We stayed here just for one night before our cruise. The room was very clean and we had a spectacular view from our room. The beach is just across the street and the daily resort fee ($35) gave us 2 free beach chairs, 2 free drinks and 2 bottles of water. The chairs are only available until 5 pm and I wish I would have known as we checked in around 3:30 and leisurely made our way to the beach around 4 pm. About 4:45 the guy who gave us the chairs told us we would have to vacate the chairs in 5 minutes. Kind of disappointing. The pool area is nice and the restaurant onsite is very good. There are other hotels and restaurants in walking distance. Read less

The only problem that we had was as we are elite members we were to get 2 complementary waters per day in our room and only received them the first day. We mentioned it to the front desk as they will charge you for them if you drink them and they are not comped so they said it would be taken care of but never did receive any others. That was the only problem we had Read less

Get it together Sonesta. This was my 3rd visit to your property but the first in a few years. We are locals and decided to take advantage of Fort Lauderdale Restaurant month and try Steelpan. Upon arrival we knew we were in trouble. The porte-cochere was a mess. My husband made the comment, "one of us needs to get the car as 20 minutes before we are ready to leave". Unfortunately, he was seeing into our future. Walking into Steelpan we were left for 10 minutes with no hostess, no direction, only a brief "someone will be with you" as a server was gliding by. Finally someone came by (I think it was a busier) and greeted us with "we have a wait right now". No hello, no "how many", instantly "we have a wait right now". I explained we had reservations and he slowed down for a second to plug our names in, then grab some menus and inform us that outside was busy and we'd have to sit inside. From the entrance area, we could see the place was less than 1/2 full so the entire experience was super confusing for us. Again, our hopes for a nice evening were quickly dashed. Thank goodness our server quickly appeared to great us and we thought the evening may be saved. Alas, it wasn't to be. Service slowed down right after our order was taken. The apps took nearly 30 minutes to arrive, then the entrees showed up before we were done with the apps. THEN dessert took another 20 minutes to arrive. The food was ok but certainly not something that a local would go back for. Now, to cap off the night. VALET. Deep breath. We noticed during dinner that they parked our car on the lawn which made us happy because we knew we wouldn't have to wait a long time to get our car back. My husband gave our ticket to a valet attendant who passed our keys off to another valet. All he had to do was back up 10 feet to get to us. Instead he turned onto A1A and made a right. I thought that maybe it was against the rules to back up in the drive and he would be back shortly. (get ready for the 30 minute wait) crickets...no car...no valet. Finally the original gentleman who took our keys approached us and said he was surprised we didn't have our keys. "That's what I get for giving your keys to the new guy. I bet he parked your car in the lot". He left to go find our car. During our wait, we also got to witness a lovely fight between a couple in the lawn. Screaming, yelling, nearly came to blows. The woman involved was yelling "do ya'll see what he's doing to me?". Rather than call security, valet stood and watched. Shameful. Finally, I saw the valet who took our keys walk by with my keys attached to his belt (and by the way, he was drinking a latte). I stopped him and said "those are my keys, where is my car?". He asked for my ticket and I tried to tell him, we had already turned it in, watched him go to get our car, and drive away. This man had the nerve to tell me that many cars look the same and he needed my ticket. Literally argued with him for 5 minutes before I went to find someone else to help me. There was a 2nd valet who understood what was going on and got my keys. In the meantime, I went in to ask for a manager. I'd had enough. I'd spent 2.5 hours there and most of it was waiting for my table, food, or car. I was told the GM wasn't working and I could talk to the front desk manager who was literally squatting behind the front desk (hiding?) on the phone. I told the clerk that my evening had been a nightmare and obviously spooked her. No, what happened? How can I help? Just an "oh no" and handed me the valet managers business card. Long story short Sonesta, we will NEVER be back. You have proven yourself to only be good for the cruise ship clientele who come in and out and don't know any better. Sadly, you won't survive without the locals. You have the makings of a good product, you just have a MAJOR service issue, in every venue at your establishment. Read less