Best Western Executive Inn & Suites — Hotel in West Columbia

If I could give this place zero stars I would. I booked this hotel about 3 months ago on one of the travel sites for a place to stay during one of the football weekends. I checked in around 7pm on Friday night and was immediately met with an attitude by the front desk. They informed me that they were putting me in a smoking room. I told them that my wife had asthma and that we couldn’t stay in a smoking room. I was told that either I could stay in a smoking room or upgrade to a suite for an extra 30 dollars; the ‘ole switcharoo’. After weighing my options, none, I paid the 30 dollars for the upgraded suite, but told the front desk that I would review their hotel accordingly. I don’t work in the hotel industry, but if I did, the right thing to do in this instance would have been to put me in the suite at no charge. That’s how you get a loyal customer.

After finishing my horrible experience with the front desk and checking in, I went to the room. I immediately thought “Hey. I’m staying at a museum, because the fridge and microwave had to be the first ever model from the early 1900s.” The room was blah. The suite was laughable. I would have hated to see what a regular sized room looked like. It must have been the size of a closet. The room also smelled. I guess the room used to be a smoking room. It seemed the entire hotel used to be a smoking hotel. The bed was hard. Also, the location of the hotel is next to a bunch of rundown buildings, some that had been burned down. I did not feel very safe going back and forth to my car.

I left the hotel to meet up with some friends for the night, but before I left I was verbally attacked by someone that seemed to be the owner. I was told that if I was going to give a negative review that I could leave and go somewhere. This was highly impractical because any decent hotel would be sold out for the football weekend. The lady kept on arguing with me. I told her that what I do on my own time is my business and that I was staying at this hotel for the weekend, but kept on. She went as far as to start to follow me out to my car as I left.

My overall opinion of this hotel, in addition to how bad the hotel is overall, is that these people really missed the class on hospitality. I travel to Columbia six to seven times a year for USC related events and I will never stay there again. The place was old, everything was brass. The third floor smells like one big cigarette and the service was horrible. Also, the free breakfast is a joke. I’d compare this place to the “Knights Inn” across the road.

EDIT This Best Western just keeps getting better. Now they've double charged my card even though I was told that I would only be charged $30 dollars. Ms. Patel is a...

My husband and I stay in Columbia 7-10 times per year for USC related events. We booked this hotel 3 months ago to stay for one of the football weekends. Upon arrival we were told that there were no non smoking rooms as we had requested in our reservation that were available.

I have severe allergies and asthma and my husband relayed this to the lady at the front desk. She told us our options were to "try the smoking room" or to pay $30 to upgrade to a non smoking suite. She was extremely rude throughout the conversation and when we asked to speak to both a manager and the owner, her response for each was that they were "unavailable." Apparently this means both in person and by phone (not that she attempted to contact either).

We paid the $30 to upgrade as we had very few options at that point and during a sold out football weekend. Don't worry we will be disputing the charge through our credit card company.

The "suite" was tiny and no frills. The microwave and mini fridge likely outdated me. The whole building looked like it hadn't been upgraded in 30 years. I can't imagine what a regular room would have looked like if what we had was the suite.

My husband went to run an errand shortly after check in and was "attacked" by an employee that we assume was an owner. The person told him that if we were going to leave a bad review (something we had told the front desk lady at check in) that we could get our stuff and leave. He continued walking out of the building as the person nearly followed him to his car.

The next morning we left for the game with a do not disturb sign on the door. When we returned some hours later the room had been "cleaned." Based on the hostility we had met the first night I was wary that they may have gone through our stuff.

This hotel was just awful. Out of date. Overrated. Worst attitudes in customer service ever. I will never...

I just stayed here for my sisters graduation for 3 nights. The woman at the front desk was the most unhelpful person I've ever encountered in hospitality. I called ahead to ask the simple question "is there an issue if my mother had made the booking and I share her name and check into the room? she has just died" Instead of meeting me with an answer or condolences, she screamed at me that i had already called (i hadn't, my sister had earlier), and that since the booking was made through a third party booking company, she could only cancel the reservation and charge us more now. My sister whom i was staying with changes the details on booking.com 2 days prior to arrival. We showed her the confirmation of the changes 4 times at check in as she sits there and claims we never submitted it, we're not the actual guests, continuously saying unprompted "I'm not being difficult, I'm not giving you a hard time" while my extremely polite sister asks her to please check with the site. at this point she says she'll honor the rate and re-book it, but that's not what we want after the hoops she made us jump through. she checks the third party booking and the changes HAD been submitted. We WERE listed as the guests. Terrible start to the stay. In our double room, we were met with a tub shower that was unable to stop the tub faucet while the shower was running (I'm talking gallons per minute were rushing out of this thing), a VERY stained shower curtain, no toilet exhaust fan, no soap (forget that just being plain gross, we're in the middle of a pandemic here), and coffee maker in the bathroom (ew). I spent as little time as possible there...