Hampton Inn & Suites Tampa Busch Gardens Area — Hotel in Tampa

Our hotel visit was quite disappointing and definitely not at all acceptable with the kind of expectations of a Hampton Inn Hotel. Our stay was from June 8th through June 11th. It was a planned all girls trip and my nieces were going to a concert at Yuengling Center on June 9th. We wanted to be close proximity to the concert venue, and opted for your property, after checking your website, which portrays a completely different picture, as compared to actuality. We knew that Busch Gardens was across the way, and figured the neighborhood was safe. To our dismay, our ride from the airport showed a totally different side. The first thing I asked the concierge was, "Is this area safe?" Of course his response was "Yes," but that was expected of him. The service from the staff, with the exception of concierge, was horrific. The rooms were unsanitary and foul smelling, along with various maintenance issues that seemed neglected. On Monday June 10th housekeeping came to clean our room. My niece had her phone charger plugged into the outlet next to the chaise lounge, directly, by the sofa bed. That's where she left it, and we went by the pool area. Upon our return, her charger was not there. It was a striking and unusual blue charger that lite up, with a longer cord and dual charging station. We went to the concierge desk. Pam, the Manager, was very apologetic and immediately called housekeeping. We thought she might of unplugged it while cleaning, and placed it somewhere else. Upon their arrival, we obviously could see they were defensive and the housekeeper, who didn't speak a word of English, denied ever seeing it. Obviously, a lie. The housekeeping Manager, named Mirlande, was disrespectful and demeaning, like talking to a BRICK WALL. No apology, no empathy, whatsoever. She kept on saying, "It's impossible for her maid to steal, since there are cameras everywhere." "Hello Mirande," There aren't any cameras in guest's rooms, and the item in question had to be physically unplugged, and could easily be hidden anywhere on the body. Mirande also said she checks her staff's carts every night, before they go home. Why? Unless there have been more incidences like this? Mirande needs to be trained on how to speak to guests and how to better handle situations like this. She is rude, and shouldn't be a Manager. Everything was swept under the rug and nothing was addressed further. Horrific customer service! Breakfast was descent, with a variety to choose from. However, on our last day, a random person, off the street, came in, made himself a plate of food and walked out with it. I overheard the staff say that he does this every other day. Why hasn't this been addressed? That made me question the safety of the site itself. Management has to be more involved and be aware of...

Sadly, there was very little satisfactory about our stay. From our initial cold and disinterested greeting from Dave at the reception, things only went downhill from there!

Our initial room - 417 - had what looked like blood on the door frame inside the bathroom. The power was not working on the unit between the two beds in the room. We also noticed a very large stain on the carpet that looked like someone had been murdered in our room.

We were moved to 217 after initially being told there were no spare rooms, however, there were still stains on the carpet and the thermostat batteries had expired. I was also disappointed that even though they were supposedly cleaning thoroughly due to the pandemic and even sealing the rooms prior to a guest entering, that both rooms had half-used tissue boxes and half-used toilet rolls from the previous guests?!!!

On our return to our room for our 2nd night we were very disappointed to find that our room had not been made up. We were told that we were supposed to have notified the reception if we wanted this doing and that there was signage telling us so. However, aside of a small blue laminated sign, set to one side at the reception, which was never brought to our attention during check-in, there was nothing else to inform us of such.

Additional towels that we had to collect ourselves from reception were disgusting and quite frankly the Board of Health needs notifying of this matter! One had brown dirt along the edges and the other, looked to have the remains of menstrual blood staining!

In addition to the issues with the rooms: There were NEVER enough staff on duty The elevators smelled bad most of the time There was never any hand sanitizer in the dispenser between the elevators during our entire stay Trash bins were overflowing in the breakfast area/lounge area most of the time Only Crystal seemed to wear a mask and only when dealing with breakfast

Finally, they managed to charge me twice for this stay and now I am having to waste more time on this stay in order to resolve this.

We only stayed at this hotel due to visiting Busch Gardens with a group of friends who chose this location. The hotel does, on the surface appear ok, but they really have a lot of work to do here and we would absolutely NEVER stay again...

Bodacious Fab One and I had some Safari-ing to attend to at Busch Gardens. Attending an event that would keep us on The Serengeti until late, we chose to set up night camp right across the street at The Hampton Inn!

I regard Hampton Inn as a guarantee. I believe they have THE most comfortable beds in the business and you can expect the same quality and layout from coast to coast. I've never been dissatisfied at any of these properties.

That's why I was 'quite' concerned when I read so many less than stellar reviews about this location. I know that the property is relatively new, opened early 2017. So I went with my instinct and took a chance when I booked our room. I KNEW we would be completely worn out after trekking with the tigers, rhinos and rides! We would be 'Busched'! I had to feel confident we could drag ourselves out the gate and hear our comfy beds calling on the near horizon.

My instincts paid off! We found this hotel to be conveniently located across the street from Busch Gardens. It was very clean and nicely decorated. We saw NO signs of any neglect, damages or wear & tear. Parking was convenient as well.

Andrew was our Check-in Guru, he was knowledgeable and so helpful. Based on the reviews I'd read, my ONLY concern was hearing road noise from the busy Busch Boulevard. Accordingly, I asked Andrew for a room away from the street on the opposite side of the hotel. He happily complied.

Our room was moderately sized, not big and not small. I'd say just right. And before us were those infamously comfortable Queen beds! They looked plump and inviting....and they were! The beds caressed us into a soft & sleepy dreamland.

In the morning we took advantage of a bit of the breakfast offerings. We didn't eat much only because of a brunch get-together we would be attending shortly. But we found the breakfast area was immaculately clean. The food was constantly topped up. All of the usual suspects including eggs, oatmeal, waffles, cereals, sausages, fruits, juices and coffees.

We had absolutely no issues or concerns. Nothing less than we expected. We got a solid good night's sleep and thoroughly enjoyed our safari sleepover.

So, there...