Holiday Inn Express & Suites Tampa -Usf-Busch Gardens

Nice Holiday Inn Express.
I liked the renovations and for this price point of a hotel this is a nice hotel and fair deal.
I am staying here for travel as it is a short drive from numerous places in Downtown Tampa as well as the hotel.
The hotel (being recently renovated) had a newer feel to it which was nice for this chain from IHG.
I would stay here again and recommend it to those staying in Tampa.
The only negative was the numerous wifi internet options… Internet was horrible. Almost every option wouldn’t work for long after you log in. This made working impossible.

Friendly staff. Only reason I’m giving them a 3 star is because of all the renovation. Bed was a little stiff but all in all not a bad place to stay. You are close to a lot of resteraunts and and of course you have Busch Gardens nearby too. Would be my choice of places to stay after renovations are complete.

I stayed in this hotel Halloween weekend. Check in was acceptable and the staff was friendly. The room was located where we requested and appeared clean, but that turned out not to be the case. The hotel did offer free wifi, breakfast (which wasn’t very good) and shuttle to Busch Gardens, which was a plus. However, the rest of the experience at this hotel was awful. The courtesy van interior was in horrible condition, the bed was uncomfortable and after we arrived home, my wife found bed bug bites all over (and we had to «cleanse» our bedroom and bedding), the heater/​AC was noisy and made the room very humid, the remote batteries were all but dead, we ran out of toilet paper, and the kicker… the hotel was robbed (it’s not in a good area of Tampa) and the place was full of police when we returned from Busch Gardens.
Ironically, I received a critique request via email from Hilton the day after I arrived home, which I gladly completed with all the information above and was contacted by email the next day by a manager. She compensated me one of my two night stay (though I feel I deserved all my money back), but failed to make any mention of the robbery and refuted the claim of the bed bugs in our room (though my wife is covered in bites) and tried to blame it on another hotel (which was significantly better quality) we stayed at.
I then received an email from Hilton stating they’d rejected my critique because I mentioned another hotel in my feedback. I in fact only mentioned another hotel via email to the manager, not to Hilton in my formal critique. When I challenged their denial of my critique, I was then told that Hilton handles «safety and security» issues directly with the customer rather than posting it on their website… an obvious attempt to cover up the major issues with this hotel. I again challenged this «policy» decision, they repeated the same «policy»
Therefore, I had no option but to share my feedback on TripAdvisor (and any other travel websites I can find) to share the facts about this hotel with future travelers to Tampa and Busch Gardens.

Please be advised if you make a reservation at this hotel and need to cancel it 5 days later and 1 month before you planned to stay there you will NOT be refunded your money. They call it a «deposit» and it is non-​refundable. I have stayed at many Holiday Inn Express Hotels and have never heard of this before. I believe the website is deceiving. They will not refund my money and I am very upset about it. Do not plan to stay at Holiday Inn Expresses any more.

Wasn’t bad. Stayed there just for one night… Couple minor issues… Could never get wifi to work, it could’ve been us, but we had never had that problem before… We stepped out to vending machines and came back and my key didn’t work… Went to front desk and they said the card had been demagnetized??? But he gave me a new one and it was fine. But beds were comfortable, overall nice people, and I would probably stay there again.

I am happy to give this a nice rebound of an update. I stayed her in mid April over Spring Break.
I will keep it short, sweet and right to the point. The room was almost perfect, they forgot the trio of shampoo, conditioner and lotion. Everything from the front end, to housekeeping, to the breakfast was greatly improved. The manager was involved not only at the front desk on check-​in, but also at breakfast clearing tables. The common areas were clean.
I am very happy that I elected to give them a try again because the location is really terrific if your doing Busch Gardens.

This past weekend, my boyfriend and I came to Tampa from Naples to go to Busch Gardens for the weekend. Of course, we went online and just found a cheap hotel since we weren’t going to be spending much time there anyway. Without putting much thought into it, we decided to do the Travelodge next door and booked online. We were mortified at the condition. I was afraid we would literally catch something in that room. As if the horrid décor wasn’t insulting enough, the entire room smelled of urine and god knows what else… We had to get out of there, so we stopped by a restaurant within walking distance. On our walk back we passed the Holiday Inn next door and pretty much sprinted inside. We were greeted by an OUTSTANDING employee named Lesly. He accommodated us, getting us into a room at 10:00 at night which we were not counting on, thus we were so pleasantly surprised. We couldn’t run and throw our belongings into the car fast enough from Travelodge. NEVER EVEN THINK ABOUT STAYING THERE!!! Awful. High tailed it over to Holiday Inn and immediately felt relieved upon walking in the front door. This weekend could have been AWFUL, but Lesly to the rescue! He and two other employees specifically made it special for us! Nakira also saved us by kindly printing our tickets that we forgot for Busch Gardens and gave us instructions and tips for the park. Thank you! And also Rolando, our shuttle driver!!! Holiday Inn provides maps of Busch Gardens and Adventure Island, AND a free shuttle service to and from both parks. TIP YOUR DRIVER! You made our trip, Rolando! He was personable, funny, informative, and down to earth. Very, very friendly, yet professional. He even posed for a picture with us! Ha. These employees and the clean, relaxing atmosphere of this hotel have us convinced that we will not be staying anywhere else in Tampa on our next visit (as we bought season passes for Busch Gardens). We will be remaining loyal to this hotel. Thank you again everyone for your help, your advice, and making our weekend!!! Rather than the roller coasters, we were talking to friends and family about these people :)
Excellent. 5 stars for all 3 of them and this hotel.

To Brenda from Holiday Inn support… I already submitted a very detailed email to your corporate office and followed up twice with it. All 3 times I got a pre-​written canned response letter which did not even make a legitimate attempt to make good on this. If you really want to try and make up for this, you can EASILY look up the incident yourself, but we both know your response is nothing more than bs in an attempt to make your company appear to care about their customers.
For the record the charges that Holiday Inn attempted to effectively steal from us were reversed by our credit card company. We should not have even had to involve them to prevent outright theft from Holiday Inn, but we were forced to. That just sealed the deal against ALL Holiday Inn stays for our entire company forever. I hope you guys learn to treat your future customers better and realize WHEN YOU FAIL TO PROVIDE WHAT YOU ADVERTISE, IT IS YOU ARE WHO IN THE WRONG.
You have now lost a nice chunk of revenue due to being banned from anyone at our company patronizing any Holiday Inn.

This hotel was not too great. I didn’t like the fact that the price was way too high just for 1 night. It was $ 144 especially on a Monday night was rediculous. The jacuzzi in the room was not that great either. The toilet in the bathroom was so close to the bath tub, it was literally almost stuck to the tub. Which was odd and made no sense to me. The bathroom sink faucet water runs too slow which was also hard to even use. The TV was so small. For the price that they charge was horrible. For that price, I was expecting the rooms to be nice, great, and comfortable. Furnishings looked very cheap. The building is pretty old as well. The front desk people was very nice, but over all I would not come back here.

Hotel was nice and clean. We were able to check-​in early in the morning to be able to park our car to head over to the parks without concern for having to pay for parking. Sam, The shuttle driver from the hotel to/​from Busch Gardens was extremely courteous and friendly!

Sometimes the best moments in life are those that are unplanned. Being the spontaneous adventure seeker that I am. I thought let’s go to Busch Gardens and Adventure Island water park.
Found this hotel for a good price on expedia and booked it. I really cannot say enough good things about it. It is located right across the street from Busch Gardens.
This hotel is amazing. I have to say that the service from the staff here is that of a 5 star hotel. The AGM Shaunda really made us feel like we were in her home. The staff at the complimentary breakfast were exceptional.
Mary is the type of employee that HIE should be proud to have. Her kindness and willingness to go above and beyond is heartwarming.
Now the rooms. Perfect. Beds are super comfortable. Pillows are amazing. After long days in the area attractions we were eager to shower and relax in the room.
Definitely will be returning to this hotel when visiting the Tampa attractions.
Oh and they have a complimentary shuttle that will take you to and from the parks.

Is a beautiful hotel! Quiet, large, clean rooms. Excellent service. It was a wonderful experience

Room was clean, quiet and the bed was comfortable and free of bed bugs! The maid service was also top notch. I left an iPod in the bed (accidentally) and it was left exactly where it’d been found.
The internet was slow but we were still able to get what we needed to do done.
We didn’t have breakfast or use the pool so I have no comment on those amenities.
For under a $ 100 a night this location is a good bet. It’s close to most of the attractions (across from Busch Gardens) and easy to locate.

Good breakfast, good rooms! Near Busch Gardens! Yay!

This location is due for an update and the time of my visit the water in the entire Tampa area was off. This made it so uncomfy to use the ice machines, order drinks, etc. However, the hotel did offer bottles of water upon request.
*Note: This is extremely near the university, thank goodness we reserved ahead of time as most of the rooms were occupied due to an overflow of the nearby use from the university.

Rooms were nice and clean, but don’t expect to lay in a tub of hot water if your back is sore. Free breakfast was mediocre, after the first day we decided to eat out. Staff is friendly and accomodating.

This hotel, which is literally 0.5 miles from the entrance theme park (5 min drive) was built about 3 years ago. This block is filled with some shitty motels and hotels. I overheard a few guests at the park exit waiting for their shuttle vans that they should have paid the extra $ 20 to stay here instead of the Holiday Inn & Suites further North.
The staff are friendly and helpful and the shuttle driver is an enthusiastic guy. Hotel is modern and clean. Mini-​fridge, coffee maker, microwave, hair-​dryer, et. al. all standard amenities. Definitely stay here if u want to be able to get to park as fast as possible and get back as fast as possible.
Cons (only b & c really bothered me):
a) NO A/​C in the hallways on floors 2 – 4.
b) NO safe in rooms.
c) Bed is soft and sinks a bit when u first go on it. (*Subjective)
d) Pool is small (3ft on one end to 5 ft on the other & becomes crowded if more than a half dozen people in it). But the worst part is that the fence separating the next property belonging to a Days Inn, ends about 100 feet from the street. I saw 5 teenagers who were staying there walk over and use the pool, WTF?
e) Breakfast sucks if arriving late (after 8:30am)

For a Holiday Inn it was great. They Picked us up from port after our cruise with out even having a reservation. We got there before check in and held our bags while we were at Busch Gardens. We had a room with a king size bed. It was very roomy and clean. They have a free shuttle to and from Busch Gardens. The next day we needed to get to the airport and the shuttle took us to there for $ 20 that is way cheaper then a taxi. if we ever go to Busch Gardens again this is the place i will be staying.

Pros: friendly and helpful staff, decent room, relatively quiet
Cons: dubious neighborhood, bad (and very unhealthy) breakfast, very slow Internet

We stayed for a few days. The double queen room was very roomy — there was space for all of our luggage 4 carry-​ons, a small refrigerator, sink, cabinets and microwave. The breakfast was delicious — much more than the dull continental breakfast most hotels serve. We had some sort of eggs and meat every day, along with oatmeal, rolls, toast, yogurt, milk, juice, and coffee. At least those were the things that my family had — there could have been more!