avid hotel Savannah South - Gateway by IHG — Hotel in Georgetown

Overall – Booked a two night stay on points (King Standard award) at the end of 2022 into 2023 while I was visiting family nearby. Overall good for the price, but not great. The 95-bed hotel itself is relatively new at the time of this review, having been built about two years ago, and IHG markets Avid as one of its newer “midscale” brands with emphasis on streamlined/compact properties with more communal and open design. The property sports Avid’s bright red and blue color-scheme with a relatively spacious and bright lobby that doubles as the breakfast space in the mornings. Located south of I-16 at the intersection of I-95 and SR204, it is convenient to Savannah International Airport, Gulfstream, and GSU-Armstrong (formerly Armstrong University) but a little more distant to downtown Savannah. Think of Avid as a Holiday Inn Express’s more streamlined and youthful cousin.

Check-In – Not the smoothest experience unfortunately. Approximately 24 hours before check-in, I received an email and an IHG app notification allowing to check-in online and select the approximate time of arrival, presumably to speed up the onsite process. The hotel advertises check-in starting at 3pm, which I selected so I could deposit my luggage early in the afternoon and get on with my business later that day. However upon arrival shortly after 3pm, front desk staff informed me that they had no clean rooms and to come back in about an hour, negating the whole point of online check-in. After killing time for an hour, I returned to hotel around 4:15pm at which point I was able to check-in but was informed that the keycard software was not working so they could not issue me my room keycard yet. I was let into my room by staff and told the keycard would be ready later that day. I eventually was able to get my keycards from the front desk as I was heading out for evening activities. For those of you who care, my Platinum Elite status was NOT acknowledged by the front desk at check-in or departure.

Room – The room itself is relatively compact by cookie-cutter roadside US hotel standards; the king bed takes up a lot of the space. IHG advertises the brand as having exactly what business travelers or casual tourists need and none of the things most people never use. As such, there is no coffee-maker, microwave or in-room safe. Instead, there is a communal microwave and 24/7 fresh-ground coffee in the lobby. The lack of a safe is a little unusual. Controversial decision by IHG and/or the local management to be sure, but it did not bother me. There are no closets/dressers; instead the brand opted for hooks lining the walls and small cubby spaces in-line with the streamlined nature of the brand. Another quirk/minor annoyance that results from the compactness of the room is the positioning of the small desk directly in front of the AC/heater unit – if the unit is running while you are sitting at the desk, you get blasted in the face directly. Otherwise it was clean and not particularly tight for two people. The bathroom was also clean, the water pressure adequate, and the hot water actually hot. If you’re not planning to spend long periods of time in the room and only use it for sleep, it’s fine.

Breakfast – Breakfast is included in the room fare and is relatively spartan. Available from 6:30 to 9:30AM at the time of this review. Aside from the 24/7 fresh coffee/tea/hot chocolate, there are also the usual apple/orange/cranberry juices as well as milk. There were a few prepackaged cereals, granola bars, and instant oatmeal options as well as some muffins and bagels. The only real hot option were Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches. Not as substantial as a Holiday Inn Express, but it gets the job done well enough.

Amenities – There is a 24/7 gym onsite which I did not use. Ice machine and water fountains w/ bottle filler are available in the lobby. I am not sure if there is a business center or meeting room at this property but I didn’t require either during this stay. I suspect the target demographic for this property would not use them anyway.

Staff/Miscellaneous – Staff was nice and helpful enough; “casual” is the word I will use here. I think the property is still figuring itself out given how relatively new it is. If you are looking for Intercontinental/Kimpton level professionalism, look elsewhere. Another quirky thing I would like to note is at the time of check-out, upon requesting my folio/receipt of stay, the front desk staff informed me they could not issue me one because I booked through “a third-party” (which is odd because I booked directly through IHG….) and that I would receive a digital copy through that third-party. It did not matter all that much to me but was strange enough for me to point out.

Summary – Overall it was a fine stay aside from the minor annoyances. The hard product is pretty good, the soft product could use some more work. Relatively good value for the points I used (0.7 cpp for those counting) but it has some tight competition in the area. I only returned to the room to sleep at night so it suited my needs, but I suspect if you plan on staying in room for long periods of time, it might be a little cramped. It’s fine for up to two people for a few days, but no more than that. I would not recommend it for an extended vacation sort of trip. I would stay again if I had business in the area and if the price was right, but I wouldn’t go out of my way otherwise. I personally prefer Holiday Inn Express as far as IHG offerings in this...

Arrived Friday/checked out Monday. Our first unwelcoming feature was that they have no canopy over the driveway. Unloading in a rain storm was unpleasant. Check-in was quick and the room was clean.That’s the only positives. I think there is a severe management problem here. The problems we encountered were reported to several different desk clerks and they seemed almost as frustrated as us that they could not solve our issues. We had a double queen room with three people and we were only given two sets of towels. The next day when we asked for more they gave us two more, but said that’s all they had and if we wanted more, we’d have to bring our dirty ones down for them to wash. About an hour later, we watched them give three sets to another lady. But perhaps she had brought her dirty ones down. Keep in mind no maid service is provided so towels were not resupplied daily. And the two tiny little garbage cans in the room get full pretty quick. But there are larger garbage cans by the elevators and in the breakfast area for you to dump your own if you’re so inclined. Also since there’s no maid service, we ran out of toilet paper. Apparently that’s quite a problem as well. The desk clerk had to look several different places before she found some for us. We called down to get an extra blanket and the gentleman working the front desk said he wasn’t sure if they had one but if they did, we’d have to come down and get it because they didn’t have anyone to bring it up. There are no closets in the rooms, so no extra blankets or pillows are provided initially. There’s Christmas music playing in the lobby and entryway despite the fact that it’s the beginning of March. When we jokingly asked about it, we were told they had to pay someone to come and change the loop. Guess they decided to save some money and leave it on all year. We were on the third floor and it took about five minutes for the shower water to get hot. So plan accordingly. The hotel in general is not very well sound proofed as we could hear conversations in the next room and the hallway, as well as kids running up and down the hall and footsteps in the room above. Another guest I spoke to said called down and complain about the kids running, but was told there was nothing they could do about it. There was a sign on the gym door when we arrived, saying it was closed for maintenance. We were told they were replacing ceiling tiles and it would be open the next day. It wasn’t open until Monday morning when we left. And we never saw any evidence of work being done. Not too many people are concerned with what the ceiling tiles look like when they want to work out. Certainly not a safety issue. The “24 hour” coffee machine in the breakfast area was out of order beginning Sunday evening @ 7. Someone finally came in Monday morning (to put out breakfast) @ 6:30 and got it fixed. Kind of odd that they could get those ceiling tiles fixed on Sunday but not the coffee machine. There is one ice machine. It’s on the first floor with white plastic buckets stacked on the shelf next to it for people to fill. I find it doubtful that those buckets ever get washed. I have never seen such tiny luggage carts. The amount of luggage they hold could probably just as easily be carried. You either have to get 2 carts or make 2 trips if you’re staying any length of time or have a large party. There’s an attractive TV nook right near the front desk. It has what looks to be a sectional sofa. When you sit on it, it’s like sitting on concrete with fabric stretched over it. No idea where they could even buy such hard furniture. And you really have to turn the TV up to hear it over the Christmas music. As I say, to have so many systemic issues, I believe this is a management problem. But this is definitely not a customer service oriented hotel. And for the price, I think it’s pretty disgraceful not to offer maid service, adequate towels and toilet paper. Attn management: save the empty apologies in your reply. There’s no excuse for running a...

We used to like this hotel a lot. But in our last trip going to Florida we made reservations and when we got to the hotel exhausted and with 3 kids, our room was given away already, and there was another man complaining about the same issue. So we didn't have a room, but the front desk lady (IS THE SWEETEST PERSON IN THE WORLD, I GIVE HER 5 STARS), she was able to find us one room with one king bed, so we were 5 ppl sleeping in one king bed, so it was basically a restless night. I have to say that I wasn't charged full price the next day at checkout, which made me want to come back and give them another chance. So we did, coming back from Florida we stayed in avid again.... We got the right rooms, we reserved, two this time bc some family members came back with us, anyway, again everyone exhausted ready for bed and when we checked the beds were dirty, one of them had cooked rice and some hairs and dirt... It was gross, sure enough the beds in the other room weren't as gross but they had dirt, it just didn't look clean at all.... So once again the sweet lady in the front desk was able to accommodate us in new rooms. The last disappointment was in the morning for breakfast, about 5 minutes to finish the breakfast time and we managed to make it and grabbed some things, but the lady that is in charge of cleaning up the breakfast had suck an attitude, stomping her foot on the floor, like saying get out of here. Anyway we made it upstairs and my mom asked if they had oatmeal because she has some gastric issues and she can not eat just whatever, so we ran downstairs and asked nicely to the "breakfast lady" and she was so rude, with a very mad face "you should've come earlier", and we are talking that yes it was past the time of breakfast, but we are talking like 3 minutes, not even 5 or 10.... and she didn't give us nothing, while the previous night, past midnight the nice sweet lady from the front desk she gave my mom some oatmeal with no hesitation.... So thanks for reading this long review, I hope is helpful, and with that being said, I will definitely won't be staying at this hotel anymore, im disappointed and sad, because as i stated at the begining, we liked this hotel and even recommended to our friends, but...