First off, this is my first hotel review I'm writing. I never really have anything bad to write for my stays are hotels. But this stay was so horrible that I need to take my time in writing the following. I hope you read this and do stay away from this poorly-called establishment.
My good friend Carlo and I went down to visit Tampa just to get away from the cold of NYC/NJ and work. We stayed at this hotel because it was fairly inexpensive and extremely close to Busch Gardens. The check-in to our two queen bed non-smoking room was easy and fast. The front desk help was very courteous.
The room is very comfortable and big, but there was this smoker's stink to it. I went down to check if it was a non-smoking room and they confirmed it was. To make sure our stay was satisfying, the front desk changed our room to a non-smoke smelling room. There are many restaurants and food stores near by to order in or go take-out.
At our first night, my friend got bitten a few times. First, I thought it was a mosquito bite but it wasn't at random spots but it was in a row. We went to a nearby CVS pharmacy because it was itchy but the pharmacist even said it's not a mosquito bite but most probable that they're flea/tick/bedbug bites. We bought some medicine and one of the bug sprays to spray around the bed and on the floors throughout our room. We did go to the front desk and showed the bites on arms and face. We were told that the report would be forwarded to the manager but even to this date, we still haven't heard from them. We were given another room. The next day, we saw people who were cleaning our previous room with "chemicals."
Unfortunately, my friend still got bitten that night again.. yes, that's right.. in a different room. Since we were only staying three nights we slept fully clothed. My friend had to leave early when work back at home called. I stayed at the hotel for my last night, but I got bitten. In the morning during check-out, I was very furious and went to the front desk to make a formal complaint. I did but the manager wasn't there AGAIN. The lady at the front desk told me that she would have comped our rooms if it wasn't booked through a 3rd party, HOTELS.COM. She did tell me that she would have the manager call me directly with alternative compensation other than just apologies. Even to this day, I have NOT received any calls from the manager.
Only good things at this hotel were:
- the two TVs in every room; one in the entrance room where the sofa/couch was and another in the bedroom.
- the clean bathrooms with big wall mirror.
- the sliding doors in the bedroom that led to a 2x4 area as a "veranda" so you can slide your door to vent the room.
- the digital thermostat to control your heat/air.
- the microwave, mini-fridge, and coffee-maker.
- the free continental breakfast of muffins, bagels, toast, waffles, fruit, yogurt, coffee, apple juice and orange juice.
I will NOT stay at this hotel again. Will NOT recommend this hotel to friends/family. Will copy/paste my review on every review site available (yelp, google places, bing places, foursquare, etc.). Quite disappointed. If I did not have this issue with the bites and bugs, I would give this hotel a great rating and service for its value.
Room Tip: Choose another establishment.
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
16 February 2012
Hello New York Visitor,
Thank you for taking time to submit your review.
As the General Manager, I assure you that we take any reports of potential bed bugs very seriously. We always immediately have an outside party conduct an investigation of the room in question and if there is even a remote possibility of an issue, we would immediately take the room (and the surrounding rooms) out of service and have a full treatment done. The room is not placed back into sale again until another inspection by an independent company affirms it is clear. We did have an inspection done on the room that you stayed in and were told that this was not a bedbug issue. We went ahead and treated the room anyway with standard pest control, however I cannot confirm what type of insect you may have encountered since the room was cleared. I apologize for your discomfort and even more for the lack of response by our management team. I will discuss this with our Front Office Manager to make sure that we do a better job at responding to guest complaints. This is certainly not up to our standards and I appreciate your information.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC
