Pros =
Friendly & Helpful Staff
Comfortable Bed
Shower Pressure
Location (2 blocks to beach, next to lots of shopping and restaurants)
Fair price

Cons =
Oldest Holiday Inn Express I have ever seen, needs updating (which I believe they are planning on completing)
Breakfast food tasted dry & stale (same spread as other Holiday Inn Express hotels but not the same quality)
No WiFi in the rooms
No thermostat for the room (one unit below the window with generic knob dials)
No gym

Overall for the low price we paid I would stay here again.

Tip - if arriving to Destin from the NE, take 331 over the bay and the 98 west, instead of the Mid Bay Bridge which has a $3 toll.

Nothing wrong with this location. Staff was very friendly, everything was clean, free WiFi, and a great breakfast. Dining rooom attendant was present and kept food area refreshed. Perhaps HI has read other reviews and made improvements. Next door is a shopping center with a Chilli's & Outback, across the street is another shopping center and on Hyw 98 you have all the tourist attractions you could want. Banks and ATM's nearby.
I left a favourite shirt and they called me and mailed it.
Getting back late night from a business seminar, there's a TGIF about a block away, dinner and drinks till at least midnight.
I paid about 79.00 for a large room with two queen beds. The room was very clean, and i have no complaints about any area of the room.
Not a resort on the beach, so it may not work for a family for a vacation, but it is a great, inexpensive location for meetings, etc

This hotel is in a great location. It is about 2 blocks from the beach and you don't have beachfront prices, but that is the only thing that was good about it. The 1 elevator that we knew of is so slow that we just took the stairs. The cleanliness of the room was about average. We found several long hairs in the bathroom. That grossed me out from the very beginning. The staff at the front desk screwed up my Priority Club points. I had 5 rooms reserved and got points for only 1. When I found out about it a few weeks later, I called back to the hotel to see what happened and nobody could tell me. And of course the 800 number to the Priority Club Line does not work. The hotel is o.k. if you are just looking for shelter close to the beach but that's it. I have decided to just stay at Marriotts from now on. At least I can get someone to answer the phone when I call about their Rewards program.

As a platinum business traveler who spends 60+ nights a year in IC hotel properties, I hope the hotel pays attention to my review. Although Holiday Inns vary greatly in quality from hotel to hotel, for the most part, the Express line is much more consistently clean and fresh.
We stayed here for three nights. since we extended our stay one night, we got to see the insides of two different rooms. The regular 2 queen room felt small for a HIX. The King suite was very spacious. Both rooms were clean. AC worked great. Most importantly, the beds, pillows, and towels were all very comfortable, and up to the standards i have come to expect from HIX. We slept very well. All staff we encountered were very friendly and helpful.
The rest of the room could use some attention. It just felt old. One room's Closet door stuck, the other room it was missing. In the first room, the Shower faucet leaked and toilet felt wobbly when you sat down. In the second room, the shower curtain rod was hanging on by a thread on one side. In both rooms, the caulking around the tub and the grout on the tile floor was stained and discolored. Most of these are easy maintenance fixes. With a little bit of work, this property could be up to par with the rest of the HI Express line.
Regardless, this hotel was a good price and a great location, and we got a good night's sleep. I would stay here again.