Originally Posted by CastAStone

My wife and I just stayed here for 5 nights on points.

Booking on points online, they offered a choice of view - tennis, pool, parking lot, or bay. While it meant getting 2 queens instead of a King, we chose bay view. The choice was honored at check in. No upgrades available even for cash. Hotel was completely full over the weekend, however, by Sunday night it was much quieter and stayed quiet through the week. Bellhop offered to park the car while we checked in and we were stupid and said no. Would have cost a couple dollars in tip money to avoid lugging a 36 pack of water a quarter mile.

Our room appeared to have been very recently renovated. We saw employees pushing around TVs and paint so I think this is slowly rolling out to all rooms, however, unless you were really paying attention, you never would have known they were working on the hotel. There's at least 4 mirrors and 2 vanities. They haven't redone the bathrooms except for perhaps wallpaper and tile. HDTV actually had mostly HD channels.

The staff here is great, we encountered only one grumpy employee, which given probably 90 interactions was remarkable. This hotel is staffed like a much higher end property than most Sheratons, employees are everywhere, cleaning leaves, trimming palms, handing out towels and bean bags, serving drinks and food on the beachfront, and their efforts show. Given the staff, I'm honestly very surprised this hotel isn't badged as a Westin or higher. I understand the legacy with Sheraton runs deep pre-Starwood but this hotel is too well run for that brand.

The pool is fairly small for a property with this many rooms, however, there is of course the Gulf of Mexico only about a 500 foot walk away. There is also a infant pool (1 foot deep) as well as a hot tub. The pool was very busy over the weekend, but not as busy on the weeknights. It was very clean and well staffed. The poolside restaurant is good and incredibly reasonably priced. The poolside bar is also good and incredibly reasonably priced. There are a TON of beach chairs. The ones right up on the pool went quickly but there are at least 100 more in the sand and 25 more on the lawn; we never saw more than 1/3 of these in use. There were also tons of free beach toys and pool toys - a great perk for kids - no need to lug your own. There's also hammocks and games, including volleyball, beach tennis, corn hole (bean bag toss) and regular tennis, all included at no extra cost.

The crowd balance at the pool was good - kids in the day left around 3-5, just as the conference attendees started to come out. Never good too mobbed.

Down on the beach, a cabana rental with 2 padded lounge chairs is a steal at just $25/day. The beverage cart service was great when the Head Turtle was staffing it, the old lady who filled in one day was incredibly crabby.

The beach was pretty great. The sand isn't quite as smooth as Clearwater (Sand Key is a 4 minute drive away) but the number of drunk 15-29 year olds while we were there was zero. This hotel was retirees, business travelers and families. The long walk on the beach to the waterfront means that the smallest kids stay at the pool, so its even pretty peaceful out there.

Finally, the restaurants we tried - Mainstay Tavern, Island Grille, and the Pool Cafe - were all very solid and very well priced. The food was good - better than most hotel food I've had, and while not mind-blowingly good, a great value for the money.

This place still does turndown service in 2016, which is remarkable. There's a fire pit out by the pool but they stop serving drinks outside at sundown (outside areas close at 11). I brought out my own drinks and it really extended the amount of time we could be outdoors.

We had club access, there's a espresso machine up there that makes cappuccinos and lattes, there's very limited seating during hors devours, we had to wait the one day we went up. No hot options for breakfast at all.

The public transit trolly that brings you to Clearwater is $5 for an all day pass, or you can pay by the ride or buy a 3 day or a weekly pass. I suggest getting off at the Marina no matter where you're going in Clearwater, because then it goes to Publix and the mainland before going down past the Hilton and places north. Parking in Clearwater can be tough so the trolly is great.

I can't believe this place is just 10000 points a night but maybe I should just keep my mouth shut.