W Fort Lauderdale

Mixed bag. The room was clean-ish and the decor was nice, but an open bathroom with no privacy is just weird. Why is the bathroom counter and sink painted, with what appeared to be house paint? Paint that will inevitably peel off in spots? Who paints a counter and sink and expects it to stand up to use? Why is there a suite called "Wonderful Ocean View" but with no view of the ocean, only a view of the resort? That is the worst kind of bait-and-switch. A guest thinks they will be able to see the ocean from the room based on the name of the room booked, but there is no ocean view when the guest arrives. Be honest, call it a "Wonderful Resort View" suite. On the plus side, the room was spacious and well equipped...though why was there only one garbage can? One garbage can in the kitchen, but no garbage cans in either bathroom or bedroom, plus no recycling container. A large breakfast event in the courtyard early in the morning was very noisy and woke us up much, much too early. Annoying. Steak 954 was delicious. The pool was attractive and comfortable if a bit overcrowded, with barely any space between lounge chairs. However, props to the pool attendants and the high quality of the food at the pool. Beach attendants were great too! Service in the living room was mostly poor. Bartenders and waitstaff were focused on the game on TV or chatted with friends rather than serving customers, but the chips were delicious. Valet parking attendants were great, but $60 per day for parking with no alternative self-park option? That is a steep price. Multiple issues with the final invoices that had to be corrected, including charges my party did not incur. So, pluses and minuses.

The W in Fort Lauderdale is an overall excellent stay. Let's get the cons out of the way. They could use about twice as many elevators as they currently have. We ended up walking down from the 14th floor on the morning we checked out because we couldn't get an elevator. Now the pros, everything else. The room was very quiet and we never heard our neighbors (although you can always hear traffic on the road below). The beds were great and the shower was reasonable. Overall, it's close, but I would give them a 5.

Sergio was amazing this morning. The help that I received was exceptional. I always enjoy coming to the Ritz. they are always coming up and asking us if we need anything just an overall exceptional team that they have here on the beach in Fort Lauderdale.

The service, attentiveness, and friendliness from staff were excellent but outside of that I can't recommend this place. For being a "5-star" hotel it's incredibly run down. Rooms smell moldy and were actively condensating from the ceiling. The shower is see-through so that everyone else in the room can watch you. Despite the rooms costing several hundred dollars per night it's an additional $8 for the tiniest snacks or drinks in the rooms. The location is terrible. Nothing but obnoxiously loud cars, motorcycles, boats, airplanes, helicopters, etc. along with the rich people that just want to be the center of attention in their fancy vehicles. Drunk trashy people stumbling everywhere and yelling at everything. The beach view is littered with barges and the beach is littered with trash. I wouldn't come back to Fort Lauderdale, but even if I did I would not stay here again. Lastly, make sure you plan for at least an extra 30 minutes each time you leave your room for time spent waiting on elevators. They had 3 elevators, including one that was broken part of the time, for TWENTY FOUR floors of rooms. Often times we waited 15 mins for an elevator to arrive just for it to be full when it got to us. Some people walked 18+ flights of stairs to avoid the elevator fiasco. Seems a little silly when some people are paying $700+ per night.

Let me say the staff is fantastic. The hotel, not of Marriott quality. 8 min wait for elevators…every single time. No water pressure. Washed the soap out of my hair on my hands and knees. The pool was packed with 0 chairs. This hotel is a factory.