We have stayed at the Bal Harbour many times for many years. I would NEVER stay there again during the high, summer season.

Although The Bal Harbour has an upscale appearance, I found this hotel/motel to attract a very loud, rowdy, inebriated type of clientele; the type of people who order a 1/2 dozen pizzas at 1 AM, then chuck the empty boxes and empty beverage bottles/cans into the hallway when they are finished yelling and partying. Complaints to the front desk of noise and rowdiness and a few drunken family arguments are supposedly addressed, but nothing is ever really done about it. I finally insisted on another room on another floor in another building which was a nuisance of repacking and waiting for another room to vacate as it was mid August.

Parking is extremely tight for a hotel this size. The rooms are clean and just moderately decorated, a far cry from what you see and expect when entering the gleaming main lobby. Elevator service is extremely s-l-o-w. Elderly, handicapped, expectant or need a baby strollers-FORGET IT.

A young lady at the front desk spent a half hour explaining to me how to access the Internet at the hotel and she still was not certain how to log on. She never said there was a users fee. A few days later I stopped back at the desk as I was still having Internet problems and I was informed that there was an hourly Internet service charge. I had remained logged on as I was being disconnected so many times and my Internet charge was almost what my hotel bill was. Needless to say, I refused to pay it as I could have accessed the Internet from any McDonald's WIFI 24/7 for free. The bill was rescinded and I did not use the hotel's service again.

We are still on the Bal Harbour mailing list. Off season is GREAT. It's not beach weather, but it's a fun, quiet, relaxing weekend package. The people at the front desk seem to have more time for you, less hectic, etc. They offer Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Easter, Columbus Day, Indian Summer weekend specials and many others; almost every weekend some package is being offered. If you hit an "off" weekend, just ask for one of their specials and they are very accommodating. One or two meals per day, per person in their coffee shop-restaurant or a meal voucher at another local eatery if their dining room is closed. The dinners are just "fair" and not very creative so it's better to have breakfast or lunch at the hotel and have dinner out at a place of your choice.

We take advantage of these off season weekend get-aways several times a year, for birthdays, etc. and have always enjoyed ourselves. In-season we stay at another WWC motel were the behavior of the guests is somewhat more restricted and family oriented.

Every year--as a group of roughly 100 doctors and associates of the Brit Yosef Yitzchak organization--we visit Bal Harbour. We book out over 100 rooms. We have a great time. It has very spacious rooms, great ocean views, and wonderful pool and patio area. The management is very accomodating and was even more so this year. We were cancelled-out of convention space at the Wildwood Convention Center for the annual "Doctors of Brit Milah 2011" lectures. [This was not the hotel fault]. We didn't know what to do as we were out of space and some of our people traveled all the way from Israel. The woman at the desk went out her way, had her staff remove all the games from the game room, and offered us 'for free' usage of that room and the restaurant. And when one of the women forgot to buy fresh figs for a homemade dish, even the Mexican gardener Mr J --offered her some from his own home garden. By the way, he's always busy watering all the lush vegetation and flowers and more than willing to offer advice on gardening...a real expert...and even speaks english well. It's the little things such as this that makes a vacation special.

This place is average I've stayed in nicer hotels and some that have been worse. We had an ocean view room, and the view was spectacular. As other reviewers stated this hotel is very dated and dark. The ceilings on the floors are very low and the elevators are a little bit scary. I wouldn't have minded the fact that they still use regular keys for the rooms if it wasn't so difficult to open the door with them. The location of where you have to flush the toilet is very inconvenient. The water pressure in the shower went from full blast to a little trickle. I was unable to get hot water to come out of the sinks so I ended up washing my hands in the shower. Even though the hotel is non smoking there were still people who were smoking as you could smell it in the hallways.

With a little updating this place does have potential.

we went labor day weekend & had a fabulous time. I love the cleanliness of this hotel. There was plenty of pools where you didnt feel crowded. Also theres a restaurant inside & we ate there for breakfast very good.