Hyatt Place Sumter / Downtown — Hotel in Sumter

Overall opinion: The hotel is nice but make sure your credit card is correctly charged upon check out.

This hyatt has spacious rooms that are great to host families or couples. I love that their rooms come with a small couch that doubles as a pull out.

The weekend I visited the hyatt was experiencing a towel shortage so you had to make friends with the cleaning crew or make several requests at the front desk for the towels. A fact that I did not learn until Sunday.

Hotel staff only cleans rooms after your 3rd night of stay unless requested. So if you need fresh towels or cleaning ask the staff the morning of or approach the cleaning lady.

The reservations for our stay were made over the phone and through a system glitch or error our reservation weren't correct upon arrival. The staff was super gracious and helped us resolve the issue so we could still have 2 rooms for 3 nights.

Come Sunday morning while waiting for new towels to hit the pool the cleaning lady informs me that she has our room on the check out list and thus no towels to give us. I'm quite confused since we had resolved on Friday to check out Monday morning. The staff also did not make mention of checking out earlier when I requested towels for the pool.

I go downstairs to correct the issue but the front desk states they can change the reservation again but the price was not set since Sunday night was more money. I call customer service online to file a complaint since they initially messed up the reservation. Cool that gets straightened out and the bill is back to the original quoted price. All good. No issues. We get to hang out at the pool, with only 3 towels for our party of 5 but whatever we are making the best of the situation. That evening the front desk had towels for us.

Okay I check out Monday and pay the bill. It's the exact price I'm quoted and I give a glowing review to the hotel manager about how great the staff was helping us along the way.

I check my credit card statement to pay my bill and I have an extra $200 miscellaneous charge from hyatt. I call the hotel to resolve this and ask why my card was charged. They state they have no records of the extra charges. Welp I call my credit card company to dispute it.

The elevator down button stopped functioning and they required individuals to go up and then down. Breakfast was individually wrapped breakfast items such as muffins, Jimmy Dean, cereal, ftuit, or yogurt. Only shared items is the occasional potato, bacon, or soft...

Cross your arms left over right. Now extend each of your index fingers. That's exactly what's going on here when you make a request or need help with something. Someone is looking for another to do their duties.

There is a question about how well the room was cleaned and when requesting room service after day 3...nothing happened. Even though I heard the manager radio to housekeeping and give the room number for cleaning. Came back that evening and it was just as it was before. At this point you're tired and just want to shower and go to bed right? Nope, the sink was still draining really slow and towels were needed.

There was a lady in the hall with the cart for clean towels so that was easy to rectify without filling out a request in triplicate. She then called the on-duty maintenance guy who basically poured about a gallon of drain cleaner into the sink. Well...it worked. The sink was no longer draining slow and if it was that easy, why wasn't it done between 11a and 1p when I was out? I dunno and they don't know either.

Breakfast is self-serve with gloves for sanitation. There is some heat and serve breakfast sandwiches, yogurt, cut fruit, milk, assorted juices, cereals as options. Prior to COVID, I'm told there is more of a heartier spread.

Bring your own hand sanitizer. The gallon jugs they have are so old they've become cloudy and look questionable. There is a mini-mart area to buy snacks and tea and coffee station.

When making an effort to get my steps in, I took the stairs. This is another area that needs some periodic cleaning as there were a few dead bugs and leaves scattered inside the stairwell.

Placards for their parking garage are issued and it's right next door. I did see a uniformed security guard patrolling and looking busy. A few dining options within walking distance for to go or dine in.

Not a terrible property but it's evident that the employees do what they want when they want if they feel like it. The manager's frustration is thinly veiled and well-deserved as some changes are long overdue if this property wishes to stay a viable choice. P.S....it's only...

During our stay this weekend, I initially noticed a moldy dirty shower in our room. Toilet seat had residue when I arrived. Entire third floor smells like mold or mildew. This tracks because I became ridiculously sick from something when running the air conditioning unit. I woke up each morning coughing and sneezing uncontrollably, even after purchasing allergy medication. Burning eyes, throat, and nose had me miserable in the room and would lessen when I left the hotel. I have since returned home and the irritants have subsided drastically in a few hours. Something is going on in that hotel. Trash was left in the hallway for two days straight from a restaurant and the hotel staff didn't pick it up. I guess they don't clean anything for three days at a time, not even the hallway. Breakfast options are minimal in comparison to even the Tru and Springhill suites on the other side of Sumter. Adding scrambled eggs, grits, oatmeal packets, Otis Spunkmeir muffins, TURKEY OR CHICKEN SAUSAGE OPTIONS, almond or oat milk should be a priority at a hotel of this caliber. If I'm spending this kind of money, my expectations are there will be more warm options for guests other than ham, potatoes and pork sausage. This hotel has a nice exterior but the inside needs a lot of work. The staff was nice enough but not sure why they don't like sitting at the front desk. They had their food, personal belongings and the like spread out across the office/charging port area to the left of the front door and it made me unclear as to if that was a space for guests to use or not. I've never been in a hotel where the staff were never behind the front desk until someone came up to ask questions. Just on the side lounging like they are hanging out. I really hope they change things because the location is amazing and I had high hopes for my stay there. Really sad that I left sick and (and I took 4 covid tests that turned out to be negative) disappointed because...