Element Fort Lauderdale Downtown

Food was not good. Mixed drink not good. Lots of noisy kids in bar area.

When we arrived we were told the room we booked through Hotels was not available. Had to speak with a manager who finally found us another room big enough (for a family of four) because originally we were told we were getting just a standard 2 queen bed room. Got to the room and turns out “1 bedroom” means a wide opening between the bed and the sofa bed - as in, no privacy at all. Only after waking up in the morning did my husband try to make up the bed and we saw that on the flip side of the pillow I had already slept on were multiple spots of dried blood. Looked like it had been washed and someone tried to bleach it but then housekeeping had just flipped it around and put it right back on the bed. Checking out took about 35 mins just to drop off our bags because 1 couple was in front of us, had many questions, and only 1 person was working. We won’t be back.

Our family loved our stayed. The staff were supper nice with great service. Overall, great quality and service.

I have never experienced better customer service from a hotel, and I was a travel writer for 10 years of top-drawer VIP experiences. During this stay, on the other hand, I was temporarily relocated due to emergency home repairs, staying over a holiday weekend with a handicapped mother and a hyperactive toddler. Every one of the hotel staff was so incredibly patient as we made messes, lost our keys, had a terrifying late-night trip to the ER with a toddler fever, and generally were the most high-maintenance guests ever. Also, we were made to feel totally welcome and valued even though we looked nothing like the business traveler regulars staying on property or the Instagram couples who frequent Sparrow. I'm pretty sure a lot of return guests feel this way, as I saw many airline staff who seem to consider it their favorite home-away-from-home. One final thing: housekeeping staff here do THE MOST, and that is so appreciated in the post-pandemic era when most hotels don't have it at all.