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[Has left Marriott] Sheraton Tampa Riverwalk [Master Thread]

[Has left Marriott] Sheraton Tampa Riverwalk [Master Thread]

Old Oct 3, 2005, 10:42 pm
  #1  
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Arrow [Has left Marriott] Sheraton Tampa Riverwalk [Master Thread]

Anyone know anything about this new hotel?
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Old Oct 4, 2005, 6:38 am
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Originally Posted by thor17
Anyone know anything about this new hotel?
Would use the term " new" advisedly this property is the old Radisson at the corner of Kennedy right next the Hillisborough River bridge. Has been a Ramada and a Renaissance properties in previous lives.
Location is on the river and is quite good if you need to be downtown.

I would expect that SPG must have ( would need to) spent some money refurbishing and there is a dearth of their properties in this area.

mike
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Old Oct 7, 2005, 11:02 am
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I completely agree with Mike. This hotel has been around a while. IIRC, this was a Hilton back in the early/mid 80's. This place will need a lot of work. On the positive side, it is quite close to most of the office buildings in downtown and a reasonable walk to the St. Pete Times Forum.

With the new Westin under construction on the causeway to Clearwater, it is nice to see that Starwood is making an investment in Tampa. They are really behind the curve compared to Marriott.
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Old Oct 14, 2005, 8:22 pm
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Trip report coming soon

Last night they showed availability with a good rate for Thursday the 20th. I booked it, I'll check it out and I'll post a trip report shortly thereafter. It's been a while since I've been to Tampa/St. Pete and I've always stayed at my house (when it isn't rented) or over in St. Pete so it'll be good to visit.

-- Captain G
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Old Oct 16, 2005, 1:38 pm
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Originally Posted by CaptainG
Last night they showed availability with a good rate for Thursday the 20th. I booked it, I'll check it out and I'll post a trip report shortly thereafter. It's been a while since I've been to Tampa/St. Pete and I've always stayed at my house (when it isn't rented) or over in St. Pete so it'll be good to visit.

-- Captain G
Surely you mean Nov 20th? (not a Thurs though)
I tried to book this place for a friend and was told they do not open till Nov 1st

mike
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Old Oct 18, 2005, 1:26 am
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Told I didn't have a room

Originally Posted by MIKESILV
Surely you mean Nov 20th? (not a Thurs though)
I tried to book this place for a friend and was told they do not open till Nov 1st

mike
Mike, I did have (and still hold) a reservation for October 20th. But I won't be sleeping there!

The hotel is operating as a Sheraton. I recieved a very curt call from a number in the 813 area code. The caller identified themselves from the Sheraton Tampa Riverwalk. I remember these words "The hotel will not honor your reservation. Please do not show up as the hotel will not have a room for you."
I asked "Why?"
The agents response, "Your not the only one, I have several people I have to call."
I asked if they were operating as a Sheraton and she said yes, but "We are not accepting any reservations made via spg.com." I asked if she had a recommendation for another property, to which she said "Some other hotel."
Plying for more information about wether I'd stay there in the future, I asked "What sort of treatment will be available for starwood preferred platinum guests," she brusquely said she didn't know if anything was being done and jumped back to her point;
"Do you understand that we don't have room for you? I have other people to call." I said yes. I checked with the platinum concierge recently and they still have me with a confirmed reservation. Obviously I'll stay somewhere (ANYWHERE) else. I don't want to hassle them over this, but I've never been called by a hotel and asked point blank if I understood that they didn't have a room for me. I wouldn't do this to one of my staff, let alone a customer. I assume that she was under some pressure to contact people, but I like staying at Sheraton's because they usually treat me with respect.
First indicator on this property tells me to stay away. Oh, right, they told me that themselves

I will contact Starwood customer service and let them know I have a reservation in their system that the hotel won't honor. I understand that they don't have to provide me a room since the website does list 1 November as their first day of operation. No harm done with the stay, but should I report the unconcerned and abrupt call or should I chalk that up to nascent Sheraton service?

Last edited by CaptainG; Oct 18, 2005 at 1:38 am
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Old Nov 7, 2005, 5:08 pm
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Booked this property for a one night stay for a friend 11/06 and met him at check in.
SPG must spent a bit of money fixing this place up as it seems fairly nice now.
Rooms, exterior and loby redone ( though some work seem to be still on going)
Room appeared to be standard, got view of river with small balcony appears to have been completely redone, Heavenly Bed and desk etc.
Forgot to check about internet.
Check in was a bit slow no SPG dedicated area but expect things would improve as they settle in, seemed quite full for Sunday and had a convention/group Monday AM.

Did not visit the restaurants/bars - but Ashley Street Grille, a fairly decent resto is still there.
Front desk says the 6th Floor is the Club floor and that they have a lounge.
Only on site parking is valet, at $10/day.

Seem to have some potential for an area with no SPG properties.

mike
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Old Apr 28, 2006, 11:48 am
  #8  
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I have stayed here twice now; once just after the change-over and again just last weekend.

Based on my first stay I was not at all impressed. They still had a lot of basic construction/decorating work to be done and the staff was horrible. No one could answer any questions with even a hint as to whether or not they might actually know what they were talking about and there was basically no staff save one person at the desk after 7 PM.

Last weekend I decided to stay over another night in Tampa. As I have never liked the Airport Sheraton [decent but not worth $200+/night] and the Clearwater Beach property was too far away I decided to give the Riverwalk Sheraton another try.

Things have improved I must say though they still have a ways to go; OK, its a Sheraton not a 'W' but still...

Got a great rate off of SPG.com [$89 for a Sat night stay] so I made a reservation. Upon arrival I gave the desk person my reservation number but they still asked for picture ID and took and imprint of my Amex [is this new system-wide?].

I was upgraded to a three-room suite without asking [as I should have been for at least a basic upgrade anyway] and the room was nice. What they seem to have done is to take three rooms side-by-side, split the middle room in two to add on to the other two end rooms so you end up with two full baths, a large bedroom a small office/foyer, and a decent sized living room.

The furniture is typical Sheraton; island vanity sinks in dark wood, white quarry tile in the bathroom and dark wood furniture everywhere else.

I must say that the bed was nothing to write home about. I know it isn't a 'Heavenly Bed' but it was still quite hard, at least to my taste. Also, there were only two foam pillows in the room, no extras in the closet. This is one of my biggest pet-peeves as down pillows will send my allergies into overdrive.

I have to say that my biggest complaint is with the staff, or lack thereof. FYI they were, to a person, the same staff as when I stayed there the first time some six months earlier. Don't ask for anything after about 7 PM because you won't get it. They have no concierge or other room delivery service after 6 PM.

On my first stay I asked for two extra foam pillows at about 8 PM. Sometime around 11:00 PM the security guard arrived with one foam pillow. Like an idiot I tipped the guy rather than complain.

This time I ran out of toothpaste and asked to have some sent up. The desk person said he would try and have the security guy bring it up on his next round, neither he nor the toothpaste ever showed up...

What is it with this place and the security guards? Do most Sheratons use the security people as a concierge service? Weird.

Also be aware, this place has a couple of smoking-only floors, which absolutely reek when you step off the elevator. I really feel for the midnight check-in guest without a reservation who gets stuck on one of these floors.

Even though I was, supposedly, on an SPG floor there is no newspaper service. You have to go down and pick up whatever they have left off of the check-in desk in the morning.

Anyway, all-in-all this most recent stay was OK. I got a really nice upgrade to go along with a bargain rate [though the $15/day parking fee seems a bit steep for Tampa] and the room was clean, modern and well done. The free WiFi is also nice but this property really needs to work on the staff, at least the night staff as they are IMHO wholly inadequate.

If like me you can snag an $89 rate and get an upgrade its a pretty stellar deal but whoever ends up paying the standard room rate of $225-$300 is going to be in for a let down.
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Old Jun 10, 2006, 8:57 pm
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Tried this Sheraton for the first time but only for 1 night. I was upgraded to the Presidential suite (corner room - last room to the right of the elevators). The suite was very large with a separate living room area when entering and french doors leading to the bedroom. The balcony extended from both rooms with a view of the river. I was told that they poured 20 million into the renovations and this is evident in many areas. There are areas where additional renovations would be welcomed such as the elevators. The suite was nice with new furnishings and wall paper but the floor tiles on the bathroom were obviously old (white and stained).

The club lounge is located on the top floor. It too had a balcony with a view of the river. Free alcohol (beer & wine) during the evenings. There is a computer with internet access in the lounge. The lounge lacks tables though as there is only 1 actual table for dining. There are side tables for those who don't score the table though.

Valet parking is quick and efficient since the cars are parked just to the left of the hotel entrance.

There is a shuttle (upon request) to Channelside (venue with bars, clubs, bowling, movie theatres) and this takes about 5 minutes to get to. The shuttle will also run to Ybor City.

There seems to be a ton of development going on in downtown Tampa (Trump Condos to be developed). Overall, I enjoyed my stay here at the Sheraton Riverwalk and would consider this hotel again.
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Old Feb 19, 2007, 11:11 am
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Originally Posted by TPA_Flyer
On the positive side, it is quite close to most of the office buildings in downtown and a reasonable walk to the St. Pete Times Forum.
Is it too close to drive to the St. Pete Times Forum? by walkable...do we mean a comfortable walk on sidewalks or along the highway? Never been there and am trying to decide whether this or the Westin is the most convenient option.
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Old Feb 19, 2007, 12:43 pm
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Originally Posted by SkyTeam777
Is it too close to drive to the St. Pete Times Forum? by walkable...do we mean a comfortable walk on sidewalks or along the highway? Never been there and am trying to decide whether this or the Westin is the most convenient option.
The walk is along city street sidewalks and unless you have trouble walking is not really that far ( and not more than two city blocks further in walking distance as opposed to from the Westin)
If you attending any sort of event at the Forum you are likely to be back at you hotel a lot quicker by walking than driving.

mike
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Old Feb 27, 2007, 1:04 pm
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Terrible stay at Sheraton Riverwalk Tampa

Here's what I posted to tripadvisor today:

I checked in on February 24th for a one night stay, and had to immediately change rooms twice. The first room was right next to the elevator, and the second room was directly across from the loudest ice machine ever created. Note that I am a Starwood Platinum preferred guest, which means I am "supposed" to get the nicest room available in the hotel, but each room I was moved to was bigger and nicer than the previous one. I was so late for dinner by the time I was moved for the second time that I didn't have time to explore the 3rd room. When I finally got back there late Saturday evening, I realized that the air conditioning was not working well. Not wanting to move again, I didn't bother to call about that, since it was a relatively cool evening. I tried to go to sleep, but the walls were so thin that I could hear a cell phone message waiting beep every five minutes from the room next door, and it was so loud that it sounded like it was right under my pillow. I called to complain, not expecting that they could do anything about it, but actually they did go in to the person's room and move their cell phone away from mine and that did solve the problem. Although this was the best possible outcome for me, I wouldn't be happy if I were the guest next door...and judging from their yelling at 2am, they weren't. To top things off, there was no hot water in the morning, and housekeeping knocked on my door while the do not disturb sign was on. She claimed to not know I had late checkout, but I doubt she checked.
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Old Feb 27, 2007, 1:14 pm
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Sorry to hear of your poor guest experience. In addition to relating this on both Flyertalk and TripAdvisor, I would also let Corporate Customer Service know as well. You can reach them via email at [email protected] or by phone at 800-328-6242.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

Last edited by ldsant; Feb 27, 2007 at 5:33 pm Reason: quote made reading difficult
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Old Feb 27, 2007, 1:27 pm
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Originally Posted by Starwood Lurker
Sorry to hear of your poor guest experience. In addition to relating this on both Flyertalk and TripAdvisor, I would also let Corporate Customer Service know as well. You can reach them via email at [email protected] or by phone at 800-328-6242.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]
Done. Thanks.
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Old Feb 27, 2007, 5:14 pm
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I stayed at the Riverwalk last week as well, and got a two-room suite on the fifth floor (I'm 100% on at least a junior-type suite upgrade in four stays there). The front desk was generally courteous, and the valets were very quick.

That said, I also experienced some of the OP's problems. The hot water system did have its hiccups, and the elevators are probably one of the slowest (if not the slowest) I've ever seen in a hotel. The rooms are slightly shabby IMO, as well. And for the first three stays, I didn't get my suite upgrades until I asked.

Overall, it seems that this hotel has a very high occupancy rate because of its location, so I guess there's not much incentive for any major improvements. I'm guessing the Westin Harbour Island is probably the best SPG hotel in Tampa (though I haven't stayed there).

P.S. Doing my expense report right now, and the charge still shows up on my corporate card statement as "RADISSON RIVERWALK HOTEL."
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