A Review: First Hyatt Stay
Hyatt Hotels offers some of the best awards night offerings of any hotel chain. I’m not sure why I’m just now jumping on this train, but we spent our first rewards night at a Hyatt last week and this is my review.
Booking and Points
Hyatt’s website makes searching for awards nights and hotels very simple. Visit https://www.hyatt.com/explore-hotels/map and search the location you are interested in visiting. For our trip, we were taking a quick weekend trip to the west side of Washington, so I did a general search around Seattle and search which hotel had the best rates from there. Be sure to check the “Points” box in the search bar to compare award prices. You will also want to search for your travel dates as it may change the price.
Pro Tip: Hyatt does offer “Off Peak” nights that are generally cheaper. If your travel dates are somewhat flexible, be sure to check out the Points Calendar on the specific hotel’s booking site to see what nights would be the best deal.
We ended up booking the Hyatt House Seattle/Bellevue for the lowest cost and most convenient location for us. I simply transferred the exact number of points from my Chase account (a 1:1 transfer), they show up in my Hyatt account very quickly (free and simple to set up Hyatt account on their site), and booked it immediately. The total was only 9,000 points for one night! The cash price would have been $169, making that a 1.9 point/cent value.
Side note: We did not think we would be bringing our dogs on this trip, but after some discussion, we decided we wanted to. As I wasn’t sure if the Hyatt we booked was pet friendly, I hopped on their website and used the simple chat feature to find out. I have had to use the chat several times and they are always quick to respond, are an actual person (not a bot), and are very helpful. They let me know our hotel was pet friendly, there would be a $75 pet charge, and to just let the desk know when I checked in.
Our Stay
We arrived pretty late the night of our stay, around midnight. There was a very nice and well lit entrance for me to stop while checking in. The lobby was clean and bright and there were two friendly attendants waiting to help when I walked in. They asked for my license and card and already had the note regarding needing a pet friendly room. I was checked in with the keys in less than 5 minutes. The attendant was very helpful on letting me know the best place to park with the dogs, where I could walk the dogs on the property, and the complimentary breakfast that was included in the morning.
Parking and locating our room was very easy. We had a double queen room which worked perfectly with both of our large dogs who love to cuddle. Before learning the points and miles game, we camped or stayed in very value hotels in order to save money. To say this hotel room was nice is a severe understatement. The bedding was very clean and cozy. The beds themselves were divine, and the bathroom was well stocked with goodies and lush towels. And this was one of Hyatt’s lower category hotels!
Of course, we took advantage of the complimentary breakfast in the morning. There are a large majority of Hyatt hotels that only offer free breakfast to those that have status, so be sure to check the hotel specific website before booking if this is important to you. But honestly, I would have paid good money for how delicious this breakfast was. There was a full hot bar with eggs, bacon, potatoes, waffles and pancakes, along with all the normal cold items and pastries. Coffee and juices were also available. You could serve yourself on really plates and silverware and the eating area was very well decorated and clean. There was plenty of space and the morning news on. We took our time with breakfast, then packed up and sadly had to leave.
Conclusion
I was very excited to have our first Hyatt experience, and I couldn’t have asked for it to be any better. We already have 7 more Hyatt stays booked in the future for other trips, so I would have been very disappointed if this stay was sub-par. From the ease of booking, friendly staff, clean rooms and amazing breakfast, I’m already a very strong Hyatt Hotels fan and can’t wait to see what their other stays have to offer!
