The Altair Bay Harbor Hotel

I will never come back to this hotel. We came to Miami for New Year’s and to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary. We love treating ourselves to a nice vacation to celebrate a special occasion, and staying somewhere special and fancy is what we aim to do. Unfortunately, this hotel did not meet our expectations at all. The hotel is very accommodating to Jewish people. It is kosher, etc.; however, if you are not Jewish (like us), you get a sense that you don’t quite fit in. There was nothing on the property to indicate Christmas had just happened. There was no decor, no colors to mark the season, and nothing to suggest this important part of the year for their Christian guests even exists. That oversight was unwelcoming. For the rate we paid per night, we expected to have a more luxurious experience and nicer amenities. There is no room service, which took us by surprise. We were hoping to treat ourselves to breakfast in bed, or to have the opportunity to have a late snack brought to the room-but that is not an option. There is no sundry, so be prepared to leave the property and walk a couple of blocks to the mini mart to get snacks or anything else you need. The room we stayed in was very plain and ugly. It looked like a Comfort Inn or something in that price range. The art on the dull, taupe-colored walls were blue abstract blobs of paint on canvas. Nothing pretty to look at. The room was small and cramped. The bed, TV, closet, and drawers were squished on one side of the room by the balcony, while the other half of the room was a long entry area where a big full-length mirror rested against the wall in what was pretty much useless space. As is the case in many hotels, the lighting was bad. There was not a vanity mirror hanging on the wall in our room, meaning you had to get your hair and makeup done in the steamy bathroom while someone else was in there showering. Or, to avoid the steamy bathroom, you could opt to pull a chair in front of the full-length mirror across from the bathroom with all your stuff, but there was not a plug within reach. There was an orangey tint on the white shower walls-perhaps mildew?—that was a bit unsettling. To top it off, the toilet paper was single-ply and it was so thin and scratchy. Talk about CHEAP. One of the tell-tale signs of a great hotel is the comfort of the bed. Unfortunately, the bed we had was uncomfortable. The pillows were ok. The impression I got from staying at this hotel is that they sacrifice luxury and quality in order to cut costs. This is evident in the details. This hotel was a big disappointment and it left so much to be desired.

We were originally booked at a different hotel, but that hotel was dirty. We ended up finding Altair and glad we did. Our room was clean and it was nice to have a balcony. Anything you needed was brought up fairly quickly. We are not part of the Jewish community, but that did not matter. Staff were very friendly, especially the front desk, cleaning and pool staff. We enjoyed the Kosher breakfast. The hotel is in a quieter area, but close to everything. We would stay here again.