Hotel Riu Plaza Miami Beach

Best hotel in Miami, very clean and have very good location. Nice personel, everything on big plus..

My wife and I spent 4 nights while attending Miami Tennis and pre cruise.
The checkin was easy and informative.
The room was excellent with lots of space and good balcony and view.
The hotel catered well for my coeliac disease as I needed gluten free options. There was buffet breakfast and dinner and the staff helped with GF options. The cafe also accommodated GF options for lunch. I had no food issues at all over the 4 days.

Great stay. Right on the beach. Friendly and helpful staff. Lovely food. Great swimming pool. We stayed for 2 nights prior to cruise. Close to the Miami airport and also cruise port.

Great value for the money! Price includes breakfast- buffet style with delicious and multiple choices. The hotel has a pool and easy access to the beach. Restaurant by the pool offers great lunch menu as well + hotel café. It was little too far to walk to the South Beach (40 min) and had to use Uber but it was an overall satisfying stay.

We stayed here for 3 nights pre cruise. I was very impressed with the location and I did like the hotel and would definitely stay here again if in the area. I didn’t particularly like the room, I found it a bit basic and the there was noise from the corridor at times. The corridor area wasn’t very nice either. That’s where my criticism ends. The rest of the hotel was lovely. Breakfast was excellent which is a big plus for us as we love our breakfast. The pool area was lovely with access to the beach. All the facilities around the pool were very good. Food available and a nice drinks menu. The lobby bar was lovely and we had drinks there each evening both inside and outside on the terrace and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere. The staff in all areas were very pleasant and attentive and were eager to please. We will be back if in the area again and would be happy to recommend with a slight question with the rooms.

Great location, friendly staff. Public areas beautiful and superb breakfast. Rooms good but need a refresh and strong smell of bleach. Noise from corridor due to design of building but not excessive. Buffet dinner cold, poor choice and not value for money. Would I recommend, most definitely and I would stay again for position, facilities and staff.

The Riu Hotel on Miami Beach
is a 4 star hotel…lobby. The hotel itself is closer to a 2.5 to 3 star hotel. Let me explain.
The good:
The lobby, aptly named “Florida”restaurant, Capital cafe and outdoor areas were impressive and well kept. Aside from some expected minor wear and tear, it looks the part. Modern furniture, clean windows, helpful staff and an all around, comfortable feeling.
The cafe was open from 7:00 until midnight and the staff was always cheerful and helpful. They offered wraps, sandwiches, a cheeseburger and also served as the in-hotel store. A small bar with a variety, if limited, options. I did notice that the staff was a little heavy handed with the pours. My double bourbon always came out more like a triple or quad, not that I’m complaining. The staff all spoke Spanish and English and they all made good coffee drinks.
The not-so-good:
The primary restaurant, the aforementioned Florida, served a functional breakfast and dinner buffet. The food was 2 out of 4 stars, but only because the offerings were about 1/2 prepackaged, frozen items like lower grade egg rolls and chicken variations. The morning omelette station was well done, but there were only 4 ingredients to request (tomato, onion, ham and cheese). The bacon was extra crispy or floppy and the scrambled eggs tasted like they were powdered eggs made in an old army “T-Rat”tray. The dinner meats cooked on site had an unfortunate dry texture. Everything was presented well, an unfortunate buildup to an average experience.
The lobby had plenty of seating, and there was also seating outside of the cafe, by the pool and at the outside bar.
Now, the bad:
For a 4 star hotel, the rooms were surprisingly small and ill maintained. From the photos provided online to experiencing the reality, it was very hard not to feel lied to. Paint and patch jobs were glaringly noticeable. The beds were very lumpy, but the sheets were clean. The blankets provided in the room felt like 60 grit sandpaper, but they were warm.
The locks on all the room doors still used a keycard. Most everywhere else in the country has switched to RFID technology. Such a simple thing immediately gave me the impression that this specific hotel was relying on the RIU name to classify themselves as a 4 star hotel, rather than their actual quality.
The deadbolt on our door was extremely difficult to lock without manipulating the door back and forth. The same was true for the patio door.
Any outside seating is an adventure. The local birds are brazen in their scavenging, and would fly right up to my plate as if to challenge me for ownership. They lost. I imagine that this avian behavior is common around the entire beach side community.
The elevators in the RIU are, at best, described as a dumpster fire. Every morning we waiting anywhere from 10-20 minutes for an elevator to open on our floor, only to find that it was packed like a sardine can. With no exterior floor or direction indicator for guidance, the elevators felt like a twisted slot machine.
Final evaluation:
For the price, experience and overall quality, I would say here again, if I’m out of options.

Nice rooms, great location right on beach and boardwalk, nice pool area and good restaurants on site. Great breakfast buffet, and very friendly and polite staff.

Love the hotel location as far as being directly on the beach. I love how they have umbrellas and chairs on the beach for you and they also provide a beach towel. The pool is awesome. I love the poolside cafe where you could order drinks and food. Lovely atmosphere. Everything was great. It was like we were staying at a resort. Love the boardwalk for walking in the morning as well. The only downside was it didn’t seem like many restaurants were very close in walking distance. There were some, but not a lot, also there is no bellboy at this hotel, and the gym was the smallest I’ve ever seen. I would’ve imagined a much bigger gym for the size of this resort. The breakfast buffet is definitely worth paying for in the mornings. We did the dinner buffet one night and that was also really good. People were friendly for the most part. I will say it’s a very diverse area, which was really cool to hear all the different languages being spoken.

Last minute I had switched to my stay here at Riu. It had beautiful beach access, chairs and umbrellas, towel service, beach side food and drink service. Location was beautiful and clean! Rooms were beautiful and clean! Staff was helpful. We arrived before check in and were able to use beach amenities while our luggage was valeted.

Fantastic place to stay for a few days prior to cruising. Hotel was clean and the staff were friendly and welcoming.
Rooms were spacious, the showers were great and they had good size bath sheets which is always a bonus.
The only downside for me was the “card only” at the bar down in the lobby and the pool deck, I can understand for convenience especially if you’ve just been to the beach (which is only a minute away - also big win) or to the pool but the option to pay cash should’ve available, tourists (non American) will usually always have cash, it was annoying putting payments on my card.

We found Uber was very expensive to / from the hotel (£80 from Miami airport & £70 from the hotel to the Cruise terminal)
We did however love the free trolly up and down Collins avenue

Great accommodations for our 5-night stay. The hotel was clean, staff was extremely friendly and helpful, breakfast buffet was delicious, and having the pool and beach right out the back door was terrific.

Stayed for one night after a cruise, the hotel is in a good location, it’s a leisurely 40 minute stroll to South Beach. It can be quite a wait for the lifts sometimes though & as we were on the 10th floor, the stairs weren’t really an option with suitcases to carry. As we are RIU Class Gold, there was a bottle of champagne chilling in our room for us, this was a nice touch & very much appreciated

The hotel is beautiful however it is a bit pricey. The staff members are extremely friendly and accommodating.

We booked a last minute stay due to our flight being cancelled and we were so happy we stayed at the riu plaza hotel. They let us check in early and then we got to enjoy the pool and beach all day without worrying about our stuff

First day we ordered the classic cheddar cheese burger and fries. Both fantastic. We imagined America in the 50's. Next day we split orders of large perfect chicken tenders with blue cheese and ranch dressing and popcorn shrimp with sweet and hot chili sauce. Pricing reasonable food over the top.

The room was clean and the food very good. The service was somewhat OK, where I had to wait three hours for getting my room, and that was with over 8 couples who came there after me, getting there room before me. But
I would stay there again, as long as that doesn’t happen again.

Overall our stay was great. This hotel needs more elevators. Included food was sufficient but you can always head out to a restaurant off hotel. Surprised they would not me pay for a late check out, but maybe thy were all booked.

This hotel is in a good location, with direct access to the beach.

Our room was clean and well maintained. The bed was comfortable, and there was plenty of wardrobe space. There was a great view of the beach from the balcony. Unfortunately the unusually cold weather meant we didn’t use it or the pool.

Breakfast and dinner buffet were fairly average, but there was plenty of choice. There is a good coffee shop in the hotel lobby.

I read some of the reviews of this hotel before we departed. I was a little worried about what we might find.

However, our experience here was fantastic with none of the issues that others had mentioned.

We found the staff polite and helpful at all times. Our room was beautifully presented on arrival and kept clean throughout our stay.

The breakfast facilities were fantastic. Lots of choice of hot and cold foods and plenty to go around!

We had dinner here one evening and although the food was fine, we found there were better options out of the hotel for the rest of our trip

We only used the pool a couple of times but found it to be clean and well kept. The area around the pool was also very clean.

The gym was well equipped and easy to navigate.

Food and drink options during the day were good although a little pricey after tax and service was added.

The bus stop for both the public buses and the hop on hop off tours was directly outside of the hotel which was very handy!

All in all, we would definitely recommend staying at this hotel based on our experience.