This hotel is NOT a luxury hotel, but if you want a nice, clean hotel with spacious rooms right on the beach, it is ideal. We stayed in the tower on a high floor and had a balcony with a beautiful view and sunsets to watch every night. The pool area is good with 2 pools and a few hot tubs. The tiki bar is great for a drink and to order a decent lunch. The beach there is not the most beautiful of this area of Florida, but it is fine. The water is clean as well as the beach itself.
We rented a car and drove into Sarasota for dinner a few times. It took 10 minutes and we discovered some fabulous restaurants...Derek's, The Table & Selva Grille.
It was fun to walk around St Armand's Square too which is very convenient to the hotel. Make sure to visit Kilwin's for ice cream, fudge and brittle...all DELICIOUS and worth the wait in the line!!

This is the hotel you want in the Lido Beach area, if you appreciate tastefully appointed rooms and an overall feeling of understated elegance. Nothing is shabby and nothing feels artificial or tacky.
The pool area (there are two swimming pools) has nice lounge chairs done in a rattan style weave.

The beach area has lounge chairs with a striped padded cushion. There aren't a lot of hotels to choose from in the Lido Beach area, and the Lido Beach Resort is the best, by a large margin.

Stayed based upon other reviews and other reviews are on the money. Great Beach. Stayed in 1 bdrm OF and it was large with a view of the Gulf that was to die for.

My wife made the booking; my mother-in-law previewed the property since she lives nearby. On arrival, I checked into the room and the others went to the beach. When they eventually saw the room there was much distress: it didn't match the room that had been previewed, wasn't as nicely appointed, etc. They talked to the manager but he couldn't placate them.

I was *not* in the mood to deal with this but finally agreed to go down and see the manager, expecting to lose my temper.

The manager Blake couldn't have been nicer. It took me about 10 seconds to completely de-stress. He made several offers to compensate us for the mix-up in our booking. I give the property 4 stars on the manager's willingness to satisfy the customer quickly.