The Confidante Miami Beach, Florida

The Confidante Miami is located just north of South Beach, roughly a 10 minute walk from the Fountainebleu, and used to be a great way to use a category 4 award night. However, Hyatt changed the hotel to a category 5 which means that you can no longer use the category 4 free night awards you achieve via Milestone Rewards or the World of Hyatt credit card.

I first stayed  at The Confidante while en route to Richard Branson’s new private island, Moskito, for the launch of the Bilt Rewards program last October. Bilt is a fantastic program that is really beneficial to renters since it allows you to pay rent via a credit card, earn transferrable points – I’ve since partnered with them.

I’ve been to Miami several times and recently came back to the hotel for the Bitcoin 2022 conference and stayed, yet again, at the Confidante. This time, my buddy Dave, booked through his account ( he’s a Globalist ) used points for the stay and threw a Globalist Suite upgrade on it. We ended up in an Ocean Front 1 Bedroom Suite. I thought it’d be worthwhile to see the comparison as well as the breakfast offering since I had this a few times during the stay.

Stay Details:

• When: October 2021, updated April 2022
• Where: Miami Beach, FL
• Room category: King balcony
  • Updated with Ocean Front One Bedroom Suite
• Status: Globalist booked via Prive
  • Second time with points with a suite upgrade attached
• Upgrade: Entry level room to Ocean View balcony
  • Standard suite to Ocean Front One Bedroom Suite
• Globalist benefits
  • Free breakfast – $90 for two people
  • Waived resort fees
  • Upgrade
• Rate: $169 on our first stay
  • Points on the second stay – we booked for 18k points per night + suite upgrade
    • Currently the hotel is a Category 5 ( 17k to 23k points per night )

Booking with Hyatt Prive

If you’re unfamiliar with Hyatt Prive, it’s Hyatt’s VIP program that anyone can use as long as they book with a designated rep. If you’re interested, I would suggest reading my VIP master thread which breaks down these kind of programs at every hotel chain.

• $100 property credit
• Daily comped breakfast for 2
• Welcome amenity
• Priority check-in late check-out
• Comped room upgrade, subject to avail

 

The Location:

I love the location since it’s a bit further away from all the center of South Beach, but still close enough that you could pop down on the boardwalk. One thing I would note is that if you’re looking for any food after 10pm or 11pm it gets really tough. One night we ended up wondering all the way to Lincoln which is just way too far at that time of night.

On our first trip, my wife and I ended up grabbing lunch at Cecconi’s which is inside the Soho House, roughly a 10 minute walk, and open to anyone. The beach is right out the back door and looked very inviting. We mosied our way up to the Fountainbleu which, to me, feels like going to Vegas in Miami. If that’s your vibe, you can easily access that hotel right off the boardwalk from the beachside.

Check -in

The hotel has an art deco vibe and definitely leans into that with its decor.

Dining

Below you can see the bar area which uses QR coded menus and as we unfortunately found out stops serving food at 10pm most nights.

In the morning, breakfast is served, buffet style, with the option of ordering eggs as you wish. Each morning I did a combination of the two, having a bit of fruit alongside an omelette. In total, as Globalists, we were given $90 a day for two guests which easily covered the breakfast. There isn’t a a la carte menu.

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We chose to eat outside since temperatures in April were roughly 80 degrees and it was delightful.

You can also grab a snack out by the pool area, frozen margaritas, guacamole, etc

The Ocean Front One Bedroom  Suite – Room 1603

The Confidante uses a text function to notify you when your room is available. I arrived at 9am for the Bitcoin Conference and our suite wasn’t available yet so I left my bag and headed over to the con. Around 4pm I got a note saying it was ready, which ended up being perfect since I was at the conference all day anyways.

Pros:

• Incredible Ocean Front View
• A lot of space
• Half bath + shower/tub combo in main bath

Cons

• Dated
• Stained couch
• Never brought extra towels or blanket we requestded
• Thin Walls

The Suite Is quite large, embodies a 60s style decor, but honestly feels very tired. The furniture was stained, and seeing as though this Suite was going for well over $1000 a night during our stay… I wasn’t overly impressed.

Immediately when you enter you have a half bath on the right

And then the main living room which we added a cot to for $40/night.

The stained couch

The Master

The Master Bath

And the view from the balcony

Room:

I don’t imagine many people are spending a lot of time in the room, but without the view and balcony, the 350 sq feet would have felt really small, but from my experience Miami has small rooms in a lot of the older hotels on the beach. So it isn’t surprising, but as a globalist, on a prive rate, I was hoping we’d get upgraded to a suite, since several were available the morning of, but it didn’t pan out. If I were staying longer, I’d have either used a suite upgrade or 6k points a night to guarantee the upgrade. We were traveling with a pet as well which requires a $100 fee.

Pros:

• Ocean View
• Rate was sub $200
• Shower pressure was fantastic

Cons

• A bit dated for my taste

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Pool Area:

There are two pools with food and beverage service and pool side bar action. You can see from the images below that it was fairly empty, but the weather was gorgeous and had I been able to stay longer I would have really enjoyed a few hours by the pool.

Gym:

The gym is located on the top floor of the hotel and for a hotel gym has a great selection of equipment.

Overall:

When I first stayed here in October I said the following:

“I’d return to the confidante in the future for a longer stay, off peak, and upgrade to a suite. Our rate was really quite great at $169 a night and with the beach right out the backyard – I’d stay again.”

I really do like the location, but at 20k points per night I’d need to really consider all the options. Using free night certificates is one thing, staying for 15 to 18k points is attractive as well, but creeping up into category 5 prices, while still a bargain when rates are super peak, isn’t a bargain at all when you can stay for $170 to $250 a night.

The rooms are tired. I’d be interested to check out a Kimpton property especially now that I can add points to the IHG Rewards Premier and Business Premier free night certificates. I’ve seen a lot of nights at Miami Kimpton properties both on South Beach and downtown/Brickell that I could slide into pretty easily. I’d reckon the rooms are nicer as well, and I could bring my pet with me fee free.

While I had a fantastic time with my friends on this trip, I could see the cracks a bit clearer on my return visit, and I’d been keen to stay elsewhere should I return to the area again.