The CURRENT Hotel, Autograph Collection — Hotel in Tampa

If you are on a schedule, do not book here. You may run into check-in delays. After 12+ hours of traveling and not sleeping for the past 24+ hours, I arrived for my 4pm check-in, looking forward to taking a nice shower to start my evening. I was informed at the front desk that my room was "dirty" and not ready. I asked isn't my check in time at 4pm, and was told there was actually "no guarantee" that my check-in time would be exactly at 4pm. That is the first time in my life I have ever been denied a check-in at a hotel for the time stated on my booking receipt. At $280 USD for the Friday night, it started to feel a little like a rip-off since there's only a few hours left in the day and I planned my whole arrival at the airport in Tampa and to the hotel around my 4pm check-in. So reluctantly I left the hotel and went to look around the city as they said they will call me once the room is ready. 2 1/2 hours later at 6:30pm I was getting tired so I went back to the hotel to check on the room as I still had not received a call. The room was still not ready, so the gentleman at the front desk said he will switch me to a room that is ready, and give me a $10 voucher for room service for the inconvenience. I got up to the room, saw the kitchen opens at 7pm for dinner, ordered a burger from room service after 7pm. It took an hour for the food to get up to my room and was too cold to eat. I didn't complain about the food because I really didn't want to feel like giving issues to the staff on my first night of a 3 night stay, but looking back on it I probably should have said something and gotten my money back as I didn't even eat one bite of it. The room was okay, nothing spectacular, not the cleanest or biggest. It looked a lot bigger in the pictures when I booked, I'm wondering if maybe they had downgraded my room just to get me in the door and keep me from waiting even longer. The gym was nice although none of the stationary bikes were functional, and there was no rope pull down attachment for the cable machine which is only a $15 piece of equipment and a necessity for many exercises I wanted to do. They had some issues recording my payment card in the system, possibly because I booked on the Marriott app and didn't check in through the app but did it at the front desk. So they called me numerous times on my second day asking me to come back to the front desk so they can re-swipe my card even though the charge was already processed and shown on my account. When they did this, the booking on my app disappeared and I didn't receive any of the member loyalty points I was anticipating getting. Not the biggest deal, but I do like collecting points and wanted a record of my stay on the app, which now there is none. If they had done something to rectify the late check-in, and not acted like I should have known there's no guarantee for my check in time, possibly giving me a discounted rate or some sort of upgrade, I would have been more than satisfied with the service and would be leaving a 5 star review right now praising how great the customer service was. But I just can't get over the first lady I talked to at check-in and the attitude in her voice telling me "actually there's no guarantee your check in is at 4" , when I gave absolutely no rude remarks or tone to her at all, just simply asked I thought my check-in was supposed to be at 4. I never even complained once or gave any attitude or tone in my voice, I was polite and soft spoken the whole time. I was more just shocked that I was being denied my check-in and had to carry all my bags back to the car and change my plans completely because they were unable to get the room cleaned in a timely manner. If i didn't have a rental car and had taken an uber to the hotel this would have been a big waste of money as well as the waste of time it...

Went to the Current for the first time for a best friend weekend getaway. Upon entering the hotel I absolutely loved the vibe. Beautiful art, new contemporary look, friendly valet. I arrived around 4pm and my room wasnt ready. I asked if anything else was available and the front desk told me, yes, no problem, smaller beds but it's ready now. I'll take it. The room was clean, had a great view of the pool and the bay. What I'm disappointed with was mostly the amenities. I went to the pool twice and the pool water was so hot, literally hot tub hot. Usually people go in the pool to cool off, not sweat. Everyone around us said the same thing, really disappointed they can't enjoy the pool. Which is sad because the infinity pool in itself is gorgeous. Then on Sunday, myself and my friend get to the pool area again and see some familiar faces staying at the hotel, all of which are extremely disappointed that the bar is closed, there's no server, and there's no food until dinner. On the weekend? Why? Weekends are for pool and relaxing and yet you can't get a bite to eat or a nice cool refreshing beverage. A lady in the chair next to me was complaining about how she had to leave the property to get lunch, yet she just wanted to relax at the pool and eat. We felt the same. Then a few others heard our conversation and said they agreed. I heard a large family say they were changing hotels because the amenities were so poor. Also, no option for the rooftop bar on Sunday either because it was closed for a private event. Yes, events happen, but that doesn't mean your guests should have to suffer because someone is getting married. It's like we don't matter. Also, with my Titanium status I was offered free breakfast every morning, yet the line was always a ridiculous wait, so I never got to try it. Yet another disappointment. I've stayed at Marriott properties all over the US and while I think the property is absolutely gorgeous, something needs to be done to make your guests comfortable during their stay. Especially at a hotel at the end of a street where it's not easy to just walk somewhere to get food and/or drinks when all you want to do is relax by the pool. You're forced to leave the property you decided to take your vacation in. That's not convenient. The front desk staff was very nice when I voiced my comments in regards to my issues but that didn't solve anything. I don't usually complain but think twice before...

The check-in process was a dream. Melissa did a great job. I was 40 minutes early, but she helped me beat the rush. She took our bags for safe-keeping while our room was prepared. She even gave us drink/meal vouchers to use while we waited.

The only downside of the entire trip was the wait. While we are people-watchers, we got tired of watching after over two hours of sitting in the lobby. COVID has everything in a mess. Hopefully, staffing will be up before too much longer. There were lots of upset travelers. We tried to stay calm and patient.

When we finally got to our room, we were too tired to take advantage of the amenities. We tried to find food for delivery or pickup because the restaurant had a full house but ultimately found two stools at the bar where we had a nice pizza.

Everyone was nice, including the bartenders and servers. We went to bed shortly afterward.

The next morning really saved the experience. It was breakfast in the restaurant. We made it just in time to beat the rush. Our table was very near the hostess line so we had a plain view of guests coming down for breakfast. The hostess, Katy, was sweet and helpful when she seated us, bringing us water and coffee as we waited for our server. Soon afterward, Fedrico took our order. He was pleasant and friendly asking if we had any vouchers. We shared that Melissa had given them to us the night before and we used them for drinks. We appreciated him asking prior to taking our order, though. We were served more coffee as we waited for our food.

The line began to form and I saw the familiar face of Melissa as she came hurriedly to help. She was almost jogging to take up the slack to help Katy, who was hustling to get as many seated as quickly as possible. Teamwork was a top priority as we began to see others join into the table bussing and the line began to dwindle.

Sebastian brought our food, which was delicious. We were served more coffee.

We finished up our meal and my husband went ahead to the room while I went on a mission.

I went to the front desk to find Melissa and asked for the names of all the team so I could write a review. She was delighted and gushed over Marriott, teamwork, and customer service.

I know we are in an employment crunch right now with many choosing not to work or having delayed returning to work, but given the chance to hire again, choose more like the team we witnessed...