Altho the lobby speaks of Chic Hotel, this hotel lacks management of housekeeping. Each day when we arrived in our room the only way we knew housekeeping had been there was there was fresh towels and the bed had somewhat been made. I say somewhat because my eyeglasses were found made up in the bed. Iron boards were left up, mouthwash and toothpaste still lingered in the sink and room was left un-keeped. I chose this over Hilton next door because someone said in this forum, the Hilton beds were uncomfortable. When I spoke with the clerk regarding this I was told housekeeping does not touch personal items, thus justifying the vanity not being cleaned. But the ironing board was not my personal item. Hampton is off my list forever.

I've stayed at many Hampton Inn hotels over the past 20 years. At one time their guarantee of satisfaction or you don't pay was real. In Arkansas when the check out person asked how my stay was I told her that it was fine except for being awakened at 6 am by the maids talking outside our door. She immediate said "then there is no charge and I'm very sorry that happened. We'll speak to the staff and make sure that doesn't happen again." I told her it was no big deal, but she insisted that the policy was that the guest had to be satisfied or they don't pay. Well, that is no longer true, at least at the Hampton Inn at Pensacola Beach in Florida. I was surprised and disappointed that this Hampton Inn was not all non-smoking. But, I was told, only the rooms not facing the ocean were smoking rooms. We went to our room on the 4th floor and we literally ran to our room because the hall was so smokey. My wife is very allergic to cigarette smoke. Fortunately the room was not smokey. When I mentioned to the front desk that we were not happy about the smokey hallway he said since they allow smoking in the rooms that don't face the ocean there was nothing he could do about it. The day we left I mentioned it to the front desk clerk (not seen before) and she said "oh, only the 4th floor has any smoking allowed and that's only in the rooms not facing the ocean." I asked why we weren't told that before, that we would have asked to be moved. She said "I don't know." No apology, no offer of a refund. I have filled out the survey Hampton Inn sent and complained, but I got no response. I sent an email complaining and haven't received even so much as acknowlegment of the email.

I will never stay in a Hampton Inn again.

We decided to wrap-up our six day trip to Pensacola with a night at the beach. Yes it was dark more than it was light outside, and it was chilly and windy, so this wasn't a typical beach trip. We got an upper floor room with a balcony which gave us a great view of the red-flag breaking surf on the beach below. The king bed was super comfortable for me and my wife, and one kid slept on the sofa bed while the other got a roll-away which prevented the midnight battles over who was stealing what covers. Breakfast was typical Hampton fare - nothing special, but very good for what it is. Warm coffee was available in the lobby full-time, which was a great feature after walking on the beach. They were in the middle of re-flooring the breakfast area, so it was a little awkward, but that looked like it should be finished in a few weeks and disruption was minimal.

I imagine this place could get very busy and hectic during the summer beach season, but all was calm and very quiet this time of year. It was just what we were looking for!

I visited once before around New Years and wrote a review about the pretty negative experience I had at this hotel. Well, they got in contact with me, refunded one of the two nights' stay and gave me a voucher for a free night. This time our room was very clean, on the Gulf-side of the hotel, and they gave us a free bottle of wine. I would now recommend this place to others. Also--pro tip: ask to borrow any of their collection of beach umbrellas, beach chairs, floats, etc. as they keep a whole bunch in a store room behind the front desk and will let you borrow any of them for free!