FL Miami Ocean Spray Hotel Miami Beach

[Judy M]

We paid $105 for a standard 1 queen bed room at the Ocean Spray Hotel on Priceline. I used all the tools on Better Bidding to get this room. The hotel's website lists $122 for this room, so supposedly a bit of a savings (14%).

The bed seemed small for a queen, so we wanted to upgrade. Most hotels that aren't full will upgrade you for free, but not this one. They charged us an additional $25/night to upgrade to a room w/ 2 beds. So we paid in total $130/night. But the worst was that we overheard the guy at the front desk quoting $89.99 for a 1 queen room (our original room we paid $105 for), $99.99 for a king, and $109.99 for a 2 bed room. So with Priceline, we paid by $130 for a room they were selling for $109.99 - $20 more per night. I would think the hotel's agreement with Priceline that hotels wouldn't be allowed to do this. Doesn't Priceline guarantee you the lowest rates? It's not as if I overbid - I bid $95, then $100, etc to get this room. But maybe the hotel is allowed to lower the rates dramatically for people walking off the street that day to fill up their rooms? In any case, I don't feel Priceline helped us at all, and don't plan to use it in the future, at least not for hotels. I also had the impression that all Priceline rooms that you bid for would be national chains.

Also, the breakfast was meager and was not self-serve. There was 2 kinds of cereal, coffee, juice, wheat or white toast, bagels, and pre-made French toast and waffles you could microwave or toast. They asked for your room number,and limited you to 2 items each. The "fruit of the day" was always a very tart apple.

The location was nice, but was not walking distance from South Beach. It's about 2 miles, so you really had to drive. If you just want a quiet hotel to take your kids to the beach, this location is pretty good. There's a Subway right in the hotel open until 11:30pm, so it's convenient for that. The hotel is not right on the beach, but right across the street from it.

There is no parking provided at the hotel (typical of Miami Beach) but we were able to find street parking that was free after 6pm. We just had to get up and feed the meter by 8am. The parking lots in the area charged $24/day and that didn't include the ability to come and go. Parking is actually cheaper on South Beach! The one good thing is that the hotel was clean and the bathrooms were modern and updated.

One good thing was that the hotel was very quiet. It's an older hotel that's been updated, and they must have 3 foot thick concrete walls. I never heard anyone around us when we were in the room. That's pretty rare nowadays, even in nicer hotels.