Check-in/Check-out
This was really quick. I checked in the night before using the Hilton app, and when we arrived, we were in a rush. I literally picked up the keys at the front desk, and we were in our room within three minutes of parking our rental car. Check out was equally painless. We just returned the keys, and were informed that the items we got during our stay would just be charged to my registered credit card, so there was no paperwork. I am digging this, for sure.
Location
Hilton Garden Inn Tampa Airport Westshore is a short, 5-min drive from Tampa International Airport, and located in the Westshore Business district of Tampa. Despite its proximity to the airport, we didn’t hear any noise (we had a 7th-level room facing the airport), so the noise insulation is pretty good. There is plenty of shopping and dining options nearby, so as far as convenience goes, it’s pretty awesome. It is also near the freeway, so if you are trying to cross into St. Petersburg or Clearwater for its beaches, it is also highly accessible.
Rooms
We booked a non-smoking 2-Queen room. It was spacious, with two Queen beds, a substantial work desk, and a lounge chair by the window. The bathroom was a little bit tight, but worked fine. There was a Keurig coffee maker in the room, mini-fridge, and microwave. My main complaint is that the A/C was kinda noisy. They also stock Neutrogena bath products. 
Breakfast
As a Hilton Gold, I had the option of getting a hot breakfast for 2, or 750 points for my stay. Since we were staying for two days, and there were two of us, I thought it was good value to go with the breakfast.
The breakfast ends at 11 am on weekends, which is kinda nice for the weekend sleep-in. It wasn’t super duper awesome, but also, no complaints. They had four hot stations, with your standards of breakfast sausage, bacon, eggs, potatoes. The oddball in this mix was pizza. They also had regular cereals, pastries, breads, yogurts.
The awesome thing? Waffles! They have a waffle iron on premise. We probably rolled down for breakfast at 9.30 – 10 on both days, and it was pretty empty by that point, but the buffet was still well-stocked.
I know this is a strange comment, but boy, their coffee was good! I was expecting something pretty bad, but damn, the coffee was good!
Service
I didn’t have any real interactions with the staff, which is probably a good thing, since the last couple of times, I had interactions mostly because there were issues with the room.
So I am going to say that this Hilton Garden Inn is a well-oiled machine.
Amenities
They had an outdoor pool and a smallish gym with about three machines. I didn’t have time to use either of them on this trip.
One of the neat things they have? They put out different complimentary beverages at different times of the day; coffee and tea in the day, and iced tea/fruit-infused water in the evenings. I really enjoyed grabbing a drink for the room, or a coffee for the road as I was heading out!
Verdict?
It delivered up to expectations. I paid 188.50 USD for two nights. I was kinda happy with the return on points for this stay. I used my Visa Signature Reserve card, alongside a triple point promotion for weekend stays with Hilton, tagged on with the Hilton double-dip, and Gold benefit. This yielded close to 10000 Hilton points – enough for a one-night category 2 hotel stay, or 2 nights at a category 1 hotel.
Wanderlust 