Sleep Inn Near Ft. Jackson — Hotel in Columbia

This hotel advertised 1) an outdoor pool and 2) hot breakfast, miserably failing on both.

1. Upon arrival I see the pool had very obviously not been open in quite awhile. The front desk person told me it had not been open since COVID and probably won’t be open the rest of the year. I asked if they had an agreement with a nearby sister hotel (something in the Choice family) to use their pool in the meantime, and they acted like that was the strangest idea they ever heard. It doesn’t take long to update a website - advertising you have a pool but not putting water in it for years on end is false advertising.
2. The hot breakfast was really a continental breakfast. There was not any type of egg or meat any of the 7 days I stayed there. Just a pancake machine, which was fun to watch and did make very good pancakes, but still, with no meat/eggs that just makes it another type of bread in a continental breakfast. And the lack of variety in all other areas didn’t help. For 7 days only plain bagels with plain cream cheese, white and wheat sandwich bread, pre-packaged muffins, and 2 types of cereal (fruit loops and Raisin Bran), 2 flavors yogurt (raspberry and strawberry), 1 type of juice (orange), 1 type of milk, only caffeinated teas, and 1 type of fruit (red apples). So, either add eggs and meat and keep calling it a hot breakfast, or update your website to reflect it’s a continental breakfast. And add things like packaged oatmeal, strawberry cream cheese, peanut butter packets (they did have butter and jelly), hot chocolate packets, decaf/herbal tea, other types of fruit (bananas, oranges) and bagels varieties other than just plain (blueberry, cinnamon raisin, whole wheat), and hard boiled eggs so people can have some choices. The kicker is that the refrigerator had a place designed for hard boiled eggs, but no matter how early I went to breakfast there never were any there.
   Between the 2 major disappointments listed above and the fact that every time I opened the room I was met with a mildew smell (I got used to it after a couple minutes and didn’t notice it until the next time I entered the room, but it can’t be healthy to be breathing that in all night), I won’t be coming back here when I’m in town for a week again next summer. I only gave it a 2 because the breakfast area was kept stocked and clean, and the hotel was in a convenient...

This hotel was noticeably better priced than the surrounding properties, but it did come at the expense of amenities.

For example, the pool and fitness center are seemingly permanently closed with no return to service in sight. The hotel also seems to have settled on a lower key breakfast compared to what was offered before 2020. The ice machines are also down to just one in the kitchen area. I'm unsure if there was a management change since the pandemic or what, but the hotel is definitely offering less than what it used to.

For what it did offer, it was worth the price for us since the closest priced option was at least $20 more, in the same Ft. Jackson area.

It offered a reasonable room with nice bedding and even USB outlets. Good tv channel selection and a working fridge with a freezer component. Wi-Fi worked well. 24-hour coffee and tea available with snacks for purchase at the front desk. Ironically, those are cash only while the hotel's deposit is card only.

Breakfast consisted of pancakes, chocolate muffins, bagels, bread/toast, cereal, milk, orange juice, apples, yogurt, and maybe a couple of other things. Honestly, the pancakes were good and probably the thing that made this work. It's definitely not as good as it used to be, but it's still adequate. No eggs, biscuits, gravy, or meat items, though.

I would say if your choice is between this and a Motel 6, this is definitely better. If it's around the same price as the Country Inn next door, though, stay there instead.

All in all, we enjoyed our limited stay, but there's too many things cut or closed that were originally intended for guests to enjoy to review this higher than three stars. The many signs around the hotel saying "closed" or redirecting you to another area are proof that this property has room for improvement. Hopefully, someone will come in and bring this hotel back to the standard that it was intended to have.

They also need to advertise honesty because most of the images on here are pre-pandemic, when it seems to have been managed better. It's like a confession that they know people want those things, but they also know that they aren't planning to offer them.

For the money, it was worth it for us, but it wasn't worth anything more than...

I don’t even know where to begin with this review. My wife and I checked Wednesday July 10 and were to stay until Saturday July 13. We drove down Wednesday at 4 am to arrive in time for family day at Fort Jackson, her brother was graduating basic training. We come back to the hotel later that evening around 9 pm to a hot room, realizing the A.C wasn’t working. We also discovered there was no hot water. I then called the front desk to report it and was told they could send a maintenance man in about 30-45 minutes. I explained we had been up since 4 am and needed to be up early the next morning and to not worry about it at that moment. The front desk clerk then told me there were no other rooms available or they would move us and apologized. After our cold showers, we get ready for bed to find the bed sheets stained. We then look around the room to find more stains on the carpet, the walls and even mold in the shower, bathroom corners and the sink. We decided to leave the next morning asking for a refund. The clerk gave me a receipt to sign for the agreed refund amount and gave me a copy to take. Well, one week later and there is still no refund posted to my credit card. I called the hotel to speak with the manager was told I would not be getting a refund, that he has no copy of any signed receipt and that the notes are stating I was offered another room to move to. I told him that was not the case, that I was told there were no other rooms available. He then lashed out with me accusing his employees of being dishonest. I then called corporate and was only offered points toward a future stay. I explained I would not be staying at another Choice Hotel in the future after this experience and just wanted the promised refund. I was then told to hold while the system would calculate the refund that would be allowed. Out of the $201.69 total, I was told the system would only allow a $67 refund. Vacationers please beware, learn from my mistake and book elsewhere. The way this has been handled is very disheartening and frustrating. I am now out $201.69 for a one-night stay in a hot room, cold...