My girlfriend and I had to be very thrifty in terms of a good hotel due to what happen to my car. So we were looking around via Priceline.com and we came across this place. It looked very good from the pictures and we decided to give it a try.

We were very impressed with the quality of the hotel. The staff was very friendly and helpful, the restaurant was great, and we were even a small distance from tropicana field!

This is a hotel for a thrifty traveler in Florida, you get a 5-star hotel for a 1-star price. I'm most impressed and we're thinking about coming back in the future!

My husband and I had to make a sudden trip to Fl. because his mother is declining in health and was entering Hospice. At this time we are very unsure of how long we will be here, it is a day to day process. We had to move from one hotel to the next due to the change from Nursing home to Hospice and were referred to the Magnuson by his sister who lives near by. She recommended the hotel because it is close to her condo and she thought they may offer a discount for Condo residents. She called the hotel and spoke to Kelly, a very nice gentleman,who helped us.

He was able to secure a room for us at a discount. He assured us to take our time and arrive when we could that he had left our name at the desk. When we arrived the desk did indeed know my husbands name and gave us the discount, although we still paid more than the man checking in before us. Oh well. Who knows the circumstances. We explained that we do not know how long we will be there and the girl was nice enough.

The room is OK. My husband was a bit put off by the hotel because he felt it was over priced for the type of place it is,I think it was just the $580+ of unexpected expense for 4 nights. I don't know if I understand better than him being that I grew up in San Diego and know how expensive even motels are if they are on the Bay or the beach....but I told him it was priced fine for where it is. We get beautiful sunsets and sunrises, which are a welcome sight after the days we are experiencing! There is nothing better than to see Gods beautiful scenery every morning when you have to face the loss of a loved one.
But I am getting off subject..... the hotel is fine. We have eaten at the Periscope restaurant twice and the food was pretty good. It was empty both times and the wait staff was OK. I wish there were some way to explain that we are not on vacation so that they stop asking us how our vacation is.....but again, that is off subject because they don't know and in other circumstances it would be very friendly of them!! So I think I am going to call that a plus!!

The wifi doesn't work that well ,very, very, slow. But I use the wifi at the Hospice everyday so I am not too worried about it.
Housekeeping seems good and sweet! I have a stuffed lamb that was sitting on the bed ( yeah...STUFFED lamb...don't judge!) yesterday when we came back housekeeping had made the bed and set my lamb up on the pillows so it was the first thing I noticed when I came around the corner into the room.

SO...is it fancy? NO. Is it clean? YES! Are they KIND? YES! This is a very difficult time for us and having somewhere to come back to at the end of the day is a comfort. For that we are grateful!!

Be back after we leave!

So I just returned home from my first trip to St. Petersburg, and boy I wish I would have known what I know now... I checked around here on TA for an affordable hotel on a beach in St. Petersburg, and came across this one, it gets good reviews, and the hotel says it offers a "private beach". That's an understatement! The "beach" consists of a 10ft square of sandbox sand dumped on the edge of the water. It looked like a cat box. The entire resort is full on smokey. It was so disgusting. Cigarette smoke and the smell of ashtray fills the air, and butts are all over the property. I wanted to have fresh air in my room (non smoking room) but it was obviously smoked in, so I opened the patio door, only to have 6 people smoking outside my window! So gross. Now for the room... It's old, dingy, carpet was stained and dirty. The tv was at least 10 years old. The bed was a double, although I asked for a king!! So my husband and I had to sleep in separate beds!! And the beds had springs sticking out of it. Omg awful. We walked into the pathetic restaurant, but did not eat there it was also dirty looking. This hotel is right off the freeway, and u can hear the cars zoom by your room. We did find a strip of hotels ON THE BEACH when we were searching for dinner, I wish I wouldve known about them before I booked this dump. But we've never been to the area before, so we were blind to where to look... We ate at a yummy place called Crabby Bills Seafood it was really good for a good price. They have countless hotels right next to the restaurant that sit in the sand, and are so much nicer. SO CHECK GULF BLVD!! That's where all the hotels are on the beach, with lots of places to walk to, to eat, drink and watch the sunrise ;)))

I got to see the sun rise over the water for the first time. There were dolphins playing outside our balcony window yesterday. The room is clean, the staff is excellent. They even have adjoning rooms which I haven't seen in any hotels I have stayed in before. I came just for the night but want to come back with family to enjoy the heated pool and the fishing