Le Meridien Hotels in Tampa

The staff at Le Meridian could not have been better or nicer! They were incredibly friendly and helpful….a big shout out to LaLithia at the front desk who was awesome and helped us upon check-in. The glass of complimentary sparkling wine upon check-in is a nice touch. The complimentary coffee in the lobby from 6 am until noon is also a nice and appreciated touch. Our room was very spacious and very clean. I am giving my review a 4 start vs 5 star because of the room decor and, quite frankly, the hotel (hallway decor) as well. Whoever was in charge of interior design should be fired! Our room was incredibly depressing because EVERY wall except the entry hall was painted a DARK gray. The carpet (new at least) was also a DARK gray. The bathroom was ….guess what….a DARK gray. Because the hotel is a converted old court house, the ceilings are high and made of cement so there is no recessed lighting (understandable). BUT, there wasn’t even a floor lamp in our room. It was SO DARK and DEPRESSING. Needless to say, we felt we were living in a CAVE. When you stay at an upscale hotel for a getaway or mini vacation, you expect to feel happy and uplifted. The decor did just the opposite. In addition, our room was lacking ANY seating area other than the bed and a desk chair (at bar height to match the bar height desk). It was CLEARLY MISSING a couple of comfortable occasional chairs. We called the front desk as soon as we walked into our room and requested a couple of chairs. They brought us 2 stacking chairs. I guess it was the best they could do under the circumstances but they certainly weren’t comfortable chairs that one would want to relax in. Also, the TV was very small given the size of the room and the distance from the bed to the TV. As for my reference to the hotel decor, and specifically the hallways, Marriott fell so far short in making this hotel what it COULD be given its unique history and architecture. When you walk down the hallways the bottom half of the walls have old marble (a nice touch and vestigial feature of the court house) BUT the top half of every wall is BARE. It is just COLD and lacks ANY sign of nice decor. Why wouldn’t they line these hallways with old, framed photos of court houses, court rooms, judges, etc???? Or old photos of Tampa? Or have a local artist paint murals on these walls? Ironically, the hotel gives its guests free passes to the Tampa Art Museum but whoever designed the interior space didn’t bother to include ANY artwork in the hallways. And the “artwork” in our room consisted of a few ugly, random cheaply framed posters. You might think that I am overly critical….after all, as I said, the staff was lovely and responsive and our room was spacious, quiet and clean. BUT, because our room was just so DARK and DREARY and DEPRESSING we wanted to minimize the time we spent at this hotel.