Albion Rating: 3.0 Pearls

South Beach, Miami, Florida

Porthole looking into Main Swimming Pool

Built in 1939 to resemble a beached ocean liner, the Albion was designed by Igor Polevitzky, known as the father of nautically themed Art Deco achitecture. The courtyard has round portholes looking into the swimming pool, giving the illusion you're peeking through an aquarium. In 1996, the Rubell family, renowned for its contemporary art collection and of co-own Studio 54 fame, bought the Albion and hired avant-garde Ecuadorian architect Carlos Zapata to style the lobby with mod, custom-made white leather couches and a wall-size waterfall. However, the waterfall was shut off and boarded up during my visit, and drops of water from an upstairs leak trickled into a plastic 10-gallon bucket carefully placed on the shiny travertine floor. Though renovated in 2005, the Albion has lost much of its glamour, but with rates often under $100 a night, it's by far one of the best deals in South Beach. Period.

Located two blocks from the beach, just steps from dining and shopping at the Lincoln Road Mall, and less than five minutes by car to the Miami Beach Convention Center, the Albion attracts an unpretentious crowd in their late 20s, 30s, and 40s. At the pool, the scene is pretty mellow. Couples laze in the sun poring through magazines and taking occasional dips -- it's devoid of the sceney glitz and glamour intrinsic to some of its closest neighbors, like the Ritz Carlton and the Delano, but it's plenty nice, cheap, and central to everything.

Front Desk

On arrival, a porter came outside immediately to help me with my bags when he noticed my taxi parked at the curb. The front desk staff was cheerful during check-in. My room wasn’t ready until after the standard 3 p.m. check-in time, but I was inside it by 3:15 p.m.

The hotel offers concierge services, but the concierge desk seemed to be empty almost every time I dropped by. Fortunately, the front desk staff seemed to know South Beach well and were able to recommend great bars within walking distance.

Room service is available, and both times I ordered, it arrived within 15 minutes.

But like at any budget hotel, service can sometimes falter. Room cleaning occasionally goes on until 6 p.m., so expect to see some strewn towels in the hallway. The room service tray I left outside my door at 8:30 p.m. was still there when I opened my door at 8:30 the next morning. A few TripAdvisor reviewers also complained about the overall service, but all the guests I interviewed were plenty satisfied.

View on a Larger Map

The Albion is located on the corner of Lincoln Road and James Avenue, two blocks from the beach and just 10 steps from Lincoln Road Mall, one of SoBe's premier places for dining, shopping, and drinking. James Avenue is a much quieter, mostly residential street, and it can feel a little dark and empty at night, unlike the hotels on Ocean Drive or Collins Avenue. The hotel's section of Lincoln Road is across from the 24-hour CVS pharmacy and some discount electronics stores -- not the chichi boutiques further west -- but it's only one block from the beachside Ritz Carlton and the posh Delano. It's also less than five minutes by car from the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Like anywhere in South Beach, parking is a pain. There’s metered parking outside, which you can't use overnight, or guests have the option to valet park for $30 per day.

SoBe's swarming beachstrip

It's only a two-block stroll down Lincoln Avenue and past the Ritz Carlton to the beach, but don't expect extra perks from the hotel like towels or chairs -- there aren't any.

A walk through South Beach makes it clear why there's a diet named after it. Half-naked beauties of all genders and gender preferences sun themselves on the broad stretch of sand. A jumbled horde of bikini babes, jacked dudes, couples on vacation, and families with kids play on a stretch of sand 100 yards wide.

In the mornings, the occasional runner trots along the harder, inland half of the beach. By the afternoon, the joint is packed with sunbathers; the scene thins out again at dusk.

Mobile snack stands are scattered along the beach selling soft drinks and chips, but alcohol is not allowed.

The Classic King Room

Rooms were last renovated in 2005, and the furnishings are clean and modern. OK, so they're on the small side, the walls are thin, and there aren't any balconies, but overall, the quality is exceptional for the price.

The cheapest rooms, "Buddy" rooms, are only 180 square feet; they come with a full-size bed and little else. It's well worth upgrading to the deluxe room, which is more than double the size at 335 square feet and includes either a king-size bed or two full American queens. If you're up for a gamble, book the Buddy and ask for an upgrade at check-in -- if there's space, management has been known to be generous. Adjoining rooms for families are also available, and if you call the hotel directly, you can sometimes swing a discount rate.

Beds are generally firm, with synthetic pillows and fairly basic sheets -- not Egyptian cotton or anything too fancy, but they're plenty comfortable. The gauzy coverlet on top of the down duvet gives the beds a sophisticated look.

All rooms come with a 27-inch tube TV and basic cable (PBS, CNN, and Nickelodeon, among others, but no movie options), an old GE alarm clock, a safe big enough for a laptop, and a JVC stereo that was tuned to the classical station when I walked in, a nice touch. Wi-Fi is free throughout the hotel, and signal strength is pretty fast and reliable.

The mini-bar comes stocked with water, sodas, juice, Perrier, Yoo-hoo, Snapple, and Starbucks Frappuccinos, each of which costs $4 to $5. But there's no booze. Snacks include Pringles ($5) and PowerBars ($4), plus late-night aids like Altoids ($4), Aquafresh toothpaste ($3), and condoms ($9). In my room, though, the condoms had expired six months before my stay. Careful, clubbers.

Bathrooms in all rooms are small, a common complaint among guests here, and at pretty much any South Beach Art Deco boutique. There’s limited shelf space for toiletries and barely enough standing room for two people. The grout in my shower was beginning to show some mildew, the mirror was rusting around the edges, and there were holes in the corners of the floor molding. Overall, though, they were about on par with similarly priced hotels like the Whitelaw Hotel & Lounge and the South Seas.

Several guests and reviewers on TripAdvisor complained about the thin walls, and I noticed the same. The bickering couple next door kept me up until 1 a.m. I found street noise to be minimal, but I’d kept my windows closed through the night. (The windows only open about eight inches, anyway.) If noise is a concern, request a room facing the pool.

Loungers at the Main Pool

Heated year-round at 83 degrees Fahrenheit, the rectangular pool is located on a pleasant deck above the lobby. The coolest feature, though, are the round portholes in the pool through which people sitting in the courtyard can look, as if in an aquarium. Unlike at most hotels, the depth gets up to nine feet, but the shallow section can be roped off for kids. Beside the pool, nearly every lounger was taken during the day, but there's additional space on an elevated pool deck, although the concrete setting overlooking the pool doesn't feel especially scenic or tropical.

There’s a fitness center on the property, but it’s one of the most cramped in Miami, with barely enough space for two people. Equipment includes one treadmill (with nowhere to hold a water bottle), one reclining bike, one StairMaster, and one multipurpose weight machine. It’s air conditioned, and there’s a wall-mounted TV with cable. Discount gym passes are available at the front desk to Gold’s, a full-service gym that's a 15-minute walk away.

Wi-Fi is free throughout the hotel, and the signal is as good in the rooms as it is in the lobby. Otherwise, there’s a free computer and printer for guests to use, and faxing is $1 per page.

There aren't many kids at the hotel, but the Albion isn't a bad option if you have a little one in tow. Cribs are free, and rollaway beds ($25 per night) can fit into a Deluxe room (335 square feet) but not the standard "Buddy" room. The hotel also offers adjoining rooms, which usually means two queen beds in a room joined with a king in another room. Junior Suites (425 square feet) contain a pull-out sofa, and additional rollaway beds can also fit more easily in these rooms than in the Deluxe.

Pets fewer than 50 pounds are welcome but cannot be left alone in the room at any time. A $100-per-day deposit will be fully refunded unless your dog decides to eat the gauzy designer coverlet on the bed.

My room was clean, for the most part, but the bathroom counter was scratched, the grout in the shower showed some mildew, and the shelf in the shower had oxidized and could've used replacing.

The pool area and the pool itself were both very clean. In the lobby, drops of orange, sticky something or other looked stuck on one of the coffee tables, plus there was a massive leak in the ceiling.

The Albion Cafe -- the hotel's on-site restaurant -- serves casual American cuisine such as burgers and salads from 7:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. The restaurant features indoor seating as well as an outdoor terrace that overlooks the hotel's swimming pool. The Albion is not in an isolated area. Other tasty restaurant options are within walking distance, so guests do not have to dine at The Albion Cafe nightly.

Serving up cocktails to guests and locals from Wednesday through Sunday is the hotel's drinkery the Albion Bar & Lounge.