The Westshore Grand, A Tribute Portfolio Hotel, Tampa — Attraction in Tampa

50 countries. Perhaps 1,000 hotels. Nearly 40 years of prolific traveling.

This was singularly the most viciously inhuman, brutal, traumatizing customer-service experience I have ever had. It verged on four days of prison conditions in a third-world, communist country.

Every single concierge employee looked inconsolably miserable to work there, and they took it out on guests. The only exception was one of the managers, by the name of Sarah, who was admirable personable, kind, and tended to everyone's every need.

To call this the most heinous hotel experience my husband and I have ever had would be the understatement of the century. We felt dehumanized, discriminated against, and as though our mere presence – from the moment of checking in with a light, "hello" – was a burden.

Rooftop pool patio on the 9th floor is nice and quiet. Problem was, the steel furniture is not fixed in place, and when hard winds struck, my husband and I were clobbered by metal chairs, umbrellas and tables swept by gusts. I was injured and, already living with a chronic illness, the injury has taken a heavy toll.

When we arrived, the woman at the front could not find our reservation. She ultimately agreed to create a new one. The room we had ordered was not available to us, so she temporarily placed us in a room without working AC for 7 hours. At 6pm, we asked, our room was still not ready. At 10pm we asked, and it was finally available to us. Considering checkout hours, makes you wonder what would change between 2:30pm and 10pm that could not have changed by 3:30.

When we called downstairs asking for tea, we were told there was none, then hanged up on. Time and again. When at the lobby, we asked Sarah, the only sane front-desker, and she handed myriad teas to us instantly.

Once a day, we called downstairs asking for a refill of toiletries: bodywash and shampoo. I live with chronic illness alleviated by showers and hot running water. With long days of work – we were there for a corporate conference – and sightseeing, we also needed to refresh often.

On our last day, when calling down, the worst staff member of all, one by the name of Kendra, rejected our request and said, "You have exceeded your soap allowance, you have asked for one every day. No."

That day, my husband headed out for the entire day to a conference. He accidentally took both room keys with him. I called downstairs and politely queried if I could head down and have another room key made. That same totalitarian Kendra responded, "No, the reservation is under your husband's name, so I can't make another key for you." I told her I was calling from within the room, and am already known by all staff members, including that who checked us in and saw my identification, but coldly, she responded, "No, I will not." I asked, "So am I to just stay in my room like a cage for the entire day, unable to leave?"

She responded, "Yes. Stay in your room until your husband comes back and gets you."

Incomprehensible. Abominable.

When checking out, I expressed my vexation to her, that she treated us inhumanly and without care, kindness, professionalism or hospitality. She laughed it off. She called security and asked to escort me out because "I was weird." I said all I wanted was to check out. She said, "Your husband can do that, I want you out of this hotel!" I insisted that I was the one paying and would not leave until checked out. Security sided with us and told this Kendra to subdue her tantrum and simply check us out. After five minutes of back-and-forth, she ultimately reluctantly did.

At some $200/night, we expect better than injuries without accountability, discrimination based on sexual orientation and inhuman disregard or abuse.

We will file a complaint with corporate, and litigation is not out of the question. A petrifyingly horrid experience. I would rather sleep on the street and shower with hose water than ever stay at this establishment again; and this Kendra should work in something better fitted for her social skills. Like a torture...

We stayed at this hotel for one night while we were unable to stay in our beach condo due to Helene. While we were in FL, we stayed in 4 different Tampa Marriott branded hotels, from a Courtyard to a Westin. This hotel was by far the worst experience. First off, THIS IS NOT a 4 STAR HOTEL and should not be part of the Autograph collection. It might have been at one time, but no longer. Upon entering the hotel it seems to be relatively nice, but that ends when you leave the lobby. My first indication was parking and the elevators there - in shambles, rickety, etc. When we got to the front desk we were barely greeted as they scrambled to find a room for us at 3 pm. There were no how are you's, no explanation on the pool (which I since found out is closed), fitness, dining or parking. We were literally just handed a hotel room key. There was not a line, no one was behind us. I had to ask if we were parked in the right place. Keep in mind, this hotel is in an Office Building that shares a parking garage with the office space so I wanted to make sure our car wouldn't get towed. I was expecting lots of details around that because it's slightly confusing, but none.

We arrive at our room and it's just dingy and worn out. This hotel at a quick glance looks very nice, the photos on the Marriott Website depict a recently renovated, new shiny place. This is NOT that. The furniture is old, the carpet is tattered, the bathroom hasn't seen an update in probably 10 years. The room was decently clean, but we did find garbage on the floor from a prior guest. When I went to take a shower, the water just pools at your feet, so you shower in 3-4" of water. The sink does the same thing, so I had to unscrew the drain. The tiles around the bathroom look dirty and there was molding caulk in the shower. The bedding is threadbare, and if you are a person who is always cold, well there is no comforter on the bed. Just a very, very thin old blanket and sheet. Along with the decorative blanket that goes on the bed by your feet, that never gets washed, so use at your own risk. The rooms are interior facing and literally look into an office building lobby - we opened the curtains and were staring into the lobby, but more awkwardly, about 30 ft directly across from us was a woman staring back at us from her office, also on the 5th floor. You are unable to open the curtains so dark and dingy it is, the entire time.

In terms of service, I would give this a 1 star at best. I know they were busy due to Helene, but loudly cleaning guest rooms at 10:40 pm is unacceptable. From about 9-10:40 pm, there were a handful of housekeeping employees across the hall from us laughing, talking loudly, slamming doors and the knocking on other rooms, yelling housekeeping, opening the door and then leaving. I finally called downstairs as we were trying to sleep but it was impossible due to this group of employees being extremely inconsiderate due to the time of night it was, and was met with rudeness and no apologies. I'm all for having fun while you're working, but after 10 pm, it would have been more appropriate to do it a bit quieter.

I reached out to Marriott Corporate who passed along my concern to the local management team, but have heard nothing back from them yet. After reading other reviews that mention the management team, I don't expect...

Even though I could tell I was being charged more for the room for last minute booking, I booked this more pricey hotel because it was close to the airport and had a shuttle, as our afternoon flight had been canceled, and we had to be back for a 705 AM flight the following morning, an early flight but not at all uncommon. I also liked that it had a heated rooftop pool as we had had a terrible day of travel and were looking forward to some respite that afternoon. We were picked up by the hotel shuttle and brought to the hotel from the airport no problem. When we arrived, I checked in and inquired about the shuttle schedule / procedure for getting a ride back to the airport in the morning, at which point I was informed the shuttle didn't start until 6AM. I was shocked. I have never stayed at a hotel where the shuttle didnt start by at least 4AM (if not run 24 hrs) as most early morning flights start around 6-7AM, which requires an arrival of at least 1-2 hours prior so as to have time to check bags and get through security. What is the point of having a shuttle at an airport centric hotel if it doesn't run early enough for people to catch their morning flights at the airport?! When I expressed frustration at this, staff made no apologies for the inconvenience AT ALL and quite frankly, I felt they were rude and dismissive of my concerns in general. Then we were informed the pool was out of order. What was the point of the extra money I paid for these ammenities?!

Finally, to top things off, we laid down to go to sleep and a fire alarm went off telling us a fire had been reported in the building (we were on the third floor). The alarm had a recorded message instructing us to evacuate until a futher announcement was made letting us know wheter it was safe to return. SO we jumped out of bed, got dressed, and rushed down three flights of stairs. Just as we reached the main level, the alarm stopped and we entered the the hotel lobby to find it and the bar/restaraunt full of people casually eating, drinking, and congretating while staff continued checking people in at the desks. We stood around, as did some other random groups of people also, clearly fresh out of bed and as confused as we were. After nearly thirty minutes of not hearing anything further via an overhead announcement or seeing any signs of an emergency, I finally managed to get the attention of an employee who then informed us, "oh yah, that was a false alarm, you can go back to your room." I have never witnessed nor payed for such incompetence and unprofessionalism. I will never stay at this property again. What an absolute WASTE of money! I could have stayed a place half the price down the road and paid for the same uber back to the airport and been far more satisfied. Next...