AC Hotel Clearwater Beach — Hotel in Clearwater

I can write a book on the AC hotel. What an incredible experience featuring circumstances and adventures which begin with my check in. Beautiful hotel. And it's brown. I mean brown. Everything is brown and you will see no other variation of a color palette unless you are inside the silver interior of the elevator. Upon entrance into my room the previous guest had accidentally turned the heat on. Not a typo. It was a sauna. A brown sauna at that. No other color in the room other than the brown. Well of course the bedspread is white but give me a break for the element of fabulous exaggeration. I went downstairs and I spoke to the enthusiastic Nate about how my room was a sauna and he offered me a new room. While he was making those arrangements I engaged in conversation with Elena another desk attendant who said, "How about that there's no AC at the AC." I died laughing. She is charming. She pulled out a map to show me all sorts of places to look at in Clearwater as well as beyond with restaurant recommendations and the such. Everybody who comes here must meet Jennifer. Oh my God she is awesome. I was talking to her about the pool and how I had noticed in previous reviews that I had read before I came here how so many people were complaining about the pool. Because it's small when in fact there were about 20 of us in it this afternoon and we were very comfortable with our own personal space. Praise Jesus! What I don't understand are people who flock to the hottest place on the planet where you have an ocean, don't tell me the Gulf is not the ocean, and you want to go to a pool. Stay home in your own pool. On Saturday my 3rd of my 4 days here the pool chairs were all taken but I had one that I purchased at the shop 500 ft to the right of the hotel Surf Time. I'm not going to pay $25 at the beach every day for a damn umbrella honey. So I paid $40 for my own for the week. Saturday afternoon I decided to stay at the pool for a little while so I could have ONE cocktail. I was allowed to bring my own lounger. It's amazing what people can accomplish with problem-solving rather than write a review of the hellashish dimensions of a swimming pool. I had noticed in previous reviews prior to my arrival that Sarah Beth has been mentioned almost 75,000 times. I have never known one single employee to receive that many shout outs. Her legend is well deserved. I ordered a pina colada and she said she didn't have a blender so I said well girl I'll buy ya one. The gym is unparalleled by any other hotel fitness room. Excellent equipment featuring much more than standard treadmills. One thing you should know is that the first five floors are for parking and the 5th floor is where you arrive in the lobby which means floors 6 through 10 are the guest rooms which means you're going to have a view. Everyone will have a view don't fret. Of course I checked out so you won't have a view of me and I look fabulous in a bathing suit. My biggest surprise because no other hotel does it, is I had housekeeping everyday. Every time I would crawl back in the 300% humidity from the beach my room was clean and the bed made. Fabulous. Now there are some things that happen at hotels which staff absolutely cannot be accountable for but we can hold them accountable for a solution. Unfortunately on my last night there was a disturbance in the room next to me and it was rather urgent and it was one in which I called the police. I wish I could tell you all the details but I may be called back to be on a witness stand. Actually that part isn't true but there was an unfortunate incident and the police came. Jack who was working the third shift was phenomenal and he banned the couple from ever returning to the hotel property. The management will not tolerate what is not tolerable. The staff is all about ensuring the safety, the welfare, and the enjoyment of their guests. And I could not be more thrilled. Finally the location. Perfect. 5 ft from the lobby is the pool. If you can walk airport terminals you can certainly walk 500 ft to the...

Thermostat didn't work in the room. It said it was always 74 degrees and you'd have to turn on the heat (we were there during a cold front when highs were in the 50s) or the a/c and it would stay on until the thermostat was turned completely off. So we were either freezing because the a/c would run all day while we were out or all night, or we were boiling bc the heat would run continuously. We told the front desk the next morning and they sent maintenance who "reset" it (11:30am) and said if that didn't work to let them know and they'd replace the thermostat. When I went to let them know that the reset didn't work (3:30 pm), they couldn't get a hold of the maintenance guy. They said they'd follow up with me, but they never did. So when we got back in the evening and it was freeeezing in the room I called the front desk and they said they sent maintenance again earlier and maintenance said the issue was rectified so they cannot send someone up again. And I said it was not rectified, it's freezing in the room, and I asked why couldn't they send someone. Then he said he actually couldn't send maintenance because no one was on site anymore (Now 7pm). He could have led with ththe fact maintenence was gone versus saying that they couldnt send someone because they said it was fixed. So I had 2 nights of sweating to death or freezing to death and there was no way to get the fan to run unless it was on heat or cold. Plus I had 2 separate reservations because I wanted to use a Marriott free night for 1 night and points for the 2nd night and the only way to book it was to make 2 separate reservations. When I checked in they said they combined the reservations so we wouldn't have to switch rooms. Well on day 2, thank goodness I just happened to be in my room when housekeeping came to ask why I hadn't checked out. I explained the situation. Then they sent another housekeeping person to ask why I hadn't checked out. Then my keys didn't work. When I went to the front desk they said I had to check out and check back in and give my cc again for incidentals but that I didn't have to switch rooms. I told them they didn't tell me that the day before or I would have done that. Not that big of a deal, but if I hadn't been in the room when housekeeping came, idk what would have happened. And they acted like it was obvious that I would have to check out and back in, but silly me, when the guys said he combined the reservation, I assumed that took care of it.

This was the same guy (at check in, who forgot to tell me about checking out and in) and who called me to tell me they couldn't send maintenance again bc they had already sent someone twice. That guy needs some training on how to assist customers to not make them more angry than they already are.

The lights in the bathroom are so bright and come on automatically, which is not good if you have to get up in the middle of the night and dont want to be wide awake. There was no way to get up with minimal light as to not wake you up more, it was either birght or pitch dark.

Breakfast is kindof a joke. $20 for some lunch meat and cheese, muffins, toast and juice. Oh and a nespresso, which they made a big deal about. They didn't have any decaf prepared so I had to wait about 10 minutes for a server to come over to even ask for coffee and then another 10 minutes to get the coffee. The breakfast also included 1 hot item, which would normally be an open face egg toast or French toast, but they were out of French toast, so tso there really wasn't a choice.

The only parking is valet for $38/night plus tax.

When I checked out I told them the thermostat still wasn't fixed and what had happened (the same person I reported it to the day before), she was apologetic and offered free breakfast or snacks from the convenience store, so that was nice.

After the fact, they gave me a 5,000 point credit. The room cost 37,000 points. Something is better than nothing.

I wouldn't recommend this hotel with so many...

The AC Hotel is in a great location, just across from the beach. But unfortunately the service is very poor. With the exception of Nataleigh (Front Desk) and Rich (Bartender), most of the staff service and room appearance treated the place like a Motel 6. It started with Check-In with a gentleman around 12:15 am on 7/18. They had a major issue because a staff member had to leave, so they were short staffed at midnight. The person who checked us in checked us into a room that didn't seem clean and AC didn't turn on. I was advised no other rooms available, but everything in room should be fine. It was after midnight and we were too tired. So we slept. After we got up about 10:00 am, 2 people knocked on the door and came to the room and said we weren't supposed to be in that room because it was supposed to be out of service (10th Floor room). They immediately started a 1/5 hour repair of the AC unit. Changing wires and circuit boards until finally it started. I went down and spoke to General Manager, and voiced my concerns, he acted like it was no big deal. And said "THE AC is working now, right" I explained that wasn't the only issue the room was not cleaned. He said, that was probably because it was supposed to be out of service. He acted like this is no big deal and an everyday occurrence. After some talking, he decided to upgrade our room to a room with a balcony. He didn't tell me that it was a Handicapped room with a thin balcony. After we got in the room we realized the toilet, and bathroom was stained and damaged. So again we went back to a clerk who was downstairs who moved us again to the only other room, which was another handicapped room that was not damaged, but smaller and needed cleaning. At this point we were tired of the situation, so we just stayed in that room. Seems, that the only difference between the AC Clearwater and the Super 8 is the price. Service and cleanliness is clearly the same. Now leaving the room issues. We ate at the outside bar in the early afternoon. The bartender/waiter was too busy to assist, so we had to go to him. (More Service issues) After eating, we went upstairs and came back down shortly to hang out in the pool. The seats are dingy in the lounge area near to the pool, but not dirty. Just permanently stained. We got in the pool, went back to the bar to get a couple of drinks then relaxed in the pool as three girls got into the pool with loud ratchet music with people's children around. The pool bartender kept walking pass, but didn't even think of asking them to turn it off so that others who don't want to hear this kind of music could enjoy the experience. We got fed up, and went inside as the pool bar closed and we went in to the inside bar that was manned by Rich, who clearly was more of a star in the customer service area for this hotel. He was friendly, polite and served us both food and alcohol inside. Even though the bar had an issue as the kitchen cook was MIA, he was extremely accommodating and softened the entire experience in that area. This is all in day 1 (7/18) Day 2 (7/20) we called room service for coffee as our coffee maker had no cups or coffee. After waiting over 90 minutes. Nothing!! So I had to go to the front desk were Nataleigh more than helped us.

Now over the entire stay 7/17-21, Nataleigh was one of the superstars of customer service as she did her best to fix and correct errors as they happened. The only reason they got any stars is because of...