Review of Embassy Suites Hotel Greenville, South Carolina
I recently stayed a couple nights at the Downtown Riverplace Greenville, SC Embassy Suites hotel, and while the grey and drizzly weather during our stay limited our options in town, the hotel didn’t disappoint, providing a welcome oasis.
The Room
If you’re not familiar with Embassy Suites model, all rooms are “suites”, with the Embassy Suites Downtown Riverplace offering a Studio Suite, or two room Suite. I booked a Suite with a king bed and balcony.
I tend not to be loyal to any particular hotel brand, so rather than accumulate small numbers of hotel rewards points across multiple brands, I booked through Expedia, because their reward points are redeemable towards most bookings on the site.
Our corner bedroom wasn’t huge, but was bright and airy, with a comfortable mattress and linens and blackout curtains. There’s a TV in the bedroom as well as the separate sitting area.
The sitting area provided plenty of space to spread out, with a sofa, coffee table, ottoman and desk. Below, the sitting area, with the bedroom door on the left, and the entrance door on the right.
Standing at the bedroom door looking out at the kitchenette. The setup of the room felt a bit strange with the large empty space on this side, but on the plus side there’s plenty of space to store luggage.
The bathroom, accessible from the bedroom or main sitting area. The bathroom was clean and modern, with good quality towels, and stocked with Neutrogena bath products. The robe was plush and crazy heavy (think dead of winter heavy), and there were disposable slippers as well.
The spacious balcony, accessible from the sitting area. The weather didn’t cooperate to allow us to enjoy the balcony much during our stay, but the view of the river and city was fantastic. Given better weather, we’d have spent a lot more time out here!
Hotel Amenities
One of the cool features of Embassy Suites is their nightly evening reception, featuring free drinks and snacks for all guests.
The selection of drinks included two beers, white and red wine, basic cocktails with cheaper liquors, and some house pre-mixed cocktails. The wonderful bartender took our drink orders, then poured us some extra “tastes”– a half glass of the second beer for my boyfriend, and half pours of the house cocktails for me, resulting in a pretty impressive drink table for the two of us! The bartender was obviously generous, and there’s no stated limit to the free drinks, with the reception lasting a couple hours each night, so you can definitely get tipsy if you wish.
The snacks weren’t anything special, but included pretzels, fresh veggies and hummus, cubed cheese, and crackers, more than enough to serve as a pre-dinner snack. If you don’t want to hang out in the bar area, you’re welcome to take your drink and snacks up to your room.
Other complimentary offerings include free breakfast each morning and free WiFi. The WiFi was great and easy to connect to, no problems there. We didn’t try the free breakfast, because, c’mon, there’s so much good food in Greenville! I’d rather save that stomach space for some thing cool and local. But the free breakfast is a nice perk and convenient if you’re limited for time.
Other hotel amenities include a gym, saltwater pool, and self service laundry facilities. I poked my head in the gym and found it crowded and a tad small given the size of the hotel. The pool looked nice, but I wasn’t keen on sharing it with the kids obviously having a good time there. No big loss on either count, as these aren’t amenities I always take advantage of. I did think the self service laundry was a really great feature. So many hotels only offer hugely overpriced laundry service, so this is a welcome deviation.
Finally, there’s a Ruth’s Chris steakhouse, as well as a rooftop bar and restaurant, which we stopped by after a disappointing meal in town (to be fair, everywhere else we ate in Greenville was wonderful). The rooftop restaurant was surprisingly good and offered a larger than normal beer selection. We ordered some appetizers and dessert, and particularly loved the sweet potato pie.
Location
The location is fantastic, right on the river with great views, and within walking distance to downtown, gorgeous Falls Park, and the renowned (and highly recommended!) Husk restaurant.
You can valet or self park at the attached parking garage for a fairly reasonable nightly rate. We did end up using our car to visit a BBQ spot a little further out one day, but you could easily eat and shop within the surrounding area and not miss out on anything.
Service
Employees were consistently helpful and friendly, no complaints here. The bartender was especially wonderful, as I noted earlier, professional and generous with the drinks. On our second evening, we grabbed a couple drinks and sat down around the corner from the bar in the breakfast area. The bartender came looking for us with a second round when we didn’t come back up to the bar, which was unexpected and a nice gesture.
Book a Room at Embassy Suites Downtown Riverplace, Greenville SC
I like to book through Expedia, but it never hurts to shop around for the best deal:
Embassy Suites Downtown Riverplace on Expedia
Embassy Suites Downtown Riverplace on Booking.com
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