The J Hotel Dunedin near Honeymoon Island State Park, an Ascend Collection Hotel

The location is convenient, and the hotel is new. There’s a car charger too, though you have to pay to use it. But our stay was frustrating from the start. We’d driven three hours and arrived at 2:27 on Sunday, hoping to nap while the car charged before a Mother’s Day family get-together. The receptionist, G. R., said check-in was at 3, so we waited in the lobby without making a fuss. At 2:55 she told us the room was ready. It turned out to be the door we’d been staring at the whole time. Nobody had gone in, and it had apparently been ready all along. We tried to give the employee the benefit of the doubt and went up for a nap. At checkout the next morning, I asked the manager whether guests could ever check in a few minutes early. She had the same unwelcoming manner and said they had a strict policy: if they let one person in early, they’d have to do it for everyone. She added that the other side of the hotel was full of baseball players, even though the place looked empty. We hadn’t seen anyone check in or out while we sat there, and felt like an inconvenience. We drive to Pinellas weekly and sometimes arrive 30 minutes early, sometimes four hours late. Other, nicer hotels have never made us sit around when a room was already available. What happened to hospitality? The road into the complex is awkward too, and you have to pass it and make a U-turn. There’s no breakfast, just snacks, and the employees seemed like they hated their jobs.

I was really disappointed by how reservation changes were handled. I called to shorten a Saturday-to-Wednesday stay to Saturday-to-Monday, but they wouldn’t keep the rates I’d booked for those nights. They said the entire reservation had to be repriced, even though there was no minimum stay requirement. I was told this was an Ascend Collection policy, and I’ve never run into that at another hotel. The hotel also looked mostly empty, but we still couldn’t check in early. Keep in mind that changing a booking may mean the whole stay gets repriced. The policy felt frustrating and unfriendly to customers.

The staff were amazing, and the property was clean and well kept. We had a big room, and some rooms have balconies. The location by Honeymoon Beach is great. I’m giving it four stars because the pool shuts at sunset, and although there’s plenty of parking, it can be hard to get into a space. There were also a few new-build issues: the sliding glass door opened by itself, the bathroom door wouldn’t latch, and the heavy metal doors slammed.

My boyfriend and I just needed somewhere to sleep during our anniversary in Dunedin, and they accommodated both a late check-in and a late checkout. The staff were super friendly, and the brand-new hotel was beautiful. Our room was huge and very clean, with a large shower and great water pressure. The bathroom door wouldn’t shut all the way, but otherwise everything was amazing.