Riviera Hotel South Beach, a South Beach Group Hotel

Roach hotel

There was a roach running around as we entered the room. I guess you can say, it was a surprise being welcomed by a roach. The room was tiny with a separate bathroom sink right next to the bed. Parking is horrible. Customer service is not that great. So we ended up saying forget it and checking out early to stay at double tree.

Worst experience so far

I had the worst experience in riveria south hotel . It was overal very bad experience . Comfort was zero in the room

I didn't like the hotel overall . It was pathatic

Go somewhere else

SOME of the staff were very kind. Almost kind enough to make up for the two people who had terrible attitudes when faced with an actual customer service situation prior to them. First impression is everything. The bed was actually quite comfortable.

The hotel signage is terrible for a place that makes that much money and is located on south beach. Why is that an issue here? There are multiple buildings with no parking anywhere around them and surrounded by a difficult two-lane road. The building that has the more obvious sign (shown in the picture) isn't even the building you check in at, or will likely stay. When I called trying to get assistance, the woman on the phone had a one inch fuse before I could hear her try to pass me off to somebody. She thought she was muffling the phone well enough but I could hear her telling the gentleman there how stupid I must be. They kept insisting there was a man outside, which there was nobody anywhere and she kept giving me terrible directions leading me in circles around there building as I tried to avoid letting the cars line up behind me. Finally, a gentleman I could only assume was the one she was speaking to came out and frankly spoke to me like I must be an idiot, pointing at the building aggressively yelling "Do you not see that black and white sign we are telling you about? Just use your eyes and look. This is the riviera!" in a tone that suggested I'm a child who has been crying in the back seat of his car for an hour. I didn't even feel up to letting him know they don't know left from right and he was pointing at the complete opposite of where they were guiding me on the phone. It then turned out my only option for parking was to pay $40 a night for valet. Only other option is a nearby garage for $35 a night. That is the ONLY parking option if you are driving; so budget for it. There is also a $20 hotel fee added as well. I thought the hotel fee was... Well, the rate. I had never been so frustrated by a hotel before actually even getting checked in. When expressing my discontent to the gentleman checking me in, he said he would give me a better room, which meant a room with more space and an obstacle course to the phone I needed to get to so I could ask why he though that I (checking in alone on a business trip) needed to trade the one king size bed I reserved for two smaller beds. They finally put me in the room I reserved and the bed was great besides my pillows smelling like wet towels. Let me tell you, the views of the destroyed and dilapidated buildings that just about every window comes with were great. They give you two iPod radios that have first generation plugs, so don't expect to listen to music on them. The tv had no hdmi plug to let you supplement their terrible basic cable package. Half the channels on their directory didn't work. But the fridge was stocked with overprice booze. I felt like I wasted my money and could have paid half as much for twice the experience almost anywhere else. Are there worse places? Obviously. But I would never recommend this hotel to anybody. If I was on vacation and not business, my trip would have been ruined by how short they fell of how decent they look online.