Sleep Inn near Busch Gardens - USF — Hotel in Temple Terrace

Review Sleep Inn Review TransAm

No matter the hotelish exterior appearance, Sleep Inn near Busch Gardens is absolutely not a hotel, but a motel (important distinction). With no customer service, it's all churn and burn. It's quite obvious there is some contractual relationship with local trucking companies as this is where they house potential employees ie truckers. If you're thinking of staying here with your family, reconsider, this is not an appropriate place for wife and or children (unless you don't mind exposing them to all walks of society many of whom are the dregs). The building is like a storm damaged or abandoned hotel someone bought and cheaply rehabbed, slapped on on bright friendly lime green and white art deco style paint first to greet you when the sliding glass doors open, stuck a large, new lighted Sleep Inn sign outside and called it open for business. From the high gloss dark brown faux wood doors to the seemingly unclean wall-to-wall carpeting it all seems like the bare minimum is done to make it a proper stay. When I arrived at my room, I noticed the nicely made bed had a distorted shape to it so I peeled back the linens to uncover a king mattress at least 25 years old if not more! Looking like it was salvaged from a dumpster after a hurricane, it was discoloured and lumpy, unevenly squashed and mushed in different places. The "breakfast" was a counter top refrigerator of Saran wrapped red apples, Yoplait yogurts and some other processed situation in a plastic wrapper. Something they seemed to take pride in in the breakfast arena, a large countertop soft serve type machine that squeezed out a thick whitish slop resembling pancake/waffle batter. This mystery goop was to be poured over one of the two ready and waiting hot waffle makers next to the machine. Prior to doing so however, next to each waffle maker sat a spray bottle of SILICONE and other such disgusting ingredients I would not feed my worst enemy. These were suited to protect the waffle makers and keep it from sticking when sprayed onto the surface. Of course this waffle was accompanied by tiny wrapped butter packs and artificial syrup in plastic packets. 🤮 Remote: the closest decent/real restaurant is 3.2 miles away, a nice Indian restaurant, 1.2 miles, other than than, nothing safety walkable. When I asked an older woman/receptionist for a list of fine dining/restaurants, she gave me Bob Evans, Wendy's, McDonald's, other such fast food joints and gas stations, followed by a pointless tale of how she is just trying to feed her kids and pay her bills, that she doesn't have the luxury of dining out so that's all she knows. What that had to with her job to supply local information/customer service, I have no idea. Another desk receptionist, younger girl with orange-yellow hair equally dead inside, I requested car rental information and or cabs or Uber, she was utterly disinterested in helping with anything other than checkout, making it clear she would not throw water on me if I was on fire. A few redeeming qualities: the coffee and hot water for tea, always available and acceptable, cleaning staff/company (managed/owned by a woman called Jay) was excellent and clearly the only thing keeping this place together (carpeting aside). WARNING however: the 'Do not disturb' sign has NO significance here, someone entered my room despite the sign. My lights were on when I came back from being gone all day and because I had this feeling about the place, I set up a tiny pet/spy cam up for peace of mind. Unacceptable. Other than that the pool/pool area was also always clean and quiet, the landscaping with beautiful tall palms all around the exterior gives you a much more lovely...

Overall, it’s fine for the price if you just need a cheap place to sleep and don’t have kids. I didn’t have high expectations — and you shouldn’t either!

⚠️ NOT FAMILY FRIENDLY ⚠️

Here’s what you can expect:

When I arrived, two men were standing right outside the entrance smoking marijuana. Didn’t bother me — I came in with low expectations.

The lobby was clean, and the people at check-in were friendly. Got off the elevator on the second floor and the entire hallway smelled like marijuana — maybe even a bit smoky. Again, didn’t bother me, low expectations.

The room was small, stuffy, and reasonably clean — pretty much what you’d expect. Not awful, not nice, just… okay.

Headed out to my car and saw a small group hanging out in the parking lot. Can you guess what they were doing? Yep — smoking marijuana. Again, didn’t care — low expectations!

Checked out the pool — it was decent and clean. And right next to it? A couple of guys smoking marijuana. $55 a night — low expectations!

Fun fact: the no smoking signs even include a marijuana leaf. 😂 You cant make this stuff up!

The walls are paper thin — I could hear full conversations from the next room. Annoying, but again… $55. You get what you pay for.

The good: the place was clean, and I didn’t see any bugs. I also didn’t get the sense there was any hard drug use — just a lot of weed.

Now, here’s where things went downhill. My toddler had a full-blown meltdown around 8 p.m. (parents, you know the kind). I was trying to soothe her and planned to take her outside if it didn’t stop within 5–10 minutes. Within two minutes, there was a knock on the door — someone had complained about the noise. I was in my pajamas, trying to calm a screaming 2-year-old, and now had to take her outside “because people are complaining.”

I get that guests want peace and quiet, but let’s be real — it’s a $50 hotel with paper-thin walls and the constant smell of marijuana. You’ll hear snoring, coughing, and conversations — but a toddler crying? That’s what gets addressed?

I reminded the staff that the entire place reeks of weed and the walls are basically cardboard, so noise is inevitable. But apparently, crying children are not tolerated.

FIX YOUR WALLS or make it clear that children aren’t welcome.

For context — I was in Tampa visiting Moffitt. I’m a mom to a 2-year-old and a stage 4 lung cancer warrior (currently, miraculously, in remission). Life is hard. I tried to save money by staying at a cheaper hotel, thinking Sleep Inn was decent I gave it a shot....

I'm writing as a very satisfied guest at Sleep Inn – Bush Gardens. They went way out of their way to make our six week stay under extreme difficult circumstances; everyone is so awesomely nice that works at this hotel from the GM to the Maintenance. Margie at the front desk, kept me smiling and offered her friendship and kindness in so many ways. It was so nice to have someone like Margie to talk to. Very great sense of humor; super nice; she made me feel like part of the family – as the rest of the staff did. The housekeeping – hands down the most friendliest, happiest, and engaging. So helpful during the difficult six weeks of pure stress and worry. If it wasn’t for the staff here – I am not sure how I would have made it. My husband and I moved to Florida for a wonderful job opportunity – we have bought and sold houses in other states – however, Florida has a limited supply and the mortgage process is the most grueling lengthy unreasonable process we have experienced. It was the most pleasant accident I have made – I walked in very stressed out as the hotel we were in was just horrible and nothing worked. I needed to send a fax and the GM could see I was extremely stressed. He was so kind, and under difficult circumstances told us he could accommodate us. A God Send! We moved from a “unsafe and unclean hotel” to this wonderful hotel with an exceptional staff. Did I mention Margie? A total delight – so understanding and supportive – helped me through a very stressful time.

The things that were not working right were taken care of in a timely fashion. The whole staff was a delight to talk to and gave me lots of advice on things to do – considering a long six weeks in a hotel. Thanks to your courteous staff and immediate approval from you we were moved to a suite for the remainder of our stay that was super comfortable and helped my husband and my health. In addition the hotel cleaned our cloths when a misshape happened in the dryer and they came out perfect. Really appreciate that as my husband works in a hospital and his scrubs needed some stains removed.

Thank you for your gracious understanding and responsible response when we requested a room with an air conditioner farther away from the bed. They also helped us through the hurricane – our first! Did I mention Margie at the front desk? A pure delight! If I could give this place 10 stars I would in a heart beat. Sincerely, Cherilynn...