Sandpearl Resort

Our family stayed here for 3 nights and loved it. Unfortunately, the weather during our stay was mostly rainy, but we did get some breaks in the afternoon to get to the pool and beach. Of course, the resort can't help the weather and this wasn't typical Florida weather as there was a tropical system off the coast. The resort is beautiful, clean and full of friendly, smiling employees. Check in was very smooth and they gave us mimosas at check in! Nice touch! Drinks by the pool and food Tate's are very good for those lazy pool/beach days. We only ate at Caretta once for breakfast and it was wonderful! I have separate reviews for both of these dining options. The room was large, with a large closet, 6 large and 3 smaller drawers, mini fridge and large bathroom with glass shower and soaking tub. We had a balcony overlooking the beach which was lovely. We did have an issue with the a/c on our 2nd night and had to switch rooms at 9pm, but the staff made it an easy move and they upgraded us to a larger balcony on the 3rd floor with tall ceilings. It was nice they tried to make it as easy as possible. Our last night was disappointing with housekeeping. They did not leave us fresh towels or washcloths. They left all decaf coffee and no creamer packets, they even moved everything we had organized under the sink and threw away the ziplocks I had shoved to the back behind our things to save for packing our items in so they wouldn't leak in our bags. Never have we had any housekeeping touch so much or throw away things that were not in the garbage can. Very surprised by this experience. Although, we did rent a cabana on the beach our last day, we only saw the beach waiter 1 time, so gave up and fetched our own drinks. Not a big deal, just a little disappointing. Also, we would not both renting cabanas again. They are only $5 more than the umbrellas, but what we didn't realize is how much breeze they block---think hot on the beach---and of course, you can't adjust them as the sun moves over head, so you eventually lose the shade in the hot afternoon sun when you really need shade. If we return, we will just rent the umbrellas instead. Lastly, when our car was returned to us by valet on check out, it was filthy! I mean horribly filthy. It looked like plaster had fallen all over it. It was horrible! I do not know where they parked our car, but they should have at least apologized for the condition it was returned to us or even cleaned it off before returning it like that. Luckily, everything washed off when we got it through a car wash, but it should not have been returned that way. We really enjoyed so much about this resort, but disappointed by some of the things listed above, so just can't give it an excellent rating. It truly is a beautiful resort and the beach area is gorgeous!

This resort is at a greal location with a fantastic view if you have a gulf view room. There are a lot of amenities in the hotel however for a luxury resort some of the facilities just fall flat. The service we had was good but not great. You expect a certain level of service when staying at such a resort and it fell just a little short. If we were staying in Clearwater again we may stay at this resort. However when you pay for a quality or luxury resort you expect the best of the best experiences and this just overall fell flat. Nothing really wowed us about our stay.

My family decided to try a hotel rather than the usual condos we've been renting that past few trips and we might have chosen too good of a hotel that others in the future may not measure well against. There is a level of service and opulence that is a step above most resorts. Although it wasn't a perfect stay, it was pretty close. You immediately see the level of service from the valet (mandatory, no self parking), bellman, doorman, all the way to the front desk, where you're greeted with a mimosa or bottle of water upon your arrival. By the time I came back out to my car, the bellman already had my car unloaded and ready to take our luggage up to our room via service elevator. We made our way through the lobby with a quick stop at the ATM for some cash to tip the bellman (and eventually the valet and shuttle driver). In the lobby you'll find many comfortable places to sit and read, play chess, or people watch. My wife frequented the Starbucks in the lobby on a daily basis. My children always made it a point to visit and marvel at the player piano by the elevators. We really liked the design of the hotel were guests going to the pool and beach actually go a floor below, so you rarely see half naked or barefoot folks walking around the lobby. I booked our room through Hotwire so it wasn't a big shock that we got a mid floor room on the side of the hotel overlooking the shops with a partial view of the beach and ocean. It may not be the greatest view, but the we enjoyed ending our evenings on the balcony and listening to the live music from the ClearSky Cafe across the street. Our room was a typical hotel room size with two queen beds, tv, and refrigerator. Be aware that there are no in-room microwaves, at least not in our room. There was a communal microwave in the ice machine room by the elevator. The daily resort fee covers two bottles of water a day and there is a minibar available at a charge. We kept it locked so the kids couldn't grab anything from it. Our room was great accept for one oddity. Our bathrooms never were given any wash clothes. No wash clothes on arrival and none when our rooms were services. I would have to ask for them specifically from the housekeepers in the hallway. One housekeeper told us they didn't load any on her cart. I have no idea if this was a hotel policy or if there was any kind of shortage, but during our 4 night stay, we had wash clothes on one of those days and only because I sought them out. Even on the day we had wash clothes, the turn down housekeeper took them when she replenished the other towels. So we returned to our room after a swim in the pool with no wash clothes again. I am still somewhat bewildered at this and its has become a main reason I couldn't give this place a perfect score, especially if I am paying a daily resort fee of $30. As for the resort fee, it also covers in-room wifi, complimentary beach chairs, one bike rental, unlimited beach towels, other beach/sand toys, and pool floats. However if you want an umbrella you have to pay an additional $25 a day. We brought our own beach umbrellas. I considered bringing our tailgate tent, but glad I only went with the umbrellas. We would have stuck out like a sore thumb among the other chairs. With that said, you could probably bring your own chairs and tent if you planned on setting up past the private chair area of the hotel and down by the shore where it is all public beach. the hotel's chairs sit about 40-50 yards away from the water. Everything beyond the chairs seemed like public beach. Now the great service extends down to the beach chairs where a hotel employee would bring us a side table, setup our towels on our chairs, and one even offered to setup our umbrella for us. They will also take food and drink orders as well. We found the pool area to be fantastic! Our toddler loved the zero entry pool and my 6 year old loved the pool side movie after sunset. There's an activities desk where you can get towels, snacks, pool floats, kid's sand toys and a schedule of activiies for the day. Around the corner is a kid's camp, corn hole, life size chess board, and ping pong table. Between the pool and the beach is where you can find the wonderful hammocks and fire pits. Between 7:30 to 9:30, you can purchase a s'mores kit from he activity center for $6. It comes with two long sticks, and enough to make 2 s'more sandwiches. There is a CVS across the street where you can probably buy your own s'more supplies. Now let me talk about our experience with the fire pits. The staff on the beach may be top notch when it comes to service, but its clear they have no idea how to start and maintain a fire. There method was to pour lighter fluid onto the wood and immediately light it on fire. What they may not be aware of is that they never let the lighter fluid soak into the wood. When they lit it too early, the lighter fluid would get burned out and never get the wood itself catch fire. Plus, the entire area smelled like burning lighter fluid. Not a good smell. This happened on multiple days and I could see many exasperated families having to explain to their kids what's going on. I even saw one employee working on a fire by tearing a stalk from the plant life on the protected dunes so they could stoke the non existent embers. I am not too familiar with local environmental laws, but that seemed like a no-no. With all that said, I still would highly recommend staying at this resort and would love to return in the future. We found the location to be one of the best features. You're within a very short walking distance to so much, and they provide a free shuttle to places up to 2-3 miles. We took advantage of the shuttle when we went to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, we even purchased our tickets from the concierge with a discount and avoided some lines at the Aquarium's ticket office. It was almost a 5 star experience if not for the wash clothes and the fire pits. I would not hesitate to stay again if I came across the same deal.

The hotel and beach are immaculate. The rooms and view are amazing! Great shopping & restaurants within walking distance to the hotel. This was our second year in a row to stay at the Sandpearl and it was just as great as the first time in 2016!

The Sandpearl is a beautiful resort with great staff and attentive service. Like any resort, your experience may vary based on the room assignment. I stayed two nights at the Sandpearl arriving from California. My room 667 the first night was located right over an adjacent bar and nightclub which played very loud thumping bass music with screaming patrons until the curfew at 1:30 AM. When I called to address the issue, they were apologetic but couldn't change anything about the noise. I suppose somebody has to get the noisy hotel room over the bar, just wish it wasn't me. The next day at my request they moved me to a quieter room overlooking the valet driveway. Having had a rough night and early morning (especially with 3 hour jet lag), I was hopeful the hotel might go a little further in making the second night a better experience to make up for the first one. It was an improvement but a little short of an opportunity to wow the guest after a rough night there. So just beware the noise if you get a room in the X67 range, you might be in for a noisy night. I did have an issue with my iron which they addressed very nicely. The staff was great, some staff (valet, wait staff, etc) went the extra mile. Would've loved to have seen that extra mile at the front desk too. When you're far from home that extra effort goes a long way, and takes the experience from good to great.