TAHITIAN INN
Tahitian Inn is located in Tampa and we stayed here for a pre-cruise stay. It's in a great location and within walking distance to several food establishments and a drug store if you do not have transportation.
Located just minutes from International Plaza and Westshore Mall, Tampa International Airport, Port of Tampa cruise terminals, downtown, Raymond James Stadium, and beautiful Bayshore Boulevard.
The hotel is considered a boutique and spa hotel with a restaurant located on site.
Hotel Lobby
Hotel Grounds
Entrance
Hotel Lobby Entrance
Hotel Grounds
My personal thoughts: While the hotel has been remodeled and is done nicely in
vibrant colors, it does "look" like an older hotel.
If you are assigned to a room that is not in the main building, there are a few things
you need to know. In order to get to your room, you will have two options:
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Go outside to the parking lot and pull all of your luggage and items up the 2 flights off stairs from the outside to get to your room.
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Take the elevators, located at the reception desk up to the second floor and wind around the foyer and down the hall. Then you will come to a set of stairs that you will have to drag your luggage down (and back up when it's time to leave).
We opted for #2 because there were only 6 steps to go down and up...which is a lot
better/easier than a flight of stairs.
You will exit a door that leads to the outside and you will be on the 2nd floor outside
hallway that leads to the other rooms located along that building, which runs along
the parking lot and pool area.
Each of its 80 recently renovated rooms and suites are designed with the discerning traveler in mind. Plush white bedding, plantation shutters, porcelain tile flooring, soothing color schemes and dark wood furnishings evoke island life, while enhanced amenities and technology offer guests the convenience and unparalleled comfort they expect from an upscale boutique hotel.
My thoughts on the room:
They are spaceous and nice. However, there are a few downfalls to the room:
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If you want to use your laptop at the provided desk, there isn't a place to plug it in. The only place with a plug is used up by the lamp and the t.v.
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We had an issue with our shower. It took a good 5 minutes to get it to come on. It said to "pull" the handle, but it didn't move at all in a "pull" direction. The handle felt like it was going to break and did a lot of clicking when trying to turn it. It was almost like it was froze up. Then once the shower started, there was hardly any pressure at all. There were 4 small holes and that was all you had for water.
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I went to use a cup for brushing my teeth that night and noticed that the wrapping was removed from two of the cups. While the cups didn't look like they had been used, it's obvious that someone prior to our stay there had taken the wrapping off and put it back with the cups. This should have been thrown away and fresh cups supplied.
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They do have an on-site restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, which can be an added plus if you don't feel like going out or don't have a car.
You can chose to sit inside or do outside dining. We decided to sit outside to enjoy to ambience of the nicely decorated koi pond and waterfall.
Tiki Joe's, a fresh new evening lounge bar and dining concept is the Tahitian's night-time restaurant. Tiki Joe's features a laid-back sophisticated atmosphere with an option of outdoor seating near a beautifully landscaped Koi Pond. The menu, an abbreviation of Tahitian Cafe favorites, plus featured nightly specials for dinner, is available Wednesday through Saturday until 10pm.
Hours:
Monday and Tuesday: 6am to 9pm
Wednesday-Friday: 6am to 10pm
Saturday: 7am to 10pm
Sunday: 7am to 3pm
The waitress there was super nice and friendly and she even let our daughter have a few cups of fish food to feed the Koi Fish. Our daughter had a blast and once she was done, she told the waitress that the fish were still hungry and she went and got more.
The service was excellent however, the food not so much...at least for me. My husband and daughter enjoyed their meal, but I had ordered an Italain sausage sandwich and when it came, the bottom piece of bread was so hard that it couldn't even be cut with a knife. Once I told the waitress, she brought out another piece of bread for me to substitute it with. I can say that I tried the homemade potatoe chips and they were FABULOUS!
A few pictures of the grounds around the hotel. They are nicely landscaped.
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The pool is located bascially in front of the "outside" portion of the hotel and kind of alongside the parking lot.
It is nicely landscaped with a heated pool and little tiki huts to sit under. The bar is located on the end and also serves food there. It is called "The Torch".
The "negative" thing about this pool bar is that I had read several "complaints" on Trip Advisor that this place allows the locals to visit and use the pool and bar area at any time. There were complaints of loud "partying" during the wee hours of the night. We went with speculation and hoping for the best.
It was a bit of a cooler night and was raining off and on during the day and night. I think this kept the "locals" away for the most part. However, the reports of partying all night were definitely correct. At the time of check-in, we were told that the bar closed at 10pm and the pool closed at 11pm. There were people partying at the bar all day long and by 1am, they were still going strong. They were VERY LOUD and obnoxious. We could not sleep at all. We witnessed people yelling in the parking lot, people drunk and getting in cars, and people pulling into handicapped areas to jump out and go to the bar. Finally after 1am, I decided to call the front desk to complain about the "time they had told me the bar closes" and the staff acted as if I was not the first person to call to complain. They said they would contact the bartender and have them shut it down. Within 20 minutes, you could hear everyone loudly getting in their cars and leaving and then all was good. I only wished that I had called hours before that to complain.
The hotel does provide shuttle service to the cruise port for free, but you have to sign up for a time slot upon your arrival. They have a van with a trailer attached to it for your luggage.
My FINAL THOUGHTS:
We are fairly easy to please and when coming in the night before a cruise, we are usually just looking for the basics which include a clean room and linens, a good price, a good location, close to restaurants (or one on the premises) and a store within walking distance to get supplies for the cruise and of course a good functioning shower along with peace and quiet during the night.
I believe that our particular room issues with the shower is probably isolated from the other rooms and just needs fixed. The rooms are just what we expected and suited our needs.
The cleaniness of the rooms were good with the exception of the dirty/possibly used cups in the room. I believe the cleaning staff needs to pay better attention to this and is unexcusible.
The mix up with the reservations and them claiming they did NOT have any records of my booking was unexcusible as well. What would have happened if they did not have any rooms left? I have done some research and found that I am not the only one this has happened to with booking this place using an online agency.
The staff at the front desk I found to not really be "rude", but they weren't "friendly" either. Out of all the years of traveling, I have never checked out of a hotel and NOT had them ask "How was your stay?" The lady at the front desk never once said a word to me about our stay or anything. Not even a "Thank you, come again". Nothing!
The partying and pool issues. If they are going to allow the locals to use the pool and bar there, they need to at least FORCE the time rules. Had this been a nice sunny day and we had wanted to use the pool, I can only imagine what it would have been like with the whole neighborhood there. In my opinion, if you want to cater to people on vacation, cruisers and so on, you need to limit your premises to just that. If you want to cater to the people partying in the neighborhood, maybe you shouldn't be running a hotel because the people staying in the hotel are actually the ones that are providing a big portion of your income.
This hotel was a pet-friendly and smoke-friendly hotel. While that could be a nice ammenity for those with pet owners or smokers (which I don't mind either of these), I find it odd that they allow the pets inside the restaurant. For sanitary reasons, it just struck me as odd that dogs were in the restaurant while I was eating. Smoking ashtrays were located in the outside restaurant and also outside the doors to the hotel for use (no smoking inside rooms).
All-in-all, I would NOT go back to this hotel nor would I recommend it to others based on my experience.