Staybridge Suites Charleston-Ashley Phosphate by IHG — Hotel in North Charleston

A Tale of Two Stays: Excellent One Week, Unacceptable the Next:

This review is based on two separate stays within a short period, and the experiences were starkly different. My first stay last week was excellent. The property was clean and felt safe, despite a slow draining toilet and loud A/C unit in the bedroom. The front desk staff and management were wonderful, providing a genuinely welcoming and pleasant experience. I would have given this property a top-tier rating based on that visit alone.

However, my second stay this week has been deeply disappointing and unprofessional. The negative experience began with a member of the night staff who saw me leaving the property and loudly commented, "Oh, you snuck in here." The facial expressions, tone and choice of words were both embarrassing and unprofessional. While I tried to explain that I hadn't snuck in, the staff member simply said, "I didn't see you come in," without any apology or welcoming remark.

Later that same night, after my car tires blew out on the Cooper River Bridge and I had to get a rental car, I returned to the property to extend my stay. While trying to explain this dangerous and traumatic event to the different night staff member, she looked downward at her phone or computer keyboard (idk what she was looking down) and gave me no eye contact or acknowledgment. When I asked about extending my stay, she curtly replied, "We're fully booked. In fact, we're overlooked." Still, she did not look at me or respond to the serious situation I had just described. When I asked her, "Did you hear what I just shared with you?," she simply responded verbatim, "I hear you now."I brought these two incidents to the attention of the day manager, expecting a level of understanding and professionalism. Instead, she defended the night staff, saying, "we're a family-oriented property" and that maybe the employee was trying to talk to me "like she was a family member." While I understand the sentiment, it was a completely unacceptable excuse for unprofessional and dismissive behavior. When I asked if this met the level of expectation for her property, she said, "yes."Ultimately, my experience has been very polarizing. While the property itself is not bad, and the staff can be great, the level of service and professionalism seems to vary dramatically depending on who is on duty and who requires assistance. While I was sitting in the lobby area checking the availability at other properties. A Caucasian woman went to the same nightclerk and started versing and threatening to fight and physically harm another lady in the laundry room. The woman admitted that she removed the other woman's clothes from a washer or dryer and started to fold them without permission. Meaning she took it upon herself to take someone else's belongings. The same nightclerk would not look up from her.Whatever she was doing to a to say, a kind word about my car.In my situation suddenly became the queen of empathy. She was so reassuring and nice to this woman who was cursing and using file language in the lobby area. So much so that she even told the the foul mouthed lady that they can ask her ( The woman whose clothes was removed without her permission) to leave the property and ended with you don't have to fight her. This was a very confusing scene to watch. At the point where this woman said she removed and touched.Someone else's belongings that same front desk.Person never said ma'am.Please don't touch other people's belongings. Instead , she validated her and offered to make the other person leave.

It is a shame that a single interaction can completely undermine an otherwise...

Staff was pretty rude. Planned a family vacation with my kids and their father. We specifically wanted to stay at this hotel as we stayed here once before 5 years prior to this trip and we liked the fact it had a kitchen and room division, but upon calling the hotel to book our stay the prices were more than double than our previous stay so we checked around on other sites and found we could get a much cheaper rate through a booking site. We then reached out to the hotel again and informed them of the price difference to give them a chance to match it and then basically got yelled at by the call center employee that the booking site was a scam and he didn’t believe us, so we booked it through the site that offered the better rate. We had only planned to stayed one night due to our busy work schedules but still wanted to make the most of it. At check in we were surprised to be told we needed to put in a 100 dollar deposit for the stay, this was never mentioned to us on the site we used to book the room, but we were assured we’d get our deposit back immediately at check out (the front desk person used the word immediately) so I scanned my card and we went to our room. The room itself wasn’t very clean, there was some black debris on the back of the toilet and near where the lid attaches. We were hungry and tired and it was late so we decided to just get some food and go to bed, the beds looked clean enough. I fell asleep earlier than everyone else and decided to go check out the gym because I enjoy working out. I came downstairs to see 2 staff members sitting in the eating area watching television. One of them spoke to me and I told her I was checking out the gym and she scoffed and made fun of the notion that i would want to work out. It made me uncomfortable so I went back upstairs and got dressed and headed outside as to not disturb my family. After a little while I came back in and we all got up and a few of us went to eat breakfast and we overheard staff complaining that their kitchen equipment was broken/not working properly and not being fixed and that the hotel kept “bandaiding” it but never really fixing or replacing anything. We ignored the comments and continued our morning. Then we watched a bit of tv upstairs because it was very overcast and we had planned to drive to the beach but the weather wasn’t agreeable so we needed to search for alternative activities. We finally agreed on what we’d do and we took out things to the car to pack it so we’d be ready to leave at checkout, which was 2 hours later. When we got to the car our youngest son mentioned he would like to swim before we left so we went back upstairs and they were already cleaning our room so we explained to him they’d already kicked us out and he was upset. I went to the front desk to turn in my keys and get my deposit only to be condensingly told it would come back in 3-5 business days and I was talked down too in such a way that indicated I couldn’t afford the stay. I told them the reason I thought I’d get it back immediately was due to what their coworkers had told me and they laughed at me. I turned in the key and turned to leave and heard them complaining about me as I walked out. I couldn’t believe how rude everyone there was. We won’t be back. We weren’t made to feel welcome or “at home” as the decor in the seating area suggested. Sad how things have gone so far downhill since our initial...

I stayed here 33 nights consecutively and it is easily one of the best hotels in the area. The recent renovation likely helped this property. It will be my go-to hotel if I need to stay in or near North Charleston.

Room - My standard room was clean, well taken care of, and QUIET. New IHG properties and renos are adopting a new type of sound proofing that really makes a difference. I never heard my neighbors or much noise in the hallway. I stayed in July when temperatures reached over 105 and the HVAC unit was a fighter. On the hottest days it struggled to keep the room at the set temperature, but it didn't quit. The room had a ceiling fan above the bed and worked well. The kitchen was quite nice - full sized refrigerator, two electric burner stove, garbage disposal, dishwasher, two slice toaster, large microwave, a breakfast bar with two stools, and plenty of prep space.

Housekeeping - Noticeably took their time in the rooms and did a great job. They vacuum, make the bed (or change out the sheets depending on the day), clean the bathroom/shower, do the dishes, and run the dishwasher. I typically did my dishes, but anytime there was something in the sink or on the counter, it was placed and ran in the dishwasher.

WIFI - Steady 1 MB/s download speed with access points in each room for the strongest signal. Not once had a disconnection.

Front desk staff - Friendly and helpful from check-in through check-out. About 20 minutes after I checked in I received a call to my room making sure everything was okay. Most of the time you don't even get that at 5 star locations.

Washers and dryers - If I recall, there were four washers and four dryers. On average, there was one washer that was unserviceable which is really quite good. I noticed a repair person working on the machines on multiple occasions while working out in the gym. I once stayed at a Staybridge that only had one washer and two dryers so this is a massive upgrade.

Gym and pool - The gym was decent for a hotel. There are some weight machines, treadmill, bike, elliptical, and free weights. I found it almost never busy. There is water available most of the time, antibacterial wipes to clean off the machines, and small towels for sweat. The pool is somewhat small and I was disappointed to find it wasn't outdoors, but still great they have one.

Location - This is probably my least favorite part. If you don't have a vehicle, it is a struggle to do much without an Uber or someone in the area who can drive. Cracker Barrel and IHOP are nearby, but not much else.

Additional amenities - I'm not a big TV watcher, but the hotel has like 100 channels like HBO, sports channels, movie channels etc. There is also a DVD player in each room and you can rent DVDs from the "library" for free - this was a nice surprise that I have not seen before. You just need to take the box to the front desk to get the disc. Social nights are Monday through Wednesday of each week. Wednesdays have the best food and alternate between burgers and hot dogs cooked on the grill outside by a staff member. There is wine and beer being...