Sandpearl Resort — Hotel in Clearwater

Upgraded to a partial beach front view. Recieved that along with a full view of the dumpster right below me. Was unable to enjoy the balcony because of the smell coming up from below. One morning I even got to view a disregarded toilet and old holiday wreath next to the dumpster. Every morning by 5ish very loud trucks were coming and going and well not going. They would park under my balcony and just sit in idol for hours. It was loud enough that I needed ear plugs. I live in the city and I am used to loud noises but this was excessive and an "upgrade". What the hell is the standard room like? One early morning I was awoken by the cleaning staff yelling at each other from one room to another while cleaning with complete disregard of any hotel guests. Another morning I awoke to service crew outside my door with some kind of construction cart with 2 men talking very loudly to each other. They were not just walking by. They had their cart parked right outside my door an to top it off they were playing music at full blast on their cell phone. Both times I had to open my door and kindly ask them to keep it down. The 1st and 2nd night during my stay I ate at Tates Grill on the property. It's more of a casual restaurant. The 1st night was great had peel and eat shrimp and it was delicious and paired well with the warm weather and sunset. Went back the 2nd night for more of the same however, once I got back to my room I felt ill and got very sick that evening. With an very empty stomach I was starving late at night. I discovered a late night menu at the very very very bottom of the online menu under the kids.... Keep going all the way past the alcoholic drinks. I ordered a simple buttered noodles because it was the safest sounding option. What I received was litterly a bowl of butter like almost over half full of butter with noodles. I managed to salvage them by draining the ungodly amount of butter out of the bowl. My gf and I headed to the spa on site one day for a massage. The staff was great, we were provided slides and a robe and allowed to enjoy the women's room before and after our massage. We enjoyed a cup of tea however the jars holding peppermint and ginger must have been very old because the peppermint crumbles were one solid piece and unusable, we moved on to the hot tub area and it was nice until I noticed the very large grout line with black mold on it and what looked like frog eggs in the water. That's the only way to describe it. We quickly got out and tried the steam room out. However we're pretty turned off because there was a wet used swimming suit on the bench leaving it less than desirable to sit in there not knowing if it were really clean or not. The over all feel of the hotel was grand with a feel of history. What would have been wonderful is some information given about the land and original hotel that had been there. Even better a little history provided by the staff. I felt like it was a missed opportunity. The restaurant that is located in the hotel and is a higher end destination was a wonderful experience. The scallops were amazing and the staff made the experience even better. The pool area was ok, they certainly packed in as many lounge chairs as possible with no indicators why some that sat empty all day right in front of the pool with opal towels on them were even for or if that was an optional update it would have been nice to know. The wait staff was sparce and the birds will attack before or during your attempted snack time so be aware and cautious. The staff did absolutely nothing to help us as we were swarmed by the birds, such as take the finished food away in a timely mannor. The hotel excelled at always providing clean towels, grooming products and sometimes too eager to clean my room daily. I had to turn them away a few time because I wasn't ready to leave yet. I spoke with one of the assistant managers after playing phone tag a few times and was given a 200 credit back however, I will say for the cost and the credit comparison it wasn't really a satisfactory outcome...

In summary, this hotel is decent value at $300 per night, but service and operational issues definitely dont support this hotel at $750 per night (what we paid for a larger ocean front room). Note that during our stay the hotel was half full. If it was full, our experience would likely have been worse. If you are looking for a more exclusive or upscale experience, I dont think this is the place for you- you can do better.

Pros: +Beach and pool are clean and nice +Beach has great powder sand, and it's a deep beach which we like (many others dont) +Rooms and hotel are very clean (read below for maintenance issues) +Servers at breakfast in Caretta are nice, and same with the beach/pool servers from Tates for lunch and snacks +Beach "activities desk" staff is friendly One of the breakfast omelet chefs is a super friendly guy. The other... horrid (see below) +Beds are medium soft and very comfortable. Everyone slept well +Rooms (at least ours) was quiet. Could not hear neighbors or outside +The place seems built well and even though a major storm went through during the night, we would not have heard it except that our phone alerts went off (Waterspout/Tornado warning) +They will give you as many (free) bottled waters as you want

Cons: -First and foremost is the construction. They tell you WHEN YOU CHECK IN that there is construction. They wring their hands saying that they dont know where it is, and that they have no control. Telling me at check in? After I fly there? Come on guys!! Construction is from 8am to 4 or 5pm each day. We heard drilling, grinding, hammering, and saw workers and painters (some right outside our room). We smelled some paint and some smoke from grinding. This is simply not acceptable in this price range, and the hotel should either offer steep construction discounts with a strong warning at BOOKING and/or close and entire section of the hotel for renovation. We complained about this (many times), as did many other guests. After a day of nagging the front desk, and getting the "let me check with my manager treatment" we got a nightly discount and free breakfasts for the week. They offered us a new room, which was WORSE and with the same noise, so we declined that. What Sandpearl offered was enough to make us shut up, but barely. This policy and how construction is being managed is NOT ACCEPTABLE at (this) price range. Be warned. Other issues: -Toilet was stuff and not flushing upon check-in. Come on -Bathroom French doors do not close or lock properly -Alarm clock not set properly, and no one could figure out how to change it -Shower door handle was loose -The gate to the beach (and wow does Sandpearl have a lot of gates) was not opening properly for several days -Found a bug in the milk jug at breakfast -One of the omelet chefs is great... The other will ignore you if you stand in front of him and stare at him for 5 minutes -The gym is small and has a bad room shape, which makes it feel very congested -$30/per day for a beach umbrella, no free sunscreen... -Only one person ever at the front desk.. almost always have to wait -The occasional weird cleaning fluid smell in the elevators and sometimes in the lobby -I never saw any sort of champagne or any other treats in the lobby (I was led to believe this would be available) -Got lots of text and email surveys from SandPearl. Responded to them. Never got more than a chat bot response to anything. I expect the same for this review, as you will see all canned responses to people who complain -Not a big deal, but there we several smaller corporate events taking place during our stay. Not my preference as I am trying to get away from that

Other, and not fault of hotel... Just a heads up ~Most food in the area is poor and fried. There are a few sushi places in walking distance which are good ~A lot of people from the NYC area.. If you dont like muscle shirts, backwards caps, and the (very) occasional stink eye, be warned, as you might see these things ~This is a kid friendly hotel. If you dont want to see any kids, this is...

Almost went with a 3/5…but the staff was attentive to every issue and resolved them quickly. And we had issues this time making for a markedly different experience vs our first visit in 2024. |Starting with that this resort does well - kids. This is why we came back. They have all kinds of options for lawn games, pool toys, a fire pit for smores, beach pales and toys, a play room…nightly movies as well. They really do the kids friendly thing well. |Valet and Bell service were great - very personable guys and informative with recommendations. Rooms still nice and decent sized. Really like that there is virtually no carpet, given this is a beach resort it makes sense. Bathrooms large. Resort grounds are clean and the pool is well maintained. Front desk is friendly, as were the Caretta staff. |Where we had trouble this yr: starting with arrival. We arrived early - 3 hours before check in. I let them know this the night before. I had hope the room would be ready early, but didn’t expect it. And it wasn’t. Issue was that when we asked for a changing room, there was none. Only the lobby bathrooms. For a family of 4, this made things difficult. Many resorts we go to have changing rooms with couches and chairs for this very reason. I assumed Opal would as well - my mistake. It also took 3 hours for our room to be ready. Arrived at 1 , check-in is at 4. Room was ready at 4. I understand checkin time. But they knew we were there early; they knew we were set to arrive early. With an 11am checkout time, why does it take 5 hours to get a room turned over for guests who you know are already on the grounds and using the resort? It was not a good way to start. |Room was good, except tv remote did not work. They serviced it quickly. Pool was good. Pool service was mediocre however. Attendants sometimes seemed to just focus on one side of pool, and all were disinterested to varying degrees. Food was pretty good poolside. Activity desk was great. |Fire pit was nice but pls consider stopping with whatever is being out on the wood to start the fire. Smells like kerosene and it blows up to the ocean front rooms with black smoke. Whatever it is it isn’t natural and the kids are roasting marshmallows in that stuff. It doesn’t cost much to buy natural fire starters. |Early mornings they have a marketplace coffee bar. At least one morning it was still closed nearly 30 min after it was supposed to be open. Device was good once opened. Early morning lobby restrooms were not good: both filthy and/or out of TP all together. |Housekeeping: turn down service is helpful. However when they do clean, they don’t vacuum floors. So if you have sand on your floor, which you do because you’re on the beach, that sand stays on your floor until you leave. I’m sure we could have requested it cleaned, I’m just noting it’s not done. Wasn’t done during last years visit either so it seems to be policy. Also not all toiletries were restocked during cleanings. They drop off chocolate during turn down and take dirty towels, which is really helpful. |Island grill food is ok. Something’s good others like grilled fish are bad. |Caretta deserts were great. Food was decent. Service was mediocre…clear plates pls and come back more than once every 15 min.|Last but not least they replaced their Nespresso machines with basic keurigs. Nicer hotels have them, so I’m sure this was cost saving. But the nespresso machines were far better and in my opinion better than the Starbucks coffee that the coffee bar sells. Disappointing. |So overall a great resort for families but with many more slip ups this year vs last. I recommend it for families, but I doubt we will return after this visit. It was just a pretty marked different vs...