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W Fort Lauderdale Has Some Advertising Issues

Every once in awhile we come across a hotel which never seems to have good news coming from it. We hate picking on hotels like this, but sometimes they make it so easy. Like the W Fort Lauderdale Hotel & Residences.

We're picking on this W Hotel not because of the usual culprit (construction delays), but because of the way they are advertising their residences. In a recent story from the Sun-Sentinel:

"You may be in violation of the terms of your site plan approval," city Planning and Zoning Director Greg Brewton warned in a Dec. 15 letter to John Yanopoulous, CEO of developer DYL group.

The hotel, at 3101 Bayshore Drive, was approved in 2002 as the Capri. Advertising literature for the W is not clear about how long "owners" can inhabit the units. But Brewton's letter alleged the units were advertised as "year-round."

Apparently, year-round homes are not permitted on the beach in that part of Fort Lauderdale. A year-round home is one where the owners are able to live there 365 days a year.

We just visited the W Fort Lauderdale's sales website and while it doesn't explicitly state anywhere that you can live there year round, it also doesn't say that you can't. Not only that, but the site is filled with blurbs like "Home Sweet Home" and the "Legal" section contains every disclaimer known to man except that you cannot purchase a condominium unit as your primary residence.

Sales agents probably weeded out all those primary residence purchasers before they made a commitment, but that's not the point. This sounds like false or misleading advertising, not what we'd expect from a hotel with the W name on it.