Carriage House Inn — Hotel in Aiken County

Did not stay. Greatly anticipated stating at this beautiful inn in one of America's most genteel and charming towns. Couldn't get a weekend room so rearranged plan to drive with my brother from a vacation at his Vero Beach condo to his family home in Monroe Wisconsin which was cut short due to family illness and a falling accident of his wife in Monroe while jogging with the dog.

We are all in our seventies. It was important to me to have advance reservations for both my solo three day trip to Vero as well as the return trip to Monroe with my brother so that we would not be caught roomless at the end of any of our three 8 hour days of driving. Our travel dates had changed several times and I reviewed my emails to recall the reservations I had made, but missed the one for Carriage House. When I realized that I had received a text on the day of my reservation (no we do not check our texts every couple hours), I called the front desk to apologize for my oversight.

I am fully aware of the inconvenience that "no shows" present. But the woman at the desk could not have been more terse in her responses to either my apology or my pointing out that on the date we had we had selected (a Sunday when their 30 rooms were only partially occupied) they had not lost any guests due to our "no show" (no response), I asked "So I am going to be charged $450 plus for two rooms that were unused?" Her (again) one word response was "correct". Nothing further; no explanation, no word of sympathy or understanding. I fully understand that I was in the wrong, and am familiar with hotel booking policies, but thought in the interest og public relations, in my situation, I might be offered some compensation, such as a 50% penalty payment or possibly a future credit, due to my making a human error on a night when the inn was probably 70% unbooked. Mostly, her manner was totally void of any hint of gentility or...

Like the place a lot-- but breakfast was a pound of toasted cheese with a smear of grits underneath. Not taking off any stars for that though-- this is South Carolina afterall. Also, the place is haunted (in a good way!) I heard the mayor shot a dude a couple doors down, back in the 1890's. Do yourself a favor and take a walk down the block to Taj Aiken Indian restaurant-- no doubt about it, this place has better food than any Indian restaurant in NY. Not an overstatement. And also, the guy in there is hilarious-- a former marine-- he represents the absolute best of Aiken and of SC in general. If I had more courage I would give up everything just to move there and be friends with him. But I'm a little unsure of how men are allowed to love/ express love to each other down here. I know I don't have good boundaries, and I'm in therapy for that, but still, I gave a firefighter a slight man hug like what basketball players do before a game to their opponent, and this was after spending the whole day together and saying emotional stories and such-- and he seemed a little put off-- or reluctant. Ah, maybe it was just him-- though I did get a similar vibe overall through out-- anyway-- maybe I'm just the weird one-- or maybe that's the way the state and south in general--are able to maintain a better level of general friendliness--- through the establishment of healthy boundaries... Not sure-- I'll ask my therapist next week. I'll...

We had a great stay at Carriage House Inn! The location is great to be able to walk to shop and eat in downtown Aiken. Breakfast was delicious and the room seemed to be recently updated and clean. The only reason I didn't give 5 stars was because of the slow service. We waited and walked around for a while looking for someone to check in when we arrived. That was strange. And then the room had a strange smell the whole time. I dont know if it was the heat, cleaning chemicals, or something intentionally to cover a smell, but it was pretty bad. We did not try to get it fixed. When we first arrived, we thought it might go away with the fan on. And when we came back after dinner and visiting a few places in downtown, it was late. They may have taken the opportunity to remedy this, but we did not bring it to their attention. If we were staying more than one night, we may have. Also, the down pillows on the bed were not good. Again, we did not bring it to their attention to give them an opportunity to remedy it, since we didn't stay long. Everyone seemed so kind. The place was super cute and we may try to stay again another time. I do recommend if you need a great location in downtown Aiken with...