Days Inn Tropicana Field North Motel

My wife, 7-month old son and I were visiting St. Pete for a weekend, and reserved a room at this hotel. I guess I should have been warned when the rooms were non-refundable. There were 2 prostitutes actively soliciting in the parking lot and two men sitting in the parking lot drinking beer out of paper bags. The bed spread had cigarette burns through it and the room smelled of mildew. We only stayed long enough to use the room's phone book to find a new hotel with a vacancy.

The staff is rude and unwilling to help. They charged me for three nights when the manager accidentally checked me out, and refused to let me stay. Spiders and roaches in room. Beds had blood on them. Sheets were dirty. Located in a bad area of town. If you can fall asleep to the sounds of gun shots and police sirens, when dodging spiders and roaches on your trips to the bathroom, you might like it here.

It's a good location. It's within minutes of Tropicana Field. They have comfortable rooms. The only perk is an outside pool. There is no gym, restaurant, or bar.

This hotel made me feel welcome: The front desk was all smiles and warm. The location was very good.

We didn't actually stay. We rented the rooms, went and looked and were completely shocked at how awful they were. When we finally got the doors to open (they didn't work easily) the smell hit us like a wall. It was a moldy smell, like a dirty bathroom smell. The rooms were dirty. The bedclothes looked like they must be at least 20 years old. There was trash under the beds and grime in every corner and there were two huge cockroaches in my bathroom.

As I went to pick up my room keys to return them from the night stand, a lizard ran up the wall and scared the heck out of me. The manager said no problem, like he was used to it when we turned the keys back in, but then we realized as we drove off that he had kept our credit card. We had to chase him down to get it as he was going to "have lunch" (with our card in his pocket?) He said he was going to reverse the charges in the morning so he needed the card. Does that make sense to anyone? I will say that no charges have appeared on my card. Thank God for that.

In addition, the "restaurant" if that is what it is supposed to be (that is what Travelocity advertised) is a strip bar with really loud blaring music and near naked dancing girls.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the area looks to be a high crime area. While we were there just a half an hour I heard half a dozen sirens and there was a helicopter overhead right behind the motel looking around with a search light. Speaking later to some local residents about that area of St. Petersburg, I was told that while there is no Harlem or Hell's Kitchen, that is about the most dangerous area of town.

It was a good motel, reasonably priced and clean. I would stay there again.