If you book your room on one of the discount internet sites be very careful. Those rooms are directly over one of the clubs and/or have very limited views. Our view was of an alley and empty beer barrels. This hotel is also on the canal and does not have beach walking access to Clearwater Beach. From the outdoor smell there must be a sewage treatment plant nearby.

The seafood buffet is above average; the staff at the check-in counter and other areas is very helpful. The hotel has a Tiny Pool. If you cannot get into the tower rooms find another place to stay or better yet - come here to Party stay somewhere else.

Rooms: I must say, the renovations to the tower rooms are awesome. I was very impressed with that and love the tile flooring, comfy couch and the stainless steel appliances (it was just like being at home), and side view of the gulf!
Tiki Bar: sucked in terms of neither bartender knew how to make mixed drinks. Better off with beer or basic rum/coke. But, the live music and DJ action was cool; actually it was way more fun to watch all the drunk people make an a** out of themselves!! Plus it's outdoors and all out in the open. Tiki bar is cool, but it's 'iffy' on the bartenders.
Nightclub: oh man, where do I start. Very cool in terms of atmosphere, sound system. But holy crap....well, let's just say we were not property informed at the front desk that the stupid wristbands you get don't get you into the club for free (which is what we thought). Nope, you still have to pay cover. All the wristband does is get you unlimited well drinks. Which, yes....in the end is a good deal.....but we were highly pissed when we were asked to leave if we didn't pay cover. Had we walked in with drinks in our hands....getting caught wouldn't have happened.
Noise: After our ordeal with having to leave the nightclub, yes...the noise from our top floor tower room was irritating since all we had to do was look down and see people in the club....but not as annoying as the construction.
Famous buffet: Good....lot's of unique finds but if you're not a seafood fan, I'd stick to menu because 90% was seafood.
Overall, of course I'll go back to Shepherds!. The beach is actually bigger than the pictures show but yes....smaller than say a beachroom at Daytona. We didn't have to deal with staff too much because we didn't have any complaints; aside from my blow up with the reservation guy the night of the wristband dibokkle!! lol

I give Shepherds a thumb & 1/2 up. The rooms alone I think is what will draw me back to that area.

First of all we were suppose to have a ocean view for two huindred and twenty five dollars a night it was a side view with a very small balcomy the balcomy door would not open or close that was reported but was not fixed they were bulldozing right under our balcomy door sand was blowing in our room from the door i became very sick got the sand in my lungs. would not give us a upgrade. floor was not mopped sand on the floor and furniture very poor customer service.came and fixed the door the day we were leaving.

My father was dying and we made an emergency trip to Florida. We stayed at Shepherds because it was close to the hospital and the only hotel that had availability during the dates needed. After driving 14 hours we checked into Shepherds. We were exhausted when signing the papers as we checked in. We did not check the dates, as we had a written confirmation from the hotel with our correct dates. However, the hotel changed our departure date and never brought this to our attention. They had us checking out earlier than we had registered for. We came back from the hospital and were locked out of our room. We showed them our confirmation with the correct date of departure, but they would not honor that. They did not offer to help us in any way, and we were forced to leave with no where to go because they had sold our room. This was clearly their error, and they did nothing to help us in a bad situation, not even APOLOGIZE. You would at least think they would of offered us a free weekend stay at some other time. We used to stay at Shepherds all the time, but I had clothes stolen out of my suitcase several years prior. We stayed away for several years, hoping that things had improved. Our mistake to come back. We will NEVER stay here again. This hotel only cares about making a fast buck, not about the people at all. We come to Florida 3 times a year, and have many friends and family that live in the area. None of them or any of their friends will ever stay at Shepherds.