FL Tampa Crowne Plaza Westshore

[Travlin1]

Dates of travel: March 2010 during the business week, not week-end

This Crowne Plaza is in the Westshore area of Tampa, 2 blocks from the decaying Westshore Mall. Once THE mall in town, Westshore is still anchored by a virtually-empty Sak's and a slighty-busier Macy's, but the physical plant is deteriorating and the customers are few. It does have some nice restaurants, including P.F. Changs and Mitchell's Fish Market. Westshore is near the airport and Tampa Bay and is home to many Tampa businesses. There is a very popular strip shopping center near the hotel (and across the street from the elegant Intercontinental Hotel) that is always busy. It includes a Panera Breads and a Starbucks. Although as a woman I wouldn't go for a walk in the dark in the neighborhood, overall it seems relatively safe, with a number of well-bred condo complexes nearby.

The hotel itself is near the end of the road that leads to the Howard Frankland Bridge to St. Peterburg. If you pass the hotel by mistake and end up on the bridge, you will have a L-O-N-G trip to St. Pete and back in order to get back to the hotel!

On to the topic at hand: the hotel itself. The hotel has been a Clarion and a Ramada. It sat closed and vacant for 2 years until Crowne Plaza bought it and re-opened it last year. CP has obviously invested considerable money in the renovation and there are many nice touches (more on them in a minute). Short of an outright demolition, however, there is no way to disguise the hotel's poor-cousin history. The ceilings are low, the hallways are dark, and the tower building is attached to an old-Florida-style, two-story building with outside entrances. Those rooms, the "cabana" rooms, front the small and very unimpressive pool. The small parking lot out front is well-paved and always full. The side and back parking lots are not well-paved and are full of potholes. They clearly have not yet been updated.

The entire hotel has been painted white. While I'm sure a clean-looking "glistening white" was the goal, the goal was not accomplished. Next go-around, I would strongly recommend several coats of a high-quality cream or tan paint with glossy black trim.

Is there anything I LIKED? Actually, yes. Quite a lot. The hotel has adopted a stylish and modern design in hues of grey, black, and silver. It's soothing and quite handsome. The lobby is attractive, if compact, and has a small, trendy bar. The staff is cheerful and helpful. The rooms have an electric window shade to dim the bright sun. The bed linens are lovely but the bed itself I found a little lumpy and not firm enough. The rooms have a number of conveniences. Some of the lamps turn on when you touch the lamp base. The room featured a large flat-screen TV. The bath amenities (lotion, shampoo, conditioner) were high-quality and pleasant. There was a comfy square armchair that faced a functional square table that could be pulled closer to work on. There was also a traditional desk on which to work.

Because the hotel has noise problems (you hear the water in the walls and the neighbors if they're noisy), the hotel gives each guest a pretty drawstring package that contains ear plugs, an eyemask and a small bottle of lavender-scented linen spray, all designed to make falling asleep more pleasant.

The wake-up call system is automated and excellent. If you need to get up at the same hour for several days, there is no need to make a daily call to request a wake-up call. The system allows you the option of requesting the same wake-up call every successive day until cancelled. That's a time-saver and prevents the business disaster when you forget to make the call the 4th night you're there!

On Tuesday evenings, management offers a complimentary Manager's Reception with wine and beer, cheese and crackers, and small hors d'oeuvres. In nice weather, it's held on the patio near the pool.

My room rate included the full breakfast buffet. This was fabulously convenient, as the wait staff were swift in bringing me orange juice and coffee (including for my travel mug when I was leaving) and the buffet offered options for most tastes: scrambled eggs, sausage, and bacon strips; fresh fruit salad with pineapple, cantaloupe, strawberries, and grapes; muffins, biscuits, bagels; cereals; yogurt. One day, the buffet included homemade biscuits and sausage gravy. Another day it included French toast and syrup. The buffet really started my day off right.

Downtown and the Westshore area are connected by a road called Kennedy. Taking it allows you to avoid the confusing and crowded interstates. During rush-hour, count on a 25 minute trip one-way.

Not your cookie-cutter hotel. Far from perfect. But oddly likeable. They're working very hard on improving everything and at offering excellent customer service. They're likely to succeed.