Park Hyatt Mendoza Suite

Hotel Stay Details
Hotel: Park Hyatt Mendoza
Dates: March 29-April 2, 2013 
Regular Room Rate Paid: $176/night
Points for Upgrade: 1,500 Hyatt Points/night
Regular Suite Rate: $1,286/night 
Total $ Benefit: $4,440
Points Earned: 3,520 Hyatt Points
Point Redemption Value: 74.0 cents/pt

Buenos dias, Lap Child Diary (LCD) readers! Hope everyone enjoyed their long Easter weekend. I know I sure did. I'm writing to you from the Park Hyatt Mendoza Hotel where we've been staying for the past few nights.

Full disclosure, if you're the type of reader who gets frustrated/upset when reading about other people traveling in luxury but paying normal prices, then this post probably isn't for you. It's written for those of you who are curious about what kinds of extraordinary travel can be achieved by relatively ordinary people. I've included the $ prices because I'm half J---h and A---n so that people can quantify everything in terms they can better understand and determine how achievable (or not) such travel will be for their individual situations. And finally, this kind of super upgrade is by no means normal so it should definitely not be expected even if you replicate our trip exactly.

As I mentioned last time, my travel hacking father used 6,000 Hyatt Points to upgrade our regular room to a suite. Now, normally, the Suite Upgrade usually gets you the entry level Park Suite (1,200 sq foot room with a separate living room).  You can take a look at what that looks like by checking out this trip report from another blog, Heels First Travel - "Park Hyatt Mendoza".

But as my long time LCD fans (all 3 of you) know, my sneaky clever father recently pulled off the Hotel version of the Triple Lindy (I'm too young for this 1986 reference, but apparently my father's getting REALLY old).

1. Procured Hilton HHonors Gold Status for free before staying at a single Hilton Hotel.
2. Used his Hilton Gold status to get offered a Hyatt Diamond Status Challenge (free Diamond status for 60 days)
3. Applied for the Chase Hyatt Visa credit card that gives you Hyatt points for credit card spend as well as 2 free nights in a suite for Hyatt Diamond members (or 2 free nights in regular rooms for non-Diamonds)

Perhaps because my father was a Hyatt Diamond member who used Hyatt points months before check-in to upgrade his 4 nights in a regular Park King city view room (US $176/night) to a Park Suite (US $359/night), the Park Hyatt Mendoza reservation team decided to further upgrade us.

But not just to the Governors Suite (US $603/night), but to the incredible Presidential Suite - which was going for US $1,286 per night!!!!  Yeah, I almost spit out my Gerber Chicken & Stars when I first heard that.

So what's a Presidential Suite look like? Well, I'm glad you asked, because I'm 17 month old and immature enough to want to brag willing to share a glimpse for the benefit of my readers.

When we first walked down the hallway looking for Room 719, we truly had no idea what we were in for, but the double doors gave us a hint that this was no ordinary room.

As soon as you enter, you see a small foyer that welcomes you into the room and turns your gaze right, towards the living room area.

Of course, being used to my parent's 750 sq foot NYC apartment with mismatching furniture, having a well-decorated, stylish living room area to play in gave me baby chills. And I should note, the couches were the perfect firmness to jump on while watching Disney Junior on the 42" Philips flat screen with DirecTV.

If you turned left after entering the living room, you found a nice little desk where I'd use all weekend to blog, email my girlfriends, and click through the countless Pintrest posts that my mother would constantly email me.

On the far (and I do mean far) other side of the living room, you had a dining table that seats 8 people - just enough space for my infamous Manhattan stuffed animal/imaginary friend tea parties, but of course my animals had to stay behind in NY because they hate flying and my father couldn't get them United frequent flyer accounts (and believe me, he tried). What a shame.

As my parents started to unpack their luggage, I ran through the set of doors in the foyer and found a massive bedroom with a low-riding king sized bed that was just high enough for me to climb up without help.

I ran to the bed so fast that I didn't even notice the walk-in closet / half bathroom along the side wall.

 

 

And in the corner of the room, you had another desk (I suppose Presidents must really like to work a lot) and another TV. The bedroom windows gave you a northern view of the Andes Mountains in the distance.

And because I'm a little girl, I can't report on the Park Hyatt Mendoza without showing you the master bathroom.  It was a dual entrance marble bathroom with a double sink, a jacuzzi tub and separate walk in shower. Interestingly enough though, there was no toilet in this bathroom, so it made it a bit tough for my father to do his usual morning ritual and then hop in the shower.

The shampoos and soaps were in pretty large containers (probably to discourage people like my mother from stealing them). Since Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina, the shampoos came in red wine and white wine scents and the soaps and body lotions were grape scented (but to me, it smelled more like candy or bubblegum).

There was also another guest half bathroom between the living room and the foyer as well as a small kitchen area with a separate entrance to the hallway, a sink, a fridge/freezer, cabinets filled with plates and silverware, glass stemware (for 3 different types of wines), a microwave, a coffee maker and an oven and a stove, but oddly no pots or pans to cook. Way to fumble at the 1 yard line, Park Hyatt.

When we opened the fridge, we found out it was actually a mini-bar that wasn't so mini. Plenty of space for my milks and baby foods. As my mother will attest, I prefer my meals served chilled.

So that's the Presidential Suite. Not too shabby for $179 USD + 1,500 Hyatt points each night. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go book my Mendoza wine vineyard tours. Ciao!