It has been a little while since I stayed in a Embassy Suites, I have opted for the less expensive Marriot versions recently, but in this case, this hotel was more convenient so I gave it a try. It was as nice as the Embassy Suites I remembered, much better than the Marriot versions. I see in some other reviews that it was just remodeled, everything looks new and clean. Got a room on the 3rd floor, which was fortunate since only 1 of the 3 elevators was working. I think it is an 8 story building, so the one time we took the elevator, there was a long wait. The rest of the time, we took the stairs. Dont think the hotel was that full, USF was on Christmas break, otherwise it would have been a nightmare. We enjoyed the free drinks and snacks in the evening and the breakfast in the morning. There was a good selection for each. I heard some complaints from some of the other guests that they didnt start serving until 7am on weekends, but it didnt seem like a big deal. Normally, I would expect freshly brewed coffee to be available in the morning. All they had was a Nescafe machine that they forgot to turn on. The breakfast lady said she was sorry and opened the machine and put in a fresh bag of what looked like coffee syrup...yuk. You would think that at $160 a night, they could come up with something better than that. Water in the shower was warm, not hot. I really wanted to give this 5 stars because there is so much to like here, but the little things show a lack of attention to detail. I would definately stay here again.

I attended a Certified Occupancy Specialist conference from 12/19/12 - 12/21/12 at this hotel. I can only speak for the conference room experience because I did not stay in the room.

First the pros: The hotel is in a great location ... near Busch Gardens, on the USF main campus, close to I-75 & I-275, within 10 minutes of driving are almost 100 restaurants to choose from (most on Fowler Ave & Fletcher Ave). The atrium decor is great. It gives a feel of an open air court yard. There is plenty of parking.

Now for the conference. They accepted the reservation while the hotel was under remodeling construction. Day 1 started in Suite G. It was private & big enough for the class but the walls were too thin to keep out the noise from the other conferences going on.

Day 2 started with the class moved to a room on the second floor. The second floor had carpets pulled up & rolls of carpet laying around. It was a lawsuit waiting to happen. Fortunately the conference had no one confined to a wheel chair. There were parts of the carpet lifted up which some of the attendants stumbled on. The worst part came when some of the subcontractors started removing tile on the 7th floor. The jack hammer like machine's vibration could be felt in the classroom. The noise made it impossible to hear. I went to the front desk while the instructor tried to talk over the noise. I asked the front desk someone could put a halt to the noise. I was answered with, "The manager is not here. He is the only one that can ask." I explained the situation. All they said was there was nothing they could do because they were not authorized to tell the contractors what to do. At this point, I went to the 3rd floor & asked a mexican contractor in spanish where the noise was coming from. He directed me to the 7th floor. I went to the 7th floor and found the two workers using two tile removers. The noise was deafening. When I got their attention, I asked if they could hold up til 5 PM because we had a class that we could not hear. They apologized and said "no problem".. This all goes to show that the front desk were either lying or just not trying.

Day 3 started with the class moved back to the original room. This time the display easel was not moved to the room and the instructor could not display the equations. I went to the front desk and told them they forgot the easel. This time they gladly complied. the easel showed up 15 minutes later.

Oh yeah, the coffee was cold by the afternoon and was never refreshed. There were no microwave to warm them up.

Not sure about the room experience but the conference experience was not conducive to learning.

I stayed here before for 1 day a couple of weeks ago, and again 2 days ago for 1 night, just so my husband and I could go to Busch Gardens. The location couldnt be any better. Literally 5 mins away from Busch gardens. They have a shuttlle that takes you there, and they give you their card to call them whenever youre ready to be picked up again. The breakfast buffet they have its amazing. everything you could possibly think of, they have it. And its FREE! When we checked in, the front desk agent that helped us was Mark, he was so professional and courteous with us, we really felt welcomed. A couple of minutes after i got to my room, he gave us a courtesy call to make sure everything was ok, and if we needed anything to call him. I have never experienced that in any hotel. This is really the only hotel in tampa i would go to again, and again. Thank you!!

Stayed here 2 nights on business. Location is on edge of Univ. of S Florida campus with positives of a multitude of safe area for walking or running and would be very convenient for attendance at Busch Gardens; drawbacks of the location are that it is a difficult, long distance from the Tampa airport and restaurants or fast food aren't within reasonable walking distance, although the hotel does provide a shuttle. Service and amenities were excellent, including the usual Embassy Suites cooked-to-order breakfast and an evening reception with a decent variety of light snacks (not enough for a meal). Hotel was clean and meeting room was good. When I found I had to leave a day early, the hotel let me out of the reservation without charging the cancellation fee.