Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, RJ Stadium - Tampa Airport East — Hotel in Tampa

I was highly disappointed with my recent stay. As a member of Choice Privileges, I have consistently sought accommodations at your establishments during my travels, as my past experiences have typically met my expectations. Upon my arrival at the hotel, I faced a wait of over thirty minutes before reaching the front desk, where two individuals were initially attending to their check-ins. When I finally approached the desk, the attendant inquired if it would be acceptable for her to take a brief break, having been on duty since one o'clock without respite. Understanding the importance of adequate breaks, I consented. Upon her return, I noticed a line of five additional guests waiting for assistance. The attendant promptly acknowledged that I was next and proceeded with my check-in, which took an additional thirty minutes before I received my room key. After retrieving my luggage and assessing my attire for the evening, I discovered that my suit and shirt had become slightly wrinkled during travel. I possessed an iron; however, there was no ironing board available in my room. As such, I decided to return to the front desk to request an ironing board. Upon arriving at the lobby, I observed that the attendant was engaged with two other guests trying to check in, necessitating another wait. After approximately twenty minutes, I inquired whether I could have an ironing board. The receptionist assured me that she would arrange for one and proceeded to make a phone call. I returned to my room, yet after another thirty minutes, there was still no ironing board. In light of my engagement in town as the featured speaker for an event, my appearance holds significant importance. As a Retired Combat Army Veteran, I take great pride in my presentation, just as I did during my time in uniform. I believe that, despite my retirement, I serve as a representative of all those who have served when I engage in speaking opportunities. The manner in which I present myself has a profound effect on my self-perception; consequently, when I do not look my best, I do not feel my best. As time progressed, it became apparent to me that I needed to refresh myself and prepare for departure to the event. Regrettably, my pants, shirt, and jacket did not align with my standards for an appropriate appearance, instead resembling garments that had been hastily extracted from a suitcase. Nevertheless, those were the clothes I had available. I left my room with the hope that an ironing board might be waiting for me at my door or within my room upon my return, although this would have been a belated solution to my predicament before the event. During the event, I was acutely aware of my appearance, which detracted from my performance. Following the event, I felt disheartened and returned to the hotel to find that the ironing board had still not been delivered. The service provided by the hotel in this instance fell significantly short of expectations. As I compose this message, I find myself increasingly frustrated and am compelled to request a full refund for my stay. Country Suites has a reputation for maintaining high standards, and unfortunately, that standard was not upheld during my visit yesterday. A simple apology would not suffice in this situation. Considering my recent experience, I am uncertain if I would consider booking again after the disappointing performance I experienced as a professional performer. That concludes...

Our reservation was for a king and two queens rooms adjoining. No one read the notes on our reservation until I arrived. When I booked them on the phone with your rep days before I was promised they would try to accomodate or at least give us adjacent rooms. The "Adjacent" rooms for 40 feet apart and the king room was already occupied and bolt locked from the inside. I had to start over and get another room. The desk clerk issues to separate rentals for our two day stay for each room SO THAT you can hold two $100 charges on my card. Then I walk into the store to buy drinks and I have to pay for them. You have a card on file and are holding $200 and I have to pay for drinks? I have never been in a hotel that does this.

Room 320 is not rentable. The light switch sparks and blows the breaker. We had no lights in the bathroom late Friday night and Saturday morning until someone flipped the breaker instead of replacing the faulty, hazardous switch. Saturday night there were not lights again. The desk clerk says he is sending maintenance so we stay up and dressed. NO ONE SHOWS up so I call down at 11:23. "Oh he went home" the desk clerk tells me. I suggest he come with a key to the room to flip the breaker. The only employee at your hotel that night says, "I am not allowed in there." So we had no lights for many hours of both days. When I checked out at 9:30 that morning we still did not have lights or power or fan in our bathroom.

Also in room 320 the TV did not work for the first 8 hours of our stay. The night manager comes late friday night and pushes the buttons on the back of the TV to turn it on. Then says, "Okay you have TV." It is ridiculous that we are expected to walk to the TV when we want to change channels, turn it on and off. I forced him to find a remote replacement.

Room 319 is our second room where I had two senior females as our guests. The stench in the room was mold or mildew. They did not complain, but they should have told me. When we did find out the next morning, my wife took pictures of the filthy mold and mildew in the bathroom. This room never should have been rented and certainly not to me and my guests.

On Saturday my lady guests have a knock on their door at 319. It's strangers saying this was their room they just rented it. I have to call down where your desk clerk says, "Oh, our system says that room is available. I refer you to the first paragraph where this exact same thing happened to me on my king room that was clearly bolt locked on the inside and therefore already rented to someone else. And that's how I lost my king room.

Added to this you full well know your door lock systems are substandard. We had to request additional cards seven times on a 48 hour stay. The malfunctions were commonplace and frustrating to say the least.

I never had hot water in room 320. The shower curtain rod is loose on both ends and hanging badly.

We went outside to spend time in the hot tub Saturday morning. Cold water. No hot water in the hot tub and in my room.

I'd like a phone call and an immediate refund for my stay. Shame on Choice for including this in their family of hotels. I have never had this many issues and problems at a...

So as far as the facility goes it's a nice hotel, however the staff there is extremely difficult. I stayed there 2 nights in a row, and had issues my very first night. That first night I walked out to the desk to ask if they sold milk. I had just gotten off of work and needed milk so I could eat some cereal. Not much is open for food at 1 am. After approaching the desk to ask about Milk, I was immediately given attitude by the graveyard desk person, Simon. His response to me asking was, "Do I look like I have milk?". Paired with an aggressive attitude. At which point I calmly pointed out that the door to the kitchen was open, and asked very nicely (even still after receiving aggressive attitude) if I could grab some milk from the breakfast bar. I even offered to pay for it. He then gave me more attitude about how he had no access to it, and told me to go into the kitchen to look for myself. After walking into the kitchen to look for myself (at this point Simon was obviously of no help) Simon decides to run into the breakfast area after me.....a whole different room from the front desk.....and began aggressively antagonizing me and asking "where's the milk, show me the milk, I want to see where you think the milk is!". This kid tried to make me feel dumb for going into the kitchen to see if they had milk. And then became increasing aggressive, to the point where it felt like I might have to defend myself physically. It wasn't until I let him know that a physical fight would not go the way he thinks it would, nor would the consequences, did he calm down and back off of me. Country Inn that is ABSOLUTELY NOT OKAY. I should never have to feel like I might need to defend myself from one of your employees. Especially over something so dumb. But oh wait, there's more.

Apparently, the morning staff is just about as aggressive. Now I did not catch the morning desk ladies' name, but she was a tall, heavy set woman. I woke up around 11 a.m., my roommate was using the restroom, and I had to go badly. So, thinking quickly, I remember the public bathroom down the hall. Past the front desk. I don't even get down the hall from my room and this woman LEAVES from behind the front desk, aggressively walks up to me and just stops dead in front of me. No warning just runs up to me, stops me in my tracks, and demands that I tell her if I'm staying there and what room number. There was nothing professional about this interaction, just complete aggressiveness for absolutely no reason. She literally walked up to a paying guest and tried to act like some belligerent security guard, at 11 am. There is no excuse for this country inn. DO NOT STAY HERE.

The only pleasant part of my stay was the new employee, she worked the desks during the evening....