The big pink hotel....is the Don Ceasar.... which is lovely and quite$$$$. There is a Radisson on the water that we stayed at about 5 years ago, however we had lots of problems with it (mold in the rooms and musty). There is a hotel called the Alden right on the beach next to the Radisson. That was supposed to be nice and not terribly $$$. There is another hotel owned by the Raddisonn called the Sandpiper Inn. I had orignally reservations at the Days Inn in St. Pete's, however when we checked in and saw the room, it wasn't what I expected either, so we check right out. It's hard for a moderately $$$ room on St. Pete's beach I found. The Don Ceasar, would be where I will stay next. They now have their beach house hotel(although they BOTH are on the beach) the beach resort is more like a motel, where the Don is a 5 star hotel that looks like a big pink mansion! I have been inside and you can't go wrong there.