Dayton House Resort — Hotel in Myrtle Beach

First-time visitor and - while the staff themselves were super nice and as accommodating as possible - the wife and I were simply not particularly impressed.

We booked a suite - nearly $400/night (all-in). The first unusual thing? The details given at check-in. Example: "If you leave your old towels outside your door, you won't get new towels at your room and would have to pick new towels up at the front desk (the property is multiple buildings, and the suite building and front office are separate buildings), but if you leave them in your room, you'll get new towels." It's just strange as everyone should be getting fresh stuff daily regardless (no different than if you had a string of one-night bookings and had to refresh the room for the next guest). Seems like owners just wanted to save on cleaning staff wages.

The room itself had super-old carpet that looked and felt like it just needed complete replacing (frankly, I wouldn't have carpet in a beach-side hotel at all). Apparently, the regular rooms had been renovated somewhat recently, but not the suites? All the furniture was old and relatively worn (save the TVs....those were fairly new). Again, just seemed like a cost-saving thing.

Day 1 early morning they had to close the main indoor pool in the suite building for the entire day for what looked and smelled like a septic overflow on the ground floor where that pool was located. They had everything operational the next day, but frankly - it was gross.

Pools in general, especially the suite building (and the lazy river in particular) were relatively unkept. Not crazy dirty, but bits of litter (I saw an empty beer can one morning in the lazy river, but cigarettes butts around the property were probably the main overall culprit) noticeable on multiple instances. Once again, owners seemed to be skimping on general upkeep.

I did end up going to grab fresh towels one night, and another strange thing I noticed - they still do A LOT of stuff via pen and paper (in this case, writing down my request on an inventory sheet). It was the same as when we went to the breakfast building - a lady sitting there asking for your room number and marking it off a list (she was super sweet, by the way, and the breakfast staff in general were nice folks....staff interactions are the reason I rating is higher than a "1").

(On the "breakfast" note, the scrambled eggs were runny - another guest said the same thing to me without prompting - and again with the old furniture/old everything in the building....)

Facilities in general were not nearly as appealing as the resort's website made them out to be. Even had everything been kept up well, everything was much smaller and more cramped than the picture would have you believe.

Overall, we just didn't see the value for our money. Three years ago, we stayed in the Holiday Inn Pavilion on our prior trip to Myrtle Beach for $100/night. This time around, we thought we'd do a suite (and at Dayton House) to save money on eating out (because we could just meal prep the first day), get a little more room, and have more (and better) facilities to enjoy. If I had to do this trip over again, I'd have just done what we did three years ago - skimp on the room and spend the balance on eating out. The Holiday Inn Pavilion has a similar room for almost half the price of Dayton's at the moment, and the facilities there were in much better shape (with service on par).

If I had the describe overall Dayton House upkeep, feel, and experience in simple terms, I'd (sadly have to) say "penny-pinching budget motel charging resort prices".

I got/get the feeling Dayton House ownership wasn't/isn't really "hands-on" and intentional about their facilities and guest experience. Frankly, I'm not really sure why there are - from what I've read (as a first-time visitor and commenting from that perspective) - families/guests that are/have been loyal to booking at Dayton House for as long as I've read they have been......there are much better places in Myrtle Beach for the amount of money you'd spend at...

The Dayton House Best Western Signature Collection ruined our vacation and turned our valuable family time into a disaster. We did not stay for the second night that we prepaid for. We had purchased 2-nights accommodation in a 2-room oceanfront suite that sleeps 6 & includes a kitchen for a family vacation, including family that traveled from France to be here on their first visit to America from 7-11-2024 through 7-13-2024 to celebrate a birthday and reunion.

After a night, maintenance showed up just before we went to the beach, as a neighboring room had "a leak". They removed part of the ceiling to view the leak and confirmed. They stated they'd put towels there.

After we returned and our young daughter in the shower, the fire alarm erupted in the suite, BLARING at 103 decibels (according to the apple watch, sound captured in the video) and then the suite ceiling came down on grandma's head!

Of course we informed the front desk and they put us in another suite - a SMOKING suite. We called from the suite and refused, reminding them that our family includes a young daughter and elderly grandmother. Over the phone, they offered one smaller room with two beds- no, not enough and doesn't meet the pre-booked needs as evident in the suite purchase. Why don't they convert the 2-room suite into 2 smaller rooms? We asked. They refused. Instead, they can spray the smoking suite or move to a smaller room with only two beds. The resort only offered us a downgrade to a smoking suite after the risk of the unsafe room or a downgrade to a small room where we all can't fit. "So you're saying we just have to live with a room where you'll spray chemicals for my daughter and grandmother to breathe in to cover up the smoking and smell or get a small room where we can't fit?" Silence. Then she said "I have offered to spray or a smaller room, we can't move you to two rooms because you booked one." An obvious solution doesn't suit The Dayton House Best Western Signature Collection. They refused. We head back down.

At the front desk they refused to refund because we already paid for everything through an online booking site. They've taken prepayment for: staying in an unsafe suite where a ceiling comes down on a grandmother's head while a soaking family packs up and a fire could be burning the place down according to the perspective of our frightened young daughter deafened by a fire alarm. ruining an international family vacation, reunion, and birthday.

You don't want to sleep in a chemical bath with your scared daughter and injured grandmother and a ruined vacation? Too bad for you and thank you for your hundreds and hundreds of dollars. The manager attempted to wash hands clean for this disaster. They got their money. The manager had ZERO empathy and was in fact cold and apathetic. This is the most disturbing aspect of the experience. NO viable solutions or steps were taken toward a solution and the complete absence of empathy. No leadership. They did not offer to have someone check on grandma after the injury, they did not offer to help her, they did not talk with nor attempt to calm our very upset and scared little daughter after rushing out of a screaming fire alarm in what she thought was a fire emergency. Even as a Best Western affiliate, they didn't pick up the phone and call another Best Western to see if there was a room for one more evening for ocean-soaked and sandy family members. This is within a manager's responsibility and role to alleviate and solve problems, within reason, and within the parameters of the business deal by booked accomodation. They have the ability and means for a resolution with these suggested possibilities. Even more possibilities exist that guests aren't aware of and are at the disposal of management yet they REFUSED. Zero empathy. Zero service. Zero discretion. They simply DO NOT CARE. It apparently is run by a sociopath. Rotten at the top.

The breakfast staff and maintenance staff, in our limited communication, were very good and...

This place is a glorified motel, NOT a resort.

Breakfast is the only food included in this place as stated but you have to walk across the street into a next building for a jam packed building for powdered eggs, sausage and waffles with fruits out of the can.

Room service does not give you enough towels and when we would call we were told to come downstairs and get because they went home…it was 4pm btw. Every day we never had a restock on towels, toilet paper, shampoo and conditioner and continuously had to go downstairs to get it.

Our toilet bowl was also very shaky, and the room was dimly lit. On our third night here we found roaches coming out of cracks in our bathroom trying to get in our fridge and we had to switch at 2am which the overnight manager said he will switch us.

We got our keys and was told it’s in building next door on the 10th floor. We went to ask the front desk manager at the time if someone can help us move our luggage because it’s 2am and our luggage fell into the street…imagine us as just finding out we had cockroaches, half awake, luggage all over the street and then interacting with a nasty overnight manager who doesn’t care about roaches and helping us.

We get to the 10th floor in their Seaview suite and the hallway smelled like pee and was dimly lit. Getting into the room all of our towels had stains on it, the sheets had stains, our balcony door latch was placed by someone who lacked common sense so it couldn’t close.

The house keeping only gives you a minimum of two towels each day, in both buildings. When I asked room service for more she said one moment and never came back, so I guess all the staff doesn’t care to do the bare minimum here. The elevator also never works like???

After expressing this disgusting experience with the company we booked through they contacted the manager Paul who told them we got upgraded to a ocean suite so he will not give us a refund…no apology for the roaches or luggage falling all over the street.

For the money and for the work RESORT being in the name, it should be a RESORT EXPERIENCE, this is far from it. No staff to help with anything, room service doesn’t do anything. Paul needs to fix this up since he seems to be the one in charge and CHANGE YOUR NAME. Stop fooling people with false advertising. Don’t get caught here at this DIRTY DAYTON MOTEL!!!!!

***Just to clarify The only reason we stayed the full four nights was because we paid nearly $300 per night and were refused a refund when Expedia reached out to the manager John, because we were “upgraded.” If we had been refunded even for one night, we would’ve gladly left and booked elsewhere. But I guess John thinks money grows on trees.

Expedia had to contact him a SECOND TIME, and only then did he agree to refund one night, but not before saying he “doesn’t want to hear about these clients again.” Is that really how a professional in hospitality responds to guests dealing with roaches, filth, and stress?

That so-called “upgrade” was not a favor. It was the bare minimum after we were forced to switch rooms at 2 AM due to roaches crawling from the bathroom cracks, cabinets, and even the fridge. The new room was moldy, musty, and had stained towels and sheets. Absolutely not acceptable.

John’s dismissive tone in his response only confirms what many other reviews have already said, he knows about these ongoing health and safety issues and chooses not to address them. This entire experience could have been resolved with professionalism and basic accountability, but instead, you escalated the problem by downplaying it and refusing to take...