I have stayed here twice now; once just after the change-over and again just last weekend.
Based on my first stay I was not at all impressed. They still had a lot of basic construction/decorating work to be done and the staff was horrible. No one could answer any questions with even a hint as to whether or not they might actually know what they were talking about and there was basically no staff save one person at the desk after 7 PM.
Last weekend I decided to stay over another night in Tampa. As I have never liked the Airport Sheraton [decent but not worth $200+/night] and the Clearwater Beach property was too far away I decided to give the Riverwalk Sheraton another try.
Things have improved I must say though they still have a ways to go; OK, its a Sheraton not a 'W' but still...
Got a great rate off of SPG.com [$89 for a Sat night stay] so I made a reservation. Upon arrival I gave the desk person my reservation number but they still asked for picture ID and took and imprint of my Amex [is this new system-wide?].
I was upgraded to a three-room suite without asking [as I should have been for at least a basic upgrade anyway] and the room was nice. What they seem to have done is to take three rooms side-by-side, split the middle room in two to add on to the other two end rooms so you end up with two full baths, a large bedroom a small office/foyer, and a decent sized living room.
The furniture is typical Sheraton; island vanity sinks in dark wood, white quarry tile in the bathroom and dark wood furniture everywhere else.
I must say that the bed was nothing to write home about. I know it isn't a 'Heavenly Bed' but it was still quite hard, at least to my taste. Also, there were only two foam pillows in the room, no extras in the closet. This is one of my biggest pet-peeves as down pillows will send my allergies into overdrive.
I have to say that my biggest complaint is with the staff, or lack thereof. FYI they were, to a person, the same staff as when I stayed there the first time some six months earlier. Don't ask for anything after about 7 PM because you won't get it. They have no concierge or other room delivery service after 6 PM.
On my first stay I asked for two extra foam pillows at about 8 PM. Sometime around 11:00 PM the security guard arrived with one foam pillow. Like an idiot I tipped the guy rather than complain.
This time I ran out of toothpaste and asked to have some sent up. The desk person said he would try and have the security guy bring it up on his next round, neither he nor the toothpaste ever showed up...
What is it with this place and the security guards? Do most Sheratons use the security people as a concierge service? Weird.
Also be aware, this place has a couple of smoking-only floors, which absolutely reek when you step off the elevator. I really feel for the midnight check-in guest without a reservation who gets stuck on one of these floors.
Even though I was, supposedly, on an SPG floor there is no newspaper service. You have to go down and pick up whatever they have left off of the check-in desk in the morning.
Anyway, all-in-all this most recent stay was OK. I got a really nice upgrade to go along with a bargain rate [though the $15/day parking fee seems a bit steep for Tampa] and the room was clean, modern and well done. The free WiFi is also nice but this property really needs to work on the staff, at least the night staff as they are IMHO wholly inadequate.
If like me you can snag an $89 rate and get an upgrade its a pretty stellar deal but whoever ends up paying the standard room rate of $225-$300 is going to be in for a let down.