A bit over a week ago I stayed at The Ben, a brand new Marriott Autograph Collection property in West Palm Beach, Florida. For those of you not familiar with Autograph Collection, it’s supposed to be Marriott’s collection of luxury, independent hotels.
I’ve been really excited about this hotel opening because my mother in law lives in West Palm Beach, but her building isn’t dog friendly, while The Ben is extremely dog friendly.
Typically when Ford and I go to visit his mom we just go for the day, but this is a great new option since it’s somewhere near her place that we can stay with our dog, Winston.
Redeeming Points At The Ben West Palm Beach
We booked The Ben day of arrival. Our plan was to drive up for the day on Saturday to see Ford’s mom, and she mentioned to us that the Marriott property near her had opened. I figured it would be a fun review.
For the night we were looking it was bookable for either 40,000 Bonvoy points or $417++.
Given that I value Bonvoy points at ~0.7 cents each, redeeming points was definitely the best value.
For what it’s worth, this is a Category 5 Marriott Bonvoy property, so a free night costs either 30,000 points off-peak, 35,000 points standard, or 40,000 points peak.
When it comes to redeeming for stays here:
- See this post for the best credit cards for earning Marriott Bonvoy® points
- See this post for the best credit cards that offer free night certificates that can potentially be redeemed here
The Ben Autograph Collection Review
Before I get into the review as such, this is a reminder that I’ve already written extensively about the issues I had at this property. Before reading this post I recommend checking out these two posts:
- Well This Marriott Stay Is Going Great So Far…
- Conclusion To My Marriott Upgrade Denial & Room Invasion
I won’t at all be covering the above points in this review, because goodness knows I have enough to say about this place, and I don’t want to be too redundant. So check out those posts to see why I’m reviewing two different kinds of rooms, etc. 😉
The Ben Arrival, Check-In, And Lobby
Historically West Palm Beach wasn’t very nice, but it has gotten so much nicer (and more expensive) in recent years. The Ben is located on Flagler, near one of the bridges leading to Palm Beach.
We arrived at the hotel in the early afternoon, and were promptly welcomed by the valet. We were informed that parking was $29, and it was an extra $15 if we wanted our car parked out front.
The Ben West Palm Beach exterior
The hotel has a nicely appointed and unique lobby. I’m not sure it’s necessarily very “Palm Beachy,” but I liked it. Reception was straight ahead inside the lobby and to the left.
The Ben West Palm Beach lobby
Then inside the entrance and to the right was some lobby seating, right in front the hotel’s signature restaurant.
The Ben West Palm Beach lobby seating
The Ben West Palm Beach lobby seating
There was some more seating inside the lobby and to the left.
The Ben West Palm Beach lobby seating
After our check-in process (and changing rooms a first time), we headed up to our king water view room. The elevator were just across from reception. The hotel has a total of eight floors, with the top floor being the rooftop and not having any rooms.
The Ben West Palm Beach lobby elevators
The Ben King Water View Room
Our first water view room was on the second floor. Not only is The Ben dog friendly (a policy to which Winston gives two paws up), but in some ways it’s almost dog themed, like the big dog statute just outside the elevators on each floor.
The Ben West Palm Beach hallway
The Ben West Palm Beach hallway
We were first assigned room 237, a water view room. The room was a decent size and beautifully appointed. Inside the entrance was the bathroom to the right.
The Ben king water view room entryway
The room featured a king size bed (the beds here are really comfortable, in terms of the mattress, pillow, and bedding), a chaise by the window, a table with a chair in another corner, and a desk along the wall. For a standard-size room, that’s more seating options than you’ll usually find!
The Ben king water view room
The Ben king water view room
The Ben king water view room seating
The Ben king water view room table
The Ben king water view room desk
Near the bathroom was the Nespresso coffee machine as well as the minibar.
The Ben king water view room coffee machine
The Ben king water view room minibar
The Ben king water view room minibar
The bathroom featured a sink with vanity, toilet, and walk-in shower.
The Ben king water view room bathroom
The Ben king water view room shower
Toiletries were from Ortigia, which I hadn’t heard of before, but which I thought was pretty decent.
The Ben king water view room toiletries
The room also had a balcony with two chairs.
The Ben king water view room balcony
The one disappointment of this room was that this is what they’re calling a “water view” room. Fortunately we were only upgraded to this, but I would be annoyed if I paid extra for a water view room and got this…
The Ben king “water view” room
The Ben king “water view” room
On the plus side, Winston liked the room…
Winston likes the room!
The Ben Crusoe Junior Suite
After about an hour in the room we got moved to a junior suite (again, see the post above for all the details), and this time we were put in room 611.
The junior suite was lovely — it consisted of one room, but was actually quite large. Inside the entrance was the living area, with an L-shaped couch and swing seat, then further into the room was a king size bed and a table with two chairs.
The Ben junior suite
The Ben junior suite living area
The Ben junior suite
The Ben junior suite sitting area
The Ben junior suite minibar
While this room didn’t have a balcony, it did have what I’d consider to be a very nice water view.
The Ben junior suite view
Even though this was a suite, the bathroom wasn’t much bigger and also had a single sink and vanity (Winston wanted to say hi), walk-in shower, and partitioned off toilet.
The Ben junior suite bathroom
The Ben junior suite shower
The Ben junior suite toilet
The Ben Proper Grit Restaurant (Breakfast)
The hotel’s signature restaurant is Proper Grit, which is off the lobby and is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It’s described as a “Florida Chophouse,” though we just had breakfast here, and breakfast at hotels only varies so much.
I loved the design of the restaurant as such — they had regular dining tables along the center of the restaurant, an outdoor bar area, and some couches and other seating arrangements along the side of the restaurant.
The Ben Proper Grit Restaurant West Palm Beach
The Ben Proper Grit Restaurant West Palm Beach
The Ben Proper Grit Restaurant West Palm Beach
The Ben Proper Grit Restaurant West Palm Beach
The breakfast menu read as follows:
Full disclosure — I still have no clue what the Bonvoy Platinum and above breakfast benefit is here. The front desk didn’t really know, they said just order what we want and they would figure it out later, so that’s what we did. Clearly they’re still figuring that out.
I had the “Pioneer Breakfast,” with scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, toast, and fruit.
The Ben Proper Grit Restaurant breakfast
Ford had an omelet with breakfast potatoes.
The Ben Proper Grit Restaurant breakfast
The food and coffee were both great.
The Ben Rooftop Pool, And Spruzzo Restaurant & Bar
On the eighth floor of The Ben is the rooftop pool, and that’s also where Spruzzo is located, which is the rooftop bar and restaurant.
The Ben Spruzzo
We didn’t eat or drink anything here, though I stopped by once in the afternoon just to look, and it was packed, presumably mostly with locals. Then I came back the next morning to get pictures.
In addition to there being a pool, there’s tons of seating — I’d say about half of the rooftop consists of tables, and then for the other half you have the pool and plenty of seating around it.
The Ben Spruzzo rooftop bar
The Ben Spruzzo rooftop bar
The Ben rooftop pool
The Ben rooftop pool
The Ben rooftop bar
The Ben rooftop bar
The Ben rooftop bar
They did a great job with this space, and in particular it’s nice to have this kind of a view from a rooftop.
The Ben rooftop view
The Ben Room Service Menu
The room service menu came in the form of a newspaper, with an explanation of the facilities of the hotel, and it read as follows:
I thought it was adorable that they had a dog menu on the room service menu:
Winston begged for the fur baby filet mignon, but Ford wouldn’t let me order it for him. Oh well.
Winston begging to have something from the dog menu
The Ben Gym & Bikes
While The Ben doesn’t have a spa, it does have a gym on the first floor, immediately behind reception and to the right. The gym was a good size and had lots of equipment, and even a Peloton, for those of you who are into that.
The Ben gym
The Ben gym
The Ben gym
The Ben gym
The hotel also has bikes you can borrow, should you want to bike around the area.
The Ben bikes
The Ben Service
Check-in experience aside, everyone at the hotel was exceptionally friendly and clearly very enthusiastic about working at this hotel.
In fairness, we didn’t interact with that many people, but the valets were friendly, service in the breakfast restaurant was excellent, and employees were just generally enthusiastic.
The Ben Autograph Collection Bottom Line
The Ben is a great new option to have in West Palm Beach. Historically there haven’t been any nice properties in West Palm Beach, so it’s nice to have a pet friendly option for those who want to be in that area.
The hotel has nicely appointed guest rooms, a good restaurant, and a very cool rooftop pool and bar.
As much as my specific stay was a mess, I hope that this is mostly a function of it being a new hotel (and in terms of upgrades, a function of it being a Marriott). The reality is that we’ll certainly be back here, given that it’s a pet friendly hotel near my mother in law, and that’s enough reason to choose this place.
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