Hyatt Place Tampa Airport/Westshore

This is the first time I stayed at the Hyatt Place – Tampa Airport. I selected this hotel for this trip solely because I have not stayed at Hyatt Place before and I wanted to see what it was like. I read some reviews from Trip Advisor and they were basically positive, so I went ahead with my plan. Note that I did not stay in an Amerisuites in the past, so I do not have a comparison of what improvements were made.

ARRIVAL / CHECK IN

The hotel is not really visible from the main street. Good thing they put up a large Hyatt Place signage right in front of the Ruth Chris Steakhouse. The front / exterior of the hotel is very clean and I would attribute that to the renovations that were done.

The lobby was as pictured in the photos I have seen. Very nice and modern business-like. There are many chairs and tables where people can wait for their party, or even have informal meetings there in the lobby.

The modular style for the registration desk helps complete the modern look. I guess gone are the days of the old “I’m behind the desk” – “you wait behind the line until I am available” model. 8-)

I had no problems with my check in as my travel agent had sent in all the necessary information for my booking.

GUEST ROOM

The guest room I was in was an accessible room, meaning the room is made for wheelchair accessibility. This meant that the front door is a little wider and the washroom does not have a tub, but a walk in (no door) shower area. The closet area is also door-less.

There is a nice mini-fridge in the room, good enough to put in some drinks. No freezer area though, so ice cream is out of the question.

The large 42” LG LCD TV is a good touch. There are computer hook-ups for the TV as well. If you have DVD’s and the proper cables for input from your DVD player or computer (component cables, S-video, basic AV cables), you can use the TV as your external display for watching movies.

There is also a radio with an AUX input so you can plug in your MP3 player to listen to.

There are some HD stations available, like Discovery HD, HBO HD as well as the regular TV stations (NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC).

This was nice.

I did find the air conditioner unit (stand alone below the window style) to be quite loud. Using my noise cancelling head set did make things quiet though.

The water in the washroom took a while to warm up. A suggestion would be to turn on the shower before you jump in. Nothing like standing in the tub with cold water splashing out.

AMMENITIES

There is a pool onsite, but I did not check it out.

Next to the front desk, there is a quick and simple snack bar that is probably always opened, since you pay at the front desk. They have the basic soda, chips and some sandwiches and salads.

Breakfast is included, which is a basic bread / bagel / English muffin and yoghurt, fruit and cereals. Nothing out of the ordinary.

OVERALL

I had paid $169 per night for this stay. I am not too familiar with the Tampa hotel prices since this was my first time in Tampa. But for other large cities like Boston, LA and Chicago that I have been to, I have stayed at better hotels for this price. When I check the hotel prices from my travel agent, this Hyatt Place is more expensive than the Embassy Suites, Mariott and even the Hilton hotels. In fact when I did the sorting of hotels by price, this is the fifth most expensive hotel in the Tampa area.

There are some good points about this hotel and the lobby and some parts of the room has been upgraded, but the bed still does not feel like the normal Hyatt bed they usually have. It felt softer.

I would rate this as a family holiday hotel, but paying $169 per night, you can probably find a better deal elsewhere.

If there are more renovations scheduled for this property, that may warrant another visit in the future, but as it stands, I will probably choose something else in the area for my next time.

I have stayed at three or four other Hyatt Place hotels. It has reached the point that I will go out of my way to stay there. Always great stay. Big TV, comfortable sitting area, comfortable bed. Bathroom is well a hotel bathroom. Great looking breakfast available (although all I had time for both mornings was coffee and toast). Staff was helpful, easy in, easy out. I will stay here again. I went for business but have taken my family to other Hyatt Place hotels when a stop over was needed in other cities with good experence.

We stayed here during the weekend of October 4th in a King Size Suite and I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone. Our room was big, bright ,comfortable and most importantly, very clean. The work out room and pool area are very nice with big beach towels and personal care ammenities. We ate in the lobby restaurant - try the Cobb Salad - it was to die for! Would not hesitate to stay here again. There is a $16 charge for valet parking, or you can park yourself for free. Close proximity to the airport and 2 shopping malls is also a big plus.

We booked this room for a 1 night stay pre-cruise. Booked with Priceline (Name your price) and we thought it was an excellant deal for the money. The location is really close to the Westshore Mall where we ate dinner. The mall has a lovely section with restaurants and bars that you can dine outside. It backs up to a runaway at the airport, but we did not hear any plane noise. Very easy to find, staff was excellent, room was lovely with the big screen TV, sectional sofa and fluffy king bed. Very nice breakfast and wonderful coffee the next morning. It was only about 15 min from the cruise port which was great for us. It was also very close to Raymond James Stadium and it would be a great place to stay if you are going to a game!

Now that Tripadvisor has finally changed the old AmeriSuites listing to the newly renovated Hyatt Place, I expect their ranking in Tampa to jump significantly. We stayed here 2 times in March, once when arriving in town and once when departing. If one can get this hotel on priceline, it's easily the best bargain at the Tampa Airport. We paid $56 and $52 for the two nights. Rack rate was $239 for each night.

What are some things made this a great stay: New 42" HD TV's with a nice selection of HD channels, comfortable Hyatt king bed, fast free internet, free continental breakfast (that includes Starbucks coffee), and a free shuttle that will take you anywhere in the area. I recommend the Intercontinental Plaza if one has a few hours to kill. This is a spotless, high-end mall that has an entire section of very nice restaurants. We took the shuttle over and walked back.

Hyatt Place looks just like the pictures on their web site. I've included a few exterior shots. The staff here is friendly and accommodating. Relaxing lobby with plenty of places to sit and have breakfast, lunch or just socialize. They offer salads and sandwiches around the clock. Hyatt Place looks like a popular hotel for the business traveler. There is a nice little pool section out back. This will more than keep the kids happy. The exercise room was small. There were only a couple treadmills and one elliptical machine.

My wife and I stayed here overnight 11/3/08 before an early morning flight the next day out of Tampa Airport. The airport shuttle to the hotel from the airport was fast and convenient to use. Check-in was either through a front desk person or through a modern electronic kiosk. This hotel is as if Ikea was designing a Hampton Inn- no fuss with modern decoration. Our room was fine, it was sized a little larger than average, and decorated in a modern style. The bathroom was fine, nothing spectacular. The center of the room had a nice large flat screen TV that swiveled so that you could watch it from the bed or the couch. Next to the TV was a center with many outlets so you could charge up all your electronic gadgets, which was handy. The shuttle to the airport doesn't run early in the morning, and we had a 6 am flight. However, the front desk person took our information for a taxi the night before, and called us 5 mins ahead of schedule that the taxi was downstairs ready for us, working out perfectly. I wouldn't describe the hotel as "luxurious" but it was comfortable and perfect for our needs, and a great value for the rate we got compared to neighboring airport hotels.

We stayed here one night as a couple of us had an early flight in the morning. The airport shuttle was efficient and the free breakfast had a nice variety of items and coffee. The room was clean, but was lacking a guide to that hotel and area. Also our toilet ran all night long. I had to sleep on the fold out bed from the couch and I must say I woke with a stiff neck. I also thought it was unusual that there was no microwave. I'd stay here again, but would try and find a hotwire/priceline rate.

The hotel was very close to the airport, which was good. It's very high tech and there isn't really a check in desk, but a kiosk. There is someone to help you, but I like the "old way" of walking up to the front desk and officially checking in with someone in person. Everything is computerized and it's almost like a self serve hotel. Which may be okay for some but, I wasn't thrilled with my stay. The room was somewhat clean - the bathroom floor was dirty which always freaks me out and left a bad taste in my mouth.

This is the first time I stayed at the Hyatt Place – Tampa Airport. I selected this hotel for this trip solely because I have not stayed at Hyatt Place before and I wanted to see what it was like. I read some reviews from Trip Advisor and they were basically positive, so I went ahead with my plan. Note that I did not stay in an Amerisuites in the past, so I do not have a comparison of what improvements were made.

ARRIVAL / CHECK IN

The hotel is not really visible from the main street. Good thing they put up a large Hyatt Place signage right in front of the Ruth Chris Steakhouse. The front / exterior of the hotel is very clean and I would attribute that to the renovations that were done.

The lobby was as pictured in the photos I have seen. Very nice and modern business-like. There are many chairs and tables where people can wait for their party, or even have informal meetings there in the lobby.

The modular style for the registration desk helps complete the modern look. I guess gone are the days of the old “I’m behind the desk” – “you wait behind the line until I am available” model. 8-)

I had no problems with my check in as my travel agent had sent in all the necessary information for my booking.

GUEST ROOM

The guest room I was in was an accessible room, meaning the room is made for wheelchair accessibility. This meant that the front door is a little wider and the washroom does not have a tub, but a walk in (no door) shower area. The closet area is also door-less.

There is a nice mini-fridge in the room, good enough to put in some drinks. No freezer area though, so ice cream is out of the question.

The large 42” LG LCD TV is a good touch. There are computer hook-ups for the TV as well. If you have DVD’s and the proper cables for input from your DVD player or computer (component cables, S-video, basic AV cables), you can use the TV as your external display for watching movies.

There is also a radio with an AUX input so you can plug in your MP3 player to listen to.

There are some HD stations available, like Discovery HD, HBO HD as well as the regular TV stations (NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC).

This was nice.

I did find the air conditioner unit (stand alone below the window style) to be quite loud. Using my noise cancelling head set did make things quiet though.

The water in the washroom took a while to warm up. A suggestion would be to turn on the shower before you jump in. Nothing like standing in the tub with cold water splashing out.

AMMENITIES

There is a pool onsite, but I did not check it out.

Next to the front desk, there is a quick and simple snack bar that is probably always opened, since you pay at the front desk. They have the basic soda, chips and some sandwiches and salads.

Breakfast is included, which is a basic bread / bagel / English muffin and yoghurt, fruit and cereals. Nothing out of the ordinary.

OVERALL

I had paid $169 per night for this stay. I am not too familiar with the Tampa hotel prices since this was my first time in Tampa. But for other large cities like Boston, LA and Chicago that I have been to, I have stayed at better hotels for this price. When I check the hotel prices from my travel agent, this Hyatt Place is more expensive than the Embassy Suites, Mariott and even the Hilton hotels. In fact when I did the sorting of hotels by price, this is the fifth most expensive hotel in the Tampa area.

There are some good points about this hotel and the lobby and some parts of the room has been upgraded, but the bed still does not feel like the normal Hyatt bed they usually have. It felt softer.

I would rate this as a family holiday hotel, but paying $169 per night, you can probably find a better deal elsewhere.

If there are more renovations scheduled for this property, that may warrant another visit in the future, but as it stands, I will probably choose something else in the area for my next time.