Suburban Extended Stay Hotel Clearwater

Friends visiting from out of town picked this place because it's close to my home. It wasn't awful. Give a few things more attention and it'd be a damn good hotel.

We checked in at 6 p.m. and were gone by 4 a.m. This was easily the worst room I've stayed in. It reeked of smoke and another unpleasant smell, and the beds felt so uncomfortable and flimsy I worried they'd break no matter how I sat or lay on them. People were smoking and making a lot of noise outside late at night, with groups of three or more gathered right by my door as I came and went. The staff member checking us in was helpful, and said they were fully booked, with only two rooms available: one on the ground floor on one side, or one on the third floor or opposite side. Not ideal, but not terrible. I wish we'd checked the reviews and rooms more carefully before booking online.

Prices are fair, but the staff could be more polite. Most residents aren't exactly neighbors of the year, either. Good luck getting a weekly room soon: they'll tell you nothing is available for 6-8 weeks. For an extended stay place, they have more nightly rooms than weekly ones. I wonder if corporate even knows whether that's on the up and up.

The staff were sweet and friendly, and they tried to help. They offered flexible payment options and let us switch rooms after the first one wasn't working for us. Still, we canceled the last few weeks of our reservation and moved elsewhere. My girlfriend and I had been staying here while waiting for our condo in St. Pete, but we felt uneasy, especially with electronics and other things we planned to move there. We were swayed by the mediocre to positive online reviews, but the rate wasn't enough to make up for it. We found better options for a similar price. People lingered outside silently late at night, groups sat smoking on the stairs when we were trying to get to work, and we'd have to pass through thick clouds of smoke or take less convenient stairs to reach the car. We also often saw people right outside our door late at night for no clear reason. The room had a strong, strange smell that got into our clothes even when we weren't there. The shower dripped some kind of brown ooze, which I had to scrub out of the tub every morning. The area wasn't great either, with strip clubs and “gentleman’s lounges” nearby. Coming from the east meant making a U-turn at a very slow light, which got frustrating, though I know that's not the hotel's fault. My best advice is to stay somewhere else.