Howard Johnson Plaza

Needs Improvement

The hotel needs many improvements and it is very old. The sink in the bathroom was clogged and they were not able to fix it. Amenities are non existent, the only advantage of this hotel is the location. Also they charge a parking fee, which was not advertised.

Needs improvement...

The desk clerks were not the most hospitable people. They appeared to be inconvenienced when I asked questions. One even growled at my daughter. I requested a nonsmoking floor and although I was told it was, it wasn't. Which made it very difficult to sleep at night due to the permeation of smoke into our room. I informed the desk clerk about the smoking and she said she would send someone up; she never did. I also informed her that I would be making a complaint regarding the smoking she said ok. No apology nothing! The menu was limited and the service although friendly and informative was slow. ( Not a big deal). My daughter is a freshmen at UT and uses the shuttle to and from the school. of which she says is usually running late and being only two shuttles they are jammed packed with students, that is if she can even get on. I believe they should work out a better plan with the school to ensure the safety of these students. The location was good close fairly close to the campus, the airport, multiple restaurants and stores. I feel the price was fair. I may have felt differently if it wasn't for the heavy smell of cigarette smoke. The maid service was good. They were both friendly and helpful.

Waste of an Outstanding Location..

We stayed here last weekend..The location was perfect for us seeing a show at TBPAC which is in the same parking lot..so for location I give the hotel a 10..I just cannot believe they spent all that money to redo the lobby and the rest of the hotel is a dump..The elevators were SO shaky and only 1 of the 3 worked..The halls were like old dorm rooms..no pictures..dirty carpet..NO appeal..just cement walls..Neither Room key worked..went down 3 times..finally got into a foul smelling, musty room..The decor was nice...the bathroom was disgusting..only 1 towel..the tub/shower did not work and was covered in scum with cracks everywhere..There were opened ketchup packets by the air conditioner and other garbage by the window..the tv did not have any batteries in the remote and the sound did not work..the kicker was in the room is a big sign saying join us for our complimentary breakfast!! so we did.. it was cheap..some bagels..yogurt..the usual..they did have a hot egg and sausage bin..nothing special..after we got our plate I saw the table next to us getting a check..so we called the waitress overto find out what for..she told us that our hotel does not participate in the free breakfast and it was 10.95 pp..for a smalol table of crappy food...what a rip off!! I would only reccomend this hotel for ppl seeing a show at the TBPAC bc the convenience was so worth it even though the hotel was a dump it was ok for just 1 night.

Needs Improvement and Cleanliness"

We stayed in this hotel with a disgusted feeling! 1. Pillow case was not clean, there was a stain in 3 of 6 pillows we have, and there was an obnoxious smell as well in the said 3 pillows. 2. While I was seated in the toilet, there was a leak coming out in the ceiling with a stinky odor. 3. The wireless internet was not working at all. We brought our laptop, ipod and PSP for nothing. We can't go online. I even talked to front dest coordinator for nothing. 4. Parking is $8.00 per night, that should have been waived for customers since the parking lot is not guarded at night. 5. The fitness center should not be called a fitness center when there are only 2 treadmills. 6. I developed a flu like symptoms after 2 nights stay. I am not attributing this entirely but there should have been a better way to clean the room that we stayed in.

Guest did not leave a comment.

Surprise Fees

We stayed at this hotel specifically as it was close to the St. Pete Times Forum which where we attending a concert. The hotel itself has very pretty decor, it is very clean and comfortable However, beware there is an $8.00 surprise fee just to park in the hotel parking lot and not on the street! However, we thought this would be made up for with their "complimentary shuttle" to the concert. Unfortunately, the shuttle never appeared at the hotel - and with approximately 10 people waiting - 15 minutes to go until showtime - we had to fend for ourselves and jump in a cab!

overnight stay

Hotel location was great cleanliness of room was not great,staff was friendly and helpful. Overall if you are looking for a place to just sleep with a good location. If you have to spend alot of time in your room you might want to look elsewhere.

Elevator of Terror... Not recommended at all!!!

We stayed over the night of November 17, 2008, since this hotel offered the convenience of walking over to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and we had tickets to see the Phantom of the Opera playing that night... I should have believed all the bad reviews this hotel had from the very beginning. To begin with, I had reserved a non-smoking, king size bedroom and it was not available to us even though check-in is at 3 PM and we arrived at 4:15 PM giving them plenty of time to have this type of room available at this time. I mention the Elevator of Terror because as we went up or down the elevator, it made this horrible noise like if we were inside a haunted house ride and we felt as if we were going to fall down with it. Second, the door to our room was extremely difficult to open and we had to play around with the lock, call over two housemaids to help us determine how to open the door, and then kick it at the same time to make it open. That was about ten minutes worth of playing with the door handle and key. What a mission it was!!! Third, the hotel corridor to our room was extremely run down, the walls were very poorly painted and the door handles had paint all over. It smelled old and musty. It did not look very appealing to us at all and for the price we could have stayed at a lower rate hotel nearby. Fourth, the bathroom door lock was not working properly either and would not close fully. We froze after coming out of a hot bath. Fifth, the rooms do not have a dark shade curtain, only the light flimsy one which lets light through as soon as the sun comes out in the morning. We were up by 7 AM and we could not wait to get out of there soon enough. We did not even have the breakfast there, we wanted to run out of there as soon as possible. Please, if you can afford to go someplace else, please do so. Believe all the reviews you see here, they're all true!!!

Not Worth It!

The Howard Johnson's in downtown Tampa was not very comfortable as it is because there was no room service or gift shop or "real" snack shop. The shower was disgusting and the shower head mechanism was haning out of the wall. I will never stay there again.

Would not stay there again

My husband and I stayed there on our wedding night before we left for our cruise. They picked us up from the airport at no charge however the shuttle person did not state one word to us. We checked in pretty quickly with no problems. When we got to our first room it was unclean and there was a roach running around. We immediately went down to the front desk, we would have left but it was prepaid for and late in the evening and a new city for us. They changed our room but then when we went for a shower brown water came pouring out of the facets for about 5 minutes. Again, this happened about 2 in the morning so once the water turned clear we showered quickly and went to bed. The next morning we went down for breakfast. The hotel did not offer a free continental breakfast but a buffet for around $12 bucks a person. Lets just say I would have rather waited till lunch to eat on the boat as the food was horrible. The one plus for the hotel was the free shuttle from the airport and to the port. They also took us to Walgreen's to purchase items needed for the cruise. I am said to say our honeymoon night was not the best or what I thought it would have been in the hotel but we did survive.

Prefer not to stay at this hotel again

it was the only one nearby where I had to go that accepted pets... But the hotel staff were very rude, at one point I wanted a cab to go to my convention; the hotel lady refused to call one for me. I had to call 411, and get a local cab company and call them myself... then, one evening getting back to the hotel at around 3am, I was notified that the elevators were broken, and I had to go up 8 flights of stairs to the room. Then the soda machine was broken. But they were nice, and sent someone up with some sodas... OVerall the hotel was OK, nothing to write home about; the room clean and beds comfortable.

Needs Improvement

We picked this hotel because of the "free" shuttle from the airport and to the Tampa Port for our cruise. However, after spending more than one hour waiting at the airport for them to pick us up (and after three phone calls asking where they were), we were informed that they "had forgotten to pick us up". We had to pay a cab to take us 10 minutes to the hotel. We received an apology, but that was it. I would have expected them to reimburse our cab fare, but they didnt offer. The room didnt have any type of directory, so you didnt know what was included, such as a pool, restaurant, etc. It was clean, but completely outdated. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone.

Far away not nice

whe choose this hotel because they say they are near bush gardens, is not near is a pain in the neck just to try to get out of there, you need to pay for parking 8 dollars per nigth the room was dark not enough ligths somo of the people in others rooms where very loud nobody say anything to this people.

Stay Away!! I'd rather pitch a tent under the bridge.

This was the sorriest excuse for a hotel. First off finding the place is a pain but it is manageable. They know it's hard to find so the info ought to be in the email. When I checked in the first thing I got slammed with was the $8.00 per night to park my car on the hotel property. This is B.S. and I complained because there wasn't any disclosure before hand. For the extra money I would have stayed at the Marriot or Hampton Inn which were closer to where I wanted to visit. They were renting parking spaces for the nearby Arts Center at $5. The desk clerk said the price difference was because my car would be there the whole night like it somehow costs them extra money to let me park at the hotel I'm staying at. The room was 3rd floor overlooking a puddle of standing water on the roof below. The bathroom was small with poor design and counter space. The counter was so small my wife's stuff rolled right into the toilet. Then there was the leaky air conditioner spilling water onto the moldy carpet. There wasn't any dial up internet as advertised. It was wireless with very poor connectivity. Basically I had to be in one corner of the room for it to work. They had one access point for the entire hotel. The restaurant is hopelessly overpriced for the quality of food. It's your only choice because the hotel is downtown and fast food just isn't happening if you're not a local and don't know where to look. I will say hoping they read this that Julio our water is the most professional employee in the entire hotel. He, unlike the rest of the staff, actually did his job and cares. My whole reason for staying at this hotel was the name (which I now know is only a shadow of its former glory) and the advertised distance to Ybor City which is a local attraction. The info says 1.5 miles which is B.S. That was at least 3 miles. They must be using the as-the-crow-flies version of mapquest. All in all the place was not worth the money. The ONLY upside is that the