Rooms at the Beach Inn(s)

We're stumped. Why is it every year so many business people on Pensacola Beach insist on telling the press well in advance of Memorial Day weekend that beach hotels are "almost full" with advance reservations and things are looking crowded? If you were contemplating a trip to, say, Disney World would you be more or less likely to travel all that way after reading that there might not be room for you at an inn and the lines are likely to be long?

Thankfully, if Diogenes and his fabled lantern were around today and searching for an honest beach business person, he'd find her in a long-time Pensacola Beach resident and hotel manager Beverly McCay. Beverly manages the Holiday Inn Express on Ft. Pickens Road (formerly known as The Dunes). She can always be relied upon for an honest assessment as well as a good deal.

In yesterday's PNJ, Adam Ziglar quotes her as saying, truthfully, "Typically by Tuesday, the week of Memorial Day, we would have a waiting list for this weekend." But not this year, it seems, and that "concerns" her.

Translation: While the beach is back, there's still plenty of room for newcomers to the beach this weekend.