Faena

Faena Hotel Miami Beach is the most theatrical luxury hotel in the city, and that is deliberate. The Mid-Beach anchor of Alan Faena's district holds Forbes Five Star for 2026 and two MICHELIN Keys, and carries commissioned Damien Hirst works, a 22,000 sq ft healing house and a resident stage production. It holds no MICHELIN star.

"Forbes Five Star theatre of a hotel with commissioned Damien Hirst works, live fire Argentine cooking and a 22,000 square foot healing house."

Aggregate 9.5/10 on our editorial scale (Room & Design, Service, Location). Independently scored; see our methodology. This is our opinion, not an aggregate of user reviews.

Affiliate disclosure: we may earn a commission from bookings at no cost to you. We never accept payment for placement. Hotel status, room product and Michelin ratings were verified against official sources and the 2026 Michelin Guide Florida in July 2026. Resort fees and valet charges were checked separately and move frequently.

What makes Faena special?

Faena is a designed spectacle, and everything else about the hotel follows from that decision. It has 169 rooms and suites, including oceanfront one-, three- and four-bedroom suites, and it anchors Alan Faena's Mid-Beach district; the hotel is operated within the Accor portfolio. The art is not decoration. Damien Hirst's "Gone but Not Forgotten", a gilded woolly mammoth skeleton in a steel-and-glass vitrine, stands in the garden beside the pool, and Hirst's "Golden Myth" unicorn anchors the Pao dining room. Commissioned art on that scale inside a working hotel is genuinely unusual. The Faena Theater stages a resident original production, OBSESSION, on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and the beach club, Faena Playa, occupies roughly 100,000 sq ft of sand. The credentials are Forbes Travel Guide Five Star in the 2026 Star Awards and two MICHELIN Keys, which are a hotel award and not a restaurant star. Faena holds no MICHELIN star, and copy that suggests otherwise is simply wrong.

Which room should you book?

There are 169 rooms and suites, which is small relative to the demand this hotel generates, so book early for holiday weekends. The range runs from entry categories to oceanfront one-, three- and four-bedroom suites, and the larger suites are where the building's ambition shows most clearly. The design language is maximalist gold and red rather than the pale minimalism most of Miami Beach defaults to, and guest reaction to it is genuinely divided; several reviewers describe the property as a stage set rather than a retreat. That is a question of taste rather than quality, but it is worth knowing before committing to a full week. Choose your side of the building deliberately. The pool and beach programming is DJ-driven and is part of the hotel's identity rather than an occasional event, so rooms facing that activity suit guests who want the scene and frustrate guests who do not. Food and beverage prices on site are high even by Miami Beach standards.

Where should you eat and drink?

Faena's restaurants are MICHELIN Guide-recommended, not MICHELIN-starred, and the difference matters. Los Fuegos by Francis Mallmann is the headline: Argentine open-fire asado from the chef who made that cooking famous, with a Sunday Asado service every Sunday from 12:00 to 16:00. Pao by Paul Qui is contemporary Asian blending Filipino, Spanish, Japanese and French influences, in the room anchored by Hirst's golden unicorn. Qui is a James Beard Foundation award winner, which is a significant honour and is not a MICHELIN star. El Secreto Omakase is an ultra-small speakeasy omakase counter curated by Qui and needs booking well ahead. Tree of Life and Sun Bar cover garden lunch, dinner and cocktails, The Living Room is the late-night jazz bar, and the Saxony Bar handles the rest. One clarification for planners: Campo belongs to sister property Casa Faena, not to the hotel building, so it is not a walk downstairs.

What is the spa and pool like?

Tierra Santa Healing House is the wellness centrepiece, roughly 22,000 sq ft of South American-inspired holistic treatment space with direct pool and beach access, plus a Rossano Ferretti hair salon on site. The pool side is deliberately small by Miami Beach standards: one palm-lined outdoor pool, restricted to hotel guests, opening straight onto the sand. The scale comes from Faena Playa instead, the hotel's beach club spread across roughly 100,000 sq ft of Mid-Beach sand. If you want quiet water, note that a single pool plus DJ programming means the deck gets busy and loud at weekends, and the beach is the better bet for calm. Spa treatments book out around holidays and around theatre nights, so reserve when you reserve the room.

Where is Faena, and how do you get there?

Faena sits at 3201 Collins Avenue, on the corner of 32nd and Collins, in Mid-Beach at the heart of the Faena District. It is beachfront in the strict sense: the pool deck opens directly onto Faena Playa with no road to cross. The position is the compromise the hotel makes on your behalf, far enough north to feel separate from the South Beach crowds but close enough to reach them quickly. Ocean Drive and Lincoln Road are roughly 8 to 15 minutes south by car, or a long beachfront walk of about 30 to 40 minutes to Lincoln Road. Wynwood is roughly 15 to 25 minutes by car and Miami International Airport roughly 25 to 40 minutes, about 12 miles. All driving times are approximate and traffic-dependent, and Art Basel week and other major events can double them.

What do guests consistently say?

Guest reaction to Faena is unusually polarised, and the pattern is consistent enough to plan around. Positive feedback centres on the art programme, the theatre, the beach club and the sense that the hotel is a destination in its own right rather than a place to sleep. The three recurring criticisms are these. First, fees are among the steepest in Miami Beach, and the valet charge in particular is singled out repeatedly. Second, the maximalist gold-and-red aesthetic, the theatre and the DJ-driven pool and beach scene are not restful, and several reviewers describe the property as a stage set rather than a retreat. Third, the room count is small relative to demand and food and beverage prices are high even by local standards. None of that is a quality complaint; it is a fit complaint.

Honest cons: who should skip it?

The fees are the first and best-documented drawback. A 2024 Miami Beach survey listed a resort fee of USD 35 per room per night and valet parking at USD 60 per day, the highest valet charge among the 93 hotels surveyed, plus a pet fee of USD 250 per stay. Those figures are indicative rather than current, so confirm them live at booking, but the shape is reliable: valet costs more than the resort fee, and most Miami Beach luxury hotels have no self-parking, so valet is effectively compulsory with a hire car. Florida and Miami-Dade taxes land on top. Second, this is an energetic hotel with theatre and DJ programming, so guests seeking calm should look elsewhere. Third, the small room count and high on-site food and beverage pricing make it an expensive week.