Hotel Review - Red Roof Inn, Pensacola, Florida

While traveling to Pensacola to see the Blue Angel show, I decided to spend a night at the Red Roof Inn on Plantation Road. This was one of the few hotels that still had rooms available, so I jumped at the chance to book it.

One good thing about Red Roof Inn is that they offer discount rates if you book through their Website. I was not able to take advantage of this, but the price of the room was still pretty affordable, coming to around $80. It was the cheapest hotel in the area, with the next one being $120.

Checking in at Red Roof Inn was fast and easy. The clerk at the desk was very friendly and greeted me immediately. I was given the key to my room and went to get settled in.

The first thing I noticed about my room was that it was very dark. Even with all the lights on, the room was very poorly lit. It was also a very basic room. It had a bed, small desk, a chair, and not much else. I was told on the phone that my room would have both a fridge and a microwave, but it had neither. This was an inconvenience as I had been hoping to eat dinner in my room rather than going to a restaurant.

Walking outside and looking around, there were several restaurants nearby. Directly behind the hotel is a Chuck E Cheese and a Waffle House, and there was also a Denny's close by as well. All these are easily within walking distance. Since I was only staying at this hotel for one night, I decided it would be easiest to eat at the nearby restaurant. The only thing that I was not thrilled about was that between dinner and breakfast the next morning, the money I saved on the hotel room was becoming much less.

The room itself was okay. I've seen a lot of hotel reviews that complain that the rooms at Red Roof Inn smells like dog, but mine was not like that at all. The bed was comfortable, though there were some scraps of papers hidden underneath it that could have been cleaned better. The carpet looked very worn and the bathroom floor was not cleaned as well as it could have been. There was also no hairdryer or coffee pot in my room. Despite what I was told on the phone, there are practically no amenities for this place. The Red Roof Inn Website also states that all their hotels provide complimentary coffee to their guests, but by the time I checked out at 8:30 AM, there was none left.

At one point I left my room to get some ice and was very disappointed to find that the carpet located directly in front of the ice machine was completely drenched with water. It remained this way till I checked out the following day. While there was nothing completely atrocious about this hotel, it also was not the best that I've stayed at either.

This particular Red Roof Inn motel was very easy to find. It is also located very close to the interstate and the Pensacola Regional Airport, but despite that, there was not any loud traffic noises. Red Roof Inn is also known for allowing animals to stay in their rooms, and I did see several other guests walking dogs, but again, noise was not a problem. I never heard one dog bark or any loud cars or planes passing by. My room was very quiet.

There is not much to do at this hotel. The Red Roof Inn televisions do offer pay-to-view channels, which you may need because the TVs alone get a few channels. I only had around ten, most of which were either infomercials or opera singers. This is also one of the few hotels in the Pensacola area that does not have a pool. While this was fine for my needs, if you are traveling with young children you might have a hard time keeping them entertained.

The Red Roof Inn building itself is fairly old. While it doesn't look completely run down, there are much newer hotels in the same area. The hotel itself is not horrible, but it's definitely not one of the best in Pensacola either. Overall, it was a cheap place to stay, but I was very disappointed about how I was mislead into thinking my room would have more amenities than it did.

After looking at the Red Roof Inn Website, I feel that it is deceiving. In addition to the Website being wrong about various amenities, the site also claims that the University Mall is located less than a mile from the hotel. While this is true, they fail to mention that the University Mall is completely empty now.

If you are looking for a very basic hotel for a good nights sleep, this would be an affordable place to stay. However, if you are looking for more to do other than just sleeping, you would probably be better off staying at one of the other nearby hotels.