Tortuga Inn Beach Resort — Hotel in Brandenton Beach

I don’t like giving bad reviews, however I feel it’s necessary so other families, similar to ours, don’t encounter the same bleak accommodations. My husband, myself (pregnant) and 6mo son stayed in a two bedroom, 1 bath condo. It was on the 2nd floor so beware there are no elevators or ramps or bell service, so you’ll be schlepping everything up yourselves. Very difficult for a family with “stuff”, babies, stroller, etc...impossible. The condo was old, extremely out dated. The bathrooms were bad, I hated to even give my son a bath in the tub. The only positive was the water pressure. The beds! Omg. You’re better off sleeping on the floor or the sofa in the living room. They are super loud, bouncy, and terribly uncomfortable. I need a massage from my two night stay. The pillows are even worse. Bring your own if you plan on staying. The units have horizontal shades that don’t block out sun or lights from the parking lot. I’ve never stayed in a hotel that didn’t have blackout shades in the bedrooms at a minimum. Housekeeping was a joke, she knocked, came in dropped a garbage bag of towels in the bathroom and took the dirties, asked for a banana and then left. Really? This is a diy hotel, you have to do everything yourselves. The pool is very, very small, has no umbrellas by the loungers. The only shade is at these concrete tables that are concrete!?! So no shade for kids or adults, and we are in Florida. The beach is self serve. You have to pull your own very old, plastic loungers from a tall stack near the road and drag them 50yards to the center of the beach. The umbrellas are teeny, tiny and are back at the hotel, across an extremely busy street, that you have to get from under the stairs and bring over yourself. Then attempt to push into the sand yourself. Not an easy feat with a 6mo old and being pregnant. Then guess what, you have to bring everything back at the end of the day. My reason for writing this is if you are at all like me and my family, used to resorts that tend to your every need this is not for you. It gets good reviews so I realize it’s not a problem for some people, which I read. However, I was not expecting what we had encountered so I’m very unpleased with the stay. It is a 3 star hotel at best. The rates were cheap, and we were staying here only because family had prior reservations. They stayed in the newer building with 2 beds, 2 baths, which I would highly recommend if your going, newer and clean. Plus I believe that building has an elevator. I hope this is...

Beware when booking this property, they have two different buildings. It's not clear on the website which location you are booking. There is an older "motel" style building called "Palm Court" which is oceanside, and a newer condominium style building on the Bayside. Most of the pictures are of the newer, bayside building.

The property has a lot of potential. Great location, steps to the beach and the palm tree courtyard has tropical, old-Florida vibes. Unfortunately, upon checking into our two-bedroom unit, we were overcome with a strong smell of mold and mildew. We went to notify the office, but they close at 5:30 pm, so we thought the unit just needed to be aired out. After we couldn't rid the smell, I investigated and found the mold/mildew smell was especially strong coming from the lower kitchen cabinets. I found white fuzzy mold growing on all of the pots and pans (handles and lids and all). I suspect this unit had been flooded, and they couldn't get the water up from under the kitchen cabinets so it just sat there causing a mold bloom. Not only was this extremely unpleasant (our luggage still reeks of mold days later), but a health hazard. I'm sure I'm not the first guest to be overcome by the mold and mildew. A moisture problem like that doesn't happen over night and the fact that management hasn't addressed it shows a complete disregard for guests and candidly negligence.

When I was able to notify the office, they apologized and said they would notify the "owner" yet no offer of financial remedy was made as they claimed the units are individually owned. I should have seen the red flags when full prepayment was required at almost $500 per night!

Outside of the mold issue, the unit was very dirty and worn and had numerous maintenance issues. Tile floors were greasy, mold and mildew in tub, worn out squeaky mattresses, toilet valve that was leaking so toilet kept refilling every few minutes all night long. My kids were practically in tears and it left us with a very negative experience for our time on Anna Maria Island.

Perhaps you'll get a better unit, or if you book in the off season and get a great rate, you can live with it, but for almost $500 per night, I feel like...

We came to tortuga inn for a quick weekend trip with our toddler and my in-laws. My in-laws brought their boat to use the hotel’s boat slip and trailer parking, set up in advance at booking. When we all went to get checked in, one blonde woman at the desk stated there was no trailer parking available under my in-laws reservation. My in-laws informed the front desk this was arranged when they called to book. The front desk all started chiming in (4 women) stating we “specifically informed the man when the reservation was made that there was no trailer parking” and “we told the other man that was in here there was no parking” and that he could check out the Cortez marina (which rents by the month…). My father in law asked them why there was no parking and a brunette older lady bluntly and rudely (she was very annoyed) responded “because there is no trailer parking”. I am following my toddler around the gift shop listening to this back and forth and how all of them treated my in-laws when after a few minutes, the original woman said “oh wait, I do see you have a reservation here for trailer parking”. I laughed to myself at how silly this whole ordeal had been and then I am not kidding you, ALL FOUR of these front desk women snapped their heads to look at me and call me out…. They asked me “is there something wrong miss” to which I replied “yes, that was a cluster” and then got in return “I’m just a person”. I want to stress in this review… there was NO apology. No acknowledgment of screw up from any of them. They were more concerned about being right than about recognizing they were wrong. This set the whole tone for the rest of the weekend for me (which was a birthday gift for me) to the point I refused to walk in to the front office for anything after this. These slips and trailer parking come with additional fees, to be treated so poorly was completely unacceptable. They gave my son a lollipop as a way to recover, again no apology. My rating was all I could give although we did enjoy our weekend, the customer service here was absolutely horrendous and should...