FlyinHawaiian

We recently completed a brief weekend stay at The Brice and I am happy to report that while they still have a few minor kinks to work out (mostly at the Front Desk), Southern Hospitality is alive and well, with a generous touch of Kimpton Karma.

As normal, I responded to the welcome email that was sent to me a few days before arrival to make my Inner Circle requests. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a response from the Assistant General Manager of the property who worked with me to ensure my requests were met. I also received a separate email of welcome from the General Manager of the property; both were nice touches and gave me a clue that we were in for a special stay.

We arrived to the property just before midnight and at first, the valet was nowhere to be seen. I parked the car in front of the entrance and was just about finished unloading when the valet showed up and welcomed us to the hotel. I should note that for the rest of the stay, we had no issues with the availability or speed of the valets.

We were staying for two nights, the first using the Inner Circle new property benefit and the second as revenue stay, reserving a Deluxe King Room. I had a few minor quibbles with the clerk checking us in; he had difficulty checking us in for our mixed reservation and needed some coaching from the night manager to get us squared away. We found out the next afternoon that our key cards had stopped working and needed to be re-coded; I am not sure if that was a result of our mixed reservations. We also weren’t recognized as Inner Circle members, offered a “Raid the Bar” card (or offered the benefit), or drink certs for missing Wine Hour. Most annoying was when we said “Summer of Karma” we got blank stares and no offer of amenity. My wife took it upon herself to pointedly ask what the property would offer us. At our suggestion, we were given free valet parking; a savings of $25 per night.

Upon arrival to our room, we were happily surprised to see we had been upgraded to a Premier King Suite (no mention of any room type when we checked in) on the third (top) floor. The layout of the hotel is a little odd; it’s a square with a central courtyard and then a smaller square annex, attached by a short hallway. It appears the normal suites are on the side of the hotel that faces Emmet Park and the Savannah River. One odd thing is that this section of the hotel has exterior hallways so there is a bit of noise from the courtyard. While facing the river, the suites also face busy Bay Street and since the property isn’t set back, there is some road/traffic noise.

The décor was very fresh and still had a faint smell of fresh paint. Our shower handle was missing the ornamental grip, which was noticed by the maid and replaced per her request. I also noticed the fire sprinkler in the bathroom was missing the trim ring, which looked tacky. One last thing is that since the bathroom didn’t have a fan, the mirrors completely fogged over during our shower.

Here’s some pictures of the courtyard

For our welcome amenity, we had asked for some local, “best-of” treats. We were given a platter containing candied pecans from River Street Sweets, cheddar pecan biscuit cookies from Bryd Cookie Company, and some gourmet chocolates from Chocolat by Adam Turoni along with some to-go cups and beverages. We didn’t receive a local newspaper each morning, which is another Inner Circle benefit that was missed.

We used our $50 Inner Circle restaurant credit for brunch the next morning at Pacci; when we arrived, we were seated at a table that had personalized menus welcoming us with a special chef’s tasting menu that consisted of selected bite-sized samples from the menu accompanied by flutes of Prosecco and orange juice. During our meal, the Assistant General Manager, Restaurant Manager, Sous Chef, and other staff stopped by to introduce themselves. We enjoyed great service from our server and the food was so good, we went back for brunch the second day to try more items from the menu.

During checkout, I needed to remind the agent that I had the $50 credit so she had to adjust the bill. The free valet offer was properly added without any issue.

Overall, this is a great property with management that is obviously engaged in treating their guests well, with special attention paid to guests with Karma levels. The items that the Assistant General Manager had control over showed great attention to detail; I am sure the property will work out the kinks with the other, minor issues that did very little to detract from what was a very special stay.

DebitNM

Great report! Thanks for sharing. We look forward to visiting and checking out Southern Hospitality, Kimpton style.

RogerMurdock

Excellent report and pictures! Thank you!

thegrailer

This hotel looks wonderful!

Calcifer

Cuz she's classy like that. Seriously, though, FH always tries to work those secret passwords into the conversation because he feels a bit tacky asking directly for things. I, on the other hand, am from New Jersey, so when they were trying to shoo us away from the desk without acknowledging we'd said it, I asked "So what do we get for saying the secret password?" Our agent stared at me like I had several heads, and the night manager's response was: "What do you want?" Hmmm......

I loved our stay and would be happy to go back again, but I could imagine that things like not getting a particularly warm first welcome, not getting all the little things you're supposed to get at check-in (I couldn't tell you what was in the minibar as we didn't get a key), and seeing some of the punch-list items still not taken care of could be annoying if you weren't getting any Inner Circle love. Along with FH, I hope they'll get those points ironed out quickly.

CHOPCHOP767

Any recent stays at this property? Heading down next week to do some exploring around the area. Specifically, if the restaurant was any good for breakfast/dinner and if the rooms with the balconies were worth it to have a drink at the end of the day. Was also looking at the suites. Thanks.

FlyinHawaiian

The original chef at Pacci left over a year ago, which is a shame as the food and service was phenomenal. We've had a car both times we were there so we were able to explore and find some fun/hip alternatives for brunch.

I've stayed in a King Suite and really liked it. I've stayed in a Premier King which overlooked the pool and it was a little more quiet.

sunshineonlieth

I peeked at the suites last time I was there and they are nice, but right off the courtyard. Same with the rooms with the balconies - directly above the pool. It is a very small property so if you are looking for a quiet stay those room locations may be something to consider.

bigbuy

This hotel, once called the Mulberry Inn, was the Savannah Coca Cola bottling plant years ago. I hope they kept some of the artifacts from that era.

christianj

Any recent updates? Trying to decide between this hotel and the Indigo and both have seen horrible reviews recently on TA so concerned to pick either.

COLINDAD

Anyone been here recently?

It appears that the hotel is finishing up an extended renovation.