Rai R.
Yelp
After an absence of a few years from our Annual celebratory vacation at the Wyndham Grand in Clearwater, my wife and I booked our trip a few months ago for a return visit to Clearwater beach, which we fell in love with 14 years ago during our first visit to the Beach.
We had booked and communicated with the first GM David Yamada in late 2022, who grew to be more of a friend with each passing year. Sadly, I learned from his wife of his passing earlier this year after he had worked on a successful transfer to a new ownership group who brought in a new management company to run the Property while keeping the Wyndham name.
We debated about our trip but wanted to visit the Property to remember David and see the changes from 2019.
Fortunately, the Property named as GM Seth McDaniels one of the senior management staff of the new operating Group who worked closely with David and was an obvious choice to run the Property. Mr McDaniels was very courteous to respond to my reach-out and despite being scheduled to be away during our visit, put me in touch with one of his senior staff Nick Darato while we visited. It was very nice of Management to give us a great upgrade as a Diamond Member and extra special while celebrating at Ocean Hai (the best restaurant in the area hands-down) to arrange a nice surprise for my wife and I.
The Property still is awesome, with its location, facilities (gym, pool, spa) staff (shout out to Tammy), Housekeeping (shout out to Lisa) , Pool area (shout out to the towel attendants) and restaurant (shout out to Manger Sergio and Rauf).
Given the addition of new hotels, I saw new faces among staff, which is to be expected and clearly the new GM is building his team to maintain (and grow) the excellent reputation of this property. No easy task with all of the new properties built as well as bring built.
Our stay was great and we thank all the staff for their courtesy, friendliness and service. Clearly GM McDaniels deserves kudos for the seamless transition.
Now a few tips to my fellow travelers.
When the hotel is sold out and there can be line at the elevator, take the elevators around the corner to the 3rd floor and walk over to the room elevators and push down or up for a faster ride to your rooms.
Second I found out the hard way that if your valet auto is parked on floor 4 or 5, you will have to wait a while to have your car brought around (I spoke to Tammy about this)
Third when you receive a voucher that gives discounts ranging from 10-20% to visit various facilities, start with the lobby bar and then if your are visiting Ocean Hai, use that second is worth a 15% discount.
Fourth, these employees work really hard to give you a great experience. Please remember to tip not just Housekeeping, but valet and also the towel attendants (clearly it was unusual because I received the widest smiles and thank yous)
Enjoy the great experience at this wonderful Resort.