Holiday Inn Resort Pensacola Beach Gulf Front by IHG

Pools, beach access

Resort prices.

The staff were amazing! The activities were great for the kiddos! Food was Excellent!

I can't think of anything

This was our first stay at the holiday inn resort. We have stayed at the Hilton in the past. We absolutely loved our stay and Justin was very friendly and efficient with helping us. He should definitely get a raise! We plan to book here for the next few summers and look forward to it. Thank you for the kindness and hospitality we were shown this stay 💕

Clean!

pool and location to beach

weather

This is a Motel 6 wearing a “resort” name tag. Great beach access, a fun lazy river and pools, central location — genuinely good for families. But you’re paying five-star prices for a Holiday Inn, and that gap is the whole problem. The food is the biggest letdown. Breakfast buffet eggs are microwaved scrambled, and the turkey sausage was so overcooked the edges turned dry and brittle. They had bread out but no toaster — it’s just gone. Several items sat empty waiting to be restocked. The coffee is bad too: they bill it as an espresso bar, but it’s just a push-button automatic machine that spits out whatever drink you select. Not for anyone who actually cares about espresso. The pricing is where it really stings. “Free breakfast” stops being free once you add kids — even my two-year-olds weren’t included — so breakfast ran $60–70 for two adults and two toddlers. For genuinely bad food. Add an average room rate around $500/night for an ocean view, and everything feels wildly overpriced for what it is. Housekeeping only does a full clean every five days; otherwise they just swap towels and grab the trash. At that point, why even tip? To be fair, the staff was friendly and genuinely helpful. The general manager gave us excellent restaurant recommendations, and you can tell everyone’s trying their best — there’s only so much you can do inside a Holiday Inn. At half the price, I’d consider coming back. As it stands, it’s too expensive and not nice enough to justify a return.

Beachfront clean, easy access to everything and comfortable.

Stinky carpet where you come in from pool deck area. I understand it helps absorb the water but there had to be another solution I remember that smell from last year.