I spent two nights at the Cadillac in February and unfortunately it was a pretty disappointing experience. I had paid in Marriott points thankfully, so I don't feel like it was a major loss, but still, I expected better of this Autograph Collection hotel. I had selected it mainly due to the good location right on the beach and the fact that it had a pool too. We were traveling with a baby so I wasn't sure if we'd want to stay at the beach, and having a pool right there was a good alternative. It was also in walking distances of the handful of dinner restaurants I'd selected.
My biggest issue with the hotel was lack of preparedness (and now communication). I had called and emailed them several times prior to arrival (including just the day before!) to make sure there was a note added to our reservation that we wanted a crib/mini fridge (for our baby formula) and was reassured it would be all set. However, upon check-in around 3:45pm, these items were not in our room. I went back down to the front desk and asked again, and was told they'd be up soon. An hour later, they were still not delivered. We had a dinner reservation to get to so I figured they'd definitely be in the room when we returned...but they were not. At this point, it was nearly 7pm (baby's bedtime) and we still didn't have a crib/fridge. I went back down and desperately pleaded with a concierge person who finally got these items to our room somehow at around 7. Note it takes at least 30 min for a fridge to cool down once plugged in, so we still couldn't effectively use the fridge for awhile longer. At no point in the delay did anyone offer to bring us ice or store our formula elsewhere. The whole thing was a frustrating mess and required that I go out the next day and buy new formula (not cheap!) since ours had been unrefrigerated for so long (and take the time to call several drugstores to see who carried it). Anyway, as frustrating as this whole thing was, I'm about equally frustrated by the hotel's lack of communication after the fact. I had emailed after to speak with a manager about this, and after 2 weeks of calls/emails, not a single manager has responded. I ultimately contacted just the general Marriott customer service dept and they at least provided me some compensation (in points) for the inconvenience, which I do appreciate. Still have not gotten a response from the hotel manager. I of course appreciate that hotels like this are willing to provide these items free of charge, but families do plan around these things, so if you say you're going to have them ready, they need to be ready.
A few other less major issues:
-the layout of the hotel is very bizarre and not wheelchair/stroller friendly. A lot of mini staircases here and there. Thankfully my husband was there and able to help lift the stroller with me; with just one parent it would've been a struggle I think.
-the poolside food/drink service was terrible. This could've just been my experience that one day and perhaps it's usually better, but it was impossible to find someone to even take our order. Once I finally did get my order taken (after tracking someone down, which I shouldn't have to do!), they clearly lost my order because an hour went by and I still hadn't gotten a salad (and nobody else was coming around to check on things/ask if we needed anything else). When it did eventually come out (after having to track another person down), it was wrong (the online menu didn't match the paper menus, and of course nobody had offered us a paper menu so I had resorted to looking online). Eventually I got ahold of a restaurant manager who got the salad fixed and didn't charge me...it was just an unnecessary ordeal for a simple house salad. I would've been better off ordering Doordash to the hotel!
-one of the two main lobby elevators was out of service, meaning we had to wait at least 10 minutes (not exaggerating) to get upstairs with our bags upon arrival. Turns out there is another elevator in the back of the bldg, so I'm not sure why nobody at the front desk/a manager didn't direct us to that one and just had us waiting for so long...it was a mess.
- questionable elevator security...the elevator did have an electronic scan for key cards, but the floor we were on didn't require us to tap our cards...so anyone could've walked off the street/beach into the hotel, gotten into the elevator, and gotten up to our floor. Was I really concerned about this? No, but if you're going to have these security measures in place, at least make sure they are working everywhere!
-the room quality itself felt a bit sub-par/superficial...like it photographs nice and looks good online, but up close in person, it all looks kind of cheapish. I'll admit the bed itself was quite comfortable (if you like soft mattresses), and I think we had a decently-sized end room (perhaps because they knew we would have a crib and could use more space), but the finishes in the room itself just didn't feel like decent quality. This was most apparent with the bathroom--I really was shocked by the shower curtain (as nitpicky as this sounds) which was the tiniest, flimsiest piece of plastic, I honestly think I had a nicer one in my college dorm/even hospital bathroom. If you're not going to do a glass door (which would be preferable because...mold/mildew on curtains...it's FL after all), at least get a substantial, nice curtain. I know it's such a minor detail, but it really struck me as a "why did someone think this was passable?" sort of moment that really didn't align with the L'occitaine bath products and robes/slippers they're offering.
-though the resort fee covers 2 beach chairs per room, they will still charge you for an umbrella! this really annoyed me. I get having to pay extra for one of the special "cabanas," but having to shell out an extra $25 for a beach umbrella when the chairs are included? that kind of nickel and diming is frustrating, especially when traveling with a baby who shouldn't be in direct sunlight and especially when there's a plethora of umbrellas and it's not like they're in high demand. Just went to the pool instead where they didn't charge for umbrellas...but it would've been nicer to spend some time on the beach! Perhaps that's the norm at these hotels...but definitely not a fan of that.
-there was also a lot of miscommunication around our room and check-out; I had booked 2 nights, but 1 night was under my acct and 1 was under my husband's (because of Marriott's dumb limit of only being able to transfer 100k pts annually). I had communicated with them ahead of time to link the 2 reservations so we wouldn't need to check-out and could stay in the same room the whole time. I confirmed this again when we checked in in person and was told it was no problem. However, the next day, we got an email from some front desk/manager basically threatening us about late fees for not checking out in time. Which I immediately responded to, clarifying that we were there for 2 nights and it had been noted in our reservation that we didn't need to checkout. Once that was cleared up, this confusion came up again when housekeeping came by and was confused why we were still there and had a "do not disturb" light on. So I had to also clear that up with housekeeping. The whole thing should not have been so difficult for everyone (this is not the first time someone has booked 2 nights like this, I'm sure!) and caused so many alarm bells and required me to clear up so many times over! Just not a pleasant customer experience to have to keep repeating myself and returning emails/going to the front desk over and over.
Anyway, aside from location (and a decent points price), I don't think think there's a ton of other positives that would draw me back here. There are so many other hotels along this stretch of Miami beach that I'd like to try next time instead, even if I have to pay more. Hopefully they're able to take some of this feedback into account and improve for future guests.
