Zota Beach Resort

We just arrived at the hotel and this is the first thing we see when the elevator door opened. The food and dishes are piled up and it has clearly been sitting there since breakfast this morning. Definitely not the first thing we were expecting to see and raises questions on cleanliness for the duration of our stay.

We recently stayed at Zota Beach Resort. This hotel is part of the Opal Collection. The hotel is very communicative before arrival via texts and are there to answer any questions or concerns. Our poolside king room was very clean and comfortable. There was a room safe, refrigerator and Keurig coffee maker in the room. I would have preferred ceramic coffee mugs instead of paper to-go cups to enjoy coffee in the room or on our balcony. The lobby also had coffee available for a short time in the morning. There was plenty of closet space and drawers for our belongings in the room. We also had ample plug-ins for cell phones, iPads and laptops; and there was free WiFi. There was no premium movie channel offered on the TV. We sat at the bar in the restaurant one night and enjoyed a cocktail. The bartender Elias was friendly and engaging and we enjoyed talking to him. The service at the pool was great as well. Vanessa at the pool was also friendly and engaging and offered free ice water, or a cocktail or lunch to purchase. The pool deck had chess, ping pong and connect four for guests. On the beach, there was another connect four and cornhole. The beach was always well groomed every morning. We always got a lounger at the pool every day. The lobby store had a good selection of snacks or munchies to enjoy at the pool or in your room, as well as necessities you may need that you forgot to pack. One thing we really didn’t like is there was no alternative to valet parking. It seemed ridiculous to wait for a car when it was within eyesight, and you have to drive everywhere on Longboat so there was waiting and also constantly tipping every day. The staff we encountered throughout our stay at Zota were very friendly. We would definitely come back because the positives outweighed the couple of negatives. We loved Zota!

We picked this place for our first longer trip with 1yo daughter, place was super clean and safe. Everything in the dinner menu was excellent and durning our stay we tried it all, breakfast and lunch was also very good. Service was great starting with valet to the houskeeping and of course restaurant. Pool is good and durning our stay was not crowded at all, beach is nice and short walk to the ocean. We would give this place 6 stars if possible and were looking forward to our next visit. Dominik, Kathy and Natalie.

Wonderful resort with the feeling of home. The employees go out of their way to be kind to you. The food is a hidden jewel. I never want to stay anywhere else on LBK. I stayed as a solo woman and felt so welcome and safe. I know I will always come back year after year. I love the Zota.

Stayed for 3 days around a wedding. My room was in the new tower to the left as you exit the lobby towards the pool and facing away from the pool. Quiet and clean with a spacious bathroom, our balcony was lovely and sunny in the mornings. It was cold so we did not go into the pool but did hang out for some sun. Pool scene lively, lots of kids and noisy. Saturday they had a great singer w steel drums covering Jimmy Buffett and the like so festive air. Friends standing the opposite side (right of the pool) and said it was dirty and their bathroom was ridiculously tiny so YMMV. Beach is lovely. Staff attentive and friendly. Got VERY sick off of the food poolside- maze salad and two non alcoholic drinks. Ugly sick which made the wedding I was there for much less enjoyable as I ate saltine crackers the entire day after. Longboat key is nice but the traffic is abominable and really detracted from the stay. Heading to dinner 6 miles up Gulf Drive took close to an hour. Running to get a pizza the first night we got there was 35 min for a few blocks. Getting off island in the afternoons can be easily 90 -120 minutes. Running out for a meal on a Sunday morning wasn’t that bad but still tremendous delays.