Cambria Hotel Columbia Downtown the Vista — Hotel in Columbia

Disclaimer:Although a travel agent, I will always review based on a traveler perspective with customer service insight as I have lived both positions for a very long time. Customer service in conjunction with my experience as a customer is what drives my repeat business and recommendations to friends, family and clients.||I booked this location after a previous location I booked a couple of weeks prior in the same vicinity was not available. I was in town to attend a concert with my sister who lives in Columbia so it was just an overnight stay. This trip although short was a very sentimental occasion due to who we were going to see in concert so having a relaxing place to stay and decompress was very important to me. ||Pulling into the parking lot, it was easy to find parking and I was able to park close and walk right into the building to check in. The lobby was clean and quiet at the time and the young lady who checked me in was very nice. Upon getting checked into my room, I was glad to see that not only was it clean but that the bluetooth mirror actually worked. I can't tell you how many hotels and other accommodations (mostly bigger name brands) that I have stayed in that have these mirrors, but they are more costume rather than functional. I am honestly a believer that if you are going to have something of that nature then make sure it works. Although it is not something I look for in my accommodations it is more of the principle of upkeep in establishments, especially if I am booking clients at these places so Cambria did a great job with this. ||I was informed beforehand that there would be fees for parking, whether self park or valet so that was not a surprise. What was a pleasant surprise is that there was a restaurant on site where I was able to come down and eat before the concert. The food was delicious. I will say it can be a bit confusing as to what you should do when coming into the restaurant due to the fact that there's not someone actively there seating you or directions on just seating yourself. I ended up just sitting at the bar and asking for a menu, but quite a few people came and asked how the bartender how things worked as far as if they wanted to eat dinner, where could they get menus, order, and whether to seat themselves anywhere or would someone seat them. ||The bartender was amazing and made sure I had everything I needed with my meal. The view to some may not seem like much from my room but there was something refreshing about it that day. The valet was nice as well making sure I received my parking pass to put in my car and was nice to chat with when my sister brought me back after the concert. I will say that with the parking lot being so small and close, the valet parking doesn't make sense but it definitely does for anyone who has to park in the parking garage. ||This location was centrally located to everything and honestly seemed to be the only part of town that had things open later at night. The bed was absolutely comfortable and things were quiet enough to decompress and hold the evening I had dear to myself before I fell asleep. I had to leave the next day pretty early so I did not take advantage of the breakfast but check out was a breeze. I will definitely be back in the future and this is another location in this area that I would send clients and their...

This hotel is absolutely beautiful, but the soundproofing is atrocious. We tried to go to sleep on a Saturday night. There is a bar right outside our window. It was coming through into our room so loud we could not sleep. We were up until 2 am loud drums and percussions filling our room.

You hear everything outside in the hallway. Could hear people's conversations so clear it sounded as if they were in the room. The stomping from the people above us was extremely loud. After not going to sleep so late we were woken up at 7 am with every footstep and luggage sliding across the floor.

We had a wedding on Sunday to go to after a long night and lack of sleep, we planned on not getting up until 1045 and jump out of bed to check out.

However, 9:50 housekeeping wakes us up. Then again at 10:30. Can't you leave people alone until they check out? We stay at a lot of hotels and good one coordinate with their staff.

We went to the bar one night. I will say the food was very good but they had a lack of staff for a Saturday night. They had only one bartender.

There was a lot of ppl there and we had to sit at the corner of the bar that opened up for the bartender to enter in. When peoples food was done, the kitchen staff came by and just left the food on the counter right in front of us. I could have reached over and took things off their plate it was so close. One person's ice cream sat in front of me for 5 minutes.

I felt bad about it. We just got over covid the week before and some damage was done to my throat, so I still had a cough. Along with having a bad allergy flair up the second we got into SC I was sneezing a lot. I had to sit sideways to keep from sneezing and coughing on other...

Speaking to the event space & catering only, as I didn't stay at the hotel.

Upon first entering, the lobby & bar areas are very nice. The event room was smaller than I expected (only wide enough for two round 8 person tables side-by-side). No decor (such as paintings on the walls) at all. But it was clean & neat.

The staff we're friendly enough, but made lots of food-service errors: sitting a plate in front of someone when it belonged to another and just picking it up to move it to the correct person, all while reaching across another individual, ignoring special dietary requests, dropping plates behind diners where bits splashed up onto guests because she was carrying too many not stacked properly. These girls were obviously untrained.

The food was awful. Appetizers of frozen soft pretzels cut into pieces served with melted Velveeta and tomato bruschetta that had sat so long the bread (untoasted) was beyond soggy. Caesar salad was wilted, flavorless & stale croutons (the cheap tiny cubes). Fish or chicken both overcooked and smothered in some unrecognizable, gelatinous "sauce". The fish was a whole filet, albeit so thin the edges were too hard to eat. Chicken consisted of 2 chunks, not a whole breast and was very dry despite the attempt to cover it with what they called picata (it was not!). The green beans were clearly dumped out of a can. The rice was not pilaf but rather a mushy & unseasoned mound to take up a third of the plate. The cheesecake was halfway decent (like the premade kind you get from WalMart) with a jarred strawberry glop on top of it. I've had better food at an all you can eat buffet.

The entire experience was a huge let-down and I would never personally recommend nor reserve...