The Charleston Place

Most Charleston hotels people search for are small. This one fills most of a city block between Meeting and King streets, has a shopping arcade with a Louis Vuitton in it, and has been the city's largest hotel since it opened. It is also, in late 2026, a building site in its final phases. You get freshly renovated rooms at a famous address, and you give up the restaurants and spa that used to be half the reason to book it.

The hotel that was supposed to save downtown

In the 1970s the blocks around King and Meeting were rundown, and shoppers had left for the suburbs. Mayor Joe Riley, elected in 1975, pushed for a hotel, convention and shopping complex on a full city block as the thing that would bring people back downtown. The project took eleven years, including long negotiations with preservationists worried about a building that size in the historic district. It cost about $78 million.

It opened in 1986 as the Omni Hotel at Charleston Place, with a pedestrian shopping arcade running through the block. Orient-Express Hotels bought it in 1995. In 1997 Orient-Express built a stone porte-cochère entrance, about a $1.5 million job, behind a fountain called Quadriga: four nine-foot bronze draft horses by the British sculptor John W. Mills. The parent company became Belmond in 2014, and the hotel went with it.

Beemok, the investment company of Charleston billionaire Ben Navarro, bought the hotel in October 2021 for $350 million and dropped the Belmond name on March 1, 2022. The new owners started a renovation now put at more than $150 million. They demolished the old portico in August 2025 and moved the bronze horses to the gardens along the exit drive. The new entrance, a wrought-iron gate and a crepe-myrtle path to a new porte-cochère off Meeting Street, opened on May 1, 2026. The lobby chandelier is 12 feet across, made from more than 3,000 pieces of Murano glass, and weighs about two and a half tons.

The rooms, the Club and the roof

The rooms are the finished part. All 419 are due to be renovated by the end of 2026, and the hotel says the new finishes and art draw on Charleston architecture. A Deluxe Room is 400 square feet with one king or two double beds, a reading nook with two chairs, and an Italian marble bathroom with a rain shower or a soaking tub. Premier rooms on the 5th and 6th floors have better views, and some rooms on floors 2 to 6 have a Juliet balcony. Junior Suites are 500 square feet, One Bedroom Suites 600, corner suites 800, and the Luxury and Presidential suites 1,000. Many rooms connect, which is why families like the place.

Club Level is 75 rooms on the 7th and 8th floors with a two-story private lounge. Food runs all day there, breakfast through evening cocktails, and each Club guest gets an assigned butler who brings a cocktail cart around in the evening. In 2027, with the public restaurants closed, the Club lounge is the only place in the building serving full meals other than room service, which changes the math on the upgrade.

The fourth floor is the new resort piece. There is a saltwater pool with a retractable glass roof, open 8am to 8pm, for registered guests only. Next to it is Perch, a garden bar with light food and cocktails, open 11am to 8pm and also guests only. The gym is on the second floor and open 24 hours. Guests can borrow city bikes, and the hotel runs a free house car within 15 blocks plus a BMW test-drive program.

The old spa is closed. The plan is a new spa in the East Wing, on former retail space, with a plunge pool and a sauna, but it was still being designed in July 2026 and has no opening date. Until then the hotel books guests into The Spa at The Cooper, its sister hotel on the waterfront.

Eating here: the honest version

Charleston Grill, the hotel's fine-dining room since 1989, served its last dinner on August 23, 2025. Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park in New York took over the room for a year-long pop-up from October 2, 2025, entered from 224 King Street. That ended in October 2026.

The rest goes next. The Post and Courier reported on October 29, 2026 that the Palmetto Cafe and the Thoroughbred Club will close at the end of 2026, and that all three remaining dining venues will be shut by January 1, 2027. The owners plan three replacements for 2028: a signature restaurant with dishes finished at the table, a pub-style casual room, and a lobby bar that nods to the Thoroughbred Club. No names or menus yet.

Until the end of 2026 you can still eat at the Palmetto Cafe (weekday breakfast 7am to 11am, lunch noon to 3pm, Sunday brunch 10am to 3pm) and drink at the Thoroughbred Club, which has live music on Friday and Saturday evenings and afternoon tea at 2pm Wednesday through Saturday. A coffee cart in the lobby runs 7am to 3pm. After that, plan every dinner off site. That is not a hardship here: Hyman's is next door, and the restaurants of King and East Bay are a few minutes away on foot. Our FIG guide covers one of them.

Where it is, and what you can walk to

This is the middle of the peninsula. The City Market starts across Meeting Street. King Street's shopping blocks are on the other side of the hotel's own arcade, where the shops include Louis Vuitton and Sézane. The Gibbes Museum is a few blocks south at 135 Meeting. Waterfront Park and the Pineapple Fountain are about a ten-minute walk east, and the Battery is roughly a mile south, about 20 minutes on foot.

Location is the strongest argument for the hotel, and it holds up. You can walk to most of the places on our attractions list without moving the car, which matters when keeping it costs $62 a night. If you do drive, the city's Hasell Street garage beside the hotel is the cheaper option at $24 for a full day.

Who should book it, and who should skip it

Book it if you want a big, central hotel with a real pool. Families do well here: rooms sleep up to four with two double beds, many rooms connect, and the hotel lists a two-bedroom suite made from a suite and a connecting room. Dog owners do well too, since pets of any size are welcome. And book it if you are coming for an event at the hotel itself; the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition hangs its fine art galleries here, next on February 12 to 14, 2027. Our SEWE guide has the details.

Skip it if eating in is part of how you travel. From January 2027 there is no restaurant or public bar in the building until the new ones open in 2028, and the guests-only Perch bar closes at 8pm. Skip it if you want a spa day without a cab ride. And skip it if the fees bother you: $62 for valet plus the $40 amenity fee is about $100 a night before tax that does not show up in the headline rate.

Also note the age rules. You must be 21 to book and to check in, rooms with a king bed take three people at most, and rooms with two doubles take four.

How it compares

Hotel Bennett is the direct comparison: another large luxury hotel with a rooftop pool, on Marion Square half a mile north. Bennett has working restaurants and a full spa today, which The Charleston Place will not have through 2027. The Charleston Place has the more central address and the better King Street access.

Planters Inn is a block away at Market and Meeting, with Peninsula Grill downstairs, but it is a small inn with its own renovation running into January 2027. The Restoration, two blocks north on Wentworth Street, sells kitchens and suites instead of a lobby scene. The Dewberry and Wentworth Mansion are smaller and quieter, and Wentworth includes valet. If you want a historic building at a lower rate, the Francis Marion on Marion Square is the value pick. The Mills House, a few blocks south on Meeting Street, is the other big downtown hotel with a guest pool, and it has the Iron Rose restaurant in its courtyard. Near the harbor, The Vendue has a rooftop bar and an art collection in place of a pool.

For the full field by neighborhood, see our where to stay in Charleston guide. Facts on this page come from the hotel's own policy, dining and wellness pages and from Post and Courier reporting through October 29, 2026. The renovation is still moving, so check charlestonplace.com for what is open on your dates.