Country Inn & Suites Tampa/Brandon

This is either a new hotel or recently remodeled. Everything is clean and new. Our room was back in a nice quiet corner. We stayed one night. Breakfast includes eggs, bacon, waffles, as well as the standard breakfast buffet items. There is wireless access but no house computer for guests to use.

If you want a great place to eat, try the Fuego Churrascaria Steakhouse. It is a Brazilian type steakhouse where they bring around meats on a skewer. Price includes soup, salad, 6 side dishes and dessert.

This was wonderful motel to stay at. Very clean and nicely furnished with a couch, 3 chairs, desk, microwave and refrigerator. They serve a full hot breakfast and everything was very good. The only thing missing was a grab bar inside the shower for us "older folks".

This is either a new hotel or recently remodeled. Everything is clean and new. Our room was back in a nice quiet corner. We stayed one night. Breakfast includes eggs, bacon, waffles, as well as the standard breakfast buffet items. There is wireless access but no house computer for guests to use.

If you want a great place to eat, try the Fuego Churrascaria Steakhouse. It is a Brazilian type steakhouse where they bring around meats on a skewer. Price includes soup, salad, 6 side dishes and dessert.

A nice, clean hotel, with a great breakfast every morning, easy access to all Tampa attractions, beaches, etc. Excellent staff, everyone worked with a smile. We have an 11 month old son who absolutely loved the pool. We plan on staying here again.

We stayed at the Country Inn & Suites, Brandon for two nights over New Year's Eve. The property is brand new, having been open only a few months. The staff were wonderful, patient and very helpful. Our requests for towels, etc even at late hours were met with friendly smiles and quick responses. The rooms were up to the usual CI&S standards. This is a great location to stay to visit Busch Gardens! (Don't stay over in the Tampa area to go to Busch, we've made that mistake before. Brandon is less than ten minutes from Busch and has much nicer, newer hotels than the north end of Tampa.) Next time we are in the area, this hotel is on the top of our list.

If you are looking for a hotel close to Tampa but somewhat secluded, this is definitely the place to stay. I am hard to please when it comes to hotels, but I was very impressed with this one. Extemely clean, friendly staff, price was very reasonable and most of all it is just off the beaten path from any major restaurant that you want on the way to Tampa. The Hard Rock Casino was only about 5 miles away. All the rooms are inside, so it is very safe.

My 3 children and I stayed at the Country Inn for two nights this past weekend. I originally reserved a regular room but then 1 week prior I called and switched my reservation to a "studio suite" with two queen beds and a couch. I repeatedly asked the person on the phone if the couch in the suite pulled out to a bed and she said "no, only suites with one king have a pull out couch, not the suites with two queens." Anyway, when we arrived at 11pm to check in with 3 tired children I was told that I already checked in. Apparently, my reservation was given to someone else. Someone came there with a name that was not even the least bit similar to mine and they gave them my reservation. Nobody even realized that it was the wrong name! Fortunately, they still had rooms available and the desk clerk gave me a different room. He was very polite and tried to deal with the problem but was a little flustered. I'm not sure if it is because he is the one who screwed up, he was trying to fix someone else's mess or both. Originally he gave me a standard room and then when I asked if it was a studio suite he quickly changed my room. I got charged the price of my reservation and was not offered anything for my inconvenience of having to wait while they realized they gave away my reservation. Then when we got to the room the first thing I did was check the couch and of course it was a pull-out. The reservations agent was misinformed and gave out the wrong information. Fortunately for them my husband didn't end up coming or we would have gone somewhere else because I relied on her statement.

After that, the rest of my stay was very pleasant. The room was clean and new. The central air in the room was a little annoying because you couldn't really control the blowing unless you shut the unit off completely and the curtain kept blowing up but the room was large, the bathroom was clean, had granite countertops and we were very comfortable. It was also very quiet. For the remainder of our stay the staff was extremely friendly, helpful and courteous and always smiled and asked if they could help. The location was great for where we needed to go and there was plenty to do in the area. The breakfast was fine as we are not big breakfast eaters and the attendant in the breakfast area was extremely nice and eager to please. Overall, I would recommend staying there and would definitely return. I think the check-in mishap was a fluke because all other aspects of my stay were extremely pleasant.

Woow nice hotel! Good service! Big room! Breakfast not that great but good enough! great with children! nice outside pool! fitness room aswell! Good parking facitilties, close to everything (by car)

Perfect hotel! Unfortunetely only stayed one night!

Best stay I have had in whole of Florida!(8days)

My family stayed here for two nights and really enjoyed it. Everything is new since the place was only built less than 2 years ago. About 1/2 hour to Busch Gardens but an easy drive. Located on quiet side street but close enough to restaurants and shopping. Nice amenities in the room, pool small but very nice and not busy at all, desk staff very nice and helpful, good exercise equipment and books to borrow and read for the whole family. We liked the breakfast alot. It was serve yourself like most places with good variety. Waffles, bagels, muffins, fruit, yogurt, eggs, sausage patties, bacon, etc. Healthy choices and fresh. We would stay here again!

This hotel was great. Everyone there was very personable and professional. I was expecting something bad from some of the reviews but I think that was a "freak" incident. The check in the guy was funny and took good care of us. The breakfast was great and included waffles, eggs, sausages, and bacon for hot stuff, it also had all kinds of cereal, bagels, muffins, you name it. There was even lemon aid and that was my sons favorite! The lady who was in charge went way beyond herself and took amazing care of everyone. The hotel rooms where a nice size and very clean & comfortable. The pool was nice to hang out in with the kids - a little small but not that many people were there. We REALLY enjoyed our stay there.

My wife and I were visiting some family and friends in Florida in March. The weekend we were there happened to be the same weekend as the ACC basketball tournament and the PGA event, so hotel rooms were scarce. We needed a room for just one night, and I was booking only about a week in advance. After many fruitless web searches on all the engines, I happened upon the site for this Country Inn.

This is a brand new hotel (opened late in 2006), and we found it to be very nice. We had a king room on the top floor. The room was huge, with a nice desk, sitting chair and ottoman, and lots of other floor space. It had a nice new flat-screen TV as well (flat screen, not flat panel). We had no problems on check-in.

The hotel sits near a fairly busy commercial district (big box stores, chain restaurants, etc.) There was a bit of noise from the surroundings but otherwise the area that the hotel sits in is clean and seemed safe. We weren't there for the attractions, but it's quite close (within about 10 miles) to Busch Gardens, USF, and some of the other things in the area. We didn't use the pool, so I can't comment on that.

The only problem we encountered wasn't the responsibility of the hotel -- when we were getting ready to check out in the morning, power went out over most of Brandon for about 30-45 minutes. Fortunately, it went out just before we were going to get on the elevator, so we narrowly avoided having to spend that time stuck in the elevator. In any case, it didn't cause a huge problem -- except that there was no hot coffee at breakfast, no toaster, etc., but again this was not the hotel's fault. When we left, all the stoplights in the area were out of commission, so we saw that the outage was pretty widespread.

Based primarily on the quality of our room during our brief stay at this Country Inn, I would recommend it.

This was a great place to stay if you are going with a family to Busch Gardens. It is pretty close, about a 10 minute drive. It's located in a nice area of Tampa. I was afraid it would be too far from the park, but it was a quick drive and worth it.

It was clean and has very nice facilities. Nice breakfast. It is a new building.

The only negative was that the pool was outdoors and not heated and too cold to use during our stay.

We should have known better...cheap rates usually mean "cheap hotel." Sure enough, we got what we paid for...average room with below average customer service. There is nothing "suite" about the rooms. We have stayed in nicer rooms at Best Westerns and other family hotels. Rooms were clean and hotel is new and clean as a whole. Just be sure to call ahead and demand a room far away from the construction that will wake you up at 7 am every morning, and will continue throughout the entire day. The hotel will do nothing to apologize or accommodate you for the inconvenience. We weren't warned about the disturbance. When we mentioned the noise to the front desk, the manager shrugged their shoulders and said there was nothing they could do. We weren't offered another room, and it was quite obvious that the hotel was far from full. We will be staying at a different hotel on our next trip.

We arrived at this hotel after a long 10-hour drive. After we unpacked everything, we realized that the A/C was not cooling. The repairman came promptly to check it and informed us that the A/C could not be repaired. He opened the windows to let in some fresh air while we waited to find out where we would be moved. Our nightmare then began as we tried to get the young girl at the front desk to remedy the situation. They had no other rooms available for that night, but she said that she could move us to a cheaper room the next day (we had originally booked a king-suite), but she wasn't sure about the cost of the room without consulting with her manager. She told us that she would contact the manager and he would call us.

After a few hours, my husband went down to see why the manager hadn't called. The girl said she wasn't able to get in touch with him. I guess we would have waited all night for his call had we not asked her. We ended up staying in the room with no A/C, but we got no sleep because of the noise from the streets around the hotel and the bugs were flying into the room from outside, since there were no screens on the windows. The manager was supposed to contact us the next morning when he got in, but when the manager had not called by 9 am, my husband went down to see if the manager was in. After around 10:00 am, the manager (Ahmed) called our room and my husband went down to speak with him. My husband is extremely mild mannered and never raised his voice during any of this nightmare. He has more patience than most people. In spite of that, the manager told him that he had received the message from the front desk the previous evening, but he was unavailable to answer the page. He informed my husband that the girl at the front desk was upset to the point of tears about the incident. (What would the girl have said if my husband had yelled and cursed at her!) He told my husband that it would be better if we didn't stay at his hotel. We were absolutely floored by the manager's response. We had expected the manager to rectify the situation so that we could stay at this hotel for the entire week as we had planned. But the only compensation for our horrible experience was 30% off our bill for the one night we were there. If the manager is the only one authorized to make decisions, then he needs to be available whenever there is a problem. The customer service at this hotel is horrendous--and that is from the manager down to the front desk. The repairman was the most helpful of anyone. When we arrived home this week, we had an email from the home office asking about our stay. My husband replied and expressed his frustration over what happened. Shortly thereafter, we received a half-hearted apology from Ahmed that seemed as if it was something he was forced to do by the home office. This will be our last stay at a Country Inn & Suites Hotel.

I confirmed my reservation (with a credit card) a week before I arrived. Upon arrival the desk "person" refused to release the room to me without a credit card "authorization". I offered to pay cash and I explained that I intended to pay CASH when I arrived. I was assured that this would be fine over the phone when orginally making my reservation. And then he was extremely rude! Comfort Suites was more than happy to accept my cash. I will never reserve at one of these hotels again.