Hotel Bella Grace — Hotel in Charleston

We chose this hotel a short mid-week trip for our 20th wedding anniversary. What to expect from this hotel... Being a "luxury" "boutique" hotel, the decor was very trendy and stylish. From the outside, it feels Charleston... on the inside, very modern. For the most part, we like the design. Maybe a little over with the gray in our room. The room was clean. The staff was friendly and ready to please, but not always professional. Maybe that's part of the boutique style? I am not sure, but for the price per night, I guess I expected a little more professionalism. For example, $40 a night to park and valet only... however, expect to take your own bags to your room... plus, pay a tip. Although the furniture fit the decor, it was not comfortable/functional or set-up in the room so that you could actually sit in it, and watch the large tv on the wall. The bed was good. But...the bathroom. I see others have made comments... Major, major design flaws all around. Unless you like hearing and smelling other ppl do their business, the fact that the stylish barn door doesn't actually close is horrible. There is no point in having a vent fan in the bathroom with a door that maintains a 3" gap at all times. The shower... the door opens in, which is all wrong... I am surprised it hasn't shattered yet. If you are shorter than 5'5", don't expect to be able to reach the shower head to change any of the settings. The water pressure isn't great (assume it's a city issue), so if you have long hair and can't reach to adjust the settings, add an extra hour to prep time before leaving for dinner. The soap shelf doesn't hold travel size items well, constantly falling out of it, which was pretty annoying. The interior decor includes lovely art and like at least 4 humorous mirrors in the suite (overkill with the mirrors)... yet, there was only one extremely small trash can, and it was located in the bathroom. For the price, I don't expect to sacrifice functionality for style. On that note... our room was quite noisy. Some utility in the wall ran 24/7. If you want the balcony of the Delaney suite, the trade off is the constant mechanical noise inside and out (from the oyster house right outside the balcony). I was worried about customer noise from the restaurant (which was not an issue at all), I hadn't considered the mechanical noises from the equipment out back of it. The room has a lovely kitchenette set-up with a non-functioning ice maker in the freezer. We would have to go do to the lobby and ask for a bag of ice. Like here I am in this "luxury" hotel carrying my ice to my room like a kid carrying their goldfish home from the carnival... Honestly, at that point we almost checked out and went to another hotel, but our stay was so short, we decided to ride it out. The hotel's ONLY saving grace for us: Delaney Oyster House. The food and service is beyond amazing, and steps from your room. Location is okay... it's in the midst of the College of Charleston campus, so expect lots of collegey type activity around. With all said, the ice issue is a deal breaker for us. That, and the constant mechanical noise. Should they rectify these issues, we would consider returning to this hotel... but at this point, we would not. This hotel has potential to be really great. A lot of small details that really make a hotel good or great have been missed/overlooked in lieu of style. We still had a nice time on our trip despite the hotel disappointments. The bottom line is that at this price point, we...

I almost gave this a 3 stars; it's really a 3.5 if I could. It's not necessarily average but it isn't worth $500-600+ a night which we paid for 5 nights over 2 rooms. It feels like a hotel that does not know what it wants to be - a residence inn, it is not other than the fact it bills itself as one, or a boutique hotel, not really also for the below reasons.

The Good:

Location is great - easily walkable to everything. Easy valet parking in and out if you don't mind the $42 (we didn't) our room was ok size, including the bathroom. good water pressure and adequate USB and other outlets. Our room (K + pull-out bed) looked smack dab onto a brick wall but we didn't care too much. while not super welcoming (see below), the staff responded quickly to our requests for extra pillows, blankets, a fan(see below), hangers. and very nice with handling luggage hold and several ins/outs. we appreciated this. -bedding was also pretty comfortable rooms and kitchenette area modern, and we had NO noise issues which someone else mentioned. I'm very sensitive to this and would have noticed..

The Negatives or Areas of Improvement

this doesn't really seem like a residence inn which it promotes itself. I'm not sure what it is, and am not sure they know. There is no breakfast, no coffee bar, but they do have a pot of coffee going in the lobby and a coffee maker in the room. I think they are NOT well trained and thinly staffed (I saw guests standing at the desk waiting while the one person ran around taking things to rooms, getting luggage, etc.). They were not that welcoming. Kind of just curt and to the point when we checked in, later answering Qs promptly but not that engaged or friendly. When we asked if there were any upgrades available, we were told we had the best upgrade possible, but I reminded them this was not an upgrade but what I had reserved/bought. they didn't acknowledge my Bonvoy status, which doesn't bother me but would bother some Ambassador members. they promote to everyone when checking in the Delaney Oyster House next door as OUR hotel restaurant. The manager of the restaurant told me there is absolutely no connection with the hotel other than being neighbors, after I asked if we could put the dinner on our room (no). What is the need to tell this lie? It was repeated to everyone I saw checking in. Just recommend the restaurant next door as a good option for dinner/apps but don't tell everyone it is YOUR restaurant.

-If you care about having your AC and heat temp options "governed," this may not be the place for you. Our room was really hot when we checked in and took hours to cool down (they brought us a fan with a broken base). They lock the thermometer visually at 67, but the temp never got below 70; I called to inquire and the front desk person told me yes, that was accurate - don't expect the temperature to go below 70 even though they actually locked / governed the temp down at 67 (she acknowledged it would never go below to this level). I asked her if she could lift the temperature control/governor - nope.

It was ok, but for the above reasons, if I go back to Charleston, I won't be spending $550-600+ a night...

Pretty terrible experience. I booked the Governors Suite for 3 nights with what I thought was a refundable rate. Our plans changed unexpectedly and we could only stay one night so I cancelled the room. It turns out I had accidentally booked a non-refundable rate so I called the hotel to ask if they could make an exception and release me from the entire booking. This was over a week in advance and I am a lifetime platinum elite member and have never made this mistake so I was hoping for some understanding. I was told "no" right away so I asked if I could at least reinstate the 1 night I needed since I already paid for it. I was told to hold while the staff checked with the hotel manager only I was not put on hold and I overheard the entire conversation. Upon hearing my situation the managers first reaction was "yes keep Friday, refund Saturday and Sunday". The staff member asked "can I do that" and the manager said "yes", then told him to wait, asked "whats the rate?", and said "just give him the last night back". When the staff came back to me they said "we can only refund the last night". I told him I thought I heard the manager say I could get both nights and the staff very nervously said no. I decided not to push the staff member and write the GM I was referred to earlier explaining the situation. I asked the GM if I could pay for one night at the Governors Suite rate but stay in a standard room so they could rent the better room out over the weekend. The GM agreed.

During my one night we brought our 2 dogs because I couldn't find anyone to sit them (one of the reasons we were not going to stay the entire trip). Upon check-in the staff told me they would only charge me a $100 fee vs $150 since we were there for one night. I was pleasantly surprised based on the previous interaction. I thanked them then we went to unpack and grab dinner with friends around 7. Around 8pm I received a call from the front desk saying our dogs were barking. They said I wouldnt be charged a fee or anything like that but they wanted to let me know. I received another call at 9:30 asking when I would be back because the dogs were still barking. We left dinner right away and were at the hotel within 15 minutes. I apologized to the front desk, was told again I wouldnt be charged, and went to our room. We left early the next morning because we didnt want to leave the dogs alone and headed home.

When I got my bill it was $840 and included an extra $150 charge for barking on top of the $100 pet fee. When I called the hotel I was told by the hotel manager whatever I was promised earlier had no relevance and the fee would stay.

So the net of this is I lost a ton of time and $840 to leave dinner early, be deceived twice, and stay one night in a standard room with a view of a brick wall.

I asked the GM and hotel manager "Does that sound like the kind of experience you would like your guest to have?" and received no response so I will say to anyone reading this if that is what you hope to experience? If no I suggest...