, and a variety of cold items, like yogurt, deli meats, cheeses, fruits, and cereals. In the evening, there were hot and cold food items in the lounge, as well.
The hotel website says that the club floor rooms are on a private access floor. There was a key slot in the elevator; however, we did not need our key card to access the club lounge floor. Our guestroom keys also did not work on the club lounge door. The club lounge key card that the first front desk agent had provided still worked, so we did not return to have our keys recoded.
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| Click on photo to enlarge and read descriptions |
Pool and outside area
There is a large outside pool at this hotel, and there is plenty of outside seating. There is not a separate whirlpool tub, although one end of the pool has seats in the water with small water jets near the bottom. Seating at the east end of the pool included loungers on beach sand.
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| Outside patio at Sheraton Miami airport hotel |
The outside patio at the west end of the pool contained cushioned seats, side tables, umbrellas, and seating at high top tables. There is a small nature trail outside the pool and patio along the water. The landscape was nice, although there were several pieces of trash that detracted from the view.
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Nature trail and channel alongside pool area at Sheraton Miami |
We did not like that this hotel is not non-smoking like other Marriott properties. Ashtrays were provided around the pool and on the patio, and people were smoking every time we went outside.
Overall and misc.
Overall, this was a decent stay, and we were happy with the guestroom comfort. The public areas in this hotel could definitely use a facelift. I did not view any of the event or meeting rooms, although most of the other areas looked worn and dingy. The lobby and lounge furniture had stains and tears, along with some of the walls and carpeting. This condition is also evident in my photo of the guestroom diagram near the top of this post. I was happy when we got to our guestroom and it looked fresh and clean, as I had been a bit worried when we were waiting. On the day we arrived, only one of the elevators was working, which caused a lot of chaos. We observed people carrying their luggage down several flights of stairs because unless you were on one of the top two floors going down, it was impossible to get on the elevator. The elevator would stop at every floor, and then have to continue on without picking anyone up. Guests who wanted to ride, resorted to getting on the elevator on its way up, in order to get a spot to go down. We overheard one guest loudly berating a front desk agent for the situation after he had waited over 10 minutes for the elevator.
We chose this hotel because of its proximity to the airport and transportation center. Our son had a flight home from MIA in the evening on the day we arrived, so this location allowed him to hang out and have lunch with us until then. We had a flight home from FLL on Monday, and took the Tri-Rail across the street from the hotel. Our son used the hotel shuttle to get to the airport, and we walked across the street for our train ride. If you have the Marriott app, you can see the exact location of the shuttle bus on the app. This is a fabulous feature, if you are waiting to be picked up at the airport!
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