*** This is the only review I have ever left for any hotel or restaurant in my life. My wife and I take several trip every year and have never experienced anything close to our stay at the Pearl***

My family decided to head out for Thanksgiving so we booked a room for 3 nights at the Pearl beginning Thanksgiving day. Our room contained (2) full size beds and included breakfast vouchers for 2 each morning The first night I woke up and I saw several roaches crawling around the room and bathroom. I decided not to wake my wife and daughter up but headed downstairs early in the morning to switch rooms. The staff was apologetic and offered to upgrade our room to a small suite with a king size bed and sleeper sofa. Later that afternoon I pulled the covers back to lay down and noticed blood on the sheets. It wasn't a lot of blood (about the size of a quarter - it wasn't fresh as you could tell the sheets had been washed) but was disgusting. After speaking to the manager, staff was sent up to change the bedding immediately and we were given a free night at the hotel. The next morning my wife and daughter went to eat at the Beachside Bar & Grille (I was under the weather) and were accused of stealing our breakfast the previous day. My wife was told that we had to have taken our voucher and not paid our tab for our daughters breakfast as the voucher only covered two meals and the signed receipt was missing. My wife (after calling me) told them we had our copy of the receipt and that there was some kind of mistake. The staff refused to believe her. The next morning when our bill arrived under our door, the breakfast for our first morning was billed to our room with the tip I left. We took the bill downstairs and showed the staff that accused my wife at the Beachside Bar & Grille and she apologized and summoned the manager. We were then given a free breakfast for our troubles. I never asked for any upgrades or free nights or meals but they were given immediately when a problem came up. We would have much rather paid for what we booked and had a great stay.

Pros:
Nice beach
Good location

Cons:
Blood
Roaches
Staff attitudes
Severely outdated rooms (wall thermostat and phone didn't even work)
Pool cleanliness

My wife and I did look for reviews on this property and did find many negative ones on the web prior to booking. We only booked at the Pearl because a college basketball tournament completely filled the Hilton Garden on the island. Shame on us!

The staff is warm, friendly and willing to make good recommendations for dining out. The rooms are ok; we had a deluxe room, which I would assume is an upgrade, but the only thing added was a small couch. The rooms are on the small side, but there is a balcony with a great view. The door had a huge gap on the bottom, so we could hear the hallway noise clearly. The floors are tiled, I prefer carpet, but Im guessing that is because of the sand.

We had Christmas buffet in the restaurant downstairs and it was not good. Our reservation was late in the day and by this time the staff had lost interest and we were ignored. The food was average at best, typical reheated, processed fair you get at a low end casino. My husband likes thaw and serve cheesecake so he was happy with dessert. This buffet was way overpriced. We didn't try it for just a meal, so can't write about non-buffet meals.

The hotel has great beach access and close to the bridge. Dirty Al had great blackened fish tacos.

This is an older hotel but clean with a gift shop and resturaunt/bar.
We did not get to visit the pool since it was too cold but it looked nice. The beds and pillows were very comfortable and everything was clean. We had a nice view of both sides of the island/ocean so we thought that this hotel was in a good location.

We received a great deal on the price since we came in the off season. The beds are extremely comfortable and the views are great. Considering that its a hotel right on the Gulf of Mexico, its looks really good. We would definitely stay again when its warmer...