The hotel is located in Brickell, an urban neighborhood of Greater Downtown Miami. Brickell is Miami and South Florida’s major financial district. The hotel itself is close to the eastern border of the Brickell neighborhood, located on SW 2nd Ave.

Within 2 blocks of the hotel are many restaurants, bars, clubs and even a Metrorail and Metromover station. You can ride the Metromover for free and widen your options for more sights to see and things to do. Basically you don’t even need a car when you are staying here, but they don’t have an airport shuttle. I used Uber (Sign up for Uber with my invite code and you will get a free ride up to $20 USD.) to get from the Airport to the Hotel. I did this trip a couple of times and it was always between $12 – $13 USD.

Rooms and Check-In

During all my visits here check-in was always quick and painless. I liked the room facing Downtown Brickell. Probably best views of the hotel, even that it is not much. But I liked the view during night. They have the same “luggage carts” like at airports. But there is one downside to it. If your luggage is wider than the cart you have an issue at the doors right after the elevator. That’s the bottleneck at every floor. So if your room is on the other side of the building, away from the elevators, you either have to unload it or take them right away to the room. That was at least my problem.

The other room I was staying in was facing south, and I had this view from the balcony.

Both rooms were at the two top levels (13th and 14th floor). Room and bathroom were clean and the size was comfortable enough. Design as usual in an Aloft property, which I like. I prefer the big desks to work at. Gives me enough space for my daily work after work. All rooms have balconies, which is great. They are small but hey, you can sit outside and soak in some sun. Even tho I tried not to spend too much time in my room. I wanted to get out and explore the city.

Lobby & Amenities

There is a pool table in the lobby which you can use free of charge. Besides that, you will find the re:fuel marketplace and W xyz bar there. The marketplace offers snacks drinks and even toiletries.

The bar offers a great selection of drinks, beers, and wine. I didn’t like one of their bartenders to well. I sat down at the bar and tried to order a coke, while I was making up my mind what I would eat for dinner. He was rude and didn’t want to give me a coke to drink. He told me I can go to the re:fuel marketplace and buy one there. I told him that I got a coke here the day before and he just replied that he will give me one, but I have to order food. I was trying to order food anyway but wanted something to drink first. After I told him that he gave me my coke. If that’s really true that you have to order food to sit at the bar to have a coke, then this is the worst bar ever. What about you are the designated driver? So you can’t hang out with other people in the bar? I thought this was very rude of him. His service is also not the best and fastest. They have a waitress there and she is way more attending to guest needs. This is just my experience and I never did anything to upset him.

The breakfast is served in the air-conditioned patio area. The breakfast is different here compared to the usual continental breakfast at hotels. There are no hot food items. If you want eggs, bacon, sausage, and more, you have to order it at the re:fuel marketplace. The breakfast here only features “cold” food. I liked that they offered a cheese and meat platter, very European like. Besides that, you get cereals, bread, yogurt, and the usual breakfast items. This includes coffee and different kind of juices. Depending on your reservation, breakfast is included or will be charged with $10. Best thing: If you are an SPG Platinum member, you can select to have free breakfast instead of the bonus Starpoints. The breakfast staff only speak very broken English, basically only a few phrases and questions.  For a non-Spanish speaker, this might be challenging if you want to ask for something.

Sometimes during the week, they have a DJ at the lobby playing music. The lobby area always has some background music, which I like.

Out in the back of the hotel is the pool. Nicely tucked away behind the building. The pool gives you a place to relax and cool down from the hot temperatures in Miami.

Need to get some exercise done? Check out the fitness center at the ground level. It’s a little bit small but always had enough room to work out. There is just a small glass door in the fitness center which leads to the patio area.

For your convenience, they offer a dry cleaning service. Once the clothing gets back they will bring it up to your room.

To save the environment participate in the “Make a Green Choice” program. Put the hanger on the outside of your door and housekeeping won’t clean your room. In return you will get a $5 voucher for the restaurant (excluding alcoholic beverages) or 250 Starpoints per night. You won’t get one on your checkout day.