Marriott Suites on Sand Key

Where do I even begin?! I wish I could give 0 stars for this place and their employees. Our day began at 2:45am when we woke up to catch our flight home, only to get to the airport and find it had been moved to the next day. Thus we needed a hotel for the night. We chose this Marriott based on location and our desire to be on the water. At this point it’s 5am, so we spend $45 and 35min to Uber with all of our luggage and our 3 month old to this hotel to check in, have them hold our luggage, and go get coffee/breakfast. When we arrive, the night receptionist, Jorge, is confused about us checking in, sees our reservation, and then proceeds to tell us they have no rooms available. After questioning him about how we were able to book the room, he tells us there’s a glitch in the system and that they are working on it. He tells us to take a seat while he figures something out for us. He spends the next 45 minutes furiously typing on the computer and talking on the phone. Eventually he comes back, says all the other Marriott and associated hotels are fully booked as well, but the Hilton down the road has a room for us and we can check in now. Jorge tells us that due to the inconvenience, they will refund our booking and comp our stay at the Hilton. We are thrilled at this point. While it was inconvenient for us, at least Marriott was willing to help us out. WRONG! We made it to the Hilton around 6:30am and were in the middle of checking in when Jorge calls me. He is desperately apologizing as states that he thought we were checking in for LAST NIGHT, not tonight and they actually do have a room for us and because of this, they are no longer refunding our room or comping the Hilton room. My husband and I are furious at this point and refuse to take yet another Uber back to the Marriott and we wish to stick to our previous agreement. Jorge puts me on hold to talk to his manager, Donte, again and then hangs up on me. Luckily the Hilton is amazing and gets us our room, tells us that the Marriott will make it right with us and to just talk to the manager when they get in. We then spend the rest of our day, arguing back and forth with the day receptionist, Jennifer, about sticking to the original promise made by Jorge due to the inconvenience. She goes back and forth between us and the manager, but we are unable to speak directly to the manager. Eventually they agree to comping out Hilton stay, but we still payed for the room at Marriott. The entire scenario was incredibly frustrating and Marriott, a credible and multi-billion dollar company, did nothing to try and make this situation right. They should have stood behind their employee that they hired, whether or not he should have made that promise in the first place. We are frequent travelers and even have a travel blog advising others where they should travel and hotels to stay at, and I will have a hard time staying at a Marriott in the future. Read less

Cannot say enough wonderful things about this place, the staff, the rooms the pool and the views are top notch. We were made to feel as though we were most welcome and also met lots of wonderful people by the pool. The design of the hotel is really well thought out, because it’s possible to view the sunrise from the back area of your room but yet during some months, you can also enjoy the sunsetting on the Gulf side. Have never been in a hotel where you could do that and we loved every moment of our stay. There are lots of places to eat, shop , and to acquire sundry items as well as a wonderful little café in the hotel for early morning coffees. The beach was accessible via a quick jaunt! Our only minor concern was that the hide a bed was not comfortable, especially for for our teen son. We asked for a mattress pad and the cleaning person did not seem to have any so we opted for our son to sleep on one double bed and we took the second double bed, a bit crowded but in the end, it was all okay. We can’t wait to get back!! Do you rent by the mth? ;-) Read less

Hotel location was nice, not quite “resort luxurious” but perfectly acceptable for a day or two by the pool and the bay. I booked a suite with a view and a balcony. Even checked in online using the Marriott app before I arrived. I’m a frequent business traveler with Bonvoy status so I’ve got that down. Was really looking forward to my balcony over the bay that I had checked into. However when I arrived at 8pm I was assigned a “Value Suite”. Didn’t even know that was an option there. This is room on the 2nd floor with a tiny window facing the bay and the front door overlooking the main lobby. No balcony. Noisy, as you right above the restaurant and gathering areas. Next to the elevator. Looks like an afterthought and rooms were added in an unused space. If I stood on the bed I could see the bay. Same price as I would have paid for a regular balcony view suite. The air conditioner is tied to sliding glass doors it turns off when it’s open, but because it has no sliding glass door it just ran non stop despite physically turning it off. Whatever you do, do not accept a Value Suite!!!! Self parking was easy on a lot next to the hotel for $25/night. I enjoyed the cocktails and limited food choices at the poolside bar. Breakfast buffet was decent at $22. Had issues getting the internet to work on my business laptop, but personal devices worked fine. I made my lemonade from the lemons by going down the stairs just outside my room to the bayside bar. Read less

We spent a week here recently with our two kids under 7. The staff here are incredible and went out of their way to make our stay enjoyable. The hotel is perfectly situated with each room having an amazing view of the bay where we saw dolphins, manatees, pelicans and many jumping fish from our balcony. Sand Key beach is a 15 minute walk (or 2 minute shuttle ride) and is much more pleasant than Clearwater Beach. We had a rental car and were glad we did, it allowed us to check out Indian Rocks Beach and other eating options down the coast. The rooms are well set up for families, and we did not notice any noise from neighbours like other reviews. Lastly the resident Macaw 'Lisa' was such a hit with our kids, they are still talking about her a few days after being home. Read less