The Ritz-Carlton Bal Harbour, Miami

First, the positives-this is a beautiful property overlooking Haulover inlet (a treat if you're a fan of boats). Much quieter than South Beach but a close drive to restaurants and shopping. The room and bathroom were great, immaculate, pool was nice, and beach was pretty. Where this property lacks is service. This was our second time here for my birthday. We emailed ahead of time to let them know, hoping there would be some recognition of the special day. Upon check in, nothing was noted. We were also placed on the second floor (we asked for a higher floor when we booked), overlooking a metal roof. We also could not access the Wifi in the room. I went back downstairs to ask for a higher floor and let them know about the wifi. I was told no higher floor was available, but in the lobby using cell service I could see online there was. The person at the front desk said yes, she could see that but it really wasn't available... went back upstairs and still no wifi despite the front desk's instructions. I called down for an engineer, which they did promptly send. Meanwhile, my husband was not happy with the view and wanted to see about an upgrade. I spoke to the engineer who said yes, the wifi is working but perhaps there is a sign in problem and to go back to the front desk. I go back a third time and tell them the wifi is still not working, and to ask about an upgrade. At this point it had been about 45 min of my son and husband just sitting there, not unpacking to see if we were changing rooms, and not able to log on for work because the wifi didn't work. I was told no, they could not upgrade me despite there being higher floors available. I asked even though we're not able to log into work, this is my third visit down here and we've now wasted about an hour of our time? The answer was no. I told them we would pay for an upgrade then, and asked for some kind of dining voucher at least. I was told "we're already getting two complimentary drinks a day". What lousy customer service!!! The wifi problem was also because the front desk attendant kept telling us to put the 0 before our room number. It took 3 people to correct that. I also asked to make sure they knew it was my birthday as my husband had emailed ahead of time and nothing was waiting in the room upon arrival. (At many properties, there would be a welcome card, a bottle of wine, a sweet treat etc). One of the attendants said yes, they had it written down and she would be handling it personally. NOTHING ever arrived in our room, no treat, no nothing the entire stay. Anyway, we finally moved rooms to a higher floor (and paid the price for it despite it now being going on two hours trying to change rooms AND get working wifi). From then on, our stay was nice. The pool service was great. Beach service was inconsistent, ranging from someone promptly helping us one day to the beach guys literally just standing around talking as we waited for chairs and towels (we finally got our own). Check in was abysmal, and the fact they still did nothing to even recognize the birthday we were celebrating, despite many reminders, was really disappointing. Read less

Our family went to Bal Harbour for a few days at the end of March and stayed at the Ritz. Upon entering, the lobby area is nice, but small. Check in is quick as there was no wait, but the front desk attendants do not seem to be as service-focused. I inquired about an upgrade (as I'm a Titanium member) and was told "we aren't doing upgrades this week due to spring break". I can understand if there is no upgrades available, but I probably would have said it differently or at least pretended to see if anything was available. On my check out day, I inquired about late check out and the lady gave me a hard time about that (she let us stay to noon and she felt like she was doing me favor with that). We then went to the elevator to get up to the rooms and they are a bit small. You get to the landing area and there are only two rooms. The landing area is really really small by the way. The room itself was nice, especially the bathrooms. We went to the beach and pool everyday. The beach is ok, but lots of seaweed. The pool was nice and service there was pretty good. We ate the onsite restaurant (Artisan Beach House) every day. The food and service was good with no complaints. In the afternoons, they have afternoon ice cream in the lobby and that was really good! We also liked having the complimentary daily cocktails at the bar. Overall, we enjoyed our stay even though a couple of the front desk agents aren't up to Ritz standards. Read less