Wentworth Mansion is an SLH property in Charleston South Carolina. The inn is charming, gorgeous, offers great service, and in my opinion is well deserving of its place on Travel & Leisure’s Top 15 City Hotels in the Continental U.S.
When Hyatt teamed up with Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH), I was excited for an absurd reason. One of my favorite hotel stays ever was the Brenners Park Hotel in Baden-Baden Germany. Brenners is part of the Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) not Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH). Still, I reasoned/hoped that SLH hotels would be similar. Since then, I’ve had occasion to stay at a few SLH properties. The Chesterfield Hotel Palm Beach was disappointing. The Pillars Hotel Fort Lauderdale was a delight, but in no way comparable to Brenners. Now I’ve had the opportunity to try Wentworth Mansion. And while I still believe Brenners to be even better, Wentworth Mansion is close enough to prove that my unfounded belief in SLH may not have been so absurd after all.
Wentworth Mansion Bottom Line Review
My wife and I stayed here for one night in November and we loved it. We would definitely stay again.
- Price: 30,000 Hyatt points per night (vs. almost $600 per night at the time of our stay). We paid with a category 1-7 free night certificate, which can be used at Hyatt hotels costing up to 30,000 points per night.
- Value: Good. In my opinion, this hotel is well worth the points-price.
- Location: Very good. Wentworth Mansion is in a very pretty historic residential area and a short walk to Charleston’s historic downtown.
- Room: Fantastic! We were upgraded to a huge and beautiful “Mansion Room”. Want to feel like royalty? This will do it. The only downside was that our shower’s water pressure wasn’t quite up to snuff.
- Parking: Free self parking.
- Service: Awesome. The staff were uniformly attentive, cheerful, and eager to help.
- Turndown service: Good. Due to COVID-19, a “turndown bag” was left hanging from our door. The bag contained truffles and a card showing the next day’s weather.
- Perks for all guests:
- Full breakfast: A full menu-service breakfast is free for all guests. It was great!
- Afternoon wine & hors d’oeuvres: Hors d’oevres were pre-plated and wine was poured upon request. Both were excellent. While everything is served indoors, we found a private outdoor balcony to enjoy these treats.
- Evening port, sherry, & brandy: Unfortunately, we didn’t have a chance to try this out, but we will next time we visit!
- In-room snacks: A mini-fridge was full of sodas and other bottled non-alcoholic drinks. A bag of cookies was found above the fridge.
- Rooftop Cupola: The mansion has a dome on top which is available to all guests capable of climbing stairs. The dome has a seating area around the outside. It’s a fantastic way to view the sunset! If anyone reading this is planning a wedding proposal, this would be a great choice.
- Hyatt Benefits: SLH hotels do not recognize Hyatt elite status, but they offer all guests who book through Hyatt the following perks:
- Free continental breakfast: Wentworth offers all guests free full breakfast, so this perk was not relevant.
- Room upgrade, if available: We were automatically upgraded to a King Mansion Room which was absolutely fantastic.
- Early check-in (noon, based upon availability at check-in): We arrived at about 4pm, so didn’t test this perk
- Late check-out (2:00PM, based upon availability at check-in): We did request late checkout, but were only given until 1pm.
- Free wifi: All guests get free wifi, so this perk wasn’t relevant.
- COVID Notes: As is true in all hotels during the pandemic (as far as I know), masks are required indoors except when in your room. The hotel’s restaurant offers outdoor seating as an option. At dinner, they lit heat-lamps and offered us blankets to ward off the chill. For some reason they didn’t offer either with breakfast, but our waitress brought us seat cushions which were much better to sit on than cold metal chairs. Charleston, itself, has a mask ordnance requiring people to wear masks in all public indoor areas and when within 6 feet of others outdoors. They even have enforcement officers who will issue a warning or a ticket to those not wearing masks in public.
- Would I stay again? Definitely.
Photos and captions follow…
