Park Hyatt Chicago

Hotel Stay Detail
Hotel: Park Hyatt Chicago
Dates: July 5-6, 2013
Rate Paid: 22,000 Gold Passport Points/night
Regular Room Rate: $402/night (incl. tax)
Total $ Benefit: $402
Point Redemption: 1.8 cents/pt

Since we usually stay up in the northwest suburbs when we're in Chicago, my father thought we'd mix it up a bit this time around and spend Friday night downtown at the Park Hyatt.

As you may recall, my father successfully completed the Hyatt Diamond Challenge in March, and we've been reaping the benefits of Diamond status at Park Hyatts for the past several months, including stays at the Park Hyatt Mendoza, the Park Hyatt Buenos Aires and the Park Hyatt Paris Vendôme.

As Diamond members, we've been getting upgrades to better rooms (sometimes suites) even on award stays. In fact, all our Park Hyatt stays have been on points except Mendoza where the prices were much more modest. We also get a Diamond amenity when we check in - either 1,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points or a food & beverage gift (wine/snack).

But the best perk of being a Diamond is that you get free breakfasts for each guest in the room. As you know, breakfasts can get very expensive at luxury hotels. And at Park Hyatts, you can often get your free breakfast served in the room as we did on this stay.

While we didn't get the best $ per point redemption at the Park Hyatt Chicago (less than 2 cents/point), we decided it would be worth it to remind ourselves how amazing a night at a Park Hyatt can be.

Besides, we earned almost 30,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points from my father's May business trips (15 nights at the Hyatt Place Boise during Hyatt's Q2 promotion and charged it to his co-branded Hyatt Visa credit card). So with all those points in my father's account and no real plan to redeem them anytime soon, he decided to use them even if the redemption value wasn't great.

Located in the River North area of Chicago, we pulled up in the taxi around 3PM. Immediately, the Park Hyatt doorman ran up to help us with our luggage. Despite my father's disheveled (sweaty) appearance and my ugly umbrella stroller, they treated us like valued VIP guests. Take some lessons, Park Hyatt Paris!

We were escorted to the front desk where they checked us in with great expedition. We had booked a regular Park King room, but they "upgraded" us to a high floor with a nice view of Lake Michigan.

The room itself was stylish and exceptionally clean, though not too memorable. Aside from the handful of framed black and white Chicago photos on the wall, you couldn't tell if you were in Chicago or Houston or Los Angeles.

However, the king bed was incredibly comfortable and the wifi was free/fast and they had an amazing chair that form fitted around your body. The room also came with a nice glass desk to work from, a 42" flat screen television and automatic blinds/blackout shades.

The bathroom was quite large and immaculate. In addition to the stand up shower, there was a full bathtub that could fit a few kids to double as a swimming pool. If we ever have a house that we can remodel, I'd definitely want the bathrooms to look like Park Hyatt bathrooms.

Once my mother laid down on our bed, she immediately passed out. My father and I wanted to let her take a quick nap before our friends came over, so we went downstairs to the famous 7th floor restaurant/bar NoMi.

My father had his usual vodka on the rocks with a splash of diet coke. All I got was a lime and some bar nuts. But that was OK, because I was saving room for our Diamond Amenity gift later that night, a free chilled bottle of prosecco and a fruit/cheese plate. We love you, Park Hyatt.