Sleep Inn Sarasota North — Hotel in Sarasota

I stayed at the Sleep Inn after the hurricane malvin came through and my place was liveable afterwards. FEMA gave me a 3 month hotel voucher. When I was checking into the hotel they only gave me in one month I figured they understood that the voucher was for 3 months because everybody's voucher was the same and I figured they just want one month at a time and that it would just renew they would just renew for the month . The employee that check me in was not very forthcoming with much information (I also found out during this process that that girl had gotten fired I am not sure for what reasons but I'd also seen her yelling at a couple of customers before so I'm sure that's had to do with it also) and tried to charge me for a pet fee and for incidentals which FEMA stated on their website was not necessary. Those were all supposed to be paid for by FEMA . So I was told that she messed up the hotel reservation initially and only gave me a room for a month but then when that one month was up I had to fight for a room for another week and then another 4 days and another 4 days and finally I got told I had to leave because they weren't accepting FEMA vouchers anymore so a little upsetting because I supposed to have a 3 months and I wasn't granted that. They stated I could have been asking to check to see if people had canceled reservations the whole time which nobody ever told me that because I didn't know that I was going to be kicked out after a month. I couldn't believe that they were just going to kick me out like that. I ended up sleeping in a tent for about 2 weeks staying at a friend of mine's car for about another 2 and then finally found a friend to let me say this place for a little bit of time but I have to get out of there too. overall all the hotel was very nice..... breakfast is very good there and they got biscuits and gravy and bagels and danishes coffee juice. the staff was really good but when I was there at the very end they switched owners and they lost some staff but most of the staff are still there but when the new owners came in that's when the problem of me having to leave came about so I don't know if they just didn't really care about me having no house to live in because of the hurricane or if they just really didn't care at all. There was one guy who worked there from the new ownership that did help me get a few days at the end to help me out a little bit longer but in the end it definitely wasn't 3 months worth like it should have been but I do applaud him for helping me out he didn't have to do that and he didn't go above and beyond a little bit but I was told that because there's paying patrons coming through that's why I couldn't keep the room which you know I'm a pain patron at that point even though I wasn't paying FEMA was paying for me and it would have been paid for either way so but the hotel itself is an overall nice hotel the location is really good. kind of sit back in between two other hotels there's not much around there though food wise or anything like that so you're going to have to order food. there's no convenience store to walk to really or anything the airport's right across the street though so if you're traveling and just stopping through it's a good little drop off spot. rooms are a bit tiny but overall like I said it's a good spot to go to.

I also want to mention that for probably about over a week we had no hot water there maybe a little bit more than that this is well after the hurricane they know there was a problem and they weren't even telling anyone about it they eventually did post something on the front door about the problem but it was probably almost like a 2 weeks that we didn't have hot water there so that was definitely a little bit of a bummer but I know the problem was fixed and there was never a problem after that for the most part so that was a little upsetting about to stay...

I was nervous about booking this hotel because of so many bad reviews, but there wasn't a lot of other places to choose from during the time I was going to be in the area so I took a chance. I am happy to say that I had a mostly pleasant experience staying here.

The hotel is in an amazing location. It's right across the street from the airport and about 1-minute from the Ringling Museum, go 10-ish minutes down the road and you're at one of the largest shopping centers I've ever seen in my life, which is currently decked out for Christmas and I highly recommend taking a drive through there to see the lights if you have time.

It does have a little bit of a musty smell when you first walk into the lobby, but I honestly find this at a lot of hotels that are near water, I'm not sure what it is. There is a seating area to the right that has some comfortable chairs and a sofa, there's also a small business center desk. The stairs to the upper floors were nicely painted and created a nice visual. There is also an ice machine, and a couple of vending machines just past the lobby.

Check-in was easy and the clerk was super friendly, I think his name was Dan or Don. I couldn't get my key to work (user error, I heard what he said about the way the arrow went but my mind processed it the opposite) and he was so kind and helpful about it. While I was sitting in the lobby waiting for my partner to arrive I overheard another customer giving him a bit of a hard time over the fact that the rooms now had hard flooring when previously they had carpet, he handled this man's frustrations so well and had him in a better mood by the time the conversation ended.

Our room was on the first floor and was convenient to the lobby, pool, and the side entrance where we had parked. The room looked nice enough if you didn't look too hard, but it also had a strange odor every time you walked in that went away after you were inside for a few minutes. The beds were medium level comfort for me, not the best or worst I've ever slept on. The A/C worked well (and they were replacing the A/C units, we saw a huge stack of them waiting to be installed). They had recently replaced all of the flooring in the rooms, and it looked great. The shower was nice, it looked small but was actually quite spacious and had very hot water. Cosmetically the room needed some work, but it seems like they are working on that. It wasn't a huge deal for us, the room was clean and fairly comfortable, that was all we really cared about.

The pool area was decent looking and clean. We sat out there for a bit one evening in the chairs, and also on the steps with our feet in the water. It was quiet and relaxing.

They were short staffed while we were there so we had to visit the desk several times before we found someone who could give us more towels, and there was no one there when we checked out, just a sign saying to leave your email address if you wanted a receipt. I did that and received my receipt without issue.

There was some noise from the room above us at times, and some people who were overly loud in the hallway at times, but that's not the hotel's fault, just something to be aware of, it seems to be everywhere these days.

They serve breakfast too but we didn't partake so I can't tell you how that was.

Overall I think it was a decent place to stay, in it's current status I would recommend it when the price is $100 or less per night, but with the renovations they are doing I think it's going to get...

We booked because we could not find other accommodations for our group due to all the events that were going on that weekend. Check IN and coffee was good, the rest was down hill. Our room was supposed to be two queen beds and we were put in a room with full size beds, we were told the hotel was full and could not exchange rooms. My wife and I are large people and do not fit well on a full bed, and our daughter who is a large person was fine by herself. The room was so humid and hot it took till the next day to even cool down to a livable temperature. The TV remote was held by tape, there was mold on the lampshades, the shower has some kind of anti skid tape, which was still slippery, kudos for having the grab bars installed. The shower door let water leak on the floor, the door to the shower and toilet area was hard to slide open and the the exhaust fan did not work, the toilet paper holder was coming off the wall, and maintenance had the bright idea of using paper towels for caulking in the shower. We were left two towels for three people, but the bathroom was clean. The floors in the room were sticky and did not seem clean, or this may have been the cleaner they use. The breakfast was OK, they has varieties of muffins and granola bars and cereals and waffles, they also have juices. Just don't show up late in the morning everything is gone,nobody restocks it, not even the employees that come in to get breakfast for themselves. One night when we returned there was a large racoon in the trash dumpster and walked out in the road facing us because we interrupted his dinner I guess. We proceeded to try and park our vehicle and the he blocked the road, I assume people feed him because he is not scared of people. It does seem a vehicle rolling toward him seem to be the way to get him to leave, we told the front desk person about the incident, either she did not care or did not speak English, because all she did was shake her head. After that we named the racoon Jasper and said he was the head of security for the parking area, Jasper seems to like dining at about 10-11 PM so don't be shocked if you see him. If you need someone to talk to, the day staff seems to be the only ones that speak English or willing to talk you, not sure which. The rest of staff appear to just hate being there period and are not willing to speak. The pool and the deck, forget it is not available to swim much less sit and use the deck. I would have liked to have stayed in one of the rooms in the pictures, but that was not our case, a picture is worth a thousand words, the reality of was a whole different story. Maybe they are remodeling, it needs it badly, its an old and well used place and needs a complete remodel, at least the room we stayed in, the people in our group had similar issues with their stay and were also not happy. One the plus side, it's convenient to the airport, yeah...