WhyHotel by Placemakr, Columbia

Floyd was amazing at check-in and went out of his way to accommodate us. The room was clean and great, and the pool area and courtyard were beautifully kept. We come here often for concerts at Merriweather and haven't had any issues. It's also a short walk to the venue. One thing happens every stay: they test the fire alarm system and it goes off in the morning. Still, I'd rather be safe than sorry. Thanks for another good stay.

It felt like staying in a small apartment, and the place was clean, nice, and relaxing. The directions inside the building were a little confusing, but otherwise it was a great stay. There are lots of restaurants nearby, and I'd definitely recommend it.

I accidentally booked this listing and asked to cancel within two minutes, but they refused a refund even though the stay was still ten days away. When I asked about checking in early, I got vague answers that weren't helpful. The phone number listed on Airbnb is fake, so I couldn't reach them directly. The communication and lack of customer care were terrible. It's ridiculous to take someone's money and refuse to discuss a cancellation made almost immediately. This felt unprofessional and scammy. Stay away.

The pool and lounge area were really nice, and we booked a Friday stay from 3pm to 11am the next day for $168.37 so we could use the pool and have a relaxing weekend. We hardly spent any time in the room and kept it clean. The day after checkout, WhyHotel charged me another $530.00 as a smoking fee, even though nobody in my party smoked inside or outside, and we're not smokers. Staff first said they were investigating but couldn't estimate how long that would take. Thirteen minutes later, they emailed to say they smelled smoke, so we must have smoked in the room, and they wouldn't refund the fee. They wrote, "Our policy is to charge the fee and ban the guest, I am forgoing that and only charging the fee." Please ban me, actually. I'll never be back. UPDATE: They never contacted me despite the response below. I emailed again to ask for an update, and they ignored me too.