Hyatt Regency Vancouver

Hotel Stay Details 
Hotel: Hyatt Regency Vancouver
Dates: May 19-22, 2013
Rate Paid: $224/night (by Company)
Points Earned: 5,392 Hyatt Points

Despite all the great Hyatt experiences we've had in 2013, my father is actively trying to shift his hotel stays to Starwood, because he has a better shot at making top tier SPG Platinum in 2014 than he does re-qualifying for top tier Hyatt Diamond next year.

That's largely due to the fact that Starwood counts free night award stays as eligible for status qualification, whereas Hyatt only counts cash paid nights. And because of our month long Thailand adventure, all those hotel nights using Cash & Points count to hitting the 50 night requirement.

But based on his scheduled 2013 trips and vacations, he'll be pretty close to hitting 50 nights at Starwood by the end of December, so he decided to book our 3 night stay in downtown Vancouver at the Hyatt Regency on Burrard Street (instead of the two Starwood options, Sheraton or Westin). Using his AAA membership, he was able to book a discounted special refundable rate, saving about $25-30 per night.

Why Hyatt?

The compelling reason to book Hyatt this time was three fold:

1. He has 3 remaining Hyatt Suite Upgrade certificates for becoming a Hyatt Diamond member this year and could only use them on paid stays through Feb 2014. As it turned out, the rest of our Hyatt stays this year are on points, so this would be the only chance to use the upgrade certificates.

2. The best parts of earning Diamond status are the benefits for staying at a Hyatt while you have the status. No point in going through the pain to earn status if you won't be using it. So might as well get some more benefits in 2013 while he's a Diamond.

3. Hyatt Vancouver was a better property in a better location at a better price point than the Westin (too expensive during the week and a bit further from his meetings) and Sheraton (not as nice as the Hyatt).

Check In

We checked in around 5PM on Sunday May 19th. We were immediately thanked for being Hyatt Diamond members and offered a choice of welcome amenity: 1,000 Hyatt points or a food & beverage gift.

We had enough Hyatt points to last us a while so we picked the food & beverage option, a bottle of wine and a charcuterie plate. Unfortunately, the wine and food never came, so we had to call a few times. After calling the second time and waiting another hour (it was 730PM), we told them to just bring it the next day because we were heading for dinner.

Room

The certificate guaranteed us a suite upgrade at booking. While we could have not used the certificate and just taken our chances as a Diamond member, we didn't have any reason to save the certificates that were going to expire in February.

We were in both Rooms 2412 and 2414. The 2414 room was the actual hotel room (bed, bath, tv and desk) with its own balcony. It had a door connecting it to Room 2412 which was just a living room with a couch and another TV, desk and full bathroom. After I looked closely, however, I saw that Room 2412 was actually just another regular hotel room but with the bed swapped out for a couch to be a "suite." Clever, Hyatt, very clever.

Our suite (aka two rooms) occupied the corner of the building so we had sweeping northern and western views of downtown Vancouver and the mountains in the distance peeking between the skyscrapers. It also meant that all these people in the nearby office buildings had direct views into our hotel room.

When we arrived, I asked the bellman for a separate crib to be brought up to our room so that I could give my parents some alone time this week. Lord knows they could use it.

But instead of a crib, they must have seen how mature I was because they brought me a twin bed instead and had it set up in the living room. I tried sleeping on it the first night, but I've actually gotten used to sleeping in the same room as my parents. So this big bed experiment didn't work out so well, because not because of me. I could hear my mother crying for me in the other room, so I went over and crawled into bed with them. I think she's addicted to snuggling with me.

Amenities

The hotel has an outdoor heated pool and hot tub. We could see it from our balcony and it seemed like there were quite a few guests enjoying themselves there. While it was a nice 70 degrees while we were here, I really didn't think it was great weather for swimming so we passed on the pool this time.

Additionally, we had free access to the Club Lounge for being Diamonds. Every few hours, they'd have a different serving (breakfast, coffee/tea, h'orderves, evening cocktails, etc.). If we were really trying to save money, we could have eaten all of our meals here and not spent an additional dime.

If you're not a Diamond, you can always pay a little bit more to get Club Lounge access. In addition to the free snacks and drinks (soft and hard), you can access the free wifi and business computer/printer station. Definitely something I'll make my parents consider when our Diamond status runs out next February.

The hotel also has Mosaic Grille as the primary hotel restaurant as well as the Grain Cocktail Bar and a full Starbucks in the lobby. Furthermore, the restaurant menu has a lot of kid options, because Hyatt has a program here called For Kids By Kids where the organic kids menu is designed by Alice Waters and her kids for "a fresh, healthy and fun dining experience."

The wifi, however, was pretty mediocre. Yes it worked, but they gave you the slow internet connection for free and offered the "fast internet" connection for a small fee. No thanks, Hyatt.