Our Review
The Gardens Hotel is very pretty, and sits behind sheltering walls about a block from Duval along Angela and Simonton, a very good location.

There has been no expense spared in this hotel. It has won almost every award there is to win, and basks in its glowing reviews to a steady stream of the well-to-do and who's who from New York.

During my interview, guests were enjoying a late breakfast among bright, white walled rooms while a player piano tinkled out easy listening tunes.

The facility is impeccable, and no doubt expertly run. It sounds pretty, and it is.

But, I cannot recommend the Gardens Hotel, based upon the fundamental principle that in the hospitality industry it is human beings that make hospitality. A property can have the prettiest grounds, the best reputation, but still get a negative review here if the disposition of those that create and manage a lodging is unacceptable. Such is the case here with the Gardens Hotel.

I disliked the Gardens Hotel because of the people. They probably think this review is about them.

During my visit, the management was both dismissive and distancing, maintaining the utmost professional demeanor while pelting me with suspicious or off-topic questions. And while this has happened in the past, it is the way they went about things. I have never felt so put off, dismissed, and judged by a hotelier as I was here.

The Gardens Hotel is about efficiency and management, not hospitality. This is the island of Key West, not Manhattan. The Gardens Hotel is not a celebrity to be gasped at.

The Gardens Hotel is a corporate culture, and is soulless. It is a corporate mentality that is more interested in representations than actualities, a mentality that is facile at placing dollars before people and can hide a lack of personality behind a carefully engineered reputation.

Who should stay here? This is where you stick a hostile in-law. He or she will have absolutely nothing to complain about.

This is where you send an employee who has won a company award, so that he will never forget for one second that he is still within the corporate grasp.

Entertaining a Japanese billionaire? Send him here.

If you yourself have ever referred to another human being as one of the "little people", stay here.

If any of this turns you off, the Merlin (link) is just up the same quiet street, and the Crowne Plaza La Concha (link) is not far away on Duval itself.

Customer Review
After staying at a less than thrilling hotel in South Beach, this haven in Key West really delivered. Beautifully renovated rooms, warm and accommodating staff, and convenient location. Would definitely stay here again.