We booked two de luxe studio suites on high floors for a lot of money,If you add all the taxes and charges to our bills they look pretty daunting.The good--wonderful beach, kid free pool area,nice feel about the resort and the area,free upgrade to one bed suite ie seperate bedroom.The problems-Hard floors,in this day and age you can't do it,theres too many high heels tapping around at all hours and next to us a couple of toddlers who perpetually pushed the dining chairs around,making a wonderful purping noise all the time.The traffic areas,corridors,have carpet so it can't be that sand is a problem,but noise certainly was for us.We would have moved out if we had not been given the suite with seperate bedroom but this did at least have carpet on the bedroom floor,where's the logic in that?The other noise problem was the band who play by the bar about 3 afternoons a week,I was having an afternoon snooze in the bedroom at the back when I was woken by the music yet they are playing for people who are sitting only 10 ft away from them and we were at the back on the 10th floor.My daughter in law,in another room and unknown to me rang down and complained-they turned it down then up again 10 minutes later.
There's some foolish things-the pool bar area is only half the size it should be and is very crowded and often impossible to find a seat-The restaurant was so cold we asked for it to be warmer and the young girl running breakfast said"good idea I'm freezing"-main bar indifferent service and very pricey.Having said all of this we very much enjoyed Sarasota and the good parts of the hotel but for the price we would expect slightly more common sense in the areas I've outlined.

We stayed for 3 nights in August 2007 and for 5 nights in August 2006. We went back in 2007 because our stay in 2006 was so wonderful. Not one complaint. The ocean front room was great with a fabulous view of the gulf. We were on the 14th floor.
Before we arrived, we had called on several occasions for info.
Everytime we called they we so friendly and helpful, and the same service continued after we got there. Our 2007 trip was still good, we had the same room, as requested, but the service was not like the first time. When we called for reservations the person was not friendly, same as after we arrived. There were 2 female employees at the front desk who had stuffy attitudes. Not everyone was unfriendly though. We still enjoyed our stay there. Hopefully, we just encountered a few bad seeds. This year we will not be returning to Lido, but if we ever do we will probably be back.

We just returned from a 4 night stay at the Lido Beach Resort. I went with my wife and 12 year old son. We took my parents who are in their early 70's. We stayed in a 2 bedroom suite on the tenth floor. We were very surprised with the room. The master suite had a beautiful view of Lido Beach & Sarasota Bay. There was a wall seperating our bed from a sleep sofa which our son slept in. We had a full bath also. My parents had a bedroom that had a private entrance to another full bath. The living area was very spacious and had the same beautiful view we had from our bedroom. We ate at both restaurants the food was very good. The staff was very accomadating to my parents dietery needs. They did not hesitate on any of the special requests that were not part of the main menu's. My parents also enjoyed the open area under building two that had some very comfortable furniture for them to sit in and protect them from the sun. We had a great time at the beach (we have a new shell collection), pool and playing ping pong.

Thank you,
Shannon and staff.
My mother said it was the best vacation she ever had.

We recently spent a week at the Lido Beach Resort and have some feedback - negative and positive. I had made the reservation over the phone and asked for an e-mail confirmation with detailed information about our stay but was only provided with the room rates for the week. We had booked over a month in advance.

I left it at that, being sure that I had booked a room with a balcony but found out upon check-in that the room not only did not have a balcony, but the view from the window was of a roof - totally blocking any sight of the sky, let alone the ocean. I called down right away and was told we could switch rooms the next day to an ocean view balcony room - but at a greatly increased rate. (from $339/night weekdays to $404/night and from $379/night weekends to $449/night) - a significant increase. We felt "bait and switched", but didn't make a big deal about it.

We did take the balcony room and had a few problems (the phones didn't work and the bed did not have a duvet).

All of these things did get ironed out - (we got a duvet but the phones were out of service during most of our stay), but the worst part was that two of the girls at the front desk were rude and insulting - they definitely need retraining in customer service as well as an attitude adjustment - this made our first couple of days of our much needed relaxing holiday very frustrating and unpleasant.

So my recommendation would be to totally double-check all the details of your room prior to arrival so you avoid disappointment.

Also, the restaurant Christopher's is lovely, but could not accommodate the fact that my doctor has given me strict orders not to eat salt due to a serious medical condition. I tried to explain and order the safest thing on the menu, but it was extremely salty and my husband ate most of it. For an expensive restaurant I would have expected more sensitivity - I can imagine many elderly people with heart conditions, etc. must have restricted diets also. I became quite ill from eating the small amount of food I did eat.

So my suggestion to Christopher's would be to add more healthy choices to the menu - salt-free, saturated fat-free - fresh vegetables, grilled meats, etc. Take peoples' restrictions seriously. I'd like to add that The Lido Beach Grill was fabulous at accommodating my needs, without a problem.

Otherwise, the beach is beautiful, the pools are great, the shopping at St. Armand's is a fun experience, and we kept our positive attitutes in check and had a nice holiday.

We probably wouldn't go back to the Lido Beach Resort - At over $400 a night, it seems very expensive for what you get.