Check In

Fast, efficient.  As a gold, I was told that no rooms were available on an SPG floor, and that no upgraded rooms of any kind were available as they were sold out.  We were given a room that matched the description in our reservation - view of parking lot and air conditioning units.  My wife was more upset about this than me, felt like the clerk was blowing me off.  There were a couple of conventions there, and there's of course no way to know who may have been a Plat or not.  I also asked about using points for Club access.  I was told that the Club floor was sold out.  I did explain that I was not asking to be out on the Club floor but was just interested in accessing the Lounge.  Response was that our lounge is "very small" and I can't do that.

Room

As mentioned, room did not have a view, but in fairness, was in line with reservation description.

Service

Staff was generally friendly and helpful, especially in Rusty's.  We have 3 young children and all of the staff there were very patient.  Housekeeping was at times spotty on small things like leaving new glasses.  We called a few times for things like extra towels and service was generally very prompt.

Dining

We ate breakfast at Rusty's a few times.  My main complaint is lack of variety.  There is very little rotation of the menu day to day.  The overall quality of the food is fairly good, but it just got boring.  Also would be nice if they offered omelettes.  The other strange thing is that coffee wasn't included in the price of the buffet.

Location

Location is really very good.  I like that you are away from the hustle and bustle of Clearwater Beach proper.  The negative is that when you actually want to go to Clearwater Beach it can be a little inconvenient.  We tried driving once, but parking was a nightmare.  The Trolley is not really a bad option, and we ended up using it a lot.  However, it is somewhat infrequent (every 30 minutes) so you do have to watch the schedule.  If it ran every 15 minutes, it would really be worry free, just go to a stop and wait a few minutes.  That said, the hotel is on a really nice stretch of beach.

Overall

Overall, it was a very good stay.  This was our second stay here.  If I were to return to Clearwater, this place would be on my short list of options.

SPG Platinum, family of four on a points stay.  Was originally booked for 6 nights, but extended to 9 when Delta stranded us in Tampa for 3 extra days.

Booking: Used 2x (100k for 6 nights) points to confirm a suite as it was peak season and we wanted the extra room.  Originally my ambassador indicated there were no suites available, and then a few days later came back and said the hotel had availability.  The hotel was sold out several nights during our stay, so we likely would not have gotten an upgrade if I had relied on suite night awards for the larger room.

Room

We were in two room types, our original booking and then a different room when we needed to extend our stay.

Room 1: We were given room 823, which was the first room on the left as you go down the leg of the “T”.  The “suite” was a studio suite that was twice as large as a normal room.  I knew this going in, although I wish a formal bedroom was available.  All of the suites are on the 8th floor, just below the club lounge and the gym. From this room we had a clear view the Gulf from most angles, although we felt quite exposed as the rooms from the “arm” of the T were quite close by.  The room had two queen beds with a queen(?) sleeper sofa.  Dual sinks, and a decent sized mini fridge.  The sleeper sofa had the linens on the bed, but we had to call down for pillows.  Note that the HDMI ports on the back of the TV are not accessible as it is wall-mounted. 

Room 2: When we had to extend our stay, fortunately the hotel had availability for us. I originally added two nights, thinking we’d move closer to the airport the last night, but then realized that we’d be stuck with nowhere to go mid-day that last day so just stayed put and got up early when it was time home.  We were given room 744, which was also down the leg of the T, but almost to the very end on the right.  No real water view from the room, but from the balcony I could see the channel, a bit of the Gulf, and the Intercoastal.  This room was MUCH smaller.  One sink, smaller fridge, smaller TV, etc.  It also highlighted that certain rooms in the hotel have a balcony that has a decorative wall out on the balcony, preventing a view through the bars of the balcony. 

Service

Service was outstanding for a hotel of this level.  Every single call to Service Express was quickly answered, and they were all followed up with a message confirming that the requested service had been completed.  The one issue, which got to be a running gag, was that they’d only ever leave us three washcloths, but we were a family for four.  We spoke to the housekeeper, the front desk, the house keeping manager, the duty manager, etc., but it took 4 days until they started leaving us enough washcloths.  Of course that reset when we switched rooms…

Dining

• Rusty’s: We had breakfast here most days.  Fresh squeezed orange juice was a treat.  The buffet itself didn’t vary much at all from day to day.  I only noticed three things that changed: pancakes or French toast, a chef’s special of the day (crepes, breakfast pizza, other random things), and pastries (these didn’t vary as much day to day as whatever they brought out when a tray ran low).  Otherwise, it was the usual fruit, eggs, bacon/sausage, oatmeal, cereal, toast, etc.  We did not eat dinner here.
• Mainstay Tavern: We had a dinner and a lunch here.  Dinner was our first night when we just needed some food; it took three tries and me finally walking up to the bartender to get an accurate beer (our waiter was trying to serve the drinks himself and not succeeding). The food was fine but undistinguished.  The staff was happy to change the TV’s (it’s a sport bar theme) upon request.
• Island Grill: We had lunch here twice.  Soups, salads, burgers, etc.  There is indoor and outdoor seating; outdoor is next to the driveway.  Good service, many of the other patrons appeared to be hotel staff.  Local police offers also stopped in for lunch.
• Poolside Café / Turtle Bar: We made one day a pool day and partook of both.  We snagged a table and flagged down a waiter and were in business.  Food was nothing spectacular, but certainly edible; the nachos were a tasty treat.  Service was generally available but not obnoxious; I had previously seen another waiter circulating while holding up a menu, but not yelling, which was appreciated.

Overall

Club lounge: The hotel wasn’t actually selling club rooms for our dates, but I’m guessing since it’s a Sheraton brand standard they had to have one, so just opened it up to Platinum guests and those receiving access through other means.  Upon check-in I received a note indicating that the lounge would be exceptionally busy that week and offered us vouchers for the buffet breakfast in Rusty’s, which was quite appreciated.  We hit the lounge many mornings and evenings, but only two or three times would I consider it to be crowded.  Breakfast was a cold affair, and at night there was generally one hot option.  Also at night were free drinks.  Free beer (bud light, bud, yuengling, heiniken) with mid/low liquor options (they were all name brands, but as an example, Beam was the bourbon).  Good attendants.  The lounge is open during the day to grab water/pop.  Apparently it closes at 9pm each night, although my wife was in there watching a hockey game one night when the kids just really needed the lights off in the room and started a security guard who was doing a sweep about 10:15.

Parking

• Free parking, which was a huge plus.  Only a few times were we able to find a spot in the front lot, so we started parking near the entrance to the conference center.  Same distance walk, but it was indoors rather than out.
• Not at the hotel, but Clearwater Beach has an app (ParkMobile) to pay for parking; I highly recommend installing it.  There’s a $.35 surcharge over the cash fees to use it, and you have the ability to extend your session up to the maximum allowed at that meter.

Nearby dining:  We managed to avoid going to the same place twice during our original stay, but after we were extended we went back to the same places.  We preferred going South of the hotel and avoiding the crush of Clearwater Beach.  Our favorite was Guppy’s but we also enjoyed Columbia (walkable from the hotel) and Frenchy’s Rockaway; the Gondolier was a quick 5 minute drive when we were in the mood for take-out pizza or Italian food.

Pool

Pool and beach:

• In general there was no issue finding a place to sit.  The chair and tables near the pool often had towels on them by 7:45 or 8:00am. The hotel has posted rules around chairs vacant for more than 45 minutes but I never saw it enforced (on a couple of days it was close to noon before the owners showed up).
• The beach is a hike from hotel.  With a 4yo looking at the sand it was a 10-15 minute walk.  There was golf cart shuttle service available, but I saw the cart sitting vacant with no driver when we were headed to the beach as often as I saw it in use.
• There are several beach games: cornhole, beach tennis, volleyball.  Cornhole and beach tennis were fairly busy, but if you were interested you usually didn’t need to wait too long for one to open up.
• The pool has a bunch of noodles available for use.  One day there weren’t many noodles out but those that were out were in use, so my wife found an attendant and was told that they put them away if it’s too windy, so just ask for them.