Columbia · Hotel shortlist
The best hotels near University of South Carolina
Sofia Marchetti Italy
These are my five favourites in Columbia, out of the 24 that qualified. I read what other travellers scored them before I picked, so the order follows the guests, 4.8 down to 4.4.
All five are inside 1.4 km of University of South Carolina, so you can walk it.
Highest rated of the five
Hotel Trundle
★★★★★4.8 from 555 reviews
Hotel Trundle comes out on top of this list, and not narrowly: 4.8 from 555 guest reviews is a score that holds up at that volume, which is the whole test here. A perfect ten from nine people does not beat it.
It is a 3 star property, found under poi and around $111 a night on the dates we checked.
24 hotels in Columbia qualified for this list and five made it. The Lantern Hotel Columbia is the one I would book if the first is full.
All five, ranked
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1
Hotel Trundle
★★★★★4.8 from 555 reviews
1.4 km from University of South Carolina, about a 18 minute walk
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2The Lantern Hotel Columbia
★★★★★5 from 43 reviews
800 m from University of South Carolina, about a 10 minute walk
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3Hilton Columbia Center
★★★★★4.4 from 1,661 reviews
800 m from University of South Carolina, about a 10 minute walk
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4Graduate by Hilton Columbia, S.C.
★★★★★4.4 from 434 reviews
800 m from University of South Carolina, about a 10 minute walk
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5Inn at USC
★★★★★4.4 from 327 reviews
700 m from University of South Carolina, about a 9 minute walk
How this list was put together
24 Columbia hotels qualify for this list. We ranked them on guest rating first and on how close they are to University of South Carolina second, then took the top five.
Two things decide these lists. The first is my own time in the city: every hotel on this page is one I have stayed in, walked into and looked at, or gone back to check. That is where the shortlist starts, and it is why some well reviewed places are not on it.
The second is the numbers, and those are what set the order. The rating and review count come from the big travel sites, pooled through Google, so a score here reflects Expedia, Booking, Hotels.com and the rest together rather than any one of them. I also read the review breakdown by topic, which is where the figures on service, breakfast and location come from. Hotels with fewer than forty reviews are left out altogether, because a rating that thin is not a rating. No more than two come from one neighbourhood.
What I do not do is move anyone up the order. The ranking is the guest score, highest first, and nobody pays to be on the list.
Distances are straight lines from published coordinates, so the real walk is a little longer. Amenities are as recorded by Google Hotels and can change without notice. Rates are an indicative nightly figure for a midweek autumn stay, not a quote. Check the booking page before you commit.
Sofia Marchetti Italy
Refuses to fly anywhere reachable by rail. Four sleeper-train crossings of Europe, a collection of old transit maps, and building sketches drawn from carriage windows.
Trip Grapevine earns a commission on bookings made through the links on this page. It costs you nothing, and it does not change the order of the list, which is set by the measurements above.