The YA by the Bay Book Festival runs on Thursday 11 February 2027 at the Tampa Convention Center, 333 S. Franklin St. The organiser prints its doors as 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. The City of Tampa record books the building from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on the same date.
The programme holds five hours of that fourteen-hour booking. Two hours run before the first session. Seven run after the last.
Who buys a room for five hours
The organiser reports 2,000 or more students a year, more than 50 authors and grades 9 to 12 from multiple school districts. Districts arrange transport and lunches.
Three adults reach Franklin Street early: the teacher travelling with a class, the author waiting on a panel and the district lead staging a bus check before the doors open.
The city record places the festival in Ballroom A-B and the meeting rooms. The facility page lists a Franklin Street entrance from the garage.
Four downtown cards, read 21 October 2026
The Tampa day-use page carried fourteen priced cards on 21 October 2026. Four of them serve downtown.
Aloft Tampa Downtown asks $109 plus a $7 booking fee, a $116 total, for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.. Its nightly rate reads $250, and the venue hotel list puts the property 0.6 miles out.
The Westin Tampa Waterside asks $129 plus $9, a $138 total, for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.. Its nightly rate reads $330, and the venue hotel list puts the property 0.3 miles out.
Le Meridien Tampa, The Courthouse asks $129 plus $9, a $138 total, for 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.. Its nightly rate reads $305, and the venue hotel list puts the property 0.7 miles out.
Hotel Flor Tampa Downtown asks $139 plus $9, a $148 total, for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.. Its nightly rate reads $240. The venue list carries the property under its earlier name, The Floridan Palace Hotel, at 1 mile.
Each card carries one booking fee beside its day rate. The page prints no city average for a day rate.
Three of the four windows open at 10 a.m. The fourth opens at 2 p.m. The programme opens at 9 a.m.
The hour before the first session
No downtown day card opens at 9 a.m. A teacher who arrives at 7 a.m. waits in the building. The second floor holds East and West Registration. The Sail Plaza event space and the Riverwalk sit on the same level. Free Wi-Fi covers public areas and meeting rooms.
Booking the window
hotelslots.org publishes four slots: Morning 6 a.m. to noon, Afternoon noon to 6 p.m., Evening 6 p.m. to midnight and Overnight midnight to 6 a.m. The site states day-use rates run 30 to 75 percent below the nightly rate, and it lists $0 fees.
hotelslots.org publishes a seller-of-travel notice dated 21 October 2026. The notice states that booking requests from residents of or for travel to Florida, Hawaii, Iowa and Washington cannot be processed, and names the restriction across grouprooms.org, hotelhaggle.org, hotelslots.org, bookmyteam.org and partners.hotelhuddle.com. A Tampa day room goes to the property directly, so ask for the rate and the window in writing.
A 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. room covers four of the five programme hours. The 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. room starts as the festival closes and runs six hours past it.
The nearest of the four sits 0.3 miles from the front drive. The furthest sits 1 mile out.
