I don’t always expect a four star hotel delivering four star quality. But my stay at The Lindy Charleston was closer to a two star than a four star for a hotel that unfortunately advertises as a four star hotel. Service was not good. We had one day where they failed to clean our room even when we called down and asked several times. You leave this place feeling like you were ripped off, considering its price tag. Somehow this place is getting 4.3 stars on TripAdvisor.com
The Lindy Renaissance Charleston Hotel is a supposedly upscale, 166-room hotel located at 68 Wentworth Street in the heart of Charleston, SC. It was chosen by me because of its saltwater outdoor pool, as well as on-site dining at Lenoir Restaurant. It is steps away from King Street. I chose the hotel for one main reason — so my 3 year old would have a pool to play in. Other four star hotels in the are do not have pools.
I had a special surprise waiting for me at check-in. . . I was informed that the pool was closed and there was no timetable about it reopening. I told them that the only reason why I chose to stay at The Lindy was because it had a pool. I asked them at check-in if we could use another property’s pool and they told me that we could not.
Ironically, I asked again about this the following morning and they said that we could use the pool at The Courtyard hotel which was roughly a 15 minute walk from The Lindy. This was better than nothing, although it was quite a trek for our three year old to get to the pool and then get back home.
This was the hallway leading to our room, 402. I had purchased a fancier room, the nicest that they had available. It was 1 King Bed, Executive Guest Room which was a ‘larger’ room than the other room choice.
This was our ‘larger’ room. It had to be less than 300 square feet. This was going to house myself, my wife and kid for four nights. And the price you are probably wondering? If I told you that this room costs over 500 dollars per night, you would think I was joking, right?
Well, unfortunately I am not joking. This room costs OVER 500 dollars per night. I told the manager that it is not acceptable to charge this much for what you are marketing as a larger room. That is pure deception.
The bathroom was tiny. It was the size of a Motel 6 or Ramada bathroom from the 1980s. This picture doesn't do justice how small the bathroom was, but it did have a small vanity to the right of the toilet.
The bed itself was adequate but nothing like the Westin Heavenly bed. It was very firm so if you do not like a firm mattress you are going to be very uncomfortable.
Here is a photo of the pool that was closed throughout our four night stay. They had chairs outside that you could use. The treadmills were fortunately not all out of order.
The gym is functional but somewhat crammed. This is not typically what you expect from a four star hotel to have something this crammed. When there were a lot of people using the gym it felt particularly crammed.
The room was very noisy. We were awoken several times by people making noise upstairs. The rooms also were not good with sealing out outside noise. We heard people cleaning in the mornings. The noise awoke our 3 year old several times and made it difficult for her to get her nap during the day.
Food at Lenoir, their hotel restaurant, was adequate American cuisine. They made a decent breakfast that was decently priced. Coffee at their coffee shop, Handy & Hot, was weirdly bitter. Fortunately there was a coffee shop across the street.
Service was inadequate here. I did not like that they initially told us that we cannot use another property’s pool and then said that we can. They did not try very hard to recover when I complained on how small the room was which was advertised as ‘larger.’ It is clearly not a large room as they advertise. The photos in the Mariott page for The Lindy, also show a balcony which the room does not have. This is weirdly deceptive. We left the room for three hours and came back and the room was not cleaned. We called downstairs and they promised to clean the room. When we came back from dinner the room was still not cleaned. This is a really poor standard for a hotel that says that they are four star. I could stay at a one star Holiday Inn and still have a clean room each night.
BOTTOM LINE:
The Lindy Renaissance Charleston has a good location and is close to King Street. It is not at all a four star hotel as advertised. Rooms are small, dated, flooring was cracked and the construction quality is very poor. For over 500 dollars a night, this is not good value for your money.