I read the reviews prior to staying here for a few days while attending a conference in North Charleston. I honestly expected more. The smoke smell described by other reviewers was definitely there: As soon as I walked into the lobby it was like a giant fist of stale cigarette smoke punched me in the face. Not only was it in the lobby, but it permeated the entire first floor and the same pungent odor of smoke greeted me every morning as I went to the first floor for breakfast. It is quite obvious that somebody smokes heavily inside the lobby/front desk area every day. Completely disgusting and if I had other options and was just a walk-in off the street, it would have made me turn around and find a different place to stay. My room (third floor) was decent and clean, if slightly over priced by about $30 a night. There was a Keurig machine in the room, which I looked forward to using after tasting the coffee at the downstairs breakfast area on the first morning, which was watery and burned, a definite bad combination in the first cup of coffee in the morning. Unfortunately, the machine would not work, leaving me no other option but to visit a nearby doughnut chain for coffee. On the plus side, the hotel was conveniently located near I-526, which made the commute to the conference location very short. Overall I rated this location "poor" because there is no option for "slightly below average". My overall assessment is that I would not choose to stay here again, but it wasn't so bad that it was worth the trouble of leaving to find another place to stay and getting my employer to approve the switch of hotels.