The Palms Hotel

Had a 3 night stay at this hotel, things started off a little rocky but took a good turn.
When we arrived to our room (traditional interior room) we discovered old food was left behind in the fridge and we had zero cell phone signal — which wouldn’t have been a big deal but we had work to do in the room that week.
I went by the front desk and asked what our options were to move and without hesitation, Kyle at the front desk helped us out. Our new room (coastal king room) had a side balcony and met our needs perfectly.
I read the other comments on here and I do agree that a lot of updating could be done to the property. I will say that the pictures are verryyyy deceiving. This hotel is very «motel“ish. Honestly, it’s great for what it is location and price… but quality-​wise it’s not a luxury getaway. Be prepared to stay somewhere similar to a typical beach motel.
Overall, great location, staff was friendly, and plan to return!

Our stay at the end of June began with a slight hiccup, the refrigerator wasn’t running. Yes, insert prank phone call joke. But it posed a problem since we needed to keep milk on hand for our 14 mo. old. The two employees, Keri and Yvonne were fantastic. Super friendly and did their best to fix the issue. Those two young ladies are the only reason I can give a three rating.
The hotel is in need of some updating, sinks are cracked and décor is outdated. The free breakfast was a nice touch until I came across a spoiled cream cheese, yuck. But having some fresh fruit to take was helpful. The location is nice but the property could be made into a great destination with some updating.

The location and the view at the Palms Hotel are 5 stars, for sure. I love being able to step out on my deck and see the ocean and beach below my feet. We shut off our air conditioner at night, and slept with the door open. The sound of the waves breaking on the shore made the sweetest lullaby, and I slept better than I can remember sleeping for a very long time.
I do not know when we’ll be back in the Charleston area again, but when we are, we want to stay at the Palms.

This hotel was perfect for my weekend getaway. I believe there are only 65 rooms in the entire hotel. It was quiet, calm, and exactly what I needed for a relaxing weekend. Yvonne at the front desk was incredibly thoughtful and attentive. Plus, the free continental breakfast was a great way to start our morning. I wanted a hotel where I could walk out of the door and be on the beach. My wish was granted at the Palms Oceanfront Hotel. I would definitely stay here again and would highly recommend to anyone else traveling to Isle of Palms.

Overall, the accommodations of this hotel are the usual hotel accommodations that any hotel will give you. To start I’ll say this hotel only gets 1 star due to location and the beach. Honestly, the beach is really nice. Really big and lots of sand. As you know many beaches have rising levels so the beach is smaller. Not this part of the coastline. Really nice.
Some things I didn’t like (and you probably won’t either): The elevator made very worrisome grunts and moans as you moved in it. I know it’s inspected by the LLR, but it may need to be inspected again. I only stayed one night but I used the stairs primarily. Thank god I was on the third floor and there weren’t many steps. I will not ride in their elevators again.
The second thing is the location of the main office. It’s really on the second floor. This would of been nice to know in the description because you could seriously be looking around and wasting valuable vacation time just trying to figure out where to go. We tried calling because we got tired of looking around but no one answered the phone. On the second try they answered. Seriously? Answer your phones.
The third thing is parking. If you go during the time of year where it’s crowded then you’re SOL when it comes to parking. You either have to pay and hope to get one of the local spots on the street or you have to park in the public parking which seems like a mile away from the actual hotel. Very surprised by this considering the hotel right next door has it’s own parking. This hotel doesn’t have it’s own parking. So if you want the convenience of parking by your hotel then you might want to consider paying a bit more and go somewhere else. Remember this hotel is on the beach. The space is limited. But then again if the hotel right next door can make it work why can’t this hotel? Also, lets say you arrive and find a spot right in front of the hotel. I guarantee you when you leave and come back your spot will be gone.
The fourth thing is the condition of the hotel. Honestly, you have to take into account location. Wind, moisture, humidity, etc. is taking it’s sweet revenge on the outside of the hotel. The paint is cracking and there’s water everywhere. Just remember not to fall! It does look kinda ghetto though. You would expect more coming from a hotel on the oceanfront, but that’s probably the only reason as to why it’s expensive. I’ve been in much better looking hotels, with the same accommodations, in North Charleston. You just honestly expect more coming from a hotel in IOP.
The fifth thing is something
nor the hotel will tell you upfront. There will be a $ 150 extra hold on your debit/​credit card when you check in.
said only a $ 1 charge. This is false information. A $ 150 hold is mandatory and is considered for any damages to your room that may occur. This was highly inconvenient but thankfully I had the extra money available. Make sure you do. The sixth thing is the breakfast. This hotel must be owned by vegetarians because in it’s «free breakfast» there is no meat. Just a few muffins, old cereal, old hard boiled eggs (no scrambled or fresh) and coffee/​juice. Honestly if you’re looking for a hotel with free breakfast then do yourself a favor and just go out and buy some. You’ll be happier if you do have to pay.
So yes, if you’re staying for one night and want to be by the ocean then sure go ahead. But don’t pay a whole bunch of money. Especially when you consider you’ll need an extra $ 150 to stay. But longer periods of time you may just want to go more inland. Yes, you’ll have to travel a few miles to the beach but it’s really not that bad. I personally won’t return for all the issues I listed above. I couldn’t sleep at night knowing my car is literally almost half a mile down the road. Who knows if I’ll have a car when I wake up.

Disgusting and management is horrible. Will never stay here again. Isle of palms is beautiful but find a better place to stay. Not worth the money here. Dirty rooms and management is arrogant and extremely rude. Definitely don’t practice good customer service

I wanted to visit Isle of Palms (for the first time) for my birthday so we reserved 2 nights at The Palms, which is the only oceanfront hotel on IOP. Let me just say that the next time I visit IOP (which was amazing, by the way) I will look much harder for a different place even if I can’t be oceanfront.
This hotel is a joke. It seems so perfect at a glance, because it’s on the beach, surrounded by beach bars and shops, and in a great area. However, the management just doesn’t seem to care. First of all, we paid about $ 200 per night to stay here. Okay fine, it’s an oceanfront joint, it’s worth it. Well, maybe not. Look, I’ve stayed in plenty of chain hotels that were «discount» hotels that were much nicer than this place.
The room wasn’t bad at first, but then we noticed over half of the light bulbs needed to be replaced — they were burned out. That just seems like such a simple thing that shouldn’t go overlooked. Because we didn’t plan on being in the room much other than to sleep, this didn’t seem like a big deal so we didn’t complain. The first night though, before we went to sleep, we realized that the bed sheets were stained with blood. They looked like fresh blood stains that may not have been attempted to be cleaned. I can’t say that for sure, but either way it was gross. We called down to the front desk (this is about midnight) and the lady said to bring them down and she would exchange them for clean sheets. When we presented them to her, she basically said this kind of stuff happens all the time and said that we should complain to the manager in the morning because it «would mean more coming from us than it would from her». Wow. So the management doesn’t care about its employees concerns? As a customer, I don’t feel that I should have to complain more than one time about the same issue. Either way, we didn’t complain about it the next morning and no one contacted us about it.
Also that same night, we realized that there was about a one inch gap between the door and the floor (the door opened up to an outside hallway. This made the room unbearably hot at night even though the air conditioning was blasting. I don’t know about you, but I find it very hard to sleep when I’m hot.
At $ 200 per night, this kind of thing is unacceptable. Honestly, it’d be unacceptable at any hotel, but at least if it was a cheap place I could blame myself and say «you get what you pay for», but in this case I never got what I thought I paid for. Shame on you guys for your lack of attention to detail and apparent lack of respect for your customers’ experience at your hotel.
It should be noted that I filled out a survey provided by the hotel and said all of these exact things and now 3 weeks later I’ve never been contacted by anyone from the hotel management. I wanted to give them a chance to address the issues and at least apologize before writing my review, but they obviously are too busy — hopefully changing lightbulbs and cleaning linens.

This hotel is serviceable and we had a decent experience (I’d give this 3.5 stars, if I could). We got some great off-​season rates so I didn’t mind that the place wasn’t perfect. There’s free breakfast (nothing fancy, cereal and bagels and such), and there’s always free coffee, tea, and newspapers in the lobby. The staff was super nice and helpful, the room was clean and comfortable with a variety of pillows to try, and the small balcony had a great view of the ocean. Free wi-​fi was also nice; parking was $ 6/​day. No fitness center, though, which would be nice.

We stayed here in August 2013. This hotel was quite expensive and in a great location on Isle of Palms. I booked online because I needed just one night before we checked into our rental home, and the main thing I was happy about was the short duration of our stay! The room came out to close to $ 300 for the one night.
Our room looked exactly like the photo online, except age it by about 20 high school beach weeks, burn out a few light bulbs, and add some cobwebs on the chandelier and mold on the bathroom walls. Yuck! Also, the hallway on our floor was an open space (meaning the ends of the hallways were open to outside) but there was no airflow and it was stifling hot. It was a large open area with some type of cheap ceramic tile on the floor and dirty tables and chairs (garage sale?) and two rusty fans on pedestals that only had one gear… low. It was honestly a very gross sticky hot messy place. I took a lot of photos… hopefully I can figure out how to post them.
We paid extra for ocean front, and the the view straight out and to the left was great, but there is a restaurant right next door and people were eating on the screened porch of the restaurant only about 15 or 20 feet from my balcony. I could see and hear them like we were eating together so it made it awkward to sit on the balcony. The restaurant juts out over the dunes a bit so I could seriously see what people were eating. And it was noisy. Deceptive how the photos on the hotel website show shots looking up the beach but not down. I think the photos were probably taken from the restaurant next door.
The continental breakfast was okay, but it was no better than a low end hotel (think Hampton Inn and Suites you might stay at for a night or two on the road). Oh and the pool was nasty. But… the people working there at the front desk seemed very nice. I felt sorry for them… I would have been embarrassed of the place.
The best part about this hotel is their location. That’s it, though.

Perks– room was clean and decent and the exterior seemed to be nicely kept. Great access to the beach and 2 good restaurants beside the hotel. Breakfast included pancakes, bagels, cereal and boiled eggs. Cons– it took my parents an hour to get in their room because the key would not open the door after several attempts at new keys. They eventually had to take the door lock apart and switch them to a new room all together. Its an older hotel and the walls and door insulation is very thin. Now we did stay on new years eve and some people were just loud but if I can hear everyone in the rooms next to me talking and laughing until 4am, to me that is too thin. When the doors were closing in other rooms it rattled our room and you can hear anyone in the hallway that talks. If your not an early riser you will be staying here! Also you have to pay and park on the street or in their pay lot.

A solid three stars on ocean view and service. The wide view of the ocean from the third floor balcony made our stay. Easy access to the beach. Off-​season parking on the street was free. Older fixtures all around, as others have mentioned, but the bed was comfortable, and the kitchenette made proved convenient. The staff was exceptionally friendly and helpful.

I’m giving it three stars just because of the great customer service, the place not so great. My parents were in town to visit and wanted cheap waterfront hotel property and they found it. The hotel is in desperate need for renovation, cracks everywhere, rust, the doors barely open unless your shoulder them open, etc. but the view is breadth taking.
My parents were coming in to visit me while also coming down for their 25^th anniversary. They weren’t arriving until real late at a night so I wanted to surprise them with some goodies in their room when they arrived. I called and spoke to Abbey who explained if I wanted to check-​in for them I’d have to put my card on file, since I just wanted to get into the room, that was an issue. She kindly was able to let me «view» the room which gave me the opportunity to decorate. She remembered me right when I walked in and accommodated me fantastically! Great front desk service, terrible hotel, but for the price of waterfront view in Isle of Palms that’s as good as your going to get.

The location — 5 stars. Everything else — 2 stars.
The Palms Oceanfront Hotel is in desperate need of a face lift and a deep cleaning.
You are paying a premium to be able to walk to the local restaurants and stay right on the beach, other than that, it’s just a bed in a room with air conditioning — expect anything else and you will be sorely disappointed!!!

Housekeeping is terrible. Our room was filthy. Hallways are noisy. I would not recommend this hotel for the prices they charge.

Paying for the location. Inside rooms with no window were loud but average. Just saw one beach bug in our room. Also have to pay to park in lot across street.

Overall I really enjoyed this hotel. I stayed here in late September for a few days to visit the beach. The hotel is beach front. With it’s own walk way /​bridge to the beach.
The staff was very friendly. The breakfast is continental with biscuits and sausage and gravy.
The room was «ok». The room was clean and spacious. The room was dim because there were not many wall or ceiling lights. But it had several lamps. With all the lamps on the room was lit well. The room lacked outlets. Ended up using the surge protector the refrigerator was connected to for some outlets. The bathroom was in good condition and clean.
I agree with another reviewer about the door slamming. And my door kinda stuck during the morning, probably due to humidity.
The hotel pool is nice. It would be nicer if it overlooked the beach. It looks out onto the restaurant next door and shops across the street.
I liked this hotel because of it’s location: close to the beach and shops. I liked that the staff was friendly and helpful as well as a frig and microwave being in each room.

This hotel is good for the location only. It is a good thing we were not planning to stay in our room much, because this is probably the most out-​dated hotel I’ve ever stayed in. We were here for 2 days, and we were not sad to leave this hotel at all. I gave it one star for access to the beach, restaurants, and bars, but the management REALLY need to do some renovations before I would ever consider coming back.

Our room would have been a lot better if the furniture was moved around. Also, it was very dark. They need to lighten the room up a little. They do not have central air conditioning so the machine in the wall was loud. But the worst part was the bright light outside our window. If they can’t remove the light put a better window treatment up.
I must say that the people at the front desk were very helpful.

Just spent 5 days & 4 nights on Isle of Palms, SC. this was our hotel. Was it perfect — no, was it a great value — YES! The hotel is older, the elevator worked every time but was a bit odd behaving. Some folks bitched about 5 $ a day to park but you will pay more in most major tourist areas in my experience
The pros: great location, 129 $ a night w/​coupon for a HallView (IE interior hall room), GREAT BEACH ACCESS, next to everything, great restaurants within walking distance. Clean room, very comfortable bed, great service, OK continental breakfast.
The cons: if you get a room on right side of hotel (IE Next to the bar deck) the band on Fri & Sat would be a PAIN. Some folks might not mind it but beware, the 3^rd floor ocean view rooms on the right side are about 10 – 20′ from the band on the deck of the next door bar (nice bar it is too). Not managements fault either, they should not be dinged for that — but be warned, they have no control over that part of the stay. Try to get a room away from the bar.
Our room was on the left side, we could hear band but not to bad. Some noise from the hall, we were across from the elevator, but nothing major at this price point. Not sure the elevator was going to work, but never failed us, scared us yes, but not failed. Other than the noise and elevator — I can’t say a bad thing about our stay.
This is a great value and I would go back in a second for a 3 – 5 day stay… Most folks who complain expect a 5 star hotel for a 3 star price in my opinion… this hotel has value and I recommend you consider staying there.

Call this the «red headed step child» to the HarbourView Inn in Charleston. Having stayed at the latter a few days, my girl and I decided to extend our trip by a day and drive up to Isle of Palms for one more night. HabourView is owned by the same company and they recommended the Palms. We knew it would be different… and it was truly a different experience.
Our room was $ 179…normally $ 199 (Garden view), Ocean Side $ 229, Ocean Front $ 279 was the pricing during our visit. Funny thing about the garden view… there were no windows except to the hall… and no garden either? I realize these are «industry terms» but come on folks… where I come from we have a saying… what do you get when you put lipstick on a pig? …a pig?
Nice and helpful folks at the desk, but the rooms were eh… not so great. Condition of the hotel… eh…not so great.
It is centrally located though and allows easy access to the beach.
This place reminded me of the beach vacations my parents use to bring me on in the late 70s.