Embassy Suites by Hilton Greenville Downtown Riverplace — Hotel in Greenville

This hotel was highly recommended to us for their excellent location and amenities so we booked it for our honeymoon. Prior to arrival we checked in on our app and was told we didn't need to stop in at the desk. Upon arrival we were then notified to check in at the desk instead of going to our room. We were given key cards and use of the key on the app. In the room there weren't any trash bags in the cans. The bedroom lamp only worked from a master switch in the kitchen. The room was quite warm, so we lowered the temperature on the thermostat, which never cooled over night, but thankfully it was a cold night so it was bearable. The next day, we left for a few hours, only to return and see our entrance blocked. We drove around the area for 15-20 minutes with no entrance into our parking garage. We finally gave up and drove past the road closure signs to get where we needed to be. We returned to our room to find that our key cards didn't work, and the temperature in the room had risen to 75 degrees and counting. I call the front desk, they send up maintenance who tests the air coming out at 80 degrees. Maintenance brings us a couple of small fans and says they are having the chiller replaced... Funny how the front desk didn't mention that inconvenience at any point during check in or during my call to them. And you can't say they didn't know because the crane that was blocking our entrance to park was outside their window lifting the new chiller. The room did not begin to cool until the next afternoon. We tried to get drinks from the vending machine on our floor...broken. went down to the next floor... No vending machine at all. We decided to go down to the pool to cool off, only to realize the heater in the pool was also broken. Again, no notice, just a piece of paper thrown on a table in the pool area. So the pool was freezing at around 50-60 degree water temp. We head back to the room again and the key cards still aren't working so by this point I'm livid. We head down to the front desk and run into a guest services employee on the elevator. She asks about our stay and we inform her of how awful things have been. She takes us straight to a manager who offers us a drink from the store, which we never got because he kept asking questions about our HH membership, and then offered a "free night future stay at any Hilton". He applies 20,000 points to our HH account. We blindly accepted that, not realizing until later that 20,000 points gets you absolutely nothing!! We paid close to $700 for 3 nights in what is supposed to be the best Hilton hotel. The room was mediocre at best. The couch had ink stains, at least I hope that's what it was, the carpet and furniture was outdated, our soaps were empty, the lamps shades were all cracked, and bent. Wallpaper in the bathroom was peeling off. Half the staff barely acknowledges you, the complimentary cocktail hour was a joke for the snacks. Drinks were good, but a bowl of goldfish and some cheese cubes is pathetic.

The whole trip was a complete fiasco when it came to lodging. I will not be back to the Embassy in Greenville. Please be warned before you end up wasting tons of money on a crappy experience. We've had better experiences and nicer stays in a Holiday Inn Express than we did at this hotel.

Update to review: February 9, 2024 one day after posting my review I get a phone call from the manager that "handled" our situation. He blamed me for misunderstanding. Saying he was giving us points "towards a night's stay" not for a free stay. I let him know that was a lie and extremely misleading. We would not have been happy with points that did nothing after having our honeymoon trip ruined. He offered his "sincere apologies" and no other fixes for this mess. Still a very unhappy customer, and even more angry with how this is being handled, and we're being blamed.

Do yourself a favor and read the reviews first. There's plenty on here to prove it wasn't just us...

We stayed over Easter weekend and had high hopes based on the location and Hilton brand. There were definitely some highlights, but also a few deal breakers.

The good: The location is amazing, we valeted the car when we arrived and didn’t need it again until we left. We walked everywhere, as the hotel is right in the middle of downtown Greenville.

The room was spotless. We brought disinfecting wipes expecting the usual, but everything was perfectly clean.

Service was excellent, considering what the staff was up against. At check-in time on the Friday of a holiday weekend, there was only one person working the front desk. Just one. He was handling a line of at least six guests in front of us, with incredible patience, kindness, and professionalism. Hats off to him, but the hotel should absolutely staff better during peak hours.

Every other team member we encountered, from the bartender to housekeeping, was friendly and helpful.

The not-so-good: The departure experience was chaotic. Per valet instructions, we called the front desk at 6 a.m. to request our car if we needed it before 7. A woman answered and clearly understood we were coming right down to get our key. But when we arrived just five minutes later, no one was at the front desk. My husband waited for quite a while, even wandering behind the desk in search of someone, while I sat outside with the luggage, completely unsure of what was going on. Eventually, a staff member casually strolled through the lobby, barely acknowledging us, and vaguely called out that the valet was “rushing” to get our car — then kept walking. There was no communication, no staff presence, and no indication anyone was working. It was a confusing, frustrating way to start our day.

The happy hour was another example of understaffing. There was only one bartender trying to serve a really long line of guests in a packed lobby. She was doing her best and was very friendly, but clearly overwhelmed. For a full hotel, this wasn’t nearly enough support.

The biggest issue was the bed. It was so uncomfortable that my husband gave up and slept on the loveseat the second night. I tried sleeping in the middle of the bed but still couldn’t get comfortable. My husband spends 150–200 nights a year at Hilton properties (he is Diamond), and this was the first time he’s ever ditched the bed. That’s saying something, and it’s the reason we’ll try the Hampton Inn next door on our next visit.

We also never got to try the breakfast. The area was overwhelmed both mornings with at least 25 people in line at any given time, and no place to sit if you did manage to get breakfast.

TLDR It is a great location, the room was clean and the staff was friendly. However, poor staffing during key times, a rock-hard bed, inability to enjoy "complimentary breakfast", the chaotic valet pickup/checkout process and not being able to enjoy the complimentary breakfast made this a three star experience.

Update after management response: I appreciate that the hotel responded, but I found the reply disappointing. It was a generic message that didn’t address a single specific issue I raised—like the bed quality, inadequate staffing at check-in and happy hour, the valet confusion, or the overcrowded breakfast. I doubt Terra even read the review. This type of indifference shows an unwillingness to recognize the issues, and therefore, nothing will likely change. It also reinforces my decision to try one of the many other hotels in downtown Greenville. (There is a Hampton Inn next door the looks newer and nicer, and there's also a Marriott Courtyard that looked amazing!)

Because of the dismissive, canned response—which feels like a slap in the face to a loyal Diamond member—I’m lowering my rating...

It really pains me to give this beautiful hotel only 4 stars but my experience here was not worthy of five due to a few minor problems during my stay. I am a Hilton Honors Gold member and I have stayed in quite a few Hiltons all over the country so this led to my decision to drop the rating to a four star. First off I will talk about my good experiences then I will detail the few dings on this place. The room was absolutely beautiful. We ended up with a king two room suite on the 7th floor overlooking the river and downtown Greenville. The bed was very comfortable and having robes in the room was a nice compliment. We did not try the rooftop bar, restaurant, or breakfast so I cannot give any details on these items. Now I will detail the problems I had during this stay. I will also note that I read some other reviews that had some of the same issues so I will assume that it is a common thing. First off my Digital Key notified me that I would have to stop by the front desk to clear up an issue before I could use it. This defeats the whole purpose of using Digital Key. Once before while I was staying in a Hilton in Boston I had a problem with my room selection and the hotel called me promptly to clear the issue up before my arrival and my Digital Key worked and I didn't have to stop by the front desk. However, this time I did stop by and was told there was a maintenance issue with the room I selected and they had to move me to another room. I had selected a room on the 6th floor and was being moved to the 2nd floor. I told the front desk associate that my Hilton Honor setting was high floor preference and there were several rooms of my type available on higher floors when I did my online check-in via the Hilton app. He upgraded me from a king studio suite to a two room suite and put me on the 7th floor. I was happy with this and thought my problems would stop here. This would not have been enough to keep this location from getting 5 stars. However, the wifi did drop out on my devices every few minutes and I would have to reconnect them. I noticed this issue on several other reviews. Also, I called the front desk to ask for a noon checkout as soon as I discovered the checkout here is at 11 am. We were planning on several events in town that night and figured we would be late in bed. I was told that night shift could not give late check outs and that I would have to contact the 1st shift guest services to get that. Again, that defeated the purpose of the late checkout altogether. As Hilton Gold members it is usually a given that you can get an hour after checkout with no issue whatsoever. I was granted this the next morning when I called guest services but the inconvenience made it not as easy as it should have been. Now the final inconvenience was the guest service person checking us in did not give me a card to get out of the parking garage when leaving. He did ask if I self parked and I told him yes. The parking charge was on my final receipt but I didn't have a parking card to exit the garage. I pressed the help button and an employee with the City of Greenville (its a city owned garage) was very nice and opened the gate to let me out. All in all we loved the hotel and will return. Hopefully they will redeem themselves on the few items that kept me from...