We just got back from a stay at the Best Western Sea Wake. I booked the hotel based on customer reviews and ratings from Tripadvosor.

I was happy with the location as this hotel is located on a small beach facing the inlet. The Gulfview rooms views were awsome. however, If you have a cityview room, you will be dissappointed.

The Gulfview rooms face south so you get the bay, inlet and ocean water view as well as the sunrise and sunset. The cityview room view gets a noisy street and parking lot view, Also, the gulfview rooms get a USAToday newspaper delivered to their door each morning, the cityview rooms, no newspaper. I felt like I was a second class guest as I had a city view room.
When I complained about the newspaper, the manager did explain that there were not enough newspapers for every room, He resolved the issue by putting me on the list to recieve the paper. Other service requests were also resolved promptly.

The pool was warm, however, the beach was not really suitable for swimming as there were alot of rocks and other debris in the water. A better choice for a beach swim would be about a 10 minute walk to the main beach or a 2 minute car ride to the main beach or cross over the bridge to beautiful Sand Key State Park Beach. However, It does cost about $1.50 per hour tp park!

There were several good resterunts within walking distance. An italian resturaunt across the street offeres a good breakfast, luch and dinner selection. Ihop was located next door. Shepards, two hotels down offered an extensive buffet for all three meals. and johnny's fish house located at the Gulfview hotel was excellent. Pier 60 is worh a visit around sunset as the children would enjoy the park and street performers and the adults can take in the sunset and shop the street vendors.

Overall I really liked this hotel, staff and location. I would visit there again. However, I did have one major complaint which I will share. When I booked there were only city view rooms available. I paid $159.00 per night for our three night stay. When I arrived on Monday, I asked if there were any gulfview rooms available. I was told no. I then said that I would switch even for just one night if there was anything. The desk clerk said that all the gulfview rooms were booked for my three nights. The next morning I checked again to see if maybe there was a cancellation, again, no luck. About an hour later, friends of ours came to visit us from Tampa and decided that they wanted to stay the night. I advised them that the hotel was booked. My friends said that all hotels save room for "walk-in's. They walked up to the desk and to my astonoshment, they booked a GULFVIEW room for $109.00 per night! Then another couple walked in and booked a gulfroom view as well for $129.00/ night. When I approched the hotel clerk about my requst an hour earlier, she responded sorry, there was nothing available at the time. Anyway, I guess the point is that they already had my $159.00/night committed to a cityview room so my give me a cheaper gulfview room when they know they'll rent it to a walk-in. My advice, negotiate your room price in advance because the "squeaky wheel gets the oil".

One last note, the hotel is was sold to a developer and is scheduled to close December 31, 2007 to make room for a condominium. However, the hotel manager said that the hotel was suppose to close three times previously but has not due to poor pre construction sales.