Econo Lodge Tampa near Busch Gardens — Hotel in Tampa

I was hired last minute to photograph a wedding this past weekend in Tampa, and since it was such a last minute gig, finding a hotel room in the middle of spring break was difficult. I found this place through Booking.com and the pictures made it seem semi reasonable for the price. I wish I read the reviews beforehand. ||||I didn't arrive at the hotel until around 3 am, checked into my room and was immediately greeted by the smell of stale cigarettes and mold. I walked into the bathroom and the toilet seat very clearly had piss all over it. The shower was visibly filthy, with dark brown stains on the bottom of the tub and crust/rust stains leaking down from the faucet in the tub. There was one towel in the bathroom and it was curled in a ball already (i'm assuming it was already used). ||||The beds were made, but there were some stains on the white sheets including what looked like dried blood. There were also a pair of shoes under the bed that I noticed right away. The dresser that the TV was on was missing a drawer and there was a hole in the wall adjacent to the front door in the shape of the door handle, which i'm assuming is the result of someone kicking the door open hard enough to cause the door knob to go through the wall. That didn't make me feel very safe at all. There was also no garbage can anywhere in the room or in the bathroom. I guess people just throw their trash on the floor in this place. ||||I finally attempted to sleep on the squeaky, uncomfortable box spring they call a mattress at around 4 am but I guess the people below me decided it was party time. 3 cars pulled into the lot directly below my room and started blasting very bass heavy rap music as loud as they could with their doors and windows open. I peaked out the window to find several people shouting and twerking in the parking lot, as well as just openly selling drugs from their cars. about 5 or 6 other cars pulled up, made exchanges and then sped out of the parking lot. Eventually 2 people got into a verbal argument that I fully expected to lead to a gunfight.||||After about an hour and a half of this, I was amazed that no one working at the hotel went outside to tell them to turn the music down, so I decided to try and call the front office. I picked up the phone in the room only to realize that a) it didn't work at all and was basically a prop, and b) it was sticky. like REEALLLY sticky, and there's no reason why a phone should ever be sticky when you pick it up. ||||I eventually googled the number for the front office and asked the guy at the front desk to please get these people to turn their music down. He went out and told them to keep the noise down. They basically told him to F off, and 5 minutes later the music went back to the same volume again. No further action was taken on their part to get them to quiet down. ||||Some other things of note:||-When I took my socks off I realized that the carpet was sticky and actually turned the bottom of my feet brown||||-The hallways were absolutely littered with garbage bags that were sitting there for my whole 2 day stay. ||||-Every vending machine in the place was out of order||||-The parking lot was full of broken glass and trash||||-There is absolutely NO soundproofing from the sliding glass door to the balcony. I could hear every single word being spoken outside.||||||I'm honestly shocked that this place hasn't been shut down by the health department and that they actually charge money to stay in this dump. Avoid this place at all costs. I would give it zero...

It is disgusting & Shame. The pool is very & have a diff table set up & bathroom, but nasty dirty broken dryer & ok type hangers but the metal pile hang from should not be rusted saw one roach less then the other place Tampa inn that had them crawling everywhere a few times. Maybe, cuz I had lights on & stated up almost all night . I fell asleep only washed bottom cuz shower not work. I have to wait till noon take do not disturb sign or go in the morning actually I'm the morning at 8 Am or before if I can before my errands, cuz been stuck at this side of town far from my area in midtown & too big an area scary for me alone of stranded at night & cold & like the buses in this town & every hr & is cold out still mid to ending April spring it's crazy. Just made my chest prickly going out rn tol late missed buses at terminal, cuz not enough time taking trying to find out stuff too fast so just go early to do the errands & get laundry too. Bought a toothpaste having some 3 & other two Burt bees from Amazon burried somewhere in storage not opened yet. This sucks. This gay guy asked to help me with the suit case to ask me of my room & I was too nice & sai, to d cuz not know the reply. If he is a thief human traffickers, etc he's got another thing coming. Maybe I'd what to make sure I was a guest that he asked said I left my door open & asked for my room. Tricked me, but lesson learned. Ik it must be to do evil. But they get in accident before they even try or when going to.

P.S. I was wrong. Idk of off gay guy saying his name diff this 2nd time & IDC as long as not do evil. Everyone seems ok not too bad & or too good just are. God only knows. Ok service so I'm okay now & shower was okay. Omg. I couldn't afk before sadly. Is like black guy that asked. I was also scared like him to break. Now I can do that & if they get me a plug for tub bath fir my swollen feet Epsom salt, cuz I could do bucket that I'm bringing & hopefully cleaning products & Lysol fir the bed sheets & bed spearesds etc the wall etc & paint peeling on shower & ac etc alm need fixing remodeling with painting & the cracks. Idk of smoke detector. The time & bed etc is ok. The microwave & plate in it not & annoying manual pull but better, cuz the button type can get broken does silly destructive people like dud the dresser drawer which the nice Mexican maintanance guy Sense a message on that nabe or many for me & unusual & fir a Mexican so idk. I should have asked him. Maybe u can in a bit. Angel & rest staff nice enough I suppose. I was wrong of the shower like guy that asked that night I checked in I was scared to pull out break as I can be prone to do from tine to time & a bit of a beast & no patience or much in that & so firth & you have to pull it out hard. Omg. Just as I thought, but couldn't ask a guy or staff to. So I get a shower & ti. Last night ugh. Fir $390 we should have like a week...

I’m still waiting on my money back, we had to leave. One star is generous, because 0 stars isn’t enough. To say this place is disgusting. Isn’t enough. The entire place looks like it needs to be knocked down.

To begin we walked in and they charged us 340$ as if it was a luxury resort. It. Clearly is not. Walking through the hallways to the rooms the floor gives out beneath your feet like at any moment the soft spots in the wood underneath the rug will collapse beneath you.

Then walking into the room as you can see there’s no latch on the doors and the bathroom doesn’t close correctly, like clearly they’ve been kicked in my presumably the police on multiple occasions. Hence why there’s a massive hole in the wall behind the entry door. So safety is clearly not their priority here.

The room looked like it’s never been cleaned, crumbs of who knows what beside the bed, the bed sheets had holes all over them, with stains from who knows what. The bedding itself looked unwashed.

The rug was lifting from the walls, the paint was peeling from the ceiling like at no point is this something they looked at.

THERE’S NO FIRE ALARM. how can you not have a fire alarm in the room, that’s a whole safety issue right there.

That’s not even to talk about how there was a ton of lightbulbs that didn’t work, that the exterior you could tell was not safe. That we didn’t feel comfortable parking our car outside due to how many people were gathered outside smoking weed and making noise.

And as the final nail in the coffin of disgust a roach walked passed me in the bathroom.

The place is disgusting.

We couldn’t stay in there for any amount of time and left immediately. We asked the hotel to refund us the money which I’m still waiting to see if they did, they have clearly not. And for the price I paid, the service I received was absolutely horrendous.

DO NOT RENT HERE. I don’t care how down on your luck you are, stay in a truck stop parking lot before you stay here. This place isn’t safe, it’s not maintained. It’s not somewhere you should go with kids let alone by yourself. Forget it. Pick...