The Ryder Hotel

The online pictures make the hotel and its common spaces look better than it is in person. The upholstery on the dining benches is dirty, I had to move my seat. Also, it’s hard to find staff, or get anyone on the phone at the front desk and for room service. I saw many employees on their phones. For the room, the bed was comfortable, room was spacious, but it’s all hardwood with no rug and the shower couldn’t stay at one temperature for very long. Small fridge in the room, which is good if you need that. Overall, I felt like a bunch of distracted kids were running the place; I wouldn’t recommend when there are so many other places to stay. Leave this one to the kids.

Nice place

Small room, never told of the extra cost of 300.00 once we arrived at the hotel. Water pressure lacking at times.

Rooms were clean, picture of the pool is very deceiving online it’s not big at all. Pool lounge chairs are always taken by people putting their stuff on them in the morning and not returning until a hour or so later. The conversation sets at the pool are “reserved only” for $300/hr (were empty majority of the day) which does not leave a lot of room for the guests staying wanting to be by the pool. You’d think for as much as you pay to stay some of these amenities would be available for guest with no fee.

The room and property are clean and cute. Downfall: pool is extremely small and half the pool is book only with a $300 fee for two hours. You have a 2 hour limit on your pool chair and there are only 10 pool loungers. They should remove their reserved with a fee spot and add loungers for their guests. The air in the room goes off when you leave the room. Which then every time you come back to the room it is 80 degrees. When wanted a late checkout we had to pay. Never got a room upgrade which isn’t the end of the world but when wanting a late checkout having to pay. We paid for an hour and wanted to extend again for another hour which they did offer so said she has already done it once for us and is not extending again. I think the staff could be more friendly. The pool servers were hit and miss on being friendly. The rooms are clean. The beds are comfy. Room setup is nice.

Lack of pool chairs

It was a solid stay overall if you have reasonable expectations knowing this is a 3 star hotel. The room was large and comfortable and clean. The pool area was hit or miss - quite small and at times overcrowded and dirty, lots of cups piled up everywhere, other times not too crowded and cleaned up. Staff veered from friendly to indifferent and slow. Overall it was a decent price for the location and having a pool at times was nice.

Everything was excellent from reception area, restaurant/bar to the rooms. Sayquon, the bartender, was exceptional. I definitely would recommend to anyone & will return. The location makes it perfect! You can walk anywhere downtown.

The room was mediocre and the floors were filthy. The smell of damp mildew hit us when we walked through the door. The window sills looked like that had major leaks for years and maybe that's why the smell. Opened the fridge and nearly passed out as there was a fish odor so horrific emanating that whole area (my daughter has meds to go in the fridge..yikes). The overall suite, which btw is not really a suite, was underwhelming. We booked Ryder b/c it was one of the few hotels with a pool. Excited and sweating in the insane heat we went to the pool only to find no seats except a small crammed cocktail table. The pool was packed people on top of people, rap blaring on the speakers and no peace at all. If you like the more party-like pool scene this will be a blast. I was looking for clean, quiet and upscale. The staff was kind enough to move us to a sister property but we had to get all our luggage ourselves, no offer to help with the transfer at all. Not a good experience.

This property is in a great location. This is definitely not a place for families or couples over 40. The pool was packed every day with young adults, most having bought day passes, thus the accommodations around the pool were not accessible to the hotel guests. In the evening, the restaurant turns into more of a bar for young singles. This is not a bad thing, just something to be aware of when making plans. Also, the air conditioning is motion activated so if you leave your room for any length of time or at night when you are sleeping, it reverts to 78 degrees, which keeps the room over 80 degrees or higher. This is very uncomfortable in the heat of a Charleston summer. Again, a nice hotel in a great location and for the right customer would be a great fit.

Excellent location!

I stayed in 2 different rooms while at the Ryder and had an interesting experience with each. The first room was the “budget” room and I don’t think I could have expected the level of budget this room really was. There was such little room that I could barely walk around the room without running into the furniture. There is not one drawer or closet in the room and has a desk an essentially a stool so if you are trying to work, this is less than ideal. The walls are so thin I could hear conversations from all directions. The room was clean and modern, but that is all the good I could say. The second queen suite room was much better but quite a trek to get to, needing to take 2 elevators to the room. Now let’s talk amenities, the fact they call this a resort is comical. If you are coming for the pool, think again. They rent this area out via resort pass and is quite literally always crowded so good luck getting a seat. We had a situation where we booked a cabana through the hotel and then they gave it away to someone via resort pass with no real resolution. This was my bachelorette trip and the entire day became a disaster because of this experience. The look of this hotel is super cute, but service and “amentites” are quite ridiculous. Be prepared to pay an astronomical retainer on top of the loaded nightly fee and resort fee when checking in. They try to get you to fully spend this retainer via the $60 per day parking garage, room service and restaurant.

Place was nice, king bed room was ok could use a refresh, overall good place, good location

The location is hard to beat and the staff was very helpful. The gear locker is great for a day at the beach - chairs and a cooler are included in the resort fee. However, for the rather large resort fee, the pool is so small for a building that size that it’s crowded all day, making it almost unusable, and their parking is more than twice the price of a city garage. Little touches of cleanliness were absent - the hallway had the same dirt piles for days and the water dispensers had filters in need of changing the entire time we were there. Rooms are smaller than our friends had staying in nearby boutique hotels. Overall, location is the selling point, but other than that, I wouldn’t stay there again.

This place was amazing! Beautiful property and tasteful rooms, quiet hotel but with a great pool, lounge and bar/restaurant. In the best part of the city too! Staff was great, and the beach towels and beach chairs to take to the beach were a great bonus!

This is by far my favorite hotel! Great location and amenities! Pool is a bit crowded and I wish they would keep closer track to “guests only” but will a great location

Nice pool area and comfy bed, central location Overrated hotel, very expensive but average hotel room (e.G. towel rail was falling off, safe was broken and no replacement during our stay), barista was nice but sometimes you had to queue and wait long and it was open to the public, unengaged reception staff

It has a very cute look. I think the best park of the hotel by far was the garage where you could borrow chairs and towels for the beach. The valet was quick and really nice to interact with! The pool area looks a lot larger in photos, not one time in our stay were we able to swim in the pool or use the lounge chairs because it was busy open to close. There’s a 2 hour maximum time on the loungers and I don’t think it was enforced. Additionally, we had to walk through welding sparks or something to get to our room because they were reinstalling new locks to all the doors when we arrived. The elevators are small and not marked, there is really only one that you can use to get anywhere and it was on the opposite side of the floor so going anywhere was like a two minute walk just to the elevator

We had an absolutely phenomenal time staying at the Ryder. We feel in love with the property and the town. Highly recommend staying here for a unique boutique experience. We mentioned in briefly that it was my husband's birthday trip and they sent a bottle of champagne on ice. They were so accommodating and lovely. I will definitely go back to the Ryder. The only downside the the pool area is pretty small with limited seating, but overall it was a great time. :)

My husband and I came for a getaway. We had a very nice stay. The room was nice, staff was helpful, the pool was fun and the location was perfect. Downsides: the door to the room and the wall facing the hallway were thin and the room doors close loudly, which made it noisy at night. The parking is also valet only and $$$. Would still consider returning.