Hotel Aiken

OK so first thing you need to clarify is whether you're booking a room in the actual historic main building or one of the "courtyard" rooms...which is basically a motel that is a separate building. Hotel staff was very good about forewarning about noise coming from the bar, which wasn't too big of an issue.

We had a great time at the bar inside the hotel. I was a little put off by the bar outside though. We got free drink vouchers for being hotel guests (limited to bottled beer, wine, and soft drinks). When we asked the not-very-busy bartender what bottled beer they have, his response was "man...we got so many different types it would take forever to list them all." Umm...thanks.

Quaint, clean hotel that fits in well with nostalgic Aiken.  Also very affordable!  They give you a free drink coupon when you check in and they have a decent continental breakfast in the morning complete with biscuits and gravy.  

The noise prevents me from giving them a 5th star.  They are very upfront about the fact that the bar has live music when you check in.  Light sleepers be warned!

I dabbled between a three and four star but ultimately decided it had to be three to be fair.  My cousin had a wedding in Aiken and we all stayed here.  We tried to use the bars after the reception but it was too crowded, so I can't say too much for the bars.  They gave us two free drinks at check-ins, so that's all I can vouch for.  When I asked her what she had in red wine, she said Chardonnay, so do with that what you like.

There are two main buildings, the older historic building and the just old strip-mall style hotel building.  Most everyone stayed in the historic building, but my room was in the strip-mall building.  If they spent money on renovations and cleaning mold off of floorboards, this could be a gorgeous, super-fancy, super-expensive hotel.  As it were, bathroom doors were missing pieces (as in while I was using the bathroom in my brother's suite, anyone in the room could see) and there were gross tile/popcorn ceilings.  

They warn you extensively about the noise levels from the bars affecting the rooms until 2am.  This appealed to us since we knew we would be causing said noise.  We were hanging out in my brother's room in the old historic building.  At about 1:30am, management came to warn us that they had received a lot of complaints, but it was okay until 2 - after 2, they had to call the cops on us.  (They were super nice about it).  But they also let us know that the strip-mall section had no such limitations, so we were able to go over there and hang out.  We didn't stop until around 4, and I know we were noisy because my ears were ringing when I went to sleep.  

House-keeping came by several hours before check-out while we were still sleeping, but it's okay, because house-keeping also found my ID and debit card and turned it in.  Rooms were pretty cheap (mine was $77), considering, and parking was free.  Didn't make it to breakfast, so I can't say.  They ran out of coffee and milk, too.