So I've been a resident at this hotel for the past two summers (this one included) and am amazed at how far it has sunk in less than a year. One of the first things I noticed was the general cleanliness of the hotel. In terms of the maid service, it's just not as thorough as it was, probably because the housekeeping head no longer checks behind their staff. While it's nothing big, it can be frustrating to have to go and collect paper towels, toilet paper, etc. on your own when it should have already been handled. Also, it seems like many times the staff wouldn't bother to vacuum the room or do a haphazard job of it. However, the cleaning woman who takes care of my new room (more on that in a minute) is excellent and does an incredibly thorough and thoughtful job. So, it looks like maid service can be pretty hit-or-miss.

Also, another issue is that of pets. Although it’s not necessarily the hotel’s fault, it’s annoying to be woken up by a barking dog early in the morning. Either the pets or cleaning supplies used for them leaves a medicinal smell in the halls which can become pretty nauseating after a while. Just hope a rambunctious dog isn’t in the suite adjacent to yours.

At the beginning of my stay, a boiler overflowed next to my room, soaking one side of the carpet next to my bed. Upon letting the hotel staff know, they offered to change my room but I told them I'd rather them just vacuum up the water if possible. When I got home from work, I found that it had soaked my entire room as the day wore on, rendering many of my things soggy, to the point of ruining some of them. The maintenance staff (who are very friendly and helpful) had vacuumed up the water on one side of the bed but missed the rest that stretched all the way under the bed, through the closet, and to the bathroom. I ended up moving to avoid the eventual moldy smell and got another room. I was offered a free night's stay for my trouble, but they ended up checking me out instead, which just caused more headaches the next day. Within a day in my new room, I ended up having an air conditioner get clogged and start to flood my room again. By this point, I was fed up and soaked up the mess myself until maintenance could look at it. The maintenance staff was very fast in helping solve the issue before it got too out of hand.

In terms of the rooms themselves, everything is really beginning to show its age. The refrigerator in my room makes a horrible rattling sound when it's cooling that's loud enough to wake me up. One of the burners on the stove doesn't work and there's a horrible smell coming from the drains in the sink and shower. It smells like rotting garbage and I smell it every time I'm taking a shower or even when on the sofa. Maintenance and a bottle of bleach couldn't kill it, but by this point I was too brow-beaten to change rooms again. Also, don’t expect to use the sofa bed if you want a good night’s rest. It’s the equivalent of sleeping directly on a bed of metal springs.

The front desk staff is very friendly on the whole, save for one of the staff members who spends more time on breaks then he does behind the desk. Unfortunately, since he works the peak times (afternoon to early evening), I've dealt with him the most. He's rarely behind the counter, either out on a smoke break, talking on his cell phone, or nowhere to be found. It's not uncommon to wait 10 minutes for him to show up and I've seen potential guests leave because they can't get any assistance. He's also prematurely checked me out of my room, which has happened twice, and although he fixed it promptly, it's still frustrating to deal with.

All in all, I can't recommend this hotel. The little things just begin to mount up after a while (no tv channel listings in the rooms, etc.). However, they received a new manager within the past month who seems to be striving to turn the hotel around. She seems to be fixing some of the issues I've noticed fairly quickly, so hopefully the hotel will start to turn-around.

Bottom line: For the money, you can do much better than the Residence Inn, at least for now. Sarasota is a beautiful place, so don’t let this hotel taint your stay. Maybe in a few months it will be a different story.

Old and dingy. Needs a face lift bad. Stay at the Spring Hill Suites next door if you like cleanliness. Beds are small queens and uncomfortable. Pillows have no support at all. Coffee in lobby is awful. They use only the cheapest coffee and cheapest teas and foods. Bathroom faucets are old and rusted and partially corroded. Disgusting! In poor repair. Our bathroom door didn't close. They give you the cheapest shampoo and soap. Paint peeling, fixtures chipped. Microwave and fridge are 20 years old. Perhaps this place is okay for college kids on a tight budget, but if you are looking for "nice", this is not it.

After traveling for four hours we arrived at the Residence Inn/Sarasota to be greeted by an annoyed and disinterested front desk associate.There was another gentleman who also was unhappy with the policies and wanted another room and was waiting for a very long time. We then were lucky enough to be given our room which was next door to three barking dogs left alone in their hotel room....OH didn't we tell you this is a pet friendly hotel? OOPS! Of course we never heard that when we booked the hotel room for our one night stay. Good news was we had a condo waiting for us the next day in lovely peaceful Longboat Key....The hotel rooms smell like a veterinary office and there are dogs everywhere. We even had one barking and nipping at us in the lobby...The hotel manager was quite unprofessional and seemed only worried about being right,
being in charge and rattling off facts from her Marriott manager sheet about the excellent way the hotel manages pets and health issues?? Luckily for us the assistant manager was there to step in and switch rooms, switch floors from the barking dogs and we even got an upgrade. It really smelled so strongly from chemicals that are obviously used to disinfect the pet odors and accidents. I can't imagine why anyone would want to stay at this hotel???
$200 a night for poor customer service, average rooms and strong smells and loud unmanaged animals.....never will we stay there again and I will have to really consider whether I will stay at a Marriott any time soon!

My husband and I spent one very short night at the Residence Inn in Sarasota, located across University Parkway from the airport. We live about an hour away from this airport and have stayed many, many times in the Sarasota area over the last 16 years. We often take early morning flights out of SRQ and have stayed at the Ritz, the Hyatt, Hilton Garden Inn, Courtyard and Hotel Indigo in our quest for a good airport hotel. Balancing price, proximity, room and hotel amentites, this hotel is really pretty average.

We checked in late in the evening and found the lobby packed - the hotel was hosting a wedding party - on a Wednesday night! However, we were greeted immediately by two really nice staff members. Upon checking our reservation, they realized that they could not honor our guarenteed room type (non-smoking, king). We were offered one of two choices - they would send us across a shared parking lot to the Springhill Suites (another Marriott property) which had a room available, or the manager would show us a king smoking room that had recently been, for lack of a better word, de-smoked. We were skeptical, but after walking through the offered room at the hotel, we accepted. Apparentally, all Marriotts are going non-smoking in the USA and this was a transition period where even smoking rooms would be redone to meet the new standards. I thought the staff did a terrific job to honor our room requests and we were completely satisfied that the room met non-smoking standards.

The room itself turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. Like all rooms at a Residence Inn, there wasa living area with kitchen facilities, bedroom and bathroom. The living and kitchen areas were combined in one small room - actually the kitchen was tucked in a corner of the living room. Rather tired,worn furniture - sofa, chair, small dining table with two chairs and a TV from another decade. Although we didnt use the kitchen, I poked around and found a few basic plates, glasses, silverware, along with toaster, full size frig, microwave, etc. Have to say,not the cleanest kitchen I've seen. The bedroom and bath were also pretty basic - not the new Revive bed you see in many Marriott properties, but good enough. Again, worn dresser and end tables and another older TV. Tub/shower combo and toilet were separate from the single sink vanity area. The vanity area was open to the bedroom, which meant the early riser or late to bed partner couldn't turn on the light without waking the person trying to sleep. Nonetheless, it was perfectly acceptable for a short stay.

We didn't use, nor did we see, any of the other hotel facilities. Our limited contact with the hotel staff was excellent and the proximity to the airport can't be beat. I've stayed at newer Residence Inn properties that were far superior, but we had everything we needed for our stay - bed, bath, convenient location. We paid a reasonable price for the room, though we are approaching our "snowbird" season and prices for even moderate hotels will rise sharply. Probably wouldn't stay here again unless the price is great or we couldn't make a reservation at the Courtyard or the Hilton Garden Inn. We're still looking for the best SRQ hotel - think we may have found it at the Hotel Indigo.