WaterColor Inn — Hotel in Santa Rosa Beach

I have mixed feelings about this hotel. First thing you should be aware of is that this resort is a hub for the entire Watercolor community, meaning that you are sharing almost all resources & amenities with the community, not just hotel guests, & it can feel very crowded & quite confusing at times.

Upon arrival at the hotel you will get your room keys & a bracelet. This is not explained very well, but they key gives you access to your room, the treat suite, & the hotel pool (which also connects to the Gather restaurant). Bracelets indicate you are part of the community & give you access to all OTHER Watercolor amenities. All week I saw people struggling to know whether to use their bracelets or keys at each scan point.Felt chaotic.

The other thing you'll want to know BEFORE YOU BOOK is that if you are interested in reserving a beach setup for your stay, check that first because they can book out MONTHS in advance & the "standby" process is very frustrating. On the day-of, you must stand in line in the direct sun (no shade & nowhere to sit down) & just hope there is availability that day. They open at 9am, but told me to get there around 8:30. I got there right before 8:30 & was already about the 30th person in line. All told, I waited for over an hour with about 30-40 more people behind me yet. Someone from your group will have to repeat this for EVERY single day you want a setup. Everyone in line was as perplexed & annoyed as I was.

Also, they do not make it clear how to even get to this boardwalk to the beach chair setup. What I ended up figuring out the hard way is that if it's prior to 9am, use the FOOW restaurant (& yes - walk through the ENTIRE restaurant where people are eating, out to the patio). If it's after 9am, they want you to use the Beach Club. Is this stated anywhere? No.

Another weird experience we had was at the Gather restaurant. Before we even sat down I first asked the bartender at the pool outside if our party of 4 could sit at the bar & order lunch. He said yes & got a server. She took our drink order but never came back to take our food order. Told the bartender- he got someone else. She told us "I think the girl who was serving you just started her lunch break". So the new server took 2 of our orders & then just walked off! I had to flag down the bartender again & let him know she didn't take our full orders. When she came back, she didn't acknowledge it at all, nor how weird it was for the first server to take a full lunch break in the middle of serving a table. I didn't make a big deal of it, but it felt very weird and a lot like they just didn't want us there.

Last complaints: tried Camp Watercolor & upon arrival (only 30 mins after opening) were told the lazy river was "down" meaning 1/3 of the park was completely unusable, making the other 2 pools way overcrowded. Hardly a chair in sight & the water was disgusting (sunscreen film & debris on top). So we left & tried the Beach Club next to the hotel. Not a single chair available/completely packed. Ended up just going to the hotel pool which was much less crowded & peaceful in comparison but felt like we wasted our entire morning figuring that out.

All of that being said the positives are that the staff at the hotel itself were really great, friendly & helpful. The room itself was also great; clean, cute, no issues. The cleaning staff & the turndown staff who deliver the cookies & water every evening do a great job. The food at both restaurants was also really good. The beach is really clean and beautiful. There were cute shops in Watercolor. The close parking is extremely convenient.

Overall- the hotel has nice features but it feels hard to navigate & make the most of your time because of poor signage and poor explanations, especially if you have someone elderly/disabled in your party like we did. If they fine tuned several things, they could be a real 5-star resort worth the extra money but instead I'm left feeling like I just overpaid for a 3-star experience & wish I would have booked a cheaper but more...

My family of 4 (husband, myself, 3.5 yr old, and 3 month old) wanted to take a trip before maternity leave ended, so chose WaterColor. We'd never been before (though had stayed at Rosemary the past 3 yrs), and had an incredible experience. Our room (the most basic, 2 queens on the 2nd floor) was phenomenal with a great view of the pool and ocean, way better than pictured online. We loved everything about the room and the balcony and house keeping did an incredible job keeping it clean. We found all of the amenities (treat suite with amazing coffee maker in addition to waters, ice cream, etc; beach bag to use; cookies delivered to room; snacks in room upon arrival, etc.) so refreshing. It's so rare to stay at a nice hotel with so many amenities nowadays (usually snacks are displayed with a price tag, which to me is more annoying than anything). The staff were all terrific and tried to accommodate any request we made. We drove down in our electric vehicle and had some difficulties charging it when we arrived after a very long 8hr car ride with two young children... staff helped us charge in a Seaside spot which saved our trip and avoided an expensive tow. ||||Our 2nd floor room was perfectly located - we loved being close to the treat suite and so close to the Fish out of Water restaurant, which we ate at 2x (once while leaving the kids in bed asleep with our baby monitors on). We were a little needy this trip with the two little ones, and the hotel was so nice and accommodating, we really appreciated them and will definitely return when the kids are a little older. ||||The ONLY bummer was that we left a Hatch (white noise machine and night light for kids) in our room and it wasn't ever located. We similarly left a puzzle at the Fish out of Water restaurant and when we returned the next morning, it hadn't been located. Not a huge deal (our fault we left them), but would've been nice to have them located and returned, especially the expensive Hatch. ||||Other tips for families traveling with young children: Camp WaterColor is a short 4 minute drive away and we were able to find parking (I believe it was $25 for the day). We had planned on taking the advertised trolley, but you need a carseat for kids

The good:||warm, helpful staff; beautiful beach; on-site restaurant was top-notch; higher-end finishes + clean rooms; walkable area; delicious cookies!||||Randy drew us the sweetest anniversary card and hooked us up with a yummy desert