JW Marriott Tampa Water Street — Hotel in Tampa

I have never had a worse experience at a hotel at any level or any brand. My best friend and I stayed there for 5 nights and was the most miserable 5 nights of my life. Unfortunately, I am in a wheelchair due to a work accident and have developed an extremely painful nerve disease as a result of the accident. I was completely disregarded, looked over, treated in an extremely condescending manner to the point that all I did was lay in bed crying. I did not get to take advantage of the hotel, it's offerings, it's location, anything. Started the minute I checked in until I left. I even called the front desk two days into my stay and said I had an emergency at home and could I please check out and not be charged the remaining time. I was very rudely told no (as I was crying); I could leave but I would still be charged the remaining nights if I left. I asked to speak with a manager and the person very rudely told me that he was unavailable and I could come down to the lobby to speak with him. Remember, I am disabled and it is not easy for me to just leave the room at the drop of a hat and I did not want to create a scene (not really a scene; just be embarrassed crying my eyes out). I asked if he could call me to discuss; but again the man on the phone rudely said he will call you back at this best number. I asked what the best number he had for me and he replied that he did not know so I asked if I could please give him my cell phone number. His response, "I guess". So, I proceeded to give my number and could tell he had zero interest and did not write it down or notate it in any way. Regardless, I kept my phone glued to me foregoing a shower waiting for a call that never came. This was just one instance. There were MANY more including going to the bar in the lobby and sitting at the bar at the wheelchair section and being passed by NUMEROUS times by both bar tenders; however, when an able bodied person walked up, they were immediately waited on. My best friend and I were dressed very nicely and we are both educated with degrees.Upon checking out, I looked at my portfolio and it was not correct. I had a spa package that included a $150 per day credit at the spa. None of the credits were applied to my portfolio / charges / invoice. So I had to speak to one of the check in/out people and ask her to please go over my portfolio with me. She was a very nice lady and was actually willing to help. She called for the manager so I started to speak with her about my experience(s) and her first question was why I did not speak with a manager sooner so corrections could be made and my trip would be enjoyable. I explained that I tried (see above). She seemed flabbergasted and completely embarrassed. I don't have any kind of high expectations, just getting what I pay for without a fight, without being looked down upon, without condescending attitudes, and just being treated as a regular person. I seriously considered cancelling all my holiday vacation travels that included any Marriott bookings. I will NEVER be back to this particular JW Marriott again. In my room, the air conditioner was incredibly noisy and did not seem to work well. I was on the 24th floor in a corner suite; beautiful room. However, I spent way too much time in the room in bed crying because I was scared to come out of the room as to what would happen next. So all the time and money spent was a trip of laying in bed crying due to treatment received at this hotel. And the resolution? I was given 40,000 Marriott points. Went home, waited a few days to call the Marriott Bonvoy number so I hopefully would not cry trying to explain the horrid time I had at this particular 5 star hotel that I stayed 5 nights at; and unfortunately I ended up crying the entire time. Their resolution? 20,000 Marriott points. What does that even do? Pay for 2 hours at a hotel? Unfortunately, there is no customer service any more and it is all about the bottom line. No matter how they get there.

Update January 9th. No phone call.from Mr. Ron M....

I am a Titanium Lifetime Marriott Member. This is my absolute favorite Hotel in Tampa. It's new and only about 2 years old. It is a very beautiful and stylish hotel was all the amenities you will need, except it could us a stomach machine in the workout room. I love the bar area downstairs. The hotel is perfectly located next to the Hockey Arena downtown with optional water views. I have stayed at this hotel 3 times now. I had a lovely experience the first time, a not so great experience the second time and when I returned the 3rd time, they listened to my frustrations and I had a wonderful experience the 3rd time. Thank you for understanding the most important experience of all, listening to my frustrations and making me feel like I do make a difference thus making my stay wonderful!! We always do room service for breakfast and our children like to do the buffet downstairs. The food is wonderful. I love their Eggs Benedict and potatoes. Our older children really enjoy their Buffet downstairs at the Drift and say the food is really good. When the Club Level is open, it's a must as it is beautifully designed with water views, the staff is very accommodating and the food is lovely. It is my very favorite JW Club Level and it comes with all the basic necessities you may need during your stay to make it very comfortable. The staff at the JW is well trained and very accommodating. Recognizing how hard that is in today's world, hats off to the JW for any awesome team throughout hotel.

I expect this hotel opened during the pandemic and I would expect they experienced the supply chain issues we all did. Since you are such a good listener, may I make a couple suggestions based on our personal experiences. Just suggestions as we loved our stay. The beds are somewhat comfort but we personally are not enjoying the modern low bed experience. I would prefer a more deeper comfortable bed with baby soft linens. Find out where The Ritz Carlton in Chicago gets their bed and linens as they are phenomenal and I would like to put them in my suitcase and take them home. The Stay Well room confused me more than it inspired me. Though I did like the make up mirror in the bathroom, a make up mirror should be in every bathroom. I left mine attached to the Bathroom mirror on my second stay by accident. I hope someone enjoyed it as much as I did. My family was not crazy at all about the new sophisticated A/C system. I expect you are getting more complaints then compliments on it. It's a wonderful concept to have the system turn on when you check in, but I like to be able to control my temperature when I am in the room and 74 was too low for my husband. He was freezing. LOL... Us Older Floridians people get colder easier. Lastly, being a Titanium Lifetime Member, my benefit of getting a breakfast card when the Club Level is not available should not be valued at $20. My first stay it was only valued at $10 so I am glad you increased it to $20, but the Buffet cost $25. Should Club Level access not be available giving me breakfast, hors d'oeuvres, drinks, water and desserts, the replacement value should be Breakfast for (2) whether it be at the Buffet or Room Service. Just suggestions, I wish you all the success. You are still my Tampa Favorite.

They Listened: I just returned again for Easter Weekend visiting my son at college and they gave me a $25 credit on my account for both myself and my husband for breakfast each day. Its was nice having a credit as apposed to carrying a card for each day as the Club Lounge was closed on weekends. See, they listened and it was awesome. Thanks James Byrd for your awesome!! Love your energy, attention to detail and...

Upon arriving at valet the guys working out front were polite, fast and on top of keeping the vehicles moving through the drop off/pick up. Our bellman, Zaid, was an absolute gentleman and took care of our party right away. He nicely placed our luggage into our room and congratulated my sister on her pregnancy (we were there celebrating her with a relaxing weekend before baby number 3 arrives).

At check-in Ms. Bernadine was an absolute sweetheart, polite, and shared lots of activities going on in the area! She let us know which floor to find the pool and breezeway to the adjoining property.

After these 2 positive interactions-everything else went downhill. First, the carpet in our room (between the beds) was very damp. I looked up to see if the air return was right above and it could be condensation dripping but there was nothing. I also do not blame the cleaning staff for potentially missing the damp carpet because they wear shoes and we did not notice until barefoot. We had overheard that the hotel was completely booked with no availability so we laid some towels down and were only staying for one night. However, I do wish I had said something upon getting into the room. At the cost of over 700$ for one room/one night I should not have accepted the condition of the room. The only positive was the semi-view of the water from that high up-the other part of the view was cars on the parking deck and AC units on the lower rooftops. On Sunday morning when we tried to call down for a bellman to bring up a luggage cart the in-room phone did not work so we had to call from a cell phone to get in contact with the front desk.

After changing into swimsuits we headed down to the pool for our poolside cabana reservation and were beyond disappointed from the moment we checked in with the young man at the towel kiosk. When I let him know we had a reservation he replied, “oh wow-I’m out of cabanas.” I let him know that could not be possible because the spa had called me the day before to confirm my reservation. After he asked some of the patrons who were in cabanas he discovered that a party of 2 guys had claimed my reservation (based on the names they tape to the side table in each cabana). I was furious! I did not pay 250$ for someone else to claim my reservation. The young man apologized-said water, ice buckets and fruit bowl would be right out-an hour later still NOTHING! Upon getting settled into our cabana we moved the solid wood block side table and were disgusted by the smell of rot/mildew/mold because of the water that was under the table. Why anyone would put a solid wood block as a table by the pool makes no sense. There is no way for the water that gets under the wood to dry or dissipate so it stays there getting moldy and smelling awful. After that our appetites were ruined and our appetizers that were ordered were barely touched. It only appeared to be 2 waitresses serving the entire pool deck so it took forever to get drinks or more ice. There were other workers walking around and we would ask them for assistance but the response was “we will let your waitress know.” It did not seem as if they were working as a team.

Overall, I would not use this hotel/spa for any future celebrations or events which is disappointing considering our large family has lots to look forward to in the months to come. As mentioned above, Ms. Bernadine and Zaid, were a delight to encounter as well as Ms. Courtney who checked us out on...