My wife and 2 children stayed at Santa Maria Suites for 2 nights from 4/7/08 till 4/9/08. It was just great. We would definitely go back again. It was a quiet and serene property. We stayed in unit 5 which was a downstairs King suite. The rooms are virtually sound proof. The building was constructed to withstand a level 5 hurricane and I believe it could. My daughter, 14 1/2, is a very picky teen who thinks anything less luxurious than "The Breakers" is hardly worth her consideration, grudgingly admitted she would enjoy staying there again.

The property is at the end of Duval street which turned out to be great because it is a much quieter part of town. The moment we arrived we rented bikes. Ken set that up and the bikes were delivered within an hour. We stayed on bikes for two days and tooled around all over Key West. We never got in the car again until we left.

I don't think we could have stayed in a more desirable place, considering the size of the space and the amenities. There is a sushi restaurant on the property which is independent of the hotel. We ate there one night and really enjoyed it. The pool area was great. There are two pools and the one on the right, if your looking in from the entryway, without the fountain, is the warmer of the two.

The only complaint I had was with the scent in the room. There were two sources. One was the small box of "Surf" detergent that sits on the washer/dryer in the suite. When we got rid of that I thought I solved the problem. The next day when we returned from the day out the room again was noisome. I found out that housekeeping sprays the place with a mango scent. Even my 9 y/o son thought it fairly disgusting. Fortunately, after a few hours of leaving the doors open, which isn't bad in Key West, the scent retreated. Hopefully, management will not feel the need to scent up the room.

Overall, I / we loved the Santa Maria Suites and would definitely stay there again.

Greg

The suites are perfect for families. I have 2 middle school aged boys and they thought it was great. We were in unit 32 and our master bedroom and living room terraces faced the pool area which was great. The bedrooms in the 2 level suites are small but lovely. Even though there was central A/C, the bedrooms had ceiling fans which I liked. The bedrooms had queen beds (or maybe they were doubles). We would stay in the larger suite next time which has a king bed in the master and a queen in the second bedroom. It is a bit larger. The larger units do not have bathtubs. The unit we were in had the bedrooms upstairs with bathrooms in each (the master had a double shower) and the second bedroom had a tub with a shower, There was a powder room downstairs. along with the kitchen with a back facing terrace. The living room was on that level. The kitchen was fully appointed and even had plastic bar ware so you could take your drinks to the pool area. FYI-they have air mattresses if you want an extra bed in your unit. I used the washer and dryer too. I love leaving with clean clothes.

My sons enjoyed swimming at night. The pools are shallow and warm. My son had a broken arm with a cast on it and he was able to put bags on his cast and play in the pool with his arm out of the water. One of the pools had a fountain (which stops at 6 PM). A poolside bar served mango and pina colada virgin smoothies daily (no charge) and if you opt in for turndown service you get chocolates on your bed and mini dove bars in your freezer. You get the local paper delivered to your room daily, along with muffins.

The staff were great. It's a small enough hotel that they get to know you. Ken was charming and made all our reservations and looked things up for us-even got me some sushi after hours at Ambrosia. Damian was so kind and gave my kids extra ice-cream bars. He came to set up the air mattress but found there was a leak in it. He smiled, even though he had just put all the linens on it , and told me he was going to come with another and arrived promptly with the replacement. The staff tries to accommodate you in any way they can. It's that extra personal service, plus the chic digs, that made it different and special.

My wife and two daughters (13 & 12) were very pleased with our experience at Santa Maria Suites. It began with the Concierge (Fran) contacting us at home a week before our vacation to see if she could help schedule any events or reservations for us. When we arrived we were all impressed with the clean and beautifully landscaped courtyard/pool area. The unit we stayed in was very spacious(two bedrooms) and very nicely decorated. The kitchen was full of ultra sleek modern appliances, there was a washer/dryer (wish we had known this before we packed), multiple flat screen TV's and nice balconies on both floors (off living room and bedroom). This was nice because it allowed my daughters the independence of going to the pool without us a couple times, but we could relax on the balcony and keep an eye on them. There was ample private parking for our rental car and Damien was wonderful at helping unload the car and transporting our bags to our room. Everything was great, and I highly recommend this for any family traveling to Key West. It is also nicely located only one block off the quite end of Duval and one block from "Louie's Backyard". Only three improvements I could recommend to make it even better; 1) water pressure in shower was anemic so it took forever to get the soap off & also seemed to run low on hot water faster than expected; 2) the turn down service came by too late in the evening for a family... several nights we were already in for the evening and declined; 3) we had a couple really windy days which caused something on the roof to make a noise that echoed through the bathroom vent and disturbed our sleep for one night. However, none of these issues were enough to justify marking our overall experience as anything less than excellent. We will definitely stay at the Santa Maria again, the next time we travel as a family to Key West.

We had a small group that came to enjoy a long weekend at the Santa Maria Suites, and we couldn't have been happier with every aspect of our stay. The service was impeccable. The amenities were incredible (we especially enjoyed the 24/7 heated pool). Whether it is a family getaway or a romantic weekend, I highly recommend taking a look.