I recently went to Clearwater beach with my wife and in-laws. We checked into the Castaway's on a Sunday. The property owner/manager basically called my father-in-law an idiot within the first five minutes we were there, telling him he knew nothing of motel/hotel management. He worked in that field for 17 years on a regional level. We walked into the room and were happy that it was a clean, nice room. We then noticed a list of 21 rules on the wall, with an additional 5 rules on the fridge. Said rules included quiet time from 10pm-9am, but the pool opens at 8am. No guests after 10pm. You must wash your own dishes or be charged $35 for him to do it.
Towel exchange is every day from 10am-1pm, but he was never there to do it. We used the same two towels the last 5 days we were there. Guest laundry time is 3pm-7pm, but he usually left his laundry in the machines during that time. He also spent upwards of an hour talking to a European couple DIRECTLY outside of my in-laws door at 11pm. So much for quiet time.
One night he knocked on our door at 10:30pm asking if he could install a hair dryer in the bathroom. My wife was in her nightgown and I felt that was something that could have been and SHOULD have been done at a reasonable hour. The rules were not consistent in either of our rooms.
The owner is Polish, and treated the European guests like gold, while he acted like he couldn't wait for us to just go away. I don't know how things go in Poland, but in AMERICA, we normally like to provide good hospitality to our guests to keep them coming back. Needless to say, we sit here this evening searching other Clearwater Beach hotels for next year's trip.

It was a great stay for us and robert was a great host, a friend like home. It´s not the newest but very comfortable and quiet and the most important, we wil come back in may 2011. Greatings from Vienna.

The room was very very small even though it was advertised as roomy. The dishes were old and we only had one pan to make a meal with. Was very stingy with the towels and the owner was constantly hanging around like he was checking on what we were doing. We were told that our room had a king size bed, but it was two twin beds butted together. The only bathroom we had was IN the master bedroom and we had my grandson and his wife with us so there was a string of traffic into the bathroom while we were trying to sleep. It is advertised to sleep 4 but there is not enough room to even get around each other in the place. It wasn't very clean and way overpriced. It is not just two blocks to the beach. We spent way to much time walking. Maybe this will be one of the places that gets demoed and a nice high rise put up.

About 2 years ago my husband and I were looking for somewhere new to stay close to the Gulf since we had always been visitors to the east beaches and knew bascially nothing about Clearwater. I found his place online just by doing a search on small lodging in the area and we were pleasantly surprised with the overall experience. We have been going back ever since for small getaways throughout the year with a few spur of the moment stays sprinkled in and they have always been greay about fitting us in. There are great restaurants close by and the HUGE beach is only about a block away. If any of you reading this has not been to Clearwater Beach yet you should go! It will become apparent very quickly why it is considered one of the best beaches in the world with the powdery white super soft sand and warm water. We love going to Castaways because it's close to everything and so much quieter (they currently have 6 units, most of which we have stayed in at one point or another) than other chain hotels we've been to in the past. The friendly owner, Robert, always takes the time to talk to us and makes us feel like family. It may not be the most glamorous and up to date place to stay in the area but it's fantastic for those that want clean, comfortable accommodations at a reasonable price. Most places you look at in the area charge much more for just a plain hotel room whereas you can get a room with a kitchen at Castaway for about the same price. He has a nice boat dock area out back and a small refreshing pool to take a quick dip after boating or coming back from the beach. This is the place I would recommend to anyone that wants a quiet relaxing getaway with no loud music or party-goers raging at all hours of the night. Please try Castaway if you're looking for a quaint home away from home.