The Setai Miami Beach — A 2026 Review

The Setai turned 22 last year. The property opened on April 22, 2004 as the first major American hospitality project conceived under Adrian Zecha’s post-Aman vocabulary — the Indonesian-born hotelier had founded Aman Resorts in 1988, had set the template for the broader ultra-luxury Asian-influenced hospitality category through the 1990s, and had stepped away from Aman’s day-to-day operational role in the early 2000s to consult on a small group of independent properties that included the Setai.

The Setai is the Zecha vocabulary brought to Miami Beach. The property’s defining design features — the Asian-influenced minimalism, the courtyard layouts, the Asian art collection in the public spaces, the three-pool program with the stepped infinity-edge configuration, the stone-and-teak interior palette — all read as direct translations of the Aman operating template to a Collins Avenue beachfront context. The property has aged better than any other early-2000s South Beach hospitality project I have stayed at across my fourteen years on the Beach.

I have stayed at the Setai roughly twice a year since 2014 and made my most recent stay in early March 2026 — seven nights in a Studio Suite on the seventh floor of the 1937 Art Deco building (Studio Suite 712), at $1,420 per night including tax on the Setai’s direct-rate booking. Cash. No press, no comp.

The location

The Setai sits at 2001 Collins Avenue at the corner of 20th Street — the South-Beach-into-Mid-Beach inflection point, two blocks south of the Faena District and three blocks north of the Lincoln Road retail-and-restaurant corridor. The location is the most central South Beach location of any of the four anchor Miami-area luxury beachfront hotels (Setai, Faena, 1 Hotel SoBe, Four Seasons Surfside), and the walk to Lincoln Road is six minutes, the walk to the Faena’s Damien Hirst mammoth is four minutes, the walk to Ocean Drive’s Art Deco strip is eight minutes, and the walk south to the South Pointe restaurants (Joe’s Stone Crab, Lure) is fifteen minutes.

The block immediately around the property is the strongest single Collins Avenue block in South Beach. The W South Beach is across the street at 2201 Collins (a brand-different hotel inventory, the W’s contemporary-design positioning sits in a different category than the Setai’s). The Edition Miami Beach is six blocks north at 2901 Collins. The Faena is twelve blocks north at 3201 Collins. The 1 Hotel South Beach is three blocks north at 2341 Collins. The density of luxury hotel inventory along this section of Collins is the highest in the United States outside of the Las Vegas Strip, and the Setai’s specific location at 20th puts it at the South Beach social anchor for the broader Miami Beach luxury hospitality corridor.

The arrival sequence at the Setai is through the 20th Street side entrance under the small canopy, into the lobby through the central courtyard that the property is built around. The lobby is the most atmospheric arrival lobby of any hotel I have stayed at on the Beach — the central courtyard, the Asian art on the walls, the soft lighting, the sound of the courtyard fountain, the scent of the property’s signature lemongrass-and-vetiver fragrance diffused through the lobby air — all combine into an arrival experience that the Faena’s theatrical vocabulary and the 1 Hotel’s contemporary-design vocabulary do not match for atmospheric coherence.

The 1937 Art Deco building and the 2004 restoration

The Setai’s hotel inventory is split between two structures: the original 1937 Art Deco Dempsey-Vanderbilt Hotel building (a low-rise structure on the Collins Avenue side, 11 floors, designed by Henry Hohauser — the prolific Miami Beach Art Deco architect whose Hohauser style defined the Ocean Drive vocabulary in the 1930s and 1940s) and the adjacent 40-storey contemporary glass tower (set back from Collins Avenue and oriented toward the Atlantic, completed in 2004).

The Dempsey-Vanderbilt was, in its original 1937 program, a high-end Art Deco hotel on the Miami Beach circuit. The building’s exterior bas-reliefs — the floral ornament, the zig-zag and chevron decoration around the windows and the cornice line, the distinctive corner massing — are among the strongest single expressions of Hohauser’s hand on Collins Avenue and are preserved in full in the 2004 restoration. The hotel inventory in the Art Deco building is the smaller of the two structures (approximately 75 rooms across the 11 floors, against the tower’s larger residential-and-hotel inventory) and is the room category I’d recommend for a first-time stay where the Art Deco character is part of the point of the stay.

The 2004 restoration of the Dempsey-Vanderbilt was the project that brought the Setai to market. Setai Group, LLC — the original development consortium — gutted the building’s interior to the original structural shell, retained and restored the exterior bas-reliefs and the corridor proportions, and rebuilt the room inventory to the Asian-influenced minimalism vocabulary that Zecha’s brief had specified. The work took roughly three years and brought the property to its 2004 opening at a development cost that was, at the time, the highest per-key Miami Beach hospitality development cost on record.

The 40-storey tower adjacent to the Art Deco building was built new on the site immediately west, oriented toward the Atlantic, and houses the property’s residential condominium inventory (the upper floors) and the larger hotel suite inventory (the lower floors). The tower’s exterior is contemporary glass-and-stone and does not attempt to match the Art Deco building’s vocabulary; the interior reads in the same Asian-influenced minimalism palette as the rest of the property.

The Studio Suite in the Art Deco building

The Studio Suite at 680 sq ft in the Art Deco building is the property’s most-residential-feeling room category and the one I’d recommend for a first-time stay. The room layout — a single open-plan space combining the bedroom, the sitting area, and the work area, with a marble-clad bathroom along the south wall and a small private balcony overlooking the central courtyard — sits between the standard tower rooms (smaller, more compact, with the Atlantic view as the anchor) and the larger suite categories (1,200 sq ft and up at the tower’s upper floors).

The view from the seventh floor in the Art Deco building wraps from south across the central courtyard (the three pools visible immediately below, the residential tower rising west) to north across the 20th Street rooftops and the broader South Beach Art Deco strip. The view is not the Atlantic view that the tower’s east-facing rooms have — for the Atlantic view, the tower is the room category to request — but the courtyard view is the more atmospheric of the two, particularly at evening when the pool deck lights up and the Asian art in the courtyard becomes visible.

The room’s finishes are the property’s signature stone-and-teak palette. The teak floors (refreshed twice since 2004 in the property’s maintenance cycle) are the room’s defining single finish. The Calacatta marble bathroom (refreshed in 2019) is in original layout. The Frette linen tier (a 500-thread-count product, comparable to the NYC luxury hotel standard) is refreshed on the property’s regular replacement schedule. The room’s bed (a custom king with a Setai-specified mattress profile, medium-firm) is appropriate for the room’s vacation-anchored use case.

Wi-Fi peaked at 167 Mbps down. The in-room minibar is curated with a focused short list anchored on a small Asian-spirits-and-wine selection that the property’s beverage program has carried since 2004 (a Japanese whisky tray, a small sake selection, a focused short list of European white wines). The in-room amenity tray includes Setai-branded canvas pouches with the property’s signature lemongrass-and-vetiver bath products. The bathroom’s signature feature is a soaking tub set against the east wall with a small window onto the courtyard — the morning light coming through the window during the property’s standard 7 AM courtyard quiet hour is the most under-photographed moment in the Setai’s design vocabulary.

The three pools

The three temperature-controlled infinity pools arranged in a stepped configuration along the central courtyard are the property’s signature amenity and the strongest single resort amenity in Miami Beach. The pools are differentiated by water temperature rather than by size or aesthetic — they all share the same Asian-influenced infinity-edge design vocabulary and the same view down the central courtyard to the Atlantic.

The cold pool (approximately 70 degrees Fahrenheit, 21 degrees Celsius) is at the northern end of the courtyard, closest to the Art Deco building, and is the cool-down pool for guests coming off the beach or out of the heat. The medium pool (approximately 80 degrees Fahrenheit, 27 degrees Celsius) is in the central position and is the all-day-use pool for the standard pool program. The warm pool (approximately 90 degrees Fahrenheit, 32 degrees Celsius) is at the southern end closest to the tower and is the spa-temperature pool for cooler afternoons and evening use.

The three-pool program is reserved for hotel guests and Setai Residences owners. No day-pass program. This keeps the pool deck quiet through the peak season — the operational sweet spot is the medium pool at 10 AM on a weekday in shoulder season, when the morning sun is on the east-facing side of the pool deck and the property’s regular pool service runs at the lighter cabana load.

The cabana program (10 cabanas distributed across the three pool zones) runs $250 to $450 per day depending on the cabana category and the season. The cabanas are private (each is a separate three-sided enclosure with curtains, a fridge, a fan, and a small lounge area) and include towel service, a beverage minibar refresh, and food-and-beverage table service from the pool’s adjacent F&B program. The cabana booking is the operational lever for the peak-season stay — the 4 PM cabana time slot in March or April is the most-requested and books two to three weeks in advance.

The beach access — through the property’s private beach club on the east-facing side of the property, immediately east of the tower — is included for all hotel guests and runs a complimentary lounge-and-umbrella service from 9 AM to 6 PM daily. The beach club has its own F&B service (the Ocean Grill is on the beach club deck) and its own bar program. The beach is one of the cleanest stretches of public-private beach in Miami Beach and is the strongest beach amenity at any of the four anchor luxury Miami-area hotels.

Jaya

Jaya is the Setai’s flagship restaurant and the strongest pan-Asian fine-dining venue in Miami Beach. The kitchen is led by executive chef Vijayudu Veena, running a menu that draws from Indian, Chinese, Thai, and Balinese culinary traditions in a deliberately broad pan-Asian framework reflecting Adrian Zecha’s original conceptual brief.

The room is set in the central courtyard between the Art Deco building and the tower, open to the night sky through the courtyard opening, surrounded by the property’s signature stone-and-teak interior vocabulary. The seating is on stone and teak benches at long tables that run the length of the courtyard, with smaller four-and-six-top tables arranged along the perimeter. The room seats 84 covers and is the most atmospheric restaurant room in Miami Beach — the night sky overhead, the courtyard fountains, the soft lighting, the Asian art on the surrounding walls all combine into a dining-room atmosphere that the Faena’s restaurants and the 1 Hotel’s restaurants do not match for setting.

Dinner runs nightly from 6 PM to 11 PM with a focused tasting menu at $185 per person, a chef’s tasting at $245 per person, and a wine pairing at $115 per person. The à la carte option (mains running $48 to $95) is available for guests who prefer to assemble their own meal. The wine list is at the upper end of Miami Beach hotel restaurant programs, with a deep Asian-and-French anchor.

Jaya is open to non-residents on a reservation basis through OpenTable and Resy. The booking window typically holds at three to four weeks for weekend slots in peak season (December through April) and one to two weeks for shoulder-season weekday slots. For first-time visitors who want the Setai experience without committing to a room stay, a Jaya dinner reservation is the strongest single entry point — the courtyard ambiance, the Asian art, the kitchen’s range, and the property’s broader service vocabulary all show up at the dinner service.

Ocean Grill

The Ocean Grill is the property’s beachfront restaurant on the east-facing pool deck, the second of the property’s two main F&B venues, and the operational alternative to Jaya for a more relaxed pool-deck-anchored meal. The menu is Mediterranean-Italian with a deep seafood section — the room’s signature dishes (the seafood tower stacked with oysters, Maine lobster, ceviche, crudo and shrimp cocktail; the Spanish octopus; the yellowfin tuna tartare; the Mediterranean branzino; the white-truffle pizza) all show up at the lunch and dinner services across a Mediterranean palette.

The room runs lunch 12 PM to 4 PM and dinner 6 PM to 10 PM daily. The cooking comes off a custom-built wood-fire grill that is the focal point of the open kitchen at the back of the room. Mains run $42 to $85 at dinner; lunch is lighter and runs $32 to $52. The wine list is shorter than Jaya’s but appropriate for the room’s program. The dress code is “casual elegant” — no sportswear, no flip-flops, no beachwear, no exceedingly revealing clothing — which is a meaningful operational note for guests coming directly off the pool deck or off the beach.

The Ocean Grill is the better pick for lunch (the pool-deck-facing room is at its strongest in the daylight hours) and Jaya is the better pick for dinner (the courtyard room is at its strongest in the evening hours, with the night sky and the soft lighting). For a stay where both rooms are part of the planned use, alternating lunch at the Ocean Grill and dinner at Jaya is the operational pattern that maximises both rooms’ strengths.

The Asian art collection and the Zecha curation

The property’s Asian art collection — distributed across the lobby, the courtyard, the corridors, the room interiors, and the public spaces — is a continuous reference to Adrian Zecha’s hospitality vocabulary and is the strongest single non-room feature of the property. The collection includes Chinese, Indonesian, Indian, and Southeast Asian pieces — sculpture, textiles, painting, ceramic — assembled at the property’s opening in 2004 in collaboration with the Zecha team and supplemented in the property’s subsequent ownership cycles. The pieces are not gallery-grade and are not branded as a single named collection, but the cumulative effect — the Buddhist sculpture in the lobby, the Indonesian textiles on the corridor walls, the Chinese ceramic vases in the room interiors, the small Indian bronze pieces on the courtyard plinths — produces a cumulative atmospheric coherence that the Faena’s pop-art-and-spectacle vocabulary and the 1 Hotel’s sustainability-and-reclaimed-wood vocabulary do not approach.

The property runs a small docent program for guests interested in the collection — a 45-minute walkthrough of the public-space pieces conducted by the concierge desk on a reservation basis at 11 AM on selected weekdays. The walkthrough is complimentary for hotel guests and is the most under-promoted single program at the property. For first-time stays anchored on the property’s Adrian Zecha vocabulary, the walkthrough is the single most informative experience.

The Spa by Valmont

The Spa at the Setai is operated as The Spa by Valmont — a brand partnership with Valmont, the Swiss skincare brand, that has anchored the property’s spa product since 2018. The spa is located in the tower’s lower floors, has six treatment rooms, a small wet area with a steam room and a sauna, and runs a focused treatment menu anchored on the Valmont product line.

Treatment pricing is at the upper end of the Miami Beach hotel spa range — a 60-minute Valmont signature facial runs $385, a 90-minute deep-tissue massage runs $445, the Valmont-anchored Energy Treatment runs $525 for 90 minutes. The treatments are competent and the product partnership is one of the strongest brand spa partnerships in the Miami Beach market, but the spa is not the destination spa that the Faena’s Tierra Santa Healing House is at 22,000 sq ft (the Setai’s spa is materially smaller). For a stay where the spa is the primary anchor, the Faena’s Tierra Santa is the better pick in the broader Miami Beach market; for the in-stay spa visit at the Setai, the Valmont product partnership is the meaningful differentiator and the treatments are worth booking.

The Setai Residences

The 40-storey tower’s upper floors are the Setai Residences — private condominium inventory that has been one of the strongest single luxury condominium markets in South Beach since the property’s 2004 opening. Selected units across the residential floors are placed into the hotel’s rental program (the “Setai Residences in the rental program” inventory category at the property level), which gives hotel guests access to multi-bedroom apartment-grade inventory that the standard hotel rooms do not provide.

The Residence-program inventory runs from one-bedroom apartments (approximately 900 sq ft) to four-bedroom penthouse apartments (approximately 5,500 sq ft and up). Pricing runs $1,500 to $2,500 per night for the one-bedroom inventory in shoulder season and climbs to $8,000 to $15,000 per night for the upper-floor penthouse inventory at peak. For multi-room family stays or for stays where the apartment-grade kitchen and the multiple bathroom layout are operationally useful, the Residence program is the strongest single inventory category at the Setai.

The Residence-program rate band is competitive with the comparable inventory at the Edition Residences across the street, at the 1 Hotel Residences three blocks north, and at the Faena Penthouses twelve blocks north. The Setai’s specific advantage in this category is the building’s central South Beach location and the property’s signature three-pool-and-Asian-art vocabulary.

Where it lands

The Setai at 22 years is, after a quiet stretch of ownership-and-operating-structure evolution, the strongest single beachfront luxury hotel in Miami Beach for an Asian-influenced minimalism-anchored stay. The Adrian Zecha hospitality vocabulary that the property opened with in 2004 has held up better than I expected against the broader twenty-year evolution of the South Beach luxury hospitality market. The three-pool program is the strongest single resort amenity in Miami Beach. Jaya under Vijayudu Veena is the strongest pan-Asian fine-dining venue in the market. The Spa by Valmont is competent rather than destination-grade. The Asian art collection is the property’s most under-recognised single feature and is the strongest atmospheric anchor at any Miami Beach hotel.

The rate band ($1,200 to $1,800 per night for the standard Art Deco building rooms in shoulder season, $1,400 to $2,200 for the Studio Suite tier, $1,800 to $3,500 for the larger tower suites, climbing to $2,500 to $5,000 at peak holiday season) sits at the upper end of the Miami Beach luxury hotel market and is competitive with the Faena and the Edition. For a first-time stay anchored on the South Beach scene and the central Collins Avenue location, the Setai is the operational pick. For a theatrical Mid-Beach stay, the Faena. For a sustainability-positioning stay, the 1 Hotel. For a Surfside-quiet stay with Michelin-Starred dining, the Four Seasons Surf Club.

Related on the journal. The Faena Hotel Miami Beach — A 2026 Review · Park Hyatt New York at Eleven: The Two-Stay Retrospective · Mandarin Oriental New York at Twenty-Two: A 2026 Review · The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel — A 2026 Review

Frequently Asked Questions

Who actually owns and operates the Setai Miami Beach in 2026?

The Setai Miami Beach has a layered ownership-and-operation structure that has evolved across the property’s 22-year operating history. The property was developed and conceived in the early 2000s by Setai Group, LLC and was originally configured around the hospitality vocabulary of Adrian Zecha — the Indonesian-born hotelier who founded Aman Resorts in 1988 and whose Asian-influenced minimalism set the template for the broader ultra-luxury hospitality category. The property opened in 2004 as a mixed-use hospitality-and-residential structure comprising the restored 1930s-Art-Deco Dempsey-Vanderbilt Hotel (now the lower hotel inventory) and a 40-storey adjacent glass tower (now the residential condominium tower). The hotel inventory is operated as an independent hospitality operation under The Setai Hotels brand, with the residential tower operated as a separate cooperative-and-condominium structure. The hotel operating company has had multiple investor turnovers in the property’s history (the original development consortium, subsequent institutional investors, and various real-estate fund partners) and the current operator-of-record information is most accurately verified at the property level rather than inferred from secondary sources. The Adrian Zecha hospitality vocabulary — the Asian-influenced minimalism, the courtyard layouts, the Asian art collection in the public spaces — remains the property’s operating template, regardless of the back-end ownership structure.

What are the three pools at the Setai and how do they differ?

The Setai’s signature amenity is its three temperature-controlled infinity pools, arranged in a stepped configuration along the property’s east-facing courtyard between the Art Deco building and the residential tower. The three pools are differentiated by water temperature rather than by size, depth, or aesthetic — they all share the same Asian-influenced infinity-edge design vocabulary and the same view down the central courtyard to the Atlantic. The cold pool runs at approximately 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius) and is the cool-down pool for guests coming off the beach or out of the heat. The medium pool runs at approximately 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius) and is the all-day-use pool for the standard pool program. The warm pool runs at approximately 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) and is the spa-temperature pool for cooler afternoons and evening use. The three-pool program is the strongest single resort amenity in Miami Beach and is the operational differentiator against the single-pool programs at the Four Seasons Surfside, the EDITION Miami Beach, and 1 Hotel South Beach. The pools are reserved for hotel guests and residents only — no day-pass program — which keeps the pool deck quiet through the peak season. Cabanas are bookable at $250 to $450 per day depending on the cabana category and the season.

Is Jaya still the property’s signature restaurant under Chef Vijayudu Veena?

Yes. Jaya remains the Setai’s flagship restaurant and is the strongest pan-Asian fine-dining venue in Miami Beach. The kitchen is led by executive chef Vijayudu Veena, who has been the property’s culinary lead at Jaya through the recent operating cycle, running a menu that draws from Indian, Chinese, Thai, and Balinese culinary traditions in a deliberately broad pan-Asian framework reflecting Adrian Zecha’s original conceptual brief for the property. The room — set in the central courtyard between the Art Deco building and the tower, open to the night sky through the courtyard opening, surrounded by the property’s signature stone-and-teak interior vocabulary — is one of the most atmospheric restaurant rooms in Miami Beach. Dinner runs nightly from 6 PM to 11 PM with a focused tasting menu at $185 per person, a chef’s tasting at $245 per person, and a wine pairing program at $115 per person. The room also runs an a la carte option for guests who prefer to assemble their own meal, with mains running $48 to $95. The wine list is at the upper end of Miami Beach hotel restaurant programs, with a deep Asian-and-French anchor. Jaya is open to non-residents on a reservation basis through OpenTable and Resy, and the booking window typically holds at three to four weeks for weekend slots in peak season.

How does The Setai compare to The Faena, 1 Hotel SoBe, and Four Seasons Surfside?

Among the four anchor Miami-area luxury beachfront hotels — The Setai (2001 Collins, South Beach), The Faena (3201 Collins, Mid-Beach), 1 Hotel South Beach (2341 Collins, South Beach), and Four Seasons Surfside (9601 Collins, Surfside) — the Setai is the strongest pick for an Asian-influenced minimalism-anchored stay, for a stay where the three-pool program is the resort amenity differentiator, and for a stay in the most central South Beach location. The Faena leads on theatricality (the Baz Luhrmann-and-Catherine Martin interior, the Damien Hirst mammoth sculpture, the Faena Forum cultural program), on the F&B program (Pao by Paul Qui and Los Fuegos by Francis Mallmann are both higher-profile chefs than Jaya’s Vijayudu Veena), and on the Mid-Beach location (quieter than South Beach, closer to the Faena District cultural anchors). 1 Hotel leads on sustainability positioning, on the resort-grade pool and beach club program, and on the more contemporary architectural vocabulary. Four Seasons Surfside leads on the Surf Club’s residential character (the historic Russell Pancoast-designed Surf Club building, now a Four Seasons-managed Hotel-and-residences property), on the Joel Robuchon dining program (Le Sirenuse Miami at the Surf Club is a Michelin-Starred Italian; the Surf Club Restaurant under Thomas Keller is the high-end American), and on the Surfside-quiet character. For a first-time stay anchored on the South Beach scene, the Setai is the operational pick. For a Mid-Beach theatricality stay, the Faena. For a sustainability-positioning stay, 1 Hotel. For a Surfside-quiet stay with Michelin-Starred dining, the Four Seasons Surf Club.