Holiday Inn Panama City by IHG

The location worked really well for what I needed, and the staff were friendly and attentive. My room was clean and quiet, though it was showing some wear, with frayed carpet and wrapped laminate flooring. The bed was comfortable. Breakfast could use more variety since the choices stayed the same every day of my stay. I’ll stay again.

The grill served good food, and the spa was amazing, but after reading so many glowing reviews I expected a better stay. The room itself was the only thing included, and the other extras felt like they would all cost more. I didn’t find the afternoon cookies or cinnamon rolls mentioned in other reviews. A different hotel with a pool and free breakfast may be a better deal. We paid $30 for breakfast, which we understood online would be $15 per room, but it turned out to be $15 per person. There wasn’t a way to add it to our online booking. For that price, the food was disappointing: overcooked and dry, with packaged muffins, and only burnt pancakes instead of the waffle makers shown in the online pictures. I’d been most looking forward to waffles. There was hardly any hot water at first. We eventually got it hot by letting it run for about 20 minutes, which I’ve never had to do at a hotel. We also brought food for a picnic, but the room had no power until we paid and brought a key card there. The mini fridge never turned on, so by morning all the food we’d put in it had spoiled. Guest services replaced the fridge, but our food was ruined. Two weeks after checkout, my $50 deposit still hadn’t been returned. It’s supposed to be refunded if there’s no damage. I called and confirmed there wasn’t an issue with our room, but I was still out the money.

Janice from housekeeping went above and beyond to make sure we had what we needed. The front desk staff also helped us by making copies for our weekend conference. Thank you, Janice, for the exceptional job.

During our training, Ms. Janice Abner Nicholson made us feel cared for, like guests and friends. Other staff helped too, but Ms. Janice's service really went above and beyond. Because of her, we’ll definitely look to Holiday Inn for future training. Well done, Holiday Inn. You trained them well.