The Charleston Place has finished another stage of the renovation it has been carrying out while staying open, and this one is aimed at guests who want more privacy and more service.

In July, the downtown hotel announced the completion of the latest phase of what it calls a more than $150 million “reimagination,” according to its announcement. The phase included a reimagined Club Level, a rooftop pool and garden bar called Perch, and a redesigned arrival area. The hotel is owned by Beemok Hospitality Collection.

Managing Director Becky Hubbard said the hotel “has always been a meaningful gathering place for the city,” SCBIZ reported.

A hotel within a hotel

The Club Level occupies the seventh and eighth floors. The hotel’s announcement says it has 75 renovated guest rooms and a two-story Club Lounge reserved for Club Level guests. The Post and Courier reported the same room count. SCBIZ reported 72.

The hotel describes the floors as a “hotel-within-a-hotel” with traditional butler service. The lounge serves breakfast, a family-style lunch, hors d’oeuvres, cocktails and desserts, SCBIZ reported. A daily “Butler’s Evening Pour” starts at 4:30 p.m., and the hotel says guests can have a “Dressing Drink” delivered to their rooms.

Butler service begins before guests arrive, with help arranging dinner and attraction reservations, and includes an escort directly to the club floors at check-in, The Post and Courier reported.

“Your butler will take you through your entire journey through The Charleston Place,” Hubbard told the newspaper.

Perch and a new front door

Perch is a saltwater pool and garden bar reserved for hotel guests, with indoor and outdoor dining, according to the hotel. Its website places Perch on the fourth floor, alongside “a light-filled rooftop pool,” and describes the floor as “a serene retreat dedicated to wellbeing.” Perch serves food from morning to night and drinks in the evening, SCBIZ reported.

The way guests arrive has changed, too. Guests now enter off Meeting Street through a wrought-iron gate to a new porte-cochère, The Post and Courier reported, after the old stone portico was demolished in August 2025. The newspaper said the hotel’s horse statues were moved to gardens along the exit drive. The hotel says its bronze horse sculptures remain, now joined by a formal iron gate and crepe myrtles.

Rooms and what’s left

The hotel has 419 guest rooms, including 56 suites, and expects to finish refreshing all of them in 2026, according to its announcement. Rooms that are already redone can be booked now.

Renovated rooms include a walk-in shower or soaking tub, a large flat-screen TV, a mini refrigerator and an executive-style writing desk, SCBIZ reported. The hotel describes a palette with soft blue accents, classic millwork, sculptural brass light fixtures and Lowcountry-inspired artwork.

More work is planned. In July, The Post and Courier reported that a fitness center with a Pilates and yoga studio was scheduled to open on the second floor in September. Retail space in the hotel’s East Wing is being converted into a spa, while street-facing shops on Market Street will stay, the newspaper reported.

“Having a spa in a hotel where you can literally spend all day in takes service up a notch,” Hubbard told the newspaper.

A final phase will remodel the lobby and the hotel’s food and beverage venues, with completion expected in summer 2028, The Post and Courier reported. The hotel’s announcement says updates are planned for the lobby and other public spaces but does not give dates.

How the project started

Beemok, the company of Charleston businessman Ben Navarro, bought the hotel in 2021 for $350 million, The Post and Courier reported. On March 1, 2022, the hotel dropped the Belmond name and became The Charleston Place, independently owned and managed. It had operated as the Omni and then under the Orient-Express and Belmond names since its 1986 opening, the newspaper reported.

The renovation was first announced in 2022, SCBIZ reported. Its first phase, completed by September 2024, restored the hotel’s 40,000-square-foot banquet space and added two 1,350-square-foot meeting rooms, an 1,100-square-foot bridal suite, a second set of restrooms and a new banquet kitchen, according to SCBIZ. The hotel has stayed open throughout the work.

Beemok Hospitality Collection’s other holdings include the restaurant Sorelle and Credit One Stadium, SCBIZ reported in 2024.

When the work is done, the hotel says, it will “blend gracious Southern hospitality with European-inspired grandeur.”