Sheraton Sand Key Resort

We had booked two rooms in the Sheraton Sands Key Resort, Clearwater. One for our two adult daughters and one for my wife and myself. Following a delayed nine hour flight from London Gatwick we arrived tired and ready for a good welcome. Our room was on the system. The receptionist had trouble with the second room and went into the back office to check. When she came we were met with the words; “The second room has been cancelled by your tour operator by e-mail. Contact them”. It was after 8pm USA time, 1am UK time. The receptionist “helpfully” suggested that we all go to the first room as it had two beds. I knew we had two rooms booked and stayed my ground, preferring to make the reception area look untidy until the issue was sorted. Fortunately I had noted a WhatsApp number for the tour operator (Ocean) but didn’t hold out much hope for a quick reply. They were on the ball though and replied within minutes. Having exchanged information they contacted the hotel and was informed via WhatsApp a room had been found for that night only and the daytime team would investigate further. We went back to the receptionist who checked with her manager who stayed firmly out of sight behind their office door. Keys were obtained and we went to our rooms. The next morning we awoke to an e-mail from Ocean explaining they were investigating what had gone wrong but that both rooms had been secured for the week. Not having much faith in the hotel I checked with the front desk who confirmed the e-mail. The next day, as everything had gone quiet and with the conversation with the hotel suggesting it was Ocean who had messed up, I went to reception and asked for a copy of the offending e-mail which cancelled the room. The receptionist went away and, after a while, came back to explain there was no e-mail, it had been the hotels fault all along! To sum up, Ocean have apologised and stepped up even when they didn’t know if the issue was down to them. You will notice the absence of any apology from the hotel. I’ll leave it to you, the reader to decide whether an apology should be forthcoming. Our room When we finally got to our room we were met with two unexpected water features, one in the room due to the ancient and very noisy air conditioning unit leaking into the room. The other turned our balcony into a shallow paddling pool. By trying to use the wall thermostat we tried to turn the fan down to its “low” setting. That turned it off completely. Calling down to complain prompted two replies, firstly a supply of towels to mop up the water with (See photos). The other was a maintenance man who simply said it couldn’t be turned down to the low setting. When I said that wasn’t acceptable he tried to get his manager on the radio. When he couldn’t, he went off to find him. This manager did call me to explain all air con units made noise. He agreed however that we should be able to turn the fan down and both of them came back to the room. Having demonstrated the problem the maintenance man then disconnected the wall thermostat so we could use the controls on the actual unit. That reduced the noise from trying to sleep next to a runway to more of a dull roar. The solution to that was for the manager to come back with earplugs – a choice of types of earplugs! Clearly it’s not an unusual complaint. The unit in our daughter’s room was also noisy but they were content to sleep with the balcony door open and the unit off. By contrast, the following week we stayed in another hotel (3 star) and the units there purred like kittens. Private beach? To be clear, the beach was lovely. I have to question how it could be claimed to be private. Next door was a public car park. We walked to that car park and back again. Certainly the people who parked in that car park tended to stay around that area but that was probably because it was something of a walk. At no time did we observe any signs stating part of the beach was private. Breakfast. The buffet breakfast was the most underwhelming I’ve experienced in a long time. Instead, take a short stroll (Or drive) out of the hotel to Maggie Mays. No buffet, but a wide choice, good service and good prices. 4 star hotel? I wouldn’t agree. Certainly the worst Sheraton we have stayed in. Read less