deadinabsentia

I've received great upgrades there. Club lounge is great for getting drunk and eating nuts. Thats about it. If you're travelling to Clearwater, there are much better options. Note a Suite is just a bigger room though, not a room with a seperate room inside it.

CNWO4LIFE

No, but I had a great time there last year. The beach front is spectacular.

tampatravel

I've been to several conferences here and it's a very nice hotel. It's one heckuva hike the actual water. The bar there has great live music and although there are plenty of other places to stay in the area, I'd recommend this. Don't forget to eat at THE COLUMBIA Restaurant right down the street! It's Florida's oldest restaurant (The Tampa one is) and offering great Spanish fare.

karenkay

mr kk and i are heading down there on monday for a winter break. apparently there's no resort fee, which is nice, and the hotel does seem to treat platinums well. for a variety of reasons, we expect to have a few meals in the hotel (which we don't do ordinarily) so i'll be able to share my impressions about the restaurant options.

will report back but would love it if anyone has additional info. we'll try the columbia restaurant, thanks tampatravel!

jkoenig51

There is a Marriott across the street and they have a great steak house called "Water " something? Also on Clearwater beach(just one mile over the bridge) you can get a great grouper sandwich at Frenchy's.Any other questions just PM.
(I live in Clearwater) Also don't eat lunch at the pool,I think it's microwaved food.

Out of my Element

There's a nice strip mall (it's not at all strip-mally) about 1/3 mile south of the property and across the street, with good restaurants, including a very nice and homey breakfast place called Maggie Mae's. A couple dinner places as well, IIRC.

Eastside

Have a look to the germans in the lounge , we are here from wednesday for 5 nights.

IAD777

We have stayed here twice before. It is a nice AAA 4* hotel, but I would definitely suggest a rental car. The lounge was small, but good and it was worth the extra points or cost.

karenkay

we did look for you, but kein glück! hope you had a great stay.

i promised a review...thanks especially to Rambuster for saving us from a room next to the elevator. despite being platinum, we received no upgrade, but we were there for two weeks on an unbelievably low rate, so didn't push. the only thing i asked was that we be far from the elevator, and the second room we were given met that criteria. (the first was really horrid. clearly i don't use priceline anymore, as i can't remember the last time i've seen a room that depressing.)

we had a low floor parking lot view...but we could see the sunrise over the intercoastal. as mentioned previously the staff at the hotel is mostly* terrific, but the hotel itself is nothing special. if you're expecting a true 'resort,' you'll be disappointed, but if you align your expectations with a convention type hotel, you should be fine. there's no resort fee and no fee for parking, which should be a tip off. staff is friendly, approachable and very helpful.

wifi is pretty slow, using the password we were given, and based on the 'wifi for plats' thread i'm now wondering if there were faster options.

the lounge is nothing special but just fine; there's free booze and some snacks at dinner, with one hot option. breakfast is strictly continental, yogurt, sliced fruit, bagels, etc. the two women who work up there are terrific, and will give advice on dining/activity options. we tipped each time and couldn't have had better service.

for plats, breakfast is in the lounge, there's no option to eat in the main restaurant. we did eat at the main restaurant buffet there one day, and weren't particularly impressed. i have a feeling that ordering off the menu would have been significantly better. as mentioned upthread you can get a good local breakfast essentially across the street at maggie mae's, in the center next to the marriott. (the aforementioned columbia restaurant is also there, but our experience there wasn't anything special.)

as other posters noted there are people staying at the hotel who clearly don't know how to behave. we found it a generally unsophisticated crowd...saw a number of people in the lounge being really loud--like there were no other people there--or haranguing the lounge attendants about breakfast options or trying to take entire plates of food out of there. how those gals manage to continue to be pleasant is beyond me.

we had to call down to the front desk several times on two different nights to complain when some yabbos were being loud and drunk at 10.30pm (and again at 11.30p, and 2a) in the hotel porte cochere area, and a different time we had a bunch of loud guys in the room next door. one advantage to being in the less desirable part of the hotel is that other parts tended to fill up first, so we had a number of nights where we didn't have any neighbors. ^

*we were subjected one afternoon to a LOUD and long tirade from a couple of employees in the room across the hall. i think they were supposed to be cleaning it or checking that it was clean, but they were watching the nfl playoffs and one guy was saying, over and over, how 'he don't like the way i look at him in the morning meeting' and 'i almost called him a cracker' etc. etc. this went on for about 15 minutes. i finally stuck my head out the door and walked down the hall while looking in at them, and they stopped b***ing shortly thereafter. due to our protracted stay in the hotel and the fact that the guy really did sound nuts, we didn't complain, although mr kk plans to write a note now that we're safely checked out.

we didn't use the pool, but walked to the beach a few times. people claiming the beach is far, well, that's the set-back in clearwater. the beach--that is to say, sand--is close, but the hotel is a short walk from the ocean. can't imagine that's a problem unless you're not capable of walking a few blocks, however.

there was construction going on in the lobby/ground floor area--replacing tile--for the entire duration of our stay, and it caused no issues whatsoever. kudos to the hotel for that. there was a rotating staff person in front of the elevator each day giving directions and assistance to anyone needing it. ^

you get turndown service each night, and andes mints(!) on the pillow.

in short, for the price we paid, it was a great holiday, but i don't think i'd pay $200 a night to stay here. who knows, perhaps if we'd been upgraded to whatever a plat usually gets my impression would have been different...but i'm basing it on the room we were given.

SanDiego1K

Let me add a few comments to karenkay's excellent report. If you use google maps and zoom in on the Sheraton Sand Key, you will see that the shape of the hotel is not conducive to having a lot of rooms with excellent views. The hotel is in the shape of a cross. The top of the cross points toward the ocean. The base is much wider and lower, and is the convention area. Most of the rooms are in the cross bar of the cross. A significant number of rooms face the parking lot. The higher ones should have views of the intercoastal waterways, which can be a more satisfying view than the ocean. I had a room on the 2nd floor facing the tennis courts to the north. I could see the ocean if I stepped out on my balcony. My room was extremely dark. The sliding window/door was to the extreme side of the room. The light came in at an angle that illuminated that corner but did not reach into the room.

The room itself was better than I anticipated. It was spacious and looked as though it had been renovated in the last year or two. The vanity area was outside the bathroom. The bathroom was miniscule, housing the bathtub and toilet, with barely room to close the door.

The lobby only has a parking lot view. There are restaurants and bars off the lobby with no view. Whoever designed the hotel squandered the opportunity to give a water view in the public areas. It's a shame. That lobby could be in a hotel in Dayton, Ohio, or Dallas, Texas. I think there is a restaurant in the very top of the T which would have a dead on view of the ocean, though I didn't try it. I took advantage of the view by reading my book by the pool. There were many tables there along with a pool bar.

Frenchy's was mentioned upthread. There are a number of them within a short distance of the hotel. One of their menu items is stone crab claws. They are awesome.

It's near essential to have a car if you stay here. Driving is extremely slow, with the speed limit enforced at 35 miles per hour on the road running past the hotel.

Eastside

Was okay, not more.The hotel is incredible old fashioned.We received a upgrade in a suite , but we moved in a other room with a nice sea view.

The lounge is typical american, loud and busy on the evening.

Peatisback

I thought this place was a dump when we stayed here last year.

When we went for breakfast on the weekend and the lounge was overrun with people leaving no place to sit, the attendant became very upset about allowing us to take some yogurt and coffee to go ("it has to stay in the lounge"). I hated the vanity being outside the bathroom. The only thing I did enjoy- the low price of renting a beach umbrella/chairs.

Fizzer

We have stayed there a couple of times a year for the past 3-4 years, mostly work related. Rooms are a little old fashioned and I agree about the vanity outside the bathroom.The lounge was updated recently and is much ,much nicer but the lady who runs it, Peggy I think, has always been very pleasant.
The restaurant, Rusty's has nice food and service but is usually so quiet as to be dead with no atmosphere. Lots of conventions who eat in the banquet halls perhaps.
Our favourite place to eat though is the Island Way Grill, on the right of the causeway from Clearwater to Clearwater Beach, next to the aquarium. Seafood is always fresh there

Sweet Willie

good to know, thanks for the report !

Vulcan

We do live 50 miles north of TPA and go here once or twice a year. We have not been back since I got my Plat status back, so can't comment on the lounge.

I concur that Maggie Mae's is great for (cheap) breakfasts/lunches etc. The Columbia Restaurant a short walk away we found very good if you like Spanish food. Better still, if you have a car (almost a 'must') go to the original huge Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City. Huge restaurant with Flamengo dancers, etc. Google Columbia Restaurant for more info.