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Royal Palm South Beach Review: Studio Suite
I have to admit, South Beach isn’t quite my cup of tea. Miles on the other hand…flipping loves it. Dinner at midnight and breakfast at 1pm. You rise to watch the sunset, go to bed as the sun rises, and have ample opportunities to live la vida loca. Hot sun, hot bodies, hot rods, hot dogs, and it’s just really flipping hot hot. Miles doesn’t sweat…despite the fact that he has a wallet full of credit cards, and a soul driven for maximized spend, he isn’t real. But his daddy is very real and for the love of it all…Miami is a humidity driven sweat fest. Thank goodness the Royal Palm South Beach has plenty of water in the lobby and air conditioning, because I almost melted over the 4th of July.
The Deets
- When: July 4th Weekend
- Where: Royal Palm South Beach
- Loyalty Program: Starwood Preferred Guest
- Elite Status: Gold ( From Amex Platinum )
- Room Category: Studio Suite
- Upgrade: None to speak of. Hotel was sold out.
The Royal Palm South Beach is part of the Tribute Portfolio of Starwood
This Tribute Portfolio is a collection of independent hotels that are uniquely steeped in history, luxury, and superior service. This is certainly true of the Royal Palm South Beach. It feels like an independent hotel and is certainly VERY Miami. The style of Miami luxury isn’t quite my preferred style, but I appreciate it. It’s art deco minimalist. I love art deco and the Raleigh hotel ( an SLS property ) is right up my alley for exuding how posh art deco can be, but the typical Miami art deco is more bright colors and white, white, white. I think the exteriors of the hotels along Collins are absolutely DOPE! The Royal Palm South Beach is definitely cool, and has a vibe to it.
Hotel Entrance
There is one U shaped drive – don’t enter the wrong way or you’ll be met with lots of angry exiters
The Lobby: Sometimes crazy, sometimes not ( after 6am and before noon )
The hotel is pretty cool with lots of hang out areas
Outdoor spaces, food, and the pool
And then on out to the beach
Up to the room
We had a corner room on the end. I have to say that this is probably the worst tower to be in because I can’t see how any of the rooms, except the circular suites, could possibly have a good ocean view. It’s set closer to Collins than the Ocean, and the lot is fairly narrow. Our view was barely a city view as we saw more air conditioner and adjacent building than any semblance of city. But that’s the thing isn’t it…who stays in the their rooms when its MIAMI!!!!!!!!
The Mini bar is empty.
The reason behind this, and new to me, is because you pre-purchase outrageously priced mini bar packages. It’s so crazy to me, because you can just walk down the street for 5 mins and buy what you need at CVS. I think the hotel would make a TON more money if they offered packages that were just retail in price. They can buy everything at huge cost discounts and wouldn’t it make sense to make some money than no money at all? Anyways…we never used this. But it’s nice to have for leftovers or other food and drink.
Man I hate when they do this. I love to stock on products every single day and take them home. I’m a hoarder, what can I say?
The room was a great size and the only complaint I’d really make is the noise factor. People LOOOOOOVE to party in Miami. If you are one of those partiers, then this won’t apply to you at all. This weekend I was on the straight and narrow and wasn’t ‘LIV’ing up. You can hear people in the halls, coming in from Collins, and even out on the street. Look, it’s South Beach but it’s worth mentioning if you’re looking for someplace to be that isn’t CRAZY. Other than that, the room was great. Wifi worked well, tv was easy to use, and the products were fine. Anything to write home about? No. But nice. Yes.
More pics around the hotel.
OMG the Gym. I almost forgot…cause I forgot to go. oopsy
Overall:
If you’re looking for a hotel that you can use points, party, have good food, see celebs ( Lawrence Fishburne was staying there), be SUPER DUPER central, and great beach access….this could be your spot. The only thing I would bring up is that the Hyatt Centric is LITERALLY across the street. It doesn’t have all these fringe benefits like beach access, but it just got downgraded from a category 6 to a 4. That is ridiculous and also means you can use your Chase Hyatt Credit Card for an annual night. That’s pretty dope if you ask me. Otherwise, if you can get a good deal on this hotel – it’s a cool spot in a cool location.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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