Boardwalk Beach Hotel & Convention Center — Attraction in Panama City Beach

I reside in Chattanooga Tennessee. I come to Panama City Beach at least once every year! And as is my usual routine, I arrived in PCB at this property approximately 4:00 a.m. the morning of our check-in, even though the official check-in time was not until 4:00 p.m. My usual practice has been to visit the property and chat with the front desk clerk and inquire as to when might be the earliest we can check in. The clerk, who was friendly, helpful and approachable, informed me that we should be able to come by anytime after 1:00 p.m. and they should have a room ready. So we go to the area where they serve continental breakfast and surprise, surprise! You have to pay for your continental breakfast! Even if you only want juice, you have to purchase a cup first and refills are not free! As advertised by a sign they have up on the counter! So as a result, we decided to go eat breakfast in town. ||We returned to the property around 1:30 p.m., and as I entered through the front door, the girl I saw at the front desk seemed to me to be the same girl I met at 4:00 that morning. But as I reached the front desk and looked closely at the young lady, I realized she was not the same person. I told her that for a moment I thought she was the same girl I had encountered earlier that morning, and immediately the other desk clerk quickly stood up and said very aggressively, "Oh, do we all look alike to you?". I said, "No you do not! That's not what I was saying. I have diabetes and my vision is often times blurry, whether from a distance or standing by the front door. I merely thought she looked like the girl I saw earlier today. However it seems my eyesight was unclear and I could not tell the difference". The other clerk looked at her and asked her who was on duty that morning, and when she informed her, the other clerk responded "Wow! That's quite a surprising comparison!". I answered, "Actually, it's not!". Following this, she completed my paperwork, I settled the outstanding balance, signed the necessary documents and received my temporary parking pass. She mentioned that they would reach out to me when a room opened up and I inquired about the earliest possible time a room and could be available. The other clerk, who had already been impolite and rude, quickly approached again and stated, in a very serious manner, "Check-in is between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.!". I responded that I was merely curious because the girl from this morning mentioned that I might be able to check in as early as 1 o'clock or 2:00 and once again the rude clerk interrupted me, cutting me off stating loudly, "CHECK-IN IS BETWEEN 4:00 and 6:00 p.m.! THANK YOU SIR! HAVE A NICE DAY!". Then, without acknowledging me any further, she started conversing with the other clerk as if I wasn't still standing there. They eventually called at 4:00 p.m. on the dot with our room assignment. ||Upon arrival to the room, we discovered that the back patio deck we had specifically asked for and paid for actually served as the rear access point to the pool. There was no patio area as we were promised per our reservation. The A/C unit located on the floor above us was dripping onto our level, and our small seating area was submerged in approximately 3 inches of unpleasant A/C water. There were water stains throughout the ceiling in the room. One specific area got worse by the day. Whenever you took a shower, the water in our shower tub would rise above your ankles. We removed a large ball of hair and other waste, approximately the size of a softball, from the drain. But the water continued to overflow from the drain. ||Fast Fwd to the evening of Day 2, the Tiki Bar they own was open and it was actually one of the highlights of our stay. Great atmosphere, live music with great ambiance and an awesome vibe... Until the music stopped at 9:00 p.m. on a Friday night, and the bar closed at 10:00 p.m. all because the residents of the building adjacent the bar complained about the music. ||On Day 3, our front door arbitrarily stopped locking. I went to the front desk to report it and they said they'd get someone out to fix it. 6 hours later, maintenance finally showed up and fixed it. ||In summary, the whole experience was simply dreadful. They promote this location as if it were the Palace of the Gods. But when you arrive, it is far from what is advertised. I simply cannot, and would not, ever recommend anyone stay at the Boardwalk Beach Hotel on South Thomas Drive! This has been the worst hotel experience I have ever had in all my years coming to Panama City Beach, Florida! 1-Star for the live music and the housekeeping staff...

We made a detour trip to Panama from Orlando just to stay the night and see the beach before we headed back home. We weren’t wanting to spend a whole lot since it was just for the day/night. I haven’t been to PCB in years but was told Thomas Dr was better to stay. Found this hotel and thought the pictures looked nice online. Thought since it was a convention center too and had a restaurant it would be better. The price was great, but you really get what you pay for here! If I could give this place zero stars I would. Everything walking to the rooms was dirty. Cigarette butts laying on the floor and the elevator area smelled horrible. The elevators made me nervous too and we’re very creeky. We get to the room and the futon had stains all over it, looked like throw up. I tried to flip the mattress over and it was the same on both sides. The other beds had holes in the sheets from what looked like cigarette burns. The bathtub dripped and had cigarette burns on it too. Something red had stained the bottom of the tub. The mini fridge was rusted and was frozen over. The ironing board was broke and just left halfway standing in the room. There was other peoples trash left around the beds.

I was willing to overlook all of this because it was just a one night stay and we just wanted to go to the beach. So that’s what we did, just went to the beach and hung out for a few hours. The bar area was nice and the pool at the resort side looked decent but we couldn’t swim there because we were on the hotel side. The bathrooms in the resort side were really nice and clean too. Probably would have been ok had we of stayed there. Kids wanted to swim so we headed back up to the pool and this is when things took a turn for the worst. The pool was disgusting. I get there will be sand in the pool being on the beach, but this was beyond just a little sandy. It looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in weeks. When we got there, there were two women laughing and talking and dancing erratically which ok, that’s fine, you do you, I don’t care. But after sitting there and watching them for a minute, they saw me and my two daughters and went over to I guess their room and got a man from the room. He came out and stood on the porch and they all stared at us. They started speaking in ASL which I know a bit of. They kept staring at us and talking to the man and they were signing words like “mom” and “three”. My husband and sister in law had gone back to the bar area before meeting us at the pool so me and my two were alone. The man sat down on the porch and the women started to get in the pool. I was about to tell my daughters to get out and at that time my husband came walking back up. The women who had just got in the pool saw him coming towards me and they quickly got back out of the pool and went back over to their man. I told my husband I didn’t like the feeling I was getting. Earlier there had been another man in what appeared to be a guard uniform that sat by the door where we parked and watched us the whole time we were unloading our bags. There was another man that followed us into the elevator and then followed us down the balcony to our room. The deadbolt on our door didn’t lock either and there was no other locking mechanism like most hotel doors to prevent anyone who had a key from entering. This all might have just been coincidence and I was trying to think it was all just in my head, but I did not like the feeling we were getting whatsoever and my spidey senses were going crazy! Needless to say, we packed our stuff up after all of this, said screw the money we just spent to stay here, left and drove to another hotel. It was a horrible experience and I don’t recommend this place to anyone! I’ve traveled all across the country, coast to coast, north and south and have never had an issue with “cheap hotels” like I did here. Do...

Yikes I really do not know where to begin. This place uses the term “Resort” which I am assuming that they were grandfathered in from around 1985 which coincidentally is probably the last time this place was updated. While I totally understand that we were not there to sit in the room, I am not sure why anyone would want to. We entered into a room that felt like I was transported to an old Roadway Motel. Chipped tile throughout, flaking paint and furniture that was closely matched by what I have to assume came from a thrift store. The television was a small maybe 32 inch that when I turned it on only got 3 channels. I called the front desk and they finally sent someone up to look. Somehow they reset the TV and I realized that this “resort” had analog basic cable package that once he got me some channels, it was basically too fuzzy to watch so I gave up and watched Hulu on my phone. Which enters the next great thing about this place. The WiFi. Upon checking in, we were given a WiFi password. Silly me I assumed that meant that they had an active WiFi. When I tried to log in, none of my devices found the WiFi. I called the front desk, again and asked if it was down. They said no and that I should come to the front desk to show them what’s coming up on my phone. I said that won’t work because it will pick up the router way up there. They said I was the only one complaining about this so I must be doing something wrong as though I have never logged in to a WiFi before. For the 7 days I stayed here the WiFi worked part of 3 days. Now here comes the rifle round. Huge gap in the door that allowed pretty much any varment in to the room. The door had to be physically lifted in order to lock the bolt. There was no closer but the shelf they hung on the wall as what I had to assume was for the lack of closet, had no hangers. Chipped tile throughout, mold in the bathroom shower ceiling, and the sink was clogged so it wouldn’t drain for nearly 10 minutes every time we used it. The house keeping schedule was posted on the wall claiming that they would do a “full” clean on our fourth day. When that didn’t happen I had to call the front desk. They came up and made N effort to clean but they made one bed nicely and the other bed they looked like Goldilocks the housekeeper took a nap on it. (See picture) now as to the features of this great resort…well there simply aren’t any. The restaurant that I was told had a breakfast etc was terrible. I wasn’t sure if I was going for breakfast or walking up to get popcorn and a Coke for the movie. The food selection is awful and the orange juice, keep in mind we are in Florida, came out of the machine brown. There are really no services offered. I asked about a chair and umbrella for the beach and I was sent to some third party kiosk on the beach to pay 50 dollars for this. If I could give negative stars on this place I would. I will say that one star would be for the view of the beach from our room was pretty good and the beach was nice despite the fact that Monday through Friday there was no lifeguard at all there as it was advertised that there would be. It’s ok though I assume people just don’t drown on those days. Bottom line STAY AWAY from this hotel. Read the other reviews as I have probably missed some things that other people have said. I can’t wait to come back to PCB and stay literally anywhere else but...