Embassy Suites by Hilton Tampa USF Near Busch Gardens — Hotel in Tampa

Title: Absolutely the Worst Hotel Experience – Avoid at All Costs

Below is also my response to the generic (template) and inadequate apology provided by the general manager.

Do not be fooled by the positive reviews—this hotel is a complete disaster, and any good comments must be fabricated or paid for. My husband and I chose to stay at Embassy Suites on Spectrum Road in Tampa after my surgery at Moffitt Cancer Center. I deeply regret this decision but am unable to switch hotels due to my recovery from a major surgical procedure.

We have been here since Tuesday, November 12, and the experience has been nothing short of horrific. Here are the glaring issues that no one should have to endure:

Nonexistent Front Desk Service: Calling the front desk is a waste of time. Every single call is routed to a useless virtual assistant named “Emma,” who achieves absolutely nothing. No live person answers the phone, ever. The only time the phone is picked up is when you’re spending money—like ordering food. Otherwise, expect zero help. Appalling Housekeeping: Rooms are not cleaned daily. If they do decide to clean, it’s late in the afternoon. Towels are not replenished, forcing you to drag yourself to the front desk to get them—assuming you can even find someone there. Forget about calling for assistance; they won’t answer or help. Faulty Amenities: The toilet runs constantly, the air conditioning is unreliable, and the paper-thin walls make it impossible to sleep or relax. Conversations, snoring—you’ll hear it all from your neighbors. Indifferent and Incompetent Staff: The staff is dismissive, indifferent, and blatantly incompetent. When you manage to speak with someone, they act as if they’ve been answering calls all day and completely ignore the glaring failure of their virtual assistant. It’s clear that guest concerns are not a priority. A General Manager Who Should Be Fired: The general manager of this property is clearly incapable of running a hotel. The lack of leadership and oversight is evident in every single aspect of this operation. Whoever owns this property needs to clean house, starting with the general manager and the rest of the staff.

While the hotel may look appealing from the outside, don’t be deceived—this place is an absolute nightmare. It has been the most stressful and frustrating hotel experience of my life, especially during a time when I need rest and support.

If you value your comfort, your sanity, and even basic amenities.

Below is my response to the GM.

Dear Mr. Giraldez,

Thank you for your response. However, I must express my disappointment that it does not directly address any of the specific concerns I raised, nor does it acknowledge the significant inconvenience and stress your hotel caused during an already difficult time. Generic apologies and promises of improvement do little to resolve the situation at hand or to restore trust.

Effective leadership is about taking accountability and showing a proactive commitment to resolving guest concerns. A more communicative and empathetic leadership style would have been appropriate here—one that not only acknowledges specific issues but also outlines immediate steps to address them. Your response lacked transparency, action, and the consideration necessary to make me feel that my concerns were truly heard or valued.

I expected a resolution-oriented reply, including concrete actions such as a refund, credit, or another meaningful gesture of goodwill. Unfortunately, your response feels like a generic template rather than a genuine effort to take responsibility or improve my experience.

I strongly suggest investing in executive leadership training, particularly in areas such as situational leadership and communicative leadership. These approaches emphasize adaptability, clear communication, and a guest-centered mindset—all of which were missing in this interaction. Leadership is not only about managing a property but also about fostering trust and loyalty through meaningful engagement and...

My experience at this hotel was not great overall, and I will discuss my issues so that all people are aware.

The hotel lobby area, stuck in the golden pink hues of 1998, was absolutely freezing for my family. It felt like it was in the 60's in there at all times, being summer time outside. Having the breakfast in the lobby was an exercise in cold tolerance, and an exercise in bland food edibility. At least it was "free" (paid in room fee) but the eggs were very stale, and the pancakes were hard. You get what you expect from a basic breakfast at a budget hotel with an electric bill that has no limit for AC consumption.

The room was an ok size with nothing out of this world. Here, the AC was also very low when we came in, so we just shut it off - after 3 nights staying here we never turned it on once since. The room would be chilled simply by existing, somehow the cold lobby or something would filter through, keeping the room no higher in temperature than 74 F the whole time - never seen that before in Florida. The toilet would also struggle half the time to fill the tank with water after flushing, but a few hard taps of the tank would resolve this barely functioning water fill valve.

Also annoyingly there is a tv channel guide which shows a channel number to be for a Chromecast device. We thought this was nice, as there was no other on-demand services in the room, and it would be nice if staying in the room to look at some Youtube or Netflix. But we go to the channel and it it blank, nothing there...Turns out when looking at the back of both TVs in the room that the device is connecting the TV, but the power cable is missing. We ask the front desk, and they send some technician up, who then says that they don't support them anymore...Why would they advertise it and have them connected to TV's, only to not be able to use them, baffling. He told us to next time bring a laptop with an HDMI cable to connect to the TV - sure that's exactly why we got these suites, unbelievable.

It also has to be said about the loud construction work that began at about 6:55am one morning. We wake up to a jackhammer truck outside breaking the sidewalk just under our room, you can't make this up. Luckily they stopped a minute or so later until about 8am. Funnily enough, we get a paper under our door later that day saying that construction will begin tomorrow...they should have made it into an apology letter, as it had already begun that day.

And finally, it was my mistake when we checked out that I left a bag in the room by accident, on a Saturday. The bag must have been found by a housekeeper, who notified a front desk worker, who then placed it in a "safe" location inside the office of the housekeeping manager. I was told this manager would send it to our house after filling out some forms online, which I promptly did. I had to wait until Tuesday for the bag to be sent, as apparently he doesn't work on the weekend or on Monday, and it arrived at my house on Friday. Upon opening the box, I saw that most items were removed from the bag and left loose inside for some reason, where they clearly went though my items. I started looking through them, finding my glasses, important medical records (was visiting Moffitt for my cancer), and most items...but some were missing. I can't say who, and I probably will never know, but I had some things stolen at some point. My Pixel Buds Pro 2 ($230), my small electric shaver ($25), my cream bottle, deodorant, and my daughter's toothpaste (who does this?) were all taken. Saddest of all were my pricey Buds, which I received as a Christmas gift from my wife. I of course called multiple times the hotel after, but what did that get me, only the front desk worker saying that he didn't open the bag, and a connection to the phone of the housekeeping manager who never picks up, leaving messages thanking him for sending the bag but asking how are there items missing. I can only be happy that I got most items back, but it's still ridiculous that this place can let this happen...

The hotel over the past 5 years has drastically changed. We did end up having to room move a total of 4 times do to room maintenance issues in each, or the pest (ants) in 3 out of the 4 rooms. The rooms need a little more attention to detail as far as cleaning. All the curtains need to be swapped out as they have stains on them. The only working ice machine was on the 6th floor. Toilets have been an issue with them becoming stopped up. It is nice they offer breakfast and a happy hour, but there should be a mandatory tip gratuity for the wonderful morning employees and happy hour staff who serve our breakfast and drink offerings, as I noticed most of the hotel guest do not tip! Do not be afraid to post signs that state, “gratuity is welcome”. Most of these hotel goers are either here for a conference or vacation, so they can spare to tip! Most of the folks who are here visiting the cancer hospital will tip just because they are grateful to have a place to stay because most are staying for long durations at a time. Anyways, the first room we stayed in was handicap accessible, however that room had a ton of minor maintenance issues such as the room smelled of mold, curtains had stains, carpet had not been vacuumed, the dry wall to where the carpet lining along the wall similar to crown molding was falling onto the floor in particular areas. The second room we were moved to had ants and the a/c did not work. Blowing warm air. The third room had ants and the lights kept flickering in the living room area. Honestly with the number of Moffitt Cancer patients that stay at this hotel, this hotel should be 100% pristine clean in particular areas and unfortunately they were not. Now, I do have to say, Anna at the Front Desk was 100%+ FANTASTIC!!! She helped resolve all of the room moves, and made sure we were properly accommodated. She was always very outgoing and friendly. Anna also listened and placed notes on each room that did need those maintenance repairs. Anna, always had a solution or answer, as there was never an “I don’t know or no”. Anna even went out of her way to check the mail for a package that was delivered so thank you again for all your wonderful hospitality Anna!!!!! Angela was nice as well, including Celine, so thank you! Daymary, the housekeeper did kindly come in and strip the bed to provide new linens, so thank you! One other suggestion would be during the 100% occupancy nights, please have all of your employees park out in that open field rather than the hotel guest. The luxury resort I work for in Destin Florida offers parking ONLY for hotel guests. The employees must park down the street and walk so that there is plenty of parking for the guest. One other thing… it does not look great when employees are out smoking directly out those doors by the bar entrance and exit. They should all be smoking in the back to where hotel guest do not have a clue. I do not care if it is a Forbes Star hotel or a Motel 6, the employees should not be in eye sight especially if they are out smoking! The telephones in 3 of the 4 rooms did not work. The first room the telephone lines were cut lol. We could not call in any of the room issues. We had to go down directly to the desk and stand in line. It would have been nice to be able to call to request for a trash pick up or dirty towel pick up during those times that the maids were around. I had asked to borrow a vacuum so I could keep the floor clean, but that never happened. Each night I noticed multiple guest including myself having to take the trash down to the only trash cans which were just outside the hotel doors. The bad thing was each night (between 8pm-12am), the trash cans were all over flowing with trash on the ground because again no attention to those type of details. Multiple guest having to use those trash cans, so possibly having a housekeeper that only provides cleaning to specific areas calling them the “public...