The Bungalows — Hotel in Treasure Island

4/7/22||We found The Bungalows to be a pretty decent place to stay on beautiful Treasure Island. The location is great, on the quieter end of Treasure Island but still an easy walk to plenty of restaurants, including an enormous selection of eateries at John’s Pass. The bridge to the Island, which is perhaps the best place to watch the sunset, is a few blocks away. Sunshine Beach is right across the street from The Bungalows, and the path to the beach is covered with a canopy of mangroves, making for a truly beautiful stroll to a one of the best beaches in Florida. In the other direction lies the intra-coastal, where we liked to sit and just enjoy the peace and quiet and talk with some new friends. My wife would sit on a bench on the intra-coastal most mornings, enjoying the beauty while she read her book and drank her coffee.||Our room, while small, was serviceable for two people and included a nearly complete kitchen; compared to some of the rooms we had stayed in on our Odyssey across Florida this winter, it was, on the surface, quite a nice room. The pool, while not spectacular, was clean and well-appointed. The people we met at The Bungalows, mostly around the pool, were very cordial. And we even met some very cute dogs whose owners had a poolside suite. ||Here is the big problem, though…||I don’t understand the basis for all the comments talking about how clean the rooms were. Yes, our room looked clean at first glance, but after walking around the room in my bare feet, my feet were completely black. My wife, who had the good sense to keep her socks on in the room, then discovered that her formerly white socks were blacker than my bare feet; it was disgusting. The next day, my wife found one of the cleaning staff (not an easy task), got a mop, and cleaned the floors herself. While this alleviated the problem, it did not eliminate it; our socks got only moderately dirty after walking on the floor my wife had to clean herself. When we mentioned this in the course of conversation with our fellow guests around the pool, several reported the same problem. Maybe it has something to do with the grout on the tile floors…or at least that would be a charitable explanation. When we first arrived at The Bungalows, the new owner, who was pleasant, happened to be there as we pulled up. She explained to us that she was trying to run The Bungalows as an Airbnb, which is certainly her prerogative, but it was not advertised that way when we booked our room; it was advertised as a hotel. One supposes that the Airbnb designation was a rationalization for the dearth of service; as I mentioned before, the cleaning staff, while friendly, was hard to find and apparently doesn’t to a good job on the floors. ||There is no staff on site, which is understandable given the lack of economies of scale in a facility this small. Thankfully, it wasn’t hard, for us, at least, to get ahold of somebody when our air conditioner went out; the problem was fixed promptly. But as far as replacement towels, soap, and the like, the guests are on their own unless they can happen upon one of the cleaning staff who, by the way, insists on a room number before surrendering the soap.||Our room, thankfully, was very reasonably priced, but the “pool talk” was that, with the new owners, the prices were going up…way up. One couple who had been coming to The Bungalows for years reported that, when they tried to book for next year, they were quoted a price nearly triple what they were paying this year. However, this was only “pool talk” and we have no first-hand information of such drastic price increases. You will, of course, get a better idea of what new management is trying to charge when you seriously pursue booking a room at The Bungalows.||We did meet some wonderful people at The Bungalows, including a great couple from Michigan with some great stories from years working on the line at Ford, a couple from Wisconsin, one of whom, a retired school teacher, was quite the expert on that beautiful state, and, especially a couple from Washington state whose company we enjoyed at the pool and at the bench overlooking the intracoastal. Unfortunately, the last couple told us they won’t be coming back and neither will we, especially at the prices being bandied about by our fellow guests at the pool. Even at the very reasonable price we paid, we would have a hard time going back to The Bungalows until we could be satisfied that management is more vigilant about keeping the...

My family booked a 3 night stay here and we only stayed one night which was the 16th of December. We arrived late and it was to late to contact anyone or to change the booking that night so I decided I would contact hotels.com in the morning because that's who we booked our reservation with and let them know that we were totally unsatisfied with the hotel because it was filthy, there were roaches in the kitchen, the blinds in the bedroom left at least a 4 inch gap where anyone could peer in, there was a horrible musty moldy smell, blood on the lamp shade in the bedroom. Customer service tried to reach out to the property and they did not respond. I was told I could try back again and they would once again try contacting management in order to resolve the issues still no response from management. I did not want to ruin our vacation staying somewhere that none of us were comfortable. So we went to another hotel. I was contacted by Bungalows Dec. 27th via text stating they couldn't process my payment for the extra night I requested which of course was before we arrived at the property. I responded letting them know there were several messages left by hotels.com to cancel the remainder of our booking and we only stayed one night due to the cleanliness of the hotel. I was told there were no calls or messages from hotels.com. I also explained I have no problem paying for the night that we stayed there, but I would like to be refunded for the two nights that we didn't stay which was $574.00. I was told that there were no messages and that he would review this complaint. I have not heard a single peep from Tony again. I have pictures if anyone is interested and also original text from Tony with the bungalows. Please spare yourself the trouble. We changed our hotel to Barefoot beach club and I am so glad I did the room was immaculate compared to the Bungalows I would not suggest anyone stay here. I have images and video but it won't let...

Great place. We rented out all the rooms (large family reunion). The owner has another place right next door as well for overflow. Those rooms were very nice also and clean. It was perfect for a group. The pool was great central meeting point. Had seating with umbrellas, tropical atmosphere and great lounges. The pool is heated and there are pool floats! Their is also a side area great for the kids who want to hang out or play shuffle board. Units 1-5 are surrounding pool area. All of them have kitchenettes, and separate living room spaces from bedrooms. Unit 1 and 2 and 5 are 1 bedroom rooms with pull out couch in living room in room 1 and 5 I’m not sure about unit 2. Unit 3 I’m not sure exact layout But I think it had 2 separate bedrooms. Unit 4 was great! It has largest layout I think, 2 separate bedrooms, separate kitchen and separate living area. Bathroom was big too to hang suits etc. the toiletries were nice too. If you need extra things just call the place and they pick up. They answered every call and were very accommodating to everyone in the group! Any issues they were fixed. Units 6 and 7 were nice and big too. Very cute themes in 7 and outside 7 is a seating area great for snacks and for breakfast and it’s at end of walkway furthest from pool. We had music playing, food cooking and brought in all day. The fridges were large and perfect for large trays of leftover food. No ice machine so we filled the freezer with 6 ice bags. The beach is a 8 minute walk, the cars have to stop to let you cross and they will stop. It’s not luxury but it’s great deal...