Henderson Park Inn — Hotel in Destin

We just stayed here in May 2022, I don't usually leave reviews but wanted to leave one as there are several things I think future guests would find helpful when deciding to stay here:

Pros:

Location - you can't get any closer to the beach than this. The property is beautiful and just steps away from the beach. The hotel provides chairs, umbrellas, and towels which is nice. Breakfast and lunch are included. We thought the breakfast selection was great and enjoyed the omelet station. We do think there is a missed opportunity for breakfast cocktails as I think many people would order them but it wasn't offered. Lunch was also nice and they had a good selection to choose from, you just need to get your choices in by 8 pm the night before. There is also a coffee station with free snacks and soft drinks available 24/7 which we definitely utilized! The Beach Walk restaurant was delicious, and our server was wonderful. We were able to sit outside on the porch with a view of the ocean. Most of the staff were very helpful, Paul really went out of his way to make sure we had everything we needed. The kitchen staff serving breakfast were friendly and did a great job. You get access to the neighboring property's two pools and hot tub, one of which is adults only (though this wasn't super strictly enforced). There are also bicycles that are free to use and we were able to ride to dinner down the street.

Cons:

Bugs. We stayed in a room located above the kitchen. There was a lot of rain the day we arrived and that night we went to sit on our balcony only to find that it was infested with cockroaches. We spoke to the front desk and one lady working there (don't have her name) was kind of dismissive of the situation and said it was due to the large amount of rain during the day. Other staff at the desk offered to have us switch rooms but this would have involved moving to the other building at 9:30 at night, and we would have had to switch rooms a second time due to booking issues so we opted to stay. We were told they were going to have an exterminator come to treat the balcony but I'm not sure if this happened. Our second and third nights there were still a few cockroaches on the balcony so unfortunately we were unable to use our balcony at night during our 3 night stay. There is a poolside bar at the other property however the hours are only 11-5 daily, which again seems like a missed opportunity as it's closed for dinner time and no bar service at night. We would have enjoyed having drinks by the pool in the evening but this wasn't an option. There is a happy hour at the Inn from 3:30-4:30 daily and there is a bar located at the patio of the Inn, but again the hours are 11-4 so no drinks available at night time. Housekeeping: Housekeeping didn't come on Sunday of our visit for unclear reasons (we were out of the room all day and didn't have the ''do not disturb" sign up). We asked at the front desk when we got back in the afternoon to have the room cleaned but housekeeping had gone for the day. Not sure if this is due to a lack of staff members but for the price of the room it seems like this isn't something that should be missed.

In general we did enjoy our stay and you really can't beat the location of the property. The Inn is very nice and aside from the issues above we enjoyed our stay and would...

We booked two different rooms based on what they had available. The first night we booked their most expensive room, the presidential suite and the second and third night we booked the queen Juliette balcony (as this was all they had). When we arrived, no one asked us if we needed help with our luggage. We made our way to the Presidential Suite and it was filthy. The room size was massive but they clearly never cleaned it well. The couches and carpet all stained, the vents had 1 inch layers of dust all over, the fan was covered in dust balls and dust layers, some vents were falling out of the ceiling with no screws, the tile floor cracked, carpet has nails popping through and there is dirt and dust all over the floors from not being vacuumed or cleaned. There was also a huge roach on the floor which didn’t add for an additional touch. It’s Florida so I’m trying to be accepting of palmetto roaches but it wasn’t cool finding that on your already filthy $1000 room floor. We were incredibly disappointed. For over $1000 this is not what we expected. We did share this with management and our next two nights we were supposed to stay in the queen room, was then adjusted to the king room. While the king room was definitely much cleaner, this room was also hundreds of dollars less in value. It’s just very disappointing to pay over $1000 to have a room you can’t sit on the couch, or walk the floors without your feet covered. ||Aside from the room, we also had a pretty awful breakfast experience. Eggs cold, and my husband’s avacado toast was missing the egg. We sent it back and it was fixed but that lost our trust in the restaurant so we ate out instead. Our experience with the rental chairs on the beach was not good the first day either. The guy told us there were chairs set up, we walked over and there wasn’t. He didn’t offer to add anymore, so my husband put ours out for us. We really felt they lacked the customer service feature here. ||This place lacked the prestige we hoped for and we decided we wouldn’t return here again. While the sunset and sunrise are just breathtaking, the hospitality and attention to detail here is lacking and not for us at this price. It seems people have been coming here for so many years they have blinders up and are missing how much is falling through the cracks or even noticing any issue. We would not stay here again and definitely do not believe 4 stars is a true depiction of this place, it could use work and...

We booked two different rooms based on what they had available. The first night we booked their most expensive room, the presidential suite and the second and third night we booked the queen Juliette balcony (as this was all they had). When we arrived, no one asked us if we needed help with our luggage. We made our way to the Presidential Suite and it was filthy. The room size was massive but they clearly never cleaned it well. The couches and carpet all stained, the vents had 1 inch layers of dust all over, the fan was covered in dust balls and dust layers, some vents were falling out of the ceiling with no screws, the tile floor cracked, carpet has nails popping through and there is dirt and dust all over the floors from not being vacuumed or cleaned. There was also a huge roach on the floor which didn’t add for an additional touch. It’s Florida so I’m trying to be accepting of palmetto roaches but it wasn’t cool finding that on your already filthy $1000 room floor. We were incredibly disappointed. For over $1000 this is not what we expected. We did share this with management and our next two nights we were supposed to stay in the queen room, was then adjusted to the king room. While the king room was definitely much cleaner, this room was also hundreds of dollars less in value. It’s just very disappointing to pay over $1000 to have a room you can’t sit on the couch, or walk the floors without your feet covered.

Aside from the room, we also had a pretty awful breakfast experience. Eggs cold, and my husband’s avacado toast was missing the egg. We sent it back and it was fixed but that lost our trust in the restaurant so we ate out instead. Our experience with the rental chairs on the beach was not good the first day either. The guy told us there were chairs set up, we walked over and there wasn’t. He didn’t offer to add anymore, so my husband put ours out for us. We really felt they lacked the customer service feature here.

This place lacked the prestige we hoped for and we decided we wouldn’t return here again. While the sunset and sunrise are just breathtaking, the hospitality and attention to detail here is lacking and not for us at this price. It seems people have been coming here for so many years they have blinders up and are missing how much is falling through the cracks but an issue. We would not stay here again and definitely do not believe 4 stars is a true depiction of this place, it could use work and...