Hyatt Place Columbia/Downtown/The Vista — Hotel in Columbia

This was our first stay at this hotel in Columbia, and it will now be our hotel of choice during our visits there. (The next one is coming up next week!)

From the moment we pulled onto the parking lot, we were impressed. While the lot isn't huge, it is large enough to usually find a space to park. You have your choice of self-parking or valet parking. I suggest valet if it is a busy time (football weekends) as the lot can get filled at certain times of the day. The attendants were very helpful with not just taking care of my car, but in providing information about the area.

The front desk people were immediately welcoming upon entering the lobby. The check-in process was smooth and fast. You can check-in online ahead of time to make it go even faster.

The room was very spacious. It has a good sized bathroom with very good water pressure (not a given at hotels in Columbia, I have found) There is ample comfortable seating, a nice TV, mini-fridge and plenty of space for all of your clothing. The room was very clean and the AC unit worked perfectly. Ours was a double queen room.

We had the breakfast each morning. The food varied each day, and was always perfectly cooked and delicious. There is plenty of seating in the area. The people that work in the breakfast area were also very personable.

While we didn't use the pool, we have plans to do so on our next visit, so we took a look at it. It was a good size indoor pool. While it didn't feel heated (may have just been the time of day) the temp felt comfortable enough.

Check-out was as easy and fast as check-in. I did not call down ahead of time to let the valet know we were leaving, but he still had our car to us within just a few minutes. (If the lot is full they use a garage across the street).

I did not find anything negative about this hotel or its staff during our initial visit. We were happy with every aspect of our stay. As I noted before, this will be our new go-to place to stay while in Columbia, and we already have a room booked for...

Food service and food itself was terrible. The hostess at the front of the hotel was incredibly rude. We called down asking if there was a menu for the hotels restaurant in the room, which she replied there was. When no menu was found we called again asking if one could be brought up to us as we have 4 children under 4 years and going down would be an incredible hassle. After 20 minutes we get another call telling us no menu could be brought up, but we were free to come down ourselves to grab one. After receiving our menu and ordering food they said the the wait should be at most 15 minutes for some brucetta and nachos. I go down 25 minutes after they're ordered to grab the food, but when I ask for it the hostess tells me it's still being made. After another 20 minutes of waiting I finally receive the food and bring it back up the stairs. After opening the food the brucetta looks terrible, almost like catfood. Tastes terrible the works. The nachos were supposed to include salsa, sour cream, and guacamole. Though they included none. So I went back downstairs to ask for some, after waiting 5 minutes I was told they didn't even have any guacamole.. but that wasn't even known to us until after the order. So I waited another 15 minutes for two small cups of salsa and sour cream. May I add there was no line. The entire time i was the only person waiting for any type of food as well, besides the 3 people drinking at the bar. By the time I got back up stairs with the sauces the nachos were soggy. Also the coffee machine in the room had missing parts so we couldn't even make a cup of Joe. When trying to get in touch with a manager they gave us a number that only redirected to the front desk. Overall very poor service and very displeased...

I am only giving it 3 stars, but make no mistake, we had a good experience, and enjoyed our stay. The front desk, while clearly overburdened due to way too many responsibilities (reception, bartender, cook???) still did a nice job. Our room was clean, large with a nice couch area that I was able to do work at, comfortable beds, and good shower. The blackout shades were great. One negative, the sliding door to the bathroom was broken (Room 425). You could lock it, but not unlock it, which was a problem. As a result we kept it unlocked, but then it would stay closed, sliding all the way open, and noisily at that. Breakfast was very nice, especially on the weekends. The staff did a nice job of keeping up on the cleanup, and this was graduation weekend so it was busy. 5 Minutes from campus, so good location for the graduation. The young men who worked the valet service were dynamite. Very pleasant guys. Overall a nice stay. Two issues. Coffee was only available in the morning with breakfast. That is just plain stupid and unnecessarily cheap. Keep a bit of hot coffee out at all times. The bigger issue for us was being asked at check-in if we wanted our room serviced, and how often. We said yes, and every day. We paid a LOT of $$$$ for our room on graduation weekend. COVID has been over for 3 years. This is a standard part of what you are already paying for in your room charge. So, first of all, don't ask me if I want it. If I don't I'll put the little "let's reschedule" sign out. Second, we stayed from Thursday until Sunday, and our room was only serviced once. To come back in the evening and not have the bed made is unacceptable. Again, we are already paying for that. That alone would make us strongly consider not staying...