Francis Marion Hotel — Attraction in Charleston

My Fiancé and I stayed at Francis Marion in October for a wedding. We were really excited for a fancy, historical and well-located hotel experience. While this we true - it was certainly upscale and well located - we were left underwhelmed by the experience.

Firstly, historical is great but if it means the layout of the room is awkward, I’ll take modern and functional. Our room had nooks that couldn’t be used, a bathroom that couldn’t fit 2 people at the same time, yet a shower that was huge and winding. Just a lot of wasted space making us feel like we were lacking for space even though the room was a decent size. You just have no use for a 5x5 square of space in the corner of the room!

Second, the service was lacking. While the front desk was helpful, we were surprised to find, given the rates we were paying, that the bellhop was totally overwhelmed. We felt like we were impositioning him by merely asking him to put our bags in the closet while we waited for our room. After asking, his face turned red, he started sighing and shaking his head. I asked if he was okay and he said, “yeah, it’s just a lot going on right now.” The guy was so stressed out, I guess because there were a lot of people checking in? It just felt unprofessional to have a bellhop that makes you feel bad for asking him to do a 30 second task, or to be that understaffed. Again, this is fine for a standard hotel, but not for what is meant to be a luxury hotel.

Third, we were woken up on Saturday morning to loud music right outside our door. When I opened the door to see what it was, I met a housekeeper who was cleaning the room directly across the hall, with the door open and music blasting from her phone. It was kind of shocking to think that was a normal practice. When I asked if she could turn it down she nicely said “sorry, I didn’t think you could hear.” I could see an inconsiderate guest waking us up with music, but not someone who works for the hotel. Again, just very unprofessional.

We will continue to visit Charleston frequently, but I don’t think we will ever decide to pay luxury prices for a very below...

I don't say this lightly but working with the Francis Marion was the most stressful part of our whole wedding planning process. We booked a hotel block with them a year before our wedding date. 7 months before our wedding we had a guest tell us that the hotel had booked up. When we asked the hotel about this, they admitted that they dropped the ball and did not send us the proper paperwork to extend our hotel block when the first 10 rooms filled up and now we were forced to get a 2nd hotel to accommodate our guests.

We also planned to do our welcome party there the night before the wedding. After multiple emails that we unanswered we had to show up at the hotel to get the answer to simple questions or get invoices sent. When drawing up the invoice we wanted to have food sent to the bridesmaids as they got ready. The hotel tried to charge us 10x the amount for the food and stood their ground when we raised the issue. Not until we told them to cancel the order did they realize their mistake and adjusted the invoice to the proper amount.

They attempted to accommodate some of the mistakes with free mimosas for the wedding party as they got ready. When it came time to order, they then clarified it would only be for an hour and made it very clear that if we wanted any longer that we would have to pay. We agreed to 1 hour of mimosas and then they completely forgot to bring them on the day of the wedding.

I brought up all these issues to them when I checked out and they assured me they would call me to provide a credit for some of the mistakes. I received a call that night that they still had to work on it and would call me the next day. I sit here 3 weeks after my wedding and still never heard from them.

This hotel is beautiful and has a great location in Charleston. The staff is doing a disservice to how great this hotel is. I would not recommend working with them in any respect if you are planning a wedding...

Perfect location. Less than perfect hotel.

The hotel itself is the exact location you will want for a stay in downtown Charleston. Being a historic hotel over 100 years old comes with many issues. The biggest issue is the size of the rooms. The bathrooms are laughably small (like being able to turn off the light while in the shower, flush the toilet in the shower, no exhaust fan, door chaos against the closet and entry doors if someone decides to leave the door open, etc). The beds were fine, but nothing special. Sadly the items they could update easily like the TV are still aged and sadly not "smart." If you wanted to watch Netflix for a family movie night, you're out of luck.

We stayed on the second floor and although the rooms were tiny and we were forced to get two rooms for our small family, we were thankful to not have to use the elevator. The couple of times we used it it was slow. And those who struggle with stairs, will have issues at this property since the lobby is not on the ground floor (Starbucks, Swamp Fox restaurant) and requires 12 or so stairs to reach.

The lobby is aged and poorly designed for sitdowns/meetings. It is as if they spread out the aged furniture just well enough to take up all the space, but only have a few areas to sit instead of placing chairs near each other and providing more opportunities to sit together. The colors of the room and the lobby furniture aren't inviting enough to sit down there long, although we did grab dessert one night and sit on the second floor internal balcony one night.

Staffing was kind and helpful. Cleaning staff did an excellent job. The Starbucks at the street level is nice, but beware it is 99% college kids studying inside all day/night.

Very walkable to everything on King and in the downtown Charleston area. If you wanted more amenities I heard good things about Hotel...