Home2 Suites - Tampa, FL Review

A detailed review of Home2 Suites located in Tampa Bay Florida. If you're traveling with your large dog breed, and looking for a pet friendly hotel, this ones is for you!

If you're like me, and typically travel with your dog, you probably know half the battle is finding a pet friendly accommodation where ever you are heading. If you have a large breed dog, or travel with multiple, that really narrows down your options quickly. I've decided to throw together a collection of reviews of various pet friendly stays that we secure during our travels. Hopefully giving a bit of insight on each property is helpful to someone out there in the middle of trip planning.

Home2 Suites - Busch Gardens Tampa Bay

“They are large dog and BREED INCLUSIVE at this hotel. Your furry family member is welcome so long as they are 50 lbs or under. They accept two pets per room and also welcome cats! ”

I secured this location due to its close proximity to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay Theme Park, being shy of 10 minutes away, that was extremely convenient. We were in the area to attend the park, so that was a major deciding factor for me. Check in at this location was seamless, and front desk staff were always very friendly and efficient. They are large dog and BREED INCLUSIVE (yay!) at this hotel. Your furry family member is welcome so long as they are 50 lbs or under. They accept two pets per room and also welcome cats! At the time of our visit, the pet fee was a non refundable $50, per pet (not per night). Maximus is an ESA, most times this does not waive any fees the way a Service Animal title would, but they honored it at this location and waived his fee. Which was so kind of them! I paid the pet fee only for Mia.

When I secured the room online, weeks before, I detailed in the notes I would be traveling with two pets. They had all our information ready by the time we arrived. Once I finished checking the us all in, they provided two key cards, two complimentary bottles of water, and we we're on our way to the room!

The Rooms

We secured a 1 King Bed Studio Suite, which was about $215 prior to taxes and fees. I was debating between this room and the 1 bedroom king suite, but honestly the smaller studio suite was more than enough space for the four of us. Cheaper too!

you continue to walk into the room, there is a couch and coffee table to your left. To your right you will find a very spacious wall desk and chair. We didn't make much use of that, outside of using it during our trip, but I know many travel for work, so I thought the large area was a definite perk. This room is a suite, so the "living room" area and the "bedroom" area are all one space, partitioned by a curtain, for some privacy, if needed.

As you continue to walk into the room, there is a couch and coffee table to your left. To your right you will find a very spacious wall desk and chair. We didn't make much use of that, but I know many travel for work, so I thought the large area was a definite perk. This room is a suite, so the "living room" area and the "bedroom" area are all one space, partitioned by a curtain, for some privacy, if needed.

The bed was surprisingly comfortable. I cannot speak for the pillows, as I'm so incredibly picky with sleeping pillows. I usually always travel with mine from home or else I wont sleep comfortably to save my life. The bed is a standard king bed with medium firmness. But the mattress was even, no annoying dips, grooves or pockets. There is a modest sized TV that is easily viewable sitting from the couch or laying on the bed.

Directly across from the bed there is additional shelving and space under it. I tucked in both of the dogs crates perfectly in this area and out of the way. The dogs typically have full reign over our house, but when we travel I aways bring their crates. I crate them in while we are away from the hotel for extra peace of mind. I find they even prefer to be inside the crate and sometimes opt to lay inside them, even when we are in the hotel room with them. I leave their crate doors open and then enter and exit as they please.

The rooms should come with these super convenient door hangers that advise maid services that there are pets inside the room. Ours was missing so we requested a new one from the front desk and they were happy to provide that. I usually forgo room cleaning services our entire trip. For extra precautions I used both the Do Not Disturb and Pet Inside door hangers each time we left the property.

I do not think they have a pet designated floor, so you may end up on any floor. Our room was located on the second floor. I usually like to stay on the ground floor when bringing the dogs, but in this case it wasn't so bad. We were close enough to the elevators where we could quickly jump in if the dogs needed to go out, but far enough away to avoid any noise from people getting on and off.

The Common Areas

There is a free continental breakfast offered here, that was surprisingly good! I was expecting the usual scraps, but they actually had a wide variety of options such as bagels, breakfast sandwiches, omelettes, waffles, donuts, cereal, etc. Breakfast is served in the lobby Monday - Fridays until 6 AM - 9 AM and weekends until 10 AM. For refreshments there was coffee (of course!), a few different fruit juice options (apple, orange, mixed berry) and individual milk cartons located in a small fridge. The food being readily available, and tasty, was such a life saver all trip long.

There is not a designated pet walking area on site. One of the girls from the front let me know they are free to roam the outside of the property to do their business, so long as we pick up. Around the back of the hotel, by the pool area, there is a decently plot of grass and a few easily visible doggy-waste containers. I didn't think of snapping a picture of this, I'll have to remember to do that next trip.

All in all, we had a very pleasant stay at this location. There were not many dogs on the property while we were there. Actually, we saw none. If anything we had quite a few guests come up to us to ask to pet the babies and inquire to us if they could also bring their dogs. I recommend this location, its nothing high end or super fancy. But it's comfortable, clean, safe, and welcomed the babies with open arms! We had everything we needed and no complaints all trip. Until the next adventure, stay safe friends!