The Residence Inn Miami Airport really did have everything you needed for a weekend stay or a month long business trip. In addition to the great rooms they had a complimentary breakfast buffet, business center, fitness room, a laundry room, complimentary wireless internet access, airport shuttle, a meeting room, and a little store to buy food & drinks. The campus also includes a restaurant, bar, Starbucks, and a pool.  And of course, the hotel is pet friendly 🙂
The complimentary breakfast buffet was a great deal more than we expected. Of course they had the regular “free breakfast” fare which included pastries, toast, bagels, yogurt, cereal, coffee, and juice. But they also had eggs, potatoes, sausage, make your own waffles, oatmeal (with toppings), cottage cheese, and fruit. They did switch things up a little bit so that you wouldn’t get bored day after day. Our first morning they had pancakes and the next morning they had biscuits and gravy. There was plenty of food and it was refreshed often. The staff also did a great job of clearing off tables as soon as people got up since there was a lot of people eating each morning.
They staff was amazing! When we were telling my grandfather about the great staff he asked if they all knew why we were there. Some of the staff did and some didn’t, but they are all so friendly and helpful. The staff at the front desk makes you feel welcome from the minute you walk in. One of the best things is that they KNOW their guests. We were waiting to ask a question and there was a gentleman checking in for a 4 week stay that stays there often. The woman checking him in asked him all about his last trip, his wife, and even one of his coworkers. Another woman that works at the front desk keeps one of their frequent guests’ dog with her during the day so it isn’t alone. How cool is that?
After our first night there we wondered how things would work with housekeeping since we had two dogs in the room. I decided to just go ask for clean towels at the front desk and be done with it. But instead we were told to just let them know when we’d be leaving with the dogs and they would send housekeeping to freshen up the room and drop off clean towels while we were gone. The housekeeper made the bed, brought us new towels, cleaned up the kitchen, vacuumed, and even left us a note saying that she hoped we had a great day. It was so nice not having to worry about someone coming into the room while the dogs were there and we were not.
The only problem we had while we were there was not being able to open the side door closest to our room. Normally it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but since our room was right next to the door and the pet potty area was right outside the door we kinda needed to be able to get in and out. We informed the desk of the issue and they said they had someone working on it. When we came back that problem was corrected, but then our keys wouldnt open our room door. After having them reset the key and it not working a 2nd time, the maintenance manager walked us back to our room to make sure it worked and then told us he would take care of going back to the front if the keys needed reset again. The keys worked and we were all set. Both (small) problems were taken care of that same day and within a couple of hours. The staff was also very apologetic about the issues. But these were the only problems that we had during our entire stay.
Next Up: Just how pet friendly is the Residence Inn Miami Airport?
*Disclosure: Marriott provided me with a weekend stay at the Residence Inn Miami Airport and a travel stipend as part of this program. What I did during my trip was entirely up to me. All opinions regarding Marriott and Residence Inn are my own.
