Marriott Hotels in Tampa

I have been here to attend a 3-day conference at the conference center next door. Great hotel! VEry clean and modern. I was fortunate to get a room on teh 27th floor wit a view over the water - maginificent. The rooms are clean, large enough, and functional. There are a few decent restaurants in teh hotel and many more at your doorstep. The hotel shop is almost an entire supermarket. If you forgot something at home they have it there! Even all sorts of food. Only (tiny) negative aspect are the elevators. Although there are enough of them on rush hour you may have to wait more than 5 minutes for one to come.

I chose this Marriott because of the indoor/outdoor pool area! Perfect because it was pouring rain when I arrived and I really wanted to go swimming. The front desk was super friendly and helpful. The free shuttle was convenient and the driver was funny and talkative. I got the business concierge balcony room. Big tv and nice balcony. Used the concierge lounge for breakfast. It was convenient and the food was decent. The on-site restaurant was a little expensive and the food was just OK but the cocktails were great!My stay was perfect for a pre-cruise night. 

While we only live 20 minutes away from Tampa Airport in St. Petersburg, we do not like to take the chance of having an accident on the bridge and missing an early morning flight. We have stayed here in the past but that was way before Covid started. The one thing this Marriott has gong for it is being directly connected to the Main Terminal via a carpeted, air conditioned corridor which houses the Tampa Airport Art Gallery. So if you have a very early morning flight, the hotel location allows you to avoid getting up an hour or more earlier to take an area hotel courtesy bus to the airport. I grew up in St Pete and believe the Marriott Hotel was built when the current Tampa Airport location was developed so that is 25+ years ago. While the Airport itself has modernized itself over the years, this hotel has not. The rooms are small. The bathrooms very small. No room to even provide an in-room microwave so they have one on each floor next to the ice machine to be shared by all on that floor. Yuck! If you reserve and pay for one of their ”Larger ” guest rooms as described on their website, you may get a few extra square feet of room and a love seat rather then a one person easy chair. Beware.....make sure you get the type room you were confirmed for as they tried to give us the standard size room when we reserved the larger room at a higher rate. Do not bother paying more for a Concierge Level room as the lounge was closed when Covid started and they have never reopened it. For dinner, we tried to order room service. FYI....there are 3 fast food restaurants and two table service ones in the Main Terminal. Dinner time food is available from the Skyye Bar and Grill. You must order through the Marriott App however I found both price and menu item discrepancies between what was listed there and what I saw on the menu posted on the hotel's Marriott website. So I called to speak to someone in room service. There isn't anyone available to talk to. So I went down stairs to the Front Desk and it just so happens that the Food Manager was standing there. I pointed out to her all the discrepancies, which was really confusing to me as a guest, and she said she would have someone look into it. Meanwhile she offered to take our order. When it came, it was all take out food containers, plastic silverware, and paper packets of salt and pepper. I know this type of service was necessary during the height of Covid, but now? Where's the room service with food brought up on a tray or cart that could be used as a dining table? Yet I was stilled charged a 3% Room Service Delivery Charge and a $5.00 ”Other” charge with no explanation. So it cost us $56 for a Thai Salad, a Caesar Salad, and a very small Pizza. Best you take a walk to the Main Terminal and find something there. Luckily I reserved our room last January for $175. I kept checking prices since then to see if they would go lower. At one recent point, that same room was listed for $350. Not worth that type