Tampa 2021: Hotels

Tampa Hotel

We knew we wanted a beach hotel in Tampa. We had looked at going to Tampa before and knew the Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach was our likely destination.

The hotel is very close to the beach and the rooms looked promising from the pictures and descriptions. The cash rate was about $320/night and the points rate was 25,000/night. That’s not a great value for Hyatt points so I decided to pay the cash rate since we were only there for 4 nights.

In addition, I had an extra Suite Upgrade Certificate in my account. This allows us to upgrade to a standard suite for up to 7 nights. At past stays we’ve had some fantastic suites this has given us access to. The suites at this hotel looked like a worthwhile use, even though it was only a 4 night stay.

To apply the certificate, I could have called Hyatt, but as a top-tier Globalist, I also have a dedicated concierge I can email. I sent an email to her with my reservation number and a request to use one of my certificates. I also specified I wanted a suite with 2 queen beds rather than just a king bed. Within 48 hours I had a response and it showed up in my account.

Since the suite can officially hold 5 people, this is when we had asked my brother in law if he wanted to join us. We wouldn’t be sneaking him into the hotel or anything as the room officially held five people. He’d be able to sleep on the couch or on a rollaway bed in the living room. The boys would love having him around, even if he had to work part of the week.

Newark Hotel

Since we had an early morning flight out of Newark, we decided it was best to get a hotel near the airport the night before we flew out. My wife had some free night certificates in her Marriott account and this would be a perfect use for them. We found a SpringHill Suites hotel near the airport that also had an airport shuttle and rooms that had 2 queen beds and a sofa bed, officially holding 5 guests. It was also eligible to use one of the free night certificates. This would work out nicely.

Return Hotel

We would also need a hotel for the night we returned. My brother in law’s apartment isn’t big enough for the 5 of us so we’d need to stay somewhere else. I ended up booking a Marriott near LaGuardia which we have stayed in several times before. This also qualified for the free night certificates.

Each of the certificates “costs” us about $100 a year as part of the credit card annual fees. The hotel nights we booked would have cost much more than that so it was very good value for us.

With the hotels booked we needed to figure out transportation.