Clarion Pointe Tampa-Brandon Near Fairgrounds and Casino — Hotel in Brandon

I have been a long time, loyal rewards member and trusted in the Choice Hotel corporation to provide a clean and affordable hotel; I was extremely disappointed even though the reviews were positive.

We booked a stay for one night (13 March 2017) at this hotel as our flight was pushed up earlier and we needed to fly into Florida a day early. We arrived at the hotel after 10pm because of delays. Much of the parking was obstructed by commercial tractor trailers and large vehicles (parked across several spaces). The front desk clerk was very friendly and professional; we were greeted and checked in as expected. This is when our nightmare began...our key cards did not open our room and I had to walk back to the front desk which is only accessible from the outside. Once I got the new cards I couldn't get back into our building because 4 out of 5 doors had signs that said,"sorry for the inconvenience this key card device does not work"..I had to walk through a dark parking lot in a questionable area alone to the front office.

We rented (2) rooms - 1 double and 1 king loft. My parents stayed in the double and said, "their room was o.k., nothing special".

The king loft was disgusting! The carpet was stained in at least 6 areas, a layer of dust covered every surface possible as if it had not been cleaned in quite some time. The A/C unit in the wall sounded like a train and the A/C in the loft never stopped running.

The master bathroom was filthy!! it looked like someone cleaned their hairbrush and threw the hair all over the floor and filled the toilet. The mirror was covered in "spots" I am including pictures ( we flushed the toilet prior to a pic but you get the point). Some type of sticky liquid was spread across the tv stand and the tv would not come on.."always searching for signal". Our King bed was so worn out we spent the night trying to pull ourselves out of the pit in the middle (we are small people - 5'8" and 5'4"). The shower was so dirty we opted NOT to use it the next morning. There were no blankets in the room for the fold out couch for our son so I called the front desk (she brought them with apologies). The ironing board was faulty and slammed closed on my hand after set-up.

I called the front desk immediately and reported this room but no other rooms were available. I am so disappointed in this stay and I cannot understand how it goes un-noticed by a manager? There doesn't seem to be any quality assurance at this location and housekeeping is not present!!

The following morning I talked with a desk clerk who gave us $30 off our stay but I DO NOT feel this is enough for the nightmare we endured.

I didn't even sleep for fear of something crawling on me in the night! I will be adding this message to an email for customer relations. No one should have to deal with this mess. Someone needs to physically go to this hotel and fix it!!

I expected more and need to be able to trust in the CHOICE name when...

Decent hotel by the fairgrounds about 20 minutes from airport. No specific attractions near it, quiet area. 10 minutes from lots of stores and restaurants on Brandon Rd. It was definitely remodeled with nicer things, but small structural things remain broken or messed up. Some of my photos show that. Our visit started with hoping to check in before 3pm due to our early flight. No luck. We had to wait until about 3:30 to finally get in the room. They do not have enough cleaning staff to do all the rooms causing them to still be cleaning into early evening. 3pm check in is not guaranteed.

I arrived before my sister and the reservation was in her name so they gave me some trouble trying to get checked in. Finally got it "approved". She arrived later and signed off on it.

We chose and paid for a loft king room with a pull out couch. They then claimed there were no pull out couches due to them being damaged. Then suddenly they found 1 room with it. So don't expect to get one even if u reserved it online.

Room had a downstairs TV that didn't work due to poor internet connectivity. This could not be resolved. The phone did not work. The thermostat and remotes were missing the backs oddly. Only 3 towels are provided so you may need to ask for more. They won't clean each day unless you ask for it.

The shower is nice and has shampoo and conditioner, no body wash. The drain didn't work well.

There is a balcony with chairs overlooking pool area.

The kitchen area is nice with high table and chairs. It has a sink, counter space, microwave, and mini fridge.

Downstairs bathroom is half bath. Upstairs is full bath. Stairs are steep, not recommended for older people.

My son had an allergy to the bed sheets and broke out in hives and eye swelling. Not the hotels fault, but if you're sensitive to fragrance or how the sheets are washed be aware. They were able to provide a roll out twin bed for him to try. We used it with no sheets, it helped some.

The house keepers do not speak English, ask the front desk for what you need.

After the first couple days we started to notice the occupants getting more ghetto. Smoking, congregating, loud music. It seems they allow certain people to live there longer term. The front desk girl helped resolve a noise complaint due to the blasting music past midnight.

Pool area is small, but nice. Cleaned daily. Towels provided in bins.

Breakfast is provided from 6-9am in the seating area. Nice set up. Food is basic, nothing hot. Cereal, plain Bagels, juice, waffle maker, and yogurt. Enough to satisfy you for the morning.

Lobby bathrooms are locked and require a front desk key. There is a little snack type shop for little things in the lobby.

Overall we were satisfied with the visit for the price, but this is certainly not a 5 star hotel. Good enough for short trips to Tampa, I don't recommend staying...

——Edited:- I feel like the owners really care about this place, which makes it different than some others, it has a personal feel. I was contacted by phone yesterday within hours of my previous review. She argued politely that their hallway sensors would not allow somebody to be smoking weed in the hallways, but after their treatment yesterday, it smelled better when I got there after work, but when I returned after dinner, the smell was back, which means somebody is smoking large amounts weed in their room. What can you do, this person can only stay here so long… I Slept like a baby got up and for the second day in a row the coffee machine is broken – no coffee and no hot water for oatmeal. Overall subpar experience, but I will return and give it one more try—- This little hotel is perfect for me because it’s really close to my office and half the price of other options, but I think the main issue here is the staff… while eager to help, do not understand a word of English although they speak it perfectly. They have a no smoking in rooms policy, but the whole place reeks of weed, when I asked about it, it took about five minutes for him to understand that my eyes were burning in my room from the smoke. He came to my room and hit it with a few shots of ozone spray, but the hallways smell like a weed farm. Additionally- When I checked in the guy at the front desk told me the pool was open 24 hours yet when I took an amazingly relaxing midnight dip in the pool he came out to tell me that I cannot swim after dark. Understandable since it’s the policy and most hotels, but he had just told me that the pool area was open 24 hours and never mentioned anything about swimming so I assumed the pool was open as well. He acted annoyed with me, but probably because another guest has just been screaming at the top of his lungs out his balcony for the last 10 minutes. Unfortunately, cute little hotel that is kept up very well and very convenient for me, but this will be my last stay, and I will try to change my reservation for tomorrow night as well. Imagine being here with a family with the marijuana smell in the hallways. very unfortunate because it is a nice and cute little hotel with lots of outdoor gathering areas, great pool area, etc. I think they’re ozone spray smells like weed, decent night sleep last night, but the breakfast was horrible today. Waffles were undercooked, but it didn’t matter because they had no syrup, grabbed a bowl of cereal, no milk. Third try oatmeal – water in hot water pump was not hot enough to make the oatmeal soft. I had three bites of dry cereal with yogurt and a tiny cup of coffee. I think my stays here are done unless I factor out...