We stayed at the Beachfront Inn for three nights in the middle of November while attending the 64th Annual Houston Hoedown Square Dance held at the Moody Convention Center. Our first indication that we had made the right selection for a hotel was finding it; we made a turn off the main road leading to the seawall and there it was. Entry and exit from the parking lot was great and easily done, and parking was plentiful. The "basement" parking lot permitted easy access to the elevator. Checking in was fast and easy and the staff at the front desk were well informed about the area and gave us easy to follow directions for everywhere that we asked them about.

Again, one of the primary reasons for our initial selection of this hotel, other than the location near the beach, was that it offered smoking rooms. The room that we got was on the third floor (well, actually, the second floor of rooms, but they counted what I call the "basement garage" as the ground floor) facing inward to the pool/patio area. The pool was sparkling clean and was well-kept, as I watched the staff clean it every morning that we were there. While we didn't do any swimming on this trip, I did see several families using the pool and the surrounding patio area and they seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely.

The room itself was very good, surprisingly large for a room with two Queen beds, a desk with chair, and small round "kitchen" table with two chairs, a stand with the refrigerator and microwave, and the large TV stand with TV. The air conditioner worked quietly and very well, keeping us comfortably cool during the daytime and toasty warm at night. The refrigerator and microwave worked as expected. It was very handy to have both the desk and the table, as that allowed both my wife and I to have separate working areas for our laptops, using the very fast wireless connection provided by the hotel. The bathroom and sink area were clean and everything worked as expected. The area was quiet, both during the day and at night, and we were uninterrupted in our sleep by anything out of the ordinary.

We had an exceptional time while there. Another "location" plus: restaurants were close by and numerous, in all shapes, sizes, and to meet all tastes. The seawall and beach area were just across the street, allowing us to take leisurely walks along the seawall in the morning after breakfast. The continental breakfast was usual for that type of thing: juice, cereal, rolls and breads of various kinds, hard-boiled eggs, fruit, and self-made waffles.

The final "location" plus was the Kroger's grocery store that was right next door. It enabled us to stock the refrigerator with drinks and snacks without having to go all over the area trying to find someplace to buy the things that we didn't want to haul down there, but knew that we were going to need to make our stay more enjoyable.

A final note about the staff: when we went into our room, we noticed that it was quite gloomy, in that one side of the room had no lighting whatsover. I went down to the front desk to ask if they had an additional desk lamp to put on the table to light that area, and they told me that there should be a floor lamp in that corner of the room, and that they would bring one up immediately. I had barely returned to the room when they brought it up and plugged it in. The next day, we had a stoppage in the toilet and, within five minutes of me calling down to ask for a maintenance man with a plunger, two of them were at my door and the stoppage was unblocked within seconds after that. Everything that we asked for .. extra towels, extra cups, extra trashbags .. was immediately provided to us by either the desk staff or the extremely helpful maid service there. I can't say enough good things about the quality of the staff work that was provided to us during our stay.

There is only thing that I think that the Beachfront Inn could do to improve the conditions there at the hotel: they definitely need more luggage carts to provide for the check-in/check-out time intervals. I was lucky, both going in and checking out, that I was able to find an unused cart near the elevator. I really wouldn't have wanted to move all of our luggage .. as well as the bulky square-dance petticoats and dresses that my wife brings along to these dances .. without the use of a cart.

The weekend was perfect: the Hoedown was everything that we wanted for a getaway weekend of dancing, and the hotel was everything that we hoped for for those times when we weren't either dancing or siteseeing.