Katie A.
Yelp
My husband and I went on a babymoon to Charleston and were looking to treat ourselves to a luxury experience. We usually don't spend this much ($400+ per night) on hotels, and we had high expectations.
The first ding is related to communication, even before we checked in. We booked the hotel, breathed a sigh of relief that we made a decision and finalized logistics, then went about our lives. The night before our trip, we were looking for the confirmation email and panicked when we realized that we never got one. This left us wondering: did we actually make a reservation? We called the hotel that night and no one picked up. It was late (around 11pm) but I think I read that there was 24/7 lobby reception. We tried again the next morning (on our way to Charleston) and they confirmed that we had a reservation. They resent the confirmation, but we never got anything. A few days before that, I also emailed the hotel telling them that we were celebrating our babymoon and asked for some local recommendations based on what we were interested in. No response for a few days, so I followed up. Still no response to this day.
Fast forward, we're finally checking in, and my husband asks if they've been having trouble with their email. The front desk attendant said very casually that yeah, sometimes email is working, sometimes it isn't. I'd expect that if this were the case, they'd be trying to fix it and following up by phone to confirm reservations and field questions.
During these phone conversations and when we checked in in person, I was surprised that the staff wasn't more friendly. I felt like I was inconveniencing them by calling. When we checked in, they didn't ask what brought us into town, what we were celebrating, how our day was going, where we were coming from, anything like that. I expect more from a Hampton Inn, tbh. We were offered a welcome cocktail, which was good according to my husband. Same disappointing communication each time we entered/exited. Just nothing to make us feel really welcome.
Now onto the room. We booked a Deluxe King Balcony. Pros: Cute accents, comfy robes and slippers, big(ish) bathroom, great shower pressure, cute balcony, nice seating area, pretty quiet. Cons: Very small, limited storage for clothes and bags.
The thing that perhaps surprised me the most was the lack of services and amenities for the price. No room service, no gym (or passes to local gyms), no information about the neighborhood, no evening reception, no coffee/tea in the lobby (except for during breakfast hours). They did have water and sweet tea throughout the day in the lobby though. No one told us anything about the ability to rent bikes, though we did see a hotel-branded bike on our last day. Not sure if that's available to guests -- no one mentioned it to us. We were also confused about housekeeping.
Day 1 we went back to the room at around 1pm and housekeeping hadn't come by yet. Day 2 we went back to the room at around 3pm and they hadn't come by. They seemed to come around dinner time when doing the turndown service, but didn't remove or replace dirty glasses. Not sure what turndown service is supposed to entail, but on day 1, we got a card with the weather for the next day and a carafe of water. On day 2, we got the weather card but no water. On day 3, we got the weather card and a white chocolate, but no water.
The one service that we enjoyed was breakfast, from 7-10am each morning. We liked the yogurt parfait and muffins. The spread also included scones, toaster pastries (similar to pop tarts), biscuits, apples and oranges, and grits with toppings (blueberries, strawberries, bacon bits, chives, and cheddar cheese). Beverages included drip coffee, tea, orange juice, and cranberry juice.
Breakfast was served on the bar, and guests could spread out a bit in the lobby. The lobby itself was very beautiful, but small, and there no other common areas to relax. There were some repairs/updates being done in the lobby during our stay, which limited the space even more (but not during breakfast hours).
Quick note on location: it's very centrally located. We were able to walk to most things we wanted to see. About 5 minutes to the market, and less than 5 minutes to the pier and pineapple fountain.
Tip on parking: there's a garage about 500 feet behind the hotel. It's at 1 Cumberland Street:
Overall, we had a good stay and it's a decent hotel, but for the price we paid, we expected a lot more in terms of service and amenities. It sort of just felt like a place for us to sleep. We were also hoping for some acknowledgement that we were celebrating something special, but unfortunately didn't get that.