Our Review

NOTE: HOLIDAY INN BEACHSIDE KEY WEST IS NO LONGER BOOKABLE THROUGH OUR SYSTEM.

This is one of the largest hotel complexes on the island, and sits on the right hand side of the road where route on first meets Key West. This is also the island's convention center, and although it can take care of the average visitor and his/her family, it is also capable of accommodating a large meeting or convention.

The grounds are pretty, but are functional. On Key West one has to manage what little ground one can obtain. There is the hotel itself and all its rooms, parking, traffic flow, and other facilities to consider. Hotel planners have to do the best they can with maintaining a feeling of tropical-ness, beauty, and privacy with functionality. With many hotel planners for island lodgings, they make the mistake of leaning too heavily towards the tropical esthetics and make an initially pretty, but claustrophobic and frustrating lodging complex.

Not so here. You never have any reason to forget you are in the tropics, but there is plenty of hotel, plenty of parking, great facilities, and excellent traffic flow for vehicles and pedestrians. This is the most efficient layout on the island.

This may not sound like a sexy feature for a hotel, but it is. It is good to be able to get in and out of your own hotel!

Due to its location on North Roosevelt, there is no back street to get here. Do not, under any circumstances, rent an electric vehicle if you are going to stay here, you cannot use it to get to and from the hotel. The Holiday Inn Beachside and the Coconut Mallory (a condo resort) are the only lodgings on the island where renting a car is recommended.

There is a restaurant (the Angler's Lounge) that serves good food, and does so poolside.

While we were there, we spoke with Sherry, who is the concierge for the Holiday Inn Beachside. She is part of a husband-wife team, her husband is the activities director. They are the ones to talk to for jet ski rentals, snorkel and dive trips, boat rentals, sunset cruises and more. You can expect personable, professional and courteous service from them both.

The meeting facilities are a huge draw for the Holiday Inn Beachside. They comprise 6218 sq. ft. of flexible meeting space. All meeting rooms include telephone with dataport, climate control, and adjustable lighting, built-in PA system with AV equipment available for rental. The largest room's capacity is 650 (measurements: 105.0 ft/32 m x 50.0 ft/15.24 m). The smallest room's measurements are 20.0 ft/6.1 m x 16.0 ft/4.88 m.

The private beach, like all resort beaches on Key West, is not big. The operating thought here is not "beach", but "private".

Who should stay here? Meetings, groups, weddings, families.

Customer Review
Stayed for a business trip, but had a little fun too. Nice courtyard. Very helpful tourist advisor. Wish they had a complimentary breakfast like most Holiday Inns. Clean, but the bed could have been a little more comfortable. I also wish we could have seen the sunrise or sunset from the balcony.

Customer Review
Very friendly staff made our visit wonderful! From the first drink in the bar, we knew we made a great choice! X and X keep you smiling at the bar, and the on-site sports activities made it unnecessary to hunt around. All around, what a bargain!

Customer Review
The beach is a joke! There is just enough of a man-made sandy area that they can advertise themselves as "Beachfront"*. You can't swim and wouldn't even want to wade in the water. The carpet in the room was so dirty that the soles of our feet would get black if we walked around barefoot in our room. Not even near the standard of cleanliness that I expected from this hotel chain. The pool was very pretty and clean, but they played rock music through the poolside stereo system. The front desk staff was very friendly and polite.
(*Reviewer's Note: None of the hotels or resorts on Key West have beaches of any size, this is a common surprise for the new visitor. To be fair, this is not the fault of the hotels, there just isn't enough island to have a big strip of beach!)