Postcard Inn Experience

My SIL and her daughter came our way for their spring break which is way past our spring break.  Which meant that my children were in school the entire week.  Because of that, and because she deserved it after the winter she has had in Indiana, my SIL decided to spend part of the week on the beach.  Not really understanding the many cities within minutes of each other, she booked a place in St. Pete Beach about forty minutes from my house.  I made sure to complain about that every chance I got.

They came in at night so we didn't hang around the hotel after they checked in, but I found my brief view of the facility to be spectacular. The lobby was very spacious with the front desk area, a large sitting area with comfy couches arranged in a circle for easy conversation, an area to play games or cards, and another sitting with couches and funky chairs. The walls were very beach themed and the smell of coconuts wafted through the entire lobby. The front desk clerk informed me that the scent was piped in through the ceiling to create the beachy smell.

To get to their room we left through the back of the lobby and out into a beautiful courtyard surrounding the pool with plenty of palm trees and flowering plants. It made for a lovely walk, especially in the evening with soft light and music playing from speakers placed in the foilage.  The room was a good size for two people, although the bathroom was quite tiny. There were two beds covered in pristine, white bedding under a hodge podge of framed photographs on the wall. There was a couch decorated in fifties stripes and bright, neon colors in a little alcove next to the bathroom, and a combination dresser and desk that housed a television. The floors were wood and the walls an off white. I thought it charming and very surf style. I left before the discovery was made of crackers and food on the floor, a lack of towels, and only one half used roll of toilet paper. The phone to connect with the front desk only offered a busy signal and so they had to hike back and forth through the courtyard to communicate with the hotel.

I met them for breakfast the next morning at the hotel. It was pouring down rain and that forecast was scheduled for the entire day, a rare thing in these parts. The waiter in the hotel restaurant was attentive and entertaining as we were the only guests there for quite some time. The food was good and the prices quite unexpectedly inexpensive. We drank coffee in the lobby in the sitting area and caught up on our lives. Gabby took selfies in the photo booth and investigated some of the hung photographs. We got brave and hiked down to the private beach after breakfast just to see it, but our shoes got soaked and we gave up. I drove them back to my part of town and we visited Grandma in rehab and hung with the girls after school.

They had better weather the next two days on the beach, but did not fare so well with their hotel. The second night the air conditioning broke and the thermostat stuck on 60 degrees and they froze in their room. The next day repair took up several prime tanning hours and in the end wasn't fixed and the air conditioning turned off.  That night they were too hot. Despite being mostly unoccupied, the hotel staff never discussed moving them into a better functioning room and seemed quite indifferent when alerted to the fact the room and conditions were less than satisfactory. They did take $50 off of the final bill, but after our experience with Hampton Inn's refund policy that was almost a slap in the face.

I know that my family will not stay at the Postcard Inn again. Had it been more then what they got we might all have spent some time there this summer, despite the distance from my house. Instead my SIL spent time searching closer beaches for her next spring break trip hotel. Of course, the next set of accommodations on this trip were more then adequate and came complete with in house and outside animals and a chef which more then made up for the disappointment of the Postcard Inn.  But that is for the next post.