Frommer's Review
This is the most opulent and spectacular boutique hotel in Savannah, the result of a skillful enlargement of a historic redbrick mansion on the eastern edge of Savannah's most graceful and evocative public park. Its core, known as the Kayton Family Mansion, was built in 1888 of terra-cotta bricks in a high-ceilinged, neo-Romanesque style that now houses an (also-recommended) restaurant, nightclub, and cooking school. If you're expecting a fussy, small-scale historic inn that's obsessed, as some of its competitors sometimes are, with local history and regional prestige, think again: This place is more international and more of a (tasteful) version of a Las Vegas blockbuster hotel than anything else in southeastern Georgia. Local competitors, perhaps wishing that their occupancy levels could match the high turnovers of this place, sometimes critique it as "over the top" and "overblown." But frankly, we think the place is tasteful, highly entertaining, and stimulating -- a carefully orchestrated blast of a hotel where a couple in lust could find diversion.
Part of its allure derives from the rotating series of more than 400 paintings (depending on what artist is being showcased at the time) that sheath the walls of both the public areas and the upper hallways. Expect a plush environment with gilded cove moldings; Beaux-Arts marble statues of, among others, turn-of-the-20th-century rococo goddesses at their baths; lavish antique chandeliers; and Versace copies of 19th-century French armchairs upholstered in faux zebra- or leopard-skin. There's even a whiff of inspiration from the final days of the Habsburgs (that is, Vienna), circa 1895. The hotel's focal point is a courtyard and a small but artfully postmodern swimming pool. Bedrooms are avant-garde and plush, and among the most spacious in Savannah. Urban and very comfortable, they were inspired by posh boudoirs in New York or Milan.
Facilities:
Restaurant; 2 bars; outdoor pool; fitness center; spa; business center; 24-hr. room service; cooking school
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without
notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before
planning your trip.
