Danica

Review of Francis Marion Hotel

We stayed at the Francis Marion during our first v...

We stayed at the Francis Marion during our first visit to Charleston this past week. A few good points, but $220/night is way too high a room rate for some of the cons at this hotel.

Pros
- Bellhops & Valet Attendants were friendly and professional. They were the only members of staff at this hotel who made us feel at home.
- Hotel location - Convenient to see sights downtown AND sits in a great spot if you plan on spending time outside of downtown. Easy highway access, it takes 5 minutes to get out of the city.

Cons
- Don't even bother with the "Traditional Room". This room was literally a box. It was the smallest hotel room I have ever stayed in. There isn't even enough room in the bathroom for a standard sized toilet. We tried to upgrade to a Deluxe, which I did have the chance to see. Those rooms were standard sized hotel rooms. Amazingly enough, there were no other rooms available in the entire hotel. What bothered me most was there was no additional effort made by guest services to ease our minds about the situation we were stuck in for the weekend.
- Think twice before spending extra money on "rooms with a view". Though the rooms do face the harbor and I imagine the views are nicer, be warned that any room on Calhoun or King Street sits right outside of Marion Square AND 2 of the city's most popular night clubs. And of course the windows in the hotel probably haven't been updated in 25 years... so even though we were on the 9th floor, I was woken up at 2-3am most mornings by the bustle outside of club go-ers.
- Old, old, old.... This hotel is just in desperate need of upgrades. The elevators, carpets, wallpaper, furniture. Everything just needs to be updated.
- Staff - The only good experience we had with hotel staff was with the Valet and Bellhop Attendants. Every other interaction we had with the staff, they just came off as rude.

All-in-all, the hotel was decent enough. But our experience there was comparable to staying at a Holiday Inn off of I-95. If you're planning a vacation, and you're usually bothered by old hotels with mediocre service, this isn't the one. Keep looking!