Quality Inn & Suites University Area – Pensacola

Last month, a friend and I visited Pensacola, Florida to enjoy some much needed sun at the beach.  We were initially coming to this city for Thunder Beats Music Festival but it was cancelled 2 weeks before the event was supposed to happen.  Instead of cancelling our entire trip we thought we would check out Pensacola anyways.

The Hotel

We end up booking 5 nights at Quality Inn & Suites University located on 7200 Plantation Road because it was halfway between the music festival and downtown.  I wish I cancelled this hotel when I knew the music festival was cancelled and chose a hotel between downtown and the beach.

pulling up to the covered entrance

This hotel has 133 rooms on 2 floors and upon arriving to the front desk lobby, the entrance was easy to get in despite not having an automatic wheelchair door button.  I was glad when the lady at the front desk confirmed our room had a bathroom with a roll in shower in it.  I actually previously called before going on the trip to confirm but sometimes I don’t get an accessible room anyways.

front lobby/desk area

Room

accessible rooms only come with 1 King bed options

The accessible rooms at this hotel only comes with 1 King bed which is standard at some hotels.  This set up gives more room for wheelchairs to get around the bed and furniture easier.  There was a mini fridge, microwave, coffee maker and the standard dressers like any other basic place. The TV didn’t have any signals which was Ok as we didn’t need to watch anything.

standard toilet and roll in shower

The roll in shower did fit my commode perfectly as it was easy to roll around completely.  There wasn’t a shower bench which I don’t use anyways but had the standard shower grab bars.  The one thing that would have made this roll in shower better was if there was a hand held shower head.  The fixed shower head made it hard to wash the lower parts of my body.

fixed shower head was a bit annoying

Amenities

There are a few amenities offered at this budget hotel.  There is a fitness center, a business center and meeting rooms that we did not use at all.  There is supposed to be free coffee and breakfast but we did not take advantage of this either.  I am thinking it will be just pastries or fruit or something basic.  The free Wi-fi worked well throughout the whole property.

small snack shop and soda machine

Pool

There is also a nice big outside pool that is gated and requires a key card to enter.  We didn’t really see anyone use the pool while passing by and we didn’t have time to use or relax at the pool.  I was happy to see that there was a wheelchair pool lift to help those who needs one.

gated outdoor pool with wheelchair lift

Location

This hotel is a bit far from both Pensacola downtown and Pensacola Beach.  It was about a 20 minute drive to downtown and just over 30 minute drive to the beach.  It was always hard for us to get any accessible taxi so we relied on regular taxis and Uber to get around.  We tried not to take too many trips a day due to all the transfers and availability.

big shopping center across the street from the hotel

There  is a shopping center right next door and many restaurants and shops nearby.  There was a JC Penny, BJ’s Wholesale club, Waffle House and more.  We thought it was fine to visit this shopping area once but got bored afterwards.  Eating at these places were great because it was close, affordable and there was a wide variety of food options.

El Paso Mexican Grill Restaurant was at the back of hotel parking lot

Final Thoughts

Quality Inn & Suites University was an average hotel.  There was nothing really wrong about this basic hotel except it felt far from everywhere.  If I ever return to Pensacola, I would choose a hotel between downtown or the beach.