The hotel is in a decent location but not the best on South Beach. The area is a bit seedy with a strip bar across the street, a club next door, and more than a few vagrants wandering around. This is not the place to stay if you are traveling with kids.

My biggest problem with the hotel was that it is dirty. Very dirty. Marriott apparently bought it some years ago and updated it to give it a more stylish look. Think of it as a "poor man's W Hotel". However, nothing has been done in the way of maintenance in years. The carpets in the halls and in the rooms are stained. The bed linens are old and worn. The furniture has been beaten to death. The bathrooms are small. There is no mini-bar or mini-fridge in the room and the tv sets are old, old, old. The price was right but I would have gladly paid more for a place that didn't look dirty.

There are two elevators but only one is operational at any given time. They are quite slow.

The air conditioning in my room barely worked. August on South Beach is brutally hot.

After I checked in I went up to my room, let myself in, and found someone already staying there. I'm not sure if that has ever happened to me before. The desk clerk didn't seem surprised and merely put me in another room without an explanation of any sort. When I was in my room I made sure all of the locks were in place lest it were to happen again.

If you need to do South Beach on the cheap, then this hotel will suffice for your needs. I won't stay there again, though.

The hotel staff was very courteous and friendly! Everytime we walked in the hotel the bellman/valet opened the door for us and upon entry/exit the front desk staff commented by saying "Welcome back" or "Have a great day/evening" respectively. The Courtyard Miami Beach South is a typical Courtyard Marriott property with the added edge of being in South Beach. Therefore, you'll receive free high-speed Internet as you would in any Courtyard, yet you have the added extra of having something like a rooftop pool that overlooks all of South Beach! Don't expect an amazing room with the latest features as you may expect in a higher-end property (i.e., Flat screen, etc.), yet you can expect a clean and comfortable room that could suit both business and leisure travelers alike. As far as the location, the property is located at the northern edge of South Beach which puts you in walking distance to many area attractions such as Lincoln Road Mall, the beach, restaurants, clubs, etc. If you prefer not to walk, taxis are in abundance and most rides around South Beach are pretty cheap even in the added congestion on weekend nights. Overall, I have stayed at this property 4-5 times and if your expectations are in-line with other Courtyard Marriott properties, you should not be disappointed at this property, particularly if you are able to secure a good rate.

The staff was absolutely wonderful! Very pleasant and courteous. The room wasn't great, but it was clean. The neighborhood in which it is placed still needs help cleaning up, but the people were friendly.

I stayed with my two daughters one night in this hotel in April. I would not book this hotel again for one reason: next to the hotel is a nightclub. I woke up in the middle of the night from music especially from the low tones (bass) of a very heavy music installation. The next day the receptionist told me that the music was of the nightclub next door and that the music was there every night! I was lucky because I had a room at the fith floor at the other side because if you had a room low in the building at the wrong side the music was much louder the receptionist told me....
I stayed 3 days at the Hilton Vacation Club at Ocean Drive at 5 minutes from this hotel and there it was very quiet.