The Cottages On Charleston Harbor — Hotel in Mount Pleasant

We did a group family vacation here in August. Grandparents, siblings, kids and even the dogs. My husband and our two sons (8 & 10) did a cottage on the bay (Cottage #2). It was 2 bedroom, 3 bathroom, great kitchen, living room, massive porch, laundry and Adirondack’s on the lawn to overlook the bay. Other members of the family did a cottage on the pond and others did a room at the hotel on property. On arrival the clubhouse is wonderful. Staff very friendly and a pleasure to work with. There was a lounge area overlooking the pool which had a great variety of small snacks, coffee, tea, water and juice. Despite other reviews, I found it very nice and adequate. The pool was beautiful and overlooked the bay with gorgeous palms and foliage surrounding it. It is 3-4’ deep but perfect for the hot humid days. There was ample shaded seating, lounge chairs in the sun, umbrellas, pool accessories, clean/well appointed bathrooms and towels. The clubhouse also offers wagons for carting items to and from the cottages, as well as great bikes for a scenic ride around the area (on or off property). We enjoyed all of these items.

Our cottage was just gorgeous! Truly spacious, wonderfully decorated, cozy, high ceilings, ceiling fans, TVs in all of the rooms. The washer/dryer was so convenient. They do provide a small amount of laundry soap and fabric softener to get you started. The beds were so soft and comfortable.

The view of the bay was amazing. We saw birds hunting for food in the rocks, dolphins, fish jump from the water, ships pass by, storm clouds roll through and amazing skies. My son caught a hermit crab right on the lawn.

The kitchen is perfect. I recommend bringing some food storage containers if you plan to cook meals or syran/foil/ziplock bags. They provide trash bags, 2 rolls of paper towels, dish soap and washer pods. I loved cooking in the kitchen and we hosted a seafood and pasta night for 3 generations comfortably. The freezer does have an ice maker. We also brought ice packs. They provided good coffee, sugar, creamer, tea, honey.

The bathrooms were beautiful. The master had a separate water closet, great shower and large soaker tub as well as two separate vanities. The other two bathrooms were equally beautiful and well appointed. They provide toilet paper, ample towels, shampoo/conditioner, soaps, etc.

The back porch was phenomenal! I spent every single morning on it with my coffee. Enjoying the peace and tranquility. The view, the breeze (the ceiling fans were great), the wildlife all lent to a very relaxing moment. It would also be great for card games, meals, lawn games. We just did not get the chance to do so.

The proximity to everything was perfect. It was so close to downtown Charleston, a ton of other towns, shops, restaurants, attractions…yet you could also feel so removed from it all if you wanted.

My children are huge outdoor adventurers and loved catching lizards, toads, frogs. They also loved that there was a local gator living in the pond and would ask to walk there every single day to try and catch a glimpse. They enjoyed walking the beach, finding shells, looking for shark teeth and “trying” to fish. I do wish there were more fishing options on site or within walking distance. They could fish for hours. It would also be really neat to have a background story/sign with info for the resident gator. The boys made up their own name, Greg, and guessed on age.

We were able to go hang out with our family staying in the hotel: use the very large pool/hot tub complex, bars, restaurant, pier, etc. However, if you are not staying at the hotel or have guests staying there, then you are not technically permitted to use it. If we weren’t able to do so we would have been very disappointed and they should develop a working relationship being that they share grounds.

Ultimately, I highly recommend The Cottages on Charleston Harbor! What an amazing stay! I always research reviews and must say there were a lot of wild misses. We loved it! The kids are already asking to go again every...

We are sharing our experience to protect other couples from the despair and frustration we experienced. We booked our September 29, 2018 wedding at the Cottages on Charleston Harbor in February 2018. We live in Texas and were very excited about our destination wedding in Charleston! We contracted with the venue for more than $8,000 worth of accommodations, including the event space fee. We also signed a room block contract with the neighboring resort – The Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina – for our guests of $4,000. Our contract with the Cottages also required a catering commitment of $6,500 minimum and a tent rental fee of at least $1,000. We were fully committed to our wedding and this venue, to say the least.

In August 2018, I asked the Cottages to confirm if the dock between our reception space and the Charleston Harbor Resort had been fully repaired (I had seen guests on Instagram taking photos) and if we could use it for our photos. I was told that we could use the dock for photos before 4 p.m. because a concert would be taking place on the beach… That’s how we discovered a national touring indie rock concert had been booked, a double-header, at the exact same time and 10 feet away from our wedding.

The Charleston Harbor Resort booked Moon Taxi with Ripe as an opener in July 2018 with Ears for Music (a concert promoter) and did not consult our wedding venue prior to booking. The Cottages and Charleston Harbor Resort are two separate companies. There’s nothing keeping each property from throwing a carnival the day of your wedding. They had no written agreement in place, we had no legal opportunity to fight back. The “partnership” is extremely irresponsible.

We were told that they would surely solve the situation and waited a full week before being informed that they would not move or cancel the concert. They were able to come up with a “solution” of shuttling our guests to the neighboring golf course for the reception… not sure how they were going to pull that off with 800+ concert guests milling around at the same time. We lost all faith and trust in both the Cottages and the Charleston Harbor Resort at this time.

Both properties offered to release us from our contract and we left. Forty days from our wedding and the amazing staff at the Citadel Beach Club took us in (they even matched the amount just due to our awful situation!)

When I asked Lisa Crowley, general manager of the Cottages, to reimburse us for new wedding invitations and for the time spent moving 11 vendors, she directed me to the Charleston Harbor Resort as it was “completely their fault.”

When I asked the Charleston Harbor Resort for a reimbursement of $700 (minimal to what our actual costs were), we were offered an anniversary stay or an upgrade for a guest room… this is where we really, really want you to understand the multiple layers of empathy missing from the general manager, Nick Saltmarsh. HE OFFERED US AN ANNIVERSARY STAY. Because that’s what we want to do… stay with you on the anniversary of the day you ruined. Delusional is an understatement.

We can’t emphasize enough, keep your wedding or special event far, far away from these folks. They caused irreparable damage and refuse to reimburse us in a meaningful way. They value greed over doing the right thing, they run a shoddy, disorganized group and have an absolutely pathetic idea of what customer service means. We are grateful we moved our wedding away from these hacks – that’s the only positive...

If we could spend most of the time out on the porch and on the lawn, then this would be 5 stars.||||The Cottage is well decorated. albeit dated- this is fine. The issues arise when you further jump into the cleanliness. Upon arrival, there was dust, dead flies, and smudges of dirt or unknown stains throughout the unit. The bathroom light switches were particularly bad. I can live with primed and unpainted surfaces, but the real kicker is that the floors were filthy. Absolutely filthy. They turned our daughter's socks black after an hour of arrival. I went through 6 swiffer pads to no avail. We let management know the next morning after our arrival and hoped to come home to a unit that had been mopped after a day out in Charleston. Unfortunately, the floors are still filthy, the shower did not seemed to be cleaned from a previous guest and I am just lifting up heavy prayers on the cleanliness of everything else.||||We let management know of the situation and still they seemed to not be concerned. Hopefully, someone will take some initiative and put a good faith effort into cleaning this unit and providing a stay worth the money.||||UPDATE:After speaking to management, no one came to address issues. We still have dead flies, roach hatchlings and other debris spread throughout the filthy cottage. If you are concerned about relaxing in a sanitary space, please avoid. The fixtures are caked in dust, there seems to be a bit of mold growing in certain areas, the soap scum from previous guests still remains in the bathroom areas. ||||We spoke with management again and they comped one night, which did not change the fact that we went three nights before any legitimate attempt at addressing any issue was made. They were surprisingly defensive and stated that floors were unsealed so they would stain your socks. We have unsealed floors at our personal home and are able to keep them clean. After being argumentative about the existence of filth, management hinted that we should let it go since she comped one night. All I would've appreciated was them sending someone to clean on the first day that we made them aware of the issues.||||if you are dead set on staying here, bring your own cleaning crew. The views are great and Charleston is too.||||I don't know if this is the treatment that most guests receive, but I know we stood out on one characteristic. I cannot imagine why sending a cleaning crew to address the issues was so difficult.||||On the penultimate day of our stay, they sent someone to "clean". The floors were a bit better, but all of the other issues remained. There also seemed to be some sort of dead animal under the fireplace section of the cottage.||||Proceed with caution. It was a wonderful location and I would love to stay there after an actual cleaning...