Thank You Rate for Hilton Miami Downtown started at $84 for travel over the December-January holiday period. I booked a King Junior Suite Bay View for $119.50 per night. Biscayne Bay View rooms for hotels where I stayed in Downtown Miami made a difference and were definitely worth the extra $10 per night at these rates. Miami without a view of the water is not that pretty a city in my opinion.

Doubletree Grand Hotel Biscayne Bay and Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay occupy the bayfront real estate blocking much of the view of Miami Beach from the Hilton. Skyscrapers in front of skyscrapers seems to be the main obstacle to an expansive ocean view in Downtown Miami.

The best part of the corner room view was the relatively unobstructed view of the heart of downtown Miami to the south of the Hilton.

Looking to Bayfront Park and downtown Miami from Hilton.

The Port of Miami is in close proximity to the Hilton Miami Downtown.

Port of Miami.

Hilton Miami Downtown junior suite corner room. The absence of a minibar refrigerator was the main thing lacking in the room. I used the ice machine regularly to keep cold beer and milk in the room.

The couch in the room was positioned with a mirror on the wall reflecting additional water views when looking out the window.

My room was on Floor 3, a low floor in the 21 floor hotel, with too much view of the top of the parking garage. The floor numbering system is irrelative in many Miami hotels. Floor 3 was about ten stories up in the air at the Hilton Downtown Miami where the Hotel Lobby is several stories up and requires an elevator ride from the ground floor Motor Lobby.

Hilton Miami Downtown lobby. Internet is free in the lobby or $9.95 per day in the room which usually meant the lobby seating was packed with guests on their computers.

The pool is deep at 8 feet.

The pool is accessed from the lobby which is one of my pet peeves in hotel design. At least this pool location is better than Conrad Miami where accessing the pool from guest rooms requires a walk through the lobby, three elevator rides and crossing the interior driveway of the hotel auto entrance.

Hotel view from pool.

View south from 21st floor. Club Lounge on 16th floor has this same view.

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts is a theater with Knight Concert Hall seen in the foreground. Mary Poppins Broadway Musical is playing Jan 1-6, 2013.

The white building in the center is the American Airlines Arena where the Miami Heat plays basketball.

City view looking north from Hilton Downtown Miami. Bluish skyscraper at left is Paramount Bay, a Lenny Kravitz project.

Nearly 350 square feet of window glass from the junior suite corner room with floor to ceiling windows made the hotel a great location for viewing Downtown Miami. The sun during the day was intense and I realized on Day 2 of my stay why the room thermostat had been set at a chilling 60 degrees upon my arrival. The room baked without the AC running.

Transportation from the airport to Downtown Miami is as cheap as $2.00 if you take the Metrorail Orange Line (opened July 2012) to Government Center in Downtown Miami and transfer to the free Metromover to ride the Outer Loop Omni train north to the Adrienne Arsht Center stop one block from the Hilton Downtown Miami.

Miami Metromover is a free shuttle service with 20 stations for Downtown Miami locations. Hilton Downtown Miami is second to last stop at the north end called Omni Loop on the Metromover and Conrad Miami is across the street from the southernmost station at Financial District called the Kendall Loop. There are Inner and Outer Loop tracks and you need to transfer at specific stations to change between loops.

SuperShuttle shared ride is another transportation option to and from the airport for about $26 each way including tip for two people.

Publix full-size supermarket is one block north of Hilton.

Ric Garrido, writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler, shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. You can follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter and Facebook and RSS feed.

The last hotel night and activities for the 3-day “post-TBEX Europe 2012 Girona, Spain” Costa Brava Tourism sponsored tour for a van full of eight travel bloggers was at the spa hotel Balneari Prats in Caldes de Malavella.

Balneari Prats Hotel & Spa, Caldes de Malavella

The small town of Caldes de Malavella, population under 5,000 residents today, is prominent for Roman spa ruins and bottled mineral water.

2,000 years ago Romans settled in this location for its thermal springs. Read More…

Last month I stayed at the W New York Union Square. I am happy to report that no young republicans harassed or assaulted me. I didn’t even notice any condoms in my room – used or new.

Lindsay Lohan news stories this week showing the outside of a familiar looking hotel triggered my recall that I had not yet written about the W New York Union Square where I stayed two nights, FOR FREE, courtesy of SPG Amex Stars gig to attend New York Fashion Week.

The W New York Union Square hotel is one I enjoyed for a nice room in a century old building with a great location for a New York tourist.

W New York Union Square seen from Union Square.

The hotel address is 201 Park Avenue South and the cross-street is East 17th Street.

Obviously I was mistaken when I stated after my trip to New York the week before that I walked a half-marathon around Manhattan and never crossed east of 5th Avenue to the E Streets of Manhattan. I had walked by the W Union Square a week earlier when I snapped this photo of the hotel from Union Square. Read More…

Typically I avoid airport hotels, particularly when arriving in a major international city. My primary reason for choosing an airport hotel in Barcelona was my late arrival time of 9:30pm and I did not want to try and negotiate public transportation into Barcelona.

In my case the decision to stay at a Barcelona Airport hotel was even a better choice since I arrived at the BCN Airport to find a sign posted that airport transportation was severely limited due to a two-day airport transportation strike by train and bus drivers. Read More…

My wife started 16 days of holiday vacation Saturday and our first outing was a parent gift to see comedian Wayne Brady at the Improv in San Jose. No better excuse for a hotel stay and Kelley needed her Radisson Big Night Giveaway stay for 50,000 points with a Radisson hotel stay by December 30, 2011. I booked her into the Radisson San Jose Airport for Saturday night.

Rates at the airport were as low as $75.60 for AAA Sleep Number bed, but for $99 we could have a one bedroom suite and for $114 a one bedroom suite with jacuzzi tub.

So I went all in and booked the full suite with jacuzzi tub. We planned on meeting friends for the comedy show and space to let the teachers get loose seemed like a grand plan for an apres-theater party.

Radisson San Jose Airport SJC

Radisson San Jose Airport (SJC)

The hotel has free shuttle for the airport and is located along a stretch of road between Highway 101 and the airport with several other midscale hotel brands.

Read More…

The highlight of my week in Chicago last month was ending the trip with a stay at the Park Hyatt Chicago. Several FlyerTalkers at the Chicago Seminar DO responded favorably on the Park Hyatt when I asked where I should stay in Chicago. I was happy I took their advice.

Park Hyatt Chicago lobby (the fuzzy art is mostly not my camera)

Park Tower, completed in 2000, is 67 stories and at 844 feet is currently the eleventh tallest building in Chicago according to Wikipedia. Architecturally, Park Tower Chicago was the first building in the U.S. designed with a tuned mass damper – a 300-ton steel pendulum that prevents building sway. Architects Lucien Lagrange posted 17 photos of the building with some hotel shots and great penthouse views on their website. GlassSteelandStone.com is a Chicago architecture blog with several photos of the Park Tower building exterior.

Sidewalk view of Park Tower Chicago

Park Hyatt Hotel is the lower 18 floors of Park Tower at 800 North Michigan Avenue and Water Tower Place, adjacent to the historical Chicago Water Tower, survivor of the great 1871 Chicago fire when the entire downtown and its hundreds of miles of foot traffic wooden sidewalks burned to the ground.

Chicago Water Tower

The luxury hotel Peninsula Chicago is directly across the street from the Park Hyatt. Both hotels have south facing entrances so the entrance to the Peninsula Hotel is on the opposite side of the hotel from the Park Hyatt entrance.

Park Hyatt Chicago entrance

The lobby alcove contains large fossil specimens in wall cases.

The 7^th floor is NoMIRestaurant and Bar. There is a reception table by the 7th floor elevators to direct people into the bar and restaurant. The place was packed at 8pm on a Tuesday night. NoMI Restaurant is where I ate a delicious crab omelette breakfast.

Chicago Park Hyatt NoMI Wine Cellar on the 7th floor

Park Hyatt Chicago Spa and Pool

One design feature of the hotel I did not like was the Spa, workout rooms and pool are on the same floor as the NoMI Restaurant and Bar. You have to pass by the restaurant entrance to access the spa and pools. Waiting for one of the two elevators to take you back to your room floor might feel a little uncomfortable while standing in your bathrobe in the middle of mingling million dollar babies on their way in and out of the bar.

Park Hyatt Chicago Room 1806

Room 1806 is a top 18th floor hotel room with a great view of the Water Tower.

The window ledge cushioned bench was a delight for sitting with a view of the John Hancock Center, Water Tower and North Michigan Avenue.

View north with Westin Michigan Avenue and Hilton Drake Hotel (low building in distance)

Crowne Plaza Hotel is center background building next to Allerton Hotel

Double Bed Room

Park Hyatt bathroom has sliding door divider between tub and room. Toilet and shower have glass doors.

This was the second hotel (Trump Chicago) I saw in Chicago with candles in the bathroom. I enjoyed the candlelight feature.

Electronic shades are a feature of the Park Hyatt Chicago room.

The furnishings were nicely arranged and little touches stood out around the room despite a rather minimalist design. The room had a large flatscreen TV and glass desk although I failed to take a decent photo of that side of the room.

Mieko Yuki, born 1943 Japan – You Can Do It (2004), An interview here gives a little insight into the artist.

Park Hyatt Chicago is a Hyatt Gold Passport category 6 hotel reward at 22,000 points per night. I redeemed points for my stay when the lowest published room rate was $422.50 or $487.56 per night after tax.

The appeal of the W Chicago Lakeshore is its location adjacent to Lake Michigan. No other hotel I saw in downtown Chicago had such close proximity to the lake for unobstructed views to the east.

W Chicago Lakeshore view

The disadvantage of the W Lakeshore is its location is less convenient for transportation and activities aside from being near the Navy Pier with the Children’s Museum, rides, attractions, and restaurants.

W Chicago Lakeshore view of Navy Pier

The hotel is about four blocks east of Michigan Avenue in a mostly residential area of tower blocks.

Chicago W Lakeshore city view to Michigan Avenue from 33rd floor Altitude

The serene beauty of viewing the lake from a bedroom at the W Lakeshore is better than a lakeshore walk due to the eight lanes of traffic on North Lakeshore Drive bordering the bike and walk path alongside Lake Michigan. My room on the 23^rd floor of the 33 floor hotel did not have any noticeable road noise.

Chicago W Lakeshore 33rd floor Altitude lake view north

The hotel bar Wave at the lobby was fairly packed with finely dressed gents and ladies. I did not fit in with my jeans attire. That didn’t inhibit me from redeeming my coupons for two free beers while I read a poorly written book with great hotel photos.

W Chicago Lakeshore lobby

Whiskey Sky is the 33^rd top floor hotel bar open in the evening, but there was nothing happening there on a Sunday night at 9pm.

W Chicago Lakeshore Whiskey Sky 33rd floor bar

The bar has primarily a south and west facing view.

W Chicago Lakeshore view of Navy Pier from Whiskey Sky

In contrast, the large room Altitude also on the top floor of the W Lakeshore had a roaring party, however, this wonderful viewing space is only for private events.

W Chicago Lakeshore Altitude room on 33rd floor

I found daytime access and snapped a few photos from Altitude.

W Chicago Lakeshore, Altitude is circular room on 33rd floor

The Bliss Spa, WET pool and fitness room SWEAT are located on Floor 7.

W Chicago Lakeshore WET, 7th floor indoor pool

There is a small lakeside outside deck by the indoor pool.

W Chicago Lakeshore sweat

The W room had all the mod cons, but I wasn’t really inspired by the layout and design.

W Chicago Lakeshore bath shutters

As a Cash & Points room I received good value for $60 and 4,000 points for a $350 or so room rate after tax.

-W Chicago Lakeshore bath

The double beds made for a cramped space, but there were no lake view rooms with King beds available.

W Chicago Lakeshore double beds

The usual nice Bliss bath amenities were present and I received one of the three pricey Fiji bottled waters in the room complimentary as a SPG Platinum elite.

W Chicago Lakeshore bathroom

The seating was adequate for one person, but not for two with only one cushion chair by the window and one desk chair.

W Chicago Lakeshore chair

The TV was large with some HDTV channels. Internet worked easily and was complimentary for me as SPG elite.

W Chicago Lakeshore desk space and TV

I liked the rooms and lobby better at the W Chicago City Center, but that location and hotel is a totally different Chicago experience.

W Chicago Lakeshore

Related Post: Loyalty Traveler – W Chicago City Center in Blue Ray (Oct 27, 2010)

The screeching tires on the road outside woke me at 1:30am.  I sat up in the roll-away bed placed beneath the open room window at Park Hyatt Beaver Creek in time to see two red foxes running on the rock embankment above the hillside road. The foxes appeared playful and carefree running along the rocks, chasing each other through the illuminated area visible to me in the service truck’s headlights. The idling, stationary truck remained stopped for 15 to 20 minutes on the road at 8,100 feet in elevation providing a prolonged view of July wildlife activity in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

I drifted back to sleep feeling blessed by machine and nature on this “glamping” excursion into the high country.

Red Fox standing on top of rocks across the street from Park Hyatt

Red fox on top of rocks in center of picture

Beaver Creek Resort Location

Park Hyatt Beaver Creek is located within Beaver Creek Village on the hillside in unincorporated Eagle County, Colorado above the town of Avon and about ten miles west of Vail.  Vail Resorts owns and operates five major ski resorts with four in Colorado at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, and Heavenly at Lake Tahoe, California-Nevada.

Beaver Creek ski slopes in summer

Park Hyatt Beaver Creek is located about three miles south side from I-70, through five road roundabouts (warning: easy to turn on the wrong road), up Village Road that terminates in the Beaver Creek Village. There is a gated security entry to Beaver Creek Village Road. The paved road goes up to the Village and unpaved service roads go higher up the mountain.

Beaver Creek Resort is a large ski and summer resort complex encompassing several square miles. Several hotels are within the gated resort including the Ritz Carlton Bachelor Gulch, Beaver Creek Lodge, The Osprey at Beaver Creek, The Pines Lodge (member of Preferred Hotels and Resorts) and several other condo timeshare complexes.

Beaver Creek Village - Park Hyatt Hotel on right

From Denver the drive to Beaver Creek is about 110 miles (DEN Airport = 120 miles) or around 2 ½ to 3 hours in good weather and road conditions. Take the I-70 Avon #167 Exit.

Eagle/Vail Airport (Eagle County Airport = EGE) is about 20 miles west of Beaver Creek in a location more out of the steep Rocky Mountains surrounding Vail/Beaver Creek/Bachelor Gulch. Vail is 10 miles east of Beaver Creek.

Ritz Carlton Bachelor Gulch (TripAdvisor.com # 3 of 22 Avon hotels-Aug 18, 2010) is located on the hillside of the adjacent mountain valley west of Beaver Creek. You will see Bachelor Gulch Road as you drive to Beaver Creek Village.

The town of Avon is down in the valley by the river and the Westin Riverfront (TripAdvisor.com # 2 Avon hotels-Aug 18, 2010) is on the north side of the river. The Sheraton Mountain Vista (TripAdvisor.com #14 Avon hotels-Aug 18, 2010) is located by the I-70 freeway.

Park Hyatt Beaver Creek – Loyalty Traveler Hotel Review (TripAdvisor.com # 4 of 22 Avon hotels-Aug 18, 2010)

Arrival: I read on FlyerTalk about free parking possibilities in the Village public lot, but under the circumstances of accompanying guests and a physically challenged mother-in-law I opted for the direct drive to the hotel and valet parking at $20 per day. While I had initially planned to visit the Westin Riverfront and Ritz Carlton Bachelor Gulch, I never asked for my car during the three days. There were plenty of activities to occupy my time in the Beaver Creek Village.

Valet parking entrance for Park Hyatt Beaver Creek

Check-In: 5-stars for accommodating my last minute request for a handicap accessible room. This was a trip with the in-laws. The 4^th floor corner handicap accessible toilet room I first saw had the best view of the resort, but we needed a roll-in shower. While the nice feature of a handicap room was the corner view in two directions, the drawbacks were no balcony (dozens of rooms have balconies and some second and third floor rooms have large balcony patios) and the room with the roll-in shower was the farthest away from the elevator (about 100 yards). The elevator distance wasn’t a concern to me, but exhausted my elderly mother-in-law using her walker. The front desk agent even brought out a wheelchair at my request, although my mother-in-law refused to use it.

8100 Mountainside Bar & Grill: The Park Hyatt 8100 Bar had Happy Hour from 5:00pm to 7:00pm and again from 9:00pm to 11:00pm when the bar closed.  Food was not discounted, but drinks were.

We had a good selection of appetizers in a nice environment. A couple of the menu items allowed a sampler selection from a variety of cheeses and pâté. We were let down when the young waiter could not identify the selection of cheeses and pates we ordered. We were guessing the names of which items were the ones we liked best in case we wanted another order.

8,100 Mountainside Bar & Grill was also the location for the morning breakfast buffet. As a Gold Passport Diamond member I received complimentary breakfast coupons for the three people in each room in my reservation. The breakfast value alone was worth about $250 over the two days.

I had read about the biscuits and gravy at breakfast and I did enjoy them one morning. The second morning there were pancakes instead of biscuits.

Hotel room: The basic room was a comfortable size with chairs, desk, and bed. Some rooms face the mountain slope looking upward, some rooms face the village businesses and ice rink. One of my two rooms faced the road and hillside to the east with a balcony. The handicap accessible corner room looked east and up the mountain slope from two windows, but no balcony.

The Beaver Creek Resort kept us sufficiently occupied that we didn’t spend all that much time in the room. Swimming, hiking, dining and drinking filled the day. We never got around to riding the gondola up the mountain, cycling, ice skating, playing the pool table or morning yoga.

Altitude Warning:  Hats off to someone who can fly in from coastal California or Florida and ski Beaver Creek on a weekend trip. I got head rushes when I stood up too quickly at 8,100 feet in elevation. And I had been in Aspen prior to arriving in Beaver Creek. The ski slopes go 2,000 feet higher and terminate in Beaver Creek Village. This is the kind of place you want a week for acclimating to the altitude.

Kick back and read a book by the fireplace when you need a rest

Pool and Jacuzzi: The pool area offered drink and food service in the afternoon until 4pm. The fitness center area had towels and changing rooms. There are five Jacuzzis. There were children around the pool most of the day. The pool was relatively lively social area during the stay.

Fitness Rooms: The hotel has one of the largest fitness facilities I have seen in a hotel with at least three rooms containing weights, yoga equipment, bikes, treadmills and such.

Allegria Spa: Time and money kept us turning right to the fitness rooms and pool rather than left into the spa.

Smores Hour: A nightly social gathering around the fire pit from 7pm-8pm (summer hour) happened when trays were brought out to the firepit containing dark and milk Hershey’s chocolate bars, graham crackers and marshmallows with plenty of children carrying sharp sticks. Dusk was a good time for seeing deer on the hillsides around the hotel.

Hotel Structure: Park Hyatt Beaver Creek is a six story building with hotel guest rooms on floors 2 to 4 and residences on floors 5 and 6. The lobby is a high-ceiling chalet lodge style with distinct sitting areas positioned throughout the open space for a good use of grouped seating arrangements.

The hillside ski slopes are outside the south side of the lobby. The northwest side of the lobby has a stairway leading down to the Village ice rink and shops.

The highlight of the hotel stay for us was using the empty hotel lobby as our exclusive hangout for hours late into the night. We felt like we had our own 5,000 square foot living room.

The Village: There were children’s activities like mini-golf (pretty cheap looking design); bungi trampoline and climbing wall right along the walkway outside the Park Hyatt. In winter there is a children’s ski school.

The ice rink is open evening hours in the summer.

There is a conference center with occasional concerts and performances.

Starbucks is about 200 yards from the hotel lobby which is a good thing if you want to buy coffee outside of the hotel. There is no complimentary coffee at the Park Hyatt hotel lobby in the morning.

There is one small grocery store with basic food items and 3.2% beer.

The popular Blue Moose Pizza is immediately outside the Park Hyatt Hotel. Within a couple hundred yards of the hotel are an upscale Italian restaurant, Japanese food, a fine dining steakhouse, and several other restaurants and bars. There were lots of happy hour specials between 2pm and 7pm for discount food and drinks.

My impressions of the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek

There are only five Park Hyatt hotels in the U.S. to represent Hyatt’s luxury brand. Park Hyatt Beaver Creek met my expectations with the hotel design and facilities.

But being a luxury hotel brand also creates high guest expectations for outstanding hotel service. Service started out great the first day with a helpful valet staff and front desk, but serious incompetencies led to a high degree of disappointment during the hotel stay with regard to hotel service levels. Specifically housekeeping and poor waiter service in 8100 restaurant. On two occasions involving several different staff members we had to order an item three times before the order actually was delivered to the table.

The incredulous aspect of the hotel stay came the second day with housekeeping. Kelley and I had stayed up late, energized by the high mountains and Colorado beer and a feeling of finally having a real summer vacation. I woke up early in time to eat breakfast with my mother-in-law in the restaurant. Then I went back to bed around 9:30am to catch more sleep.

We all went out again to find breakfast for Kelley around 11:30am. The complimentary breakfast coupon was invalid after 11am. We took the room “privacy” sign off the door and I saw housekeeping down the hall as we left. The nearby room my other guests were staying in was serviced between 9 and 10am while we were at breakfast.

At 2:00pm we returned to the hotel to find our room had not been serviced. A few minutes in the room and we were outside swimming for the afternoon. We came back at 4:30pm and the room had still not been serviced. A phone message from housekeeping just ten minutes earlier said the room was not serviced due to the Privacy sign on the door. The message said to call if I wanted the room serviced. I called Housekeeping and received no response. I called the Front Desk and was put on hold, then disconnected. The Privacy sign had not been on the door since 11:30am.

Kelley reached housekeeping a few minutes later to explain she had dropped a perfume bottle in the bathroom and glass needed to be vacuumed off the marble floor. They told her they would be right up.

We walked around the Beaver Creek Resort for an hour. At 5:30pm we returned to see the room still had not been serviced. I went to the front desk and talked to the manager on duty. I heard her tell housekeeping to go service our room. Kelley and I went out to dinner.

At 8:30pm we returned from the restaurant to find the room still not serviced. I made another trip to the front desk. I told the manager on duty I write hotel reviews.

Two women finally arrived from housekeeping and vacuumed up the glass shards. They walked out of the room at 9:01pm.

What can I say? This was the most difficult time I ever had getting a room serviced.

The front desk manager knocked off about $100 in room service charges and parking fees.

Repeating directions is to be expected when working in a public school with children, but repetitive requests being unfulfilled is not acceptable when dealing with hotel staff while vacationing at a luxury resort.

The housekeeping incident is just one for the record book of odd hotel events. The bad service was a serious blemish but ultimately did not overshadow the wonderful resort setting of Beaver Creek.

Fortunately my good company, good beer, beautiful resort facilities and eateries and a fun vacation are the primary memories I am left with after my stay at Park Hyatt Beaver Creek.

My glamping vacation view on a rollaway bed at the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek

Park Hyatt Beaver Creek is a Hyatt Gold Passport category 6 hotel award for 22,000 points per night. During my July stay the rates were relatively low at $171 AAA rate and as low as $143 for a senior rate. Room rates will be significantly higher in winter ski season. There is a $12 per night resort fee in summer or $18 per night in winter season.

Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel and Spa, Santa Rosa, California

March is my favorite month for California travel.

March is typically when the weather starts hitting the 70s on a regular basis and the hills are still green from the winter California rains. Coastal California receives the vast majority of its rainfall between the months of October and March. The hills start turning brown a few weeks after the last rains and by June most areas have little green color left.

The other day, I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time since 2001. North, past Marin County and into Sonoma County is where the real northern California begins in my opinion. There are many Californias. Life in the OC is an entirely different experience and lifestyle than the Redwood Country California.

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California

Sonoma County, an area now famous for wines, once had numerous old growth stands of redwood trees. Most were cut down to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. The exclusive Bohemian Club is currently in the process of trying to get around redwood protection legislation to allow logging of the largest remaining stand of privately owned old growth trees remaining in Sonoma County, a 2,700 acre redwood grove on the Russian River watershed basin.

Santa Rosa is 50 miles north of San Francisco and is the last city over 50,000 people heading north on California Highway 101. Oregon is another 300 miles of driving through vineyards and coastal redwoods.

I lived in the northern coastal California town of Eureka from 1996 to 2001 and I frequently drove to San Francisco. Typically, I would drive down to Rohnert Park, about 10 miles south of Santa Rosa and home of Sonoma State University, and stay at the Doubletree Hotel.

Doubletree Sonoma pool, Rohnert Park, California

Doubletree Sonoma Hotel, Rohnert Park, California

The Doubletree Hotel was the best major chain full-service hotel between Eureka and San Francisco back in 2000. And now there are several chain hotels with the Four Points Sheraton in San Rafael, Sheraton Sonoma County in Petaluma, Marriott Courtyard, Hilton and the Hyatt Vineyard Creek in Santa Rosa. Several more Marriott Courtyard and Residence Inns, Holiday Inn Express, and Hampton Inns have also been opened along this stretch of Highway 101 north of San Francisco.

Sheraton Petaluma pool, Petaluma, California

The Hyatt Vineyard Creek hotel has classic Spanish architecture with lots of wrought iron, and a Mediterranean inspired color scheme. The rooms are built around two large courtyards. Think of a figure 8, make it square shaped and you can envision the basic hotel design.

Hyatt Vineyard Creek lobby
I was given a room overlooking the parking lot, but near the creek side for a relatively green view from the window. The preferred rooms have the view facing south and overlook the pool, creek, and gardens.

The garden grounds have several statues and art pieces. A large fountain wall, grass lawn, and vines decorate the hotel area. The outside grounds and pool are unique features of this Hyatt hotel for the Hyatt properties in northern California.

Hyatt Vineyard Creek, Santa Rosa, California sculpture garden

The room facilities:
The room is poorly designed for business work. The desk chair was quite uncomfortable. The cushion sank right down to the wood frame and my legs resting on the hardwood of the seat frame while working at the desk on my computer was a pain I could only stand for about 20 minutes.

The desk is placed next to the TV cabinet and the doors of the cabinet must be open to see TV, however, the TV cabinet doors do not fold back all the way. The cabinet door needs to be closed when working at the desk and this prohibits watching TV while working at the desk because the TV cabinet door was right in my face and in front of the desk lamp when open.

Hyatt Vineyard Creek room decor blocks the work desk

The bedroom seating consisted of two upholstered chairs in the room. These were reasonably comfortable, but my complaint is the plastic wrap the chairs were shipped in was still visible dangling around the legs of the chair. When I initially surveyed the room, the plastic gave the appearance of the chair stuffing coming out the bottom, but I pulled on it and confirmed it was the remnants of the shipping plastic wrap that was never cleanly removed from the chairs.

Hyatt Vineyard Creek room, Santa Rosa, California

Room 316 on top floor of hotel. The room has screened windows.

A distinguishing feature of the hotel room is the 10ft high ceiling. Vertical space gives the room the feeling of a much larger space than your typical 300 sq ft hotel room. Furniture has appearance of old oak in a faux mission decor.

Hyatt Vineyard Creek bedroom

Bathroom: Large wooden sliding door. No curved shower rod. Tub and shower head provided the best water pressure and temperature of any Hyatt hotel shower so far. That was lovely.

The patio rooms offered as a booking option are either on one of the two interior courtyards or there are a few rooms with patios adjacent to pool. Patio courtyard would be fun for group or family event as there are no barriers and rooms quite open. People preferring privacy should not go for these rooms as they are quite exposed to the hotel world.

TV is regular 27 inch Zenith TV.

The hotel has an attached conference center wing which opens onto a courtyard. The hotel is basically two 3-story squares built around two interior courtyards. The conference wing is the east side of the hotel and the main hotel section of guest rooms is the west side.

Room service prices are about the cheapest of any of the Hyatt’s in Bay Area. A breakfast entrée of eggs or an omelette can be purchased for $10 and with room service delivery charges and tax it is still under $15.

Major drawback of room is no mini-fridge. Here we are in the wine country and there is no refrigerator to chill wine and the ice bucket provided is definitely too small to chill a bottle of wine. This is a hotel set up for rest and relaxation and the addition of a mini-fridge would be a great enhancement.

Signage is poor. I could easily have missed the pool if I hadn’t toured the hotel thoroughly. The gardens and riverwalk on the back side are the highlight of the property, but the layout with the large iron gate between the pool and the interior courtyard makes it impossible to even see the garden area from the lobby and spa courtyard. I thought it was a parking lot back there until I exited outside the conference wing to find a beautiful 100 foot long wall fountain, art sculptures and the pool area.

Hyatt Vineyard Creek, fountain, Santa Rosa, California

Outdoor pool is inviting space for lounging. Santa Rosa can reach 100 in summer months and an outdoor pool is a relaxation feature and welcome, especially after a day out in hot sun. Pool is open 7am-10pm and a hot tub is also present. A café is located in pool area.

Hyatt Vineyard Creek pool and pool cafe, Santa Rosa, California

The Brasserie restaurant is open 6:30am-11pm weekdays, 7am-11pm weekends.

Hyatt Vineyard Creek Brasserie Restaurant, Santa Rosa, California

Fitness room seemed small for hotel this size and the color scheme was not soothing, in contrast to the rest of hotel. There are 2 treadmills, 2 stair steppers, 3 bikes, weights and bench, large balls, 2 TVs. It seemed cramped and claustrophobic to me.

The hotel is about to undergo a lobby remodel and one of the main features will be the installation of a bar within the lobby. This work is scheduled to be completed in June 2008.

The Hyatt Vineyard Creek Spa has ten treatment rooms for massage therapy and body treatments. Half-day, 3-hour packages range from $295 to $370 and include facial, massage, and picnic lunch. A la carte massage is about $110-$125 for 50 minutes or $160-$185 for 80 minutes. Manicures $40-$55 for 50 minutes, pedicures $50-$70, and combo for $85-$120.

Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel courtyard, Santa Rosa, California

Needed hotel improvement: There are apparently no service elevators and twice I saw staff pushing a cart of garbage enter an elevator with guests, once with me in the elevator. In my opinion, a hotel of this caliber (AAA 4-diamond rating) should train staff to wait for a vacant elevator before using it with guests to perform maintenance functions.

Marriott Courtyard is located across the street from the Hyatt Vineyard Creek. I was able to see a room and tour the Courtyard hotel and the Hyatt has superior facilities and better room design.

Marriott Courtyard room, Santa Rosa, California

Marriott Courtyard pool, Santa Rosa, California

Grand Hyatt San Francisco at Union Square

Grand Hyatt San Francisco, Grandviews Restaurant, 36th floor view

I exited BART at Montgomery Street and it was a four block walk to the Grand Hyatt. Powell Street might be one block closer. I don’t know.  Powell Street tends to be one of the most crowded sections of the downtown hotel district when walking from the BART station on Market Street to Union Square along Powell.  This is the streetcar line.  The walk is less than ten minutes.

Grand Hyatt San Francisco, view looking east

Grand Hyatt San Francisco guest services counter was busy so I went to the e-check-in machine.

The process was simple. I was given room #2321 which is an upgrade from my reservation. I also received a corner room which is a slightly nicer layout than regular rooms. The reservation had said the room would be on Floors 5-17 and be 315 square feet, so the room was actually a bit larger.

Grand Hyatt San Francisco, view looking to Nob Hill and Golden Gate

I received upgrades to higher floors than stated in my reservation confirmation with both of my reservations at the Grand Hyatt, despite not having any Hyatt Gold Passport elite status.

The Grand Hyatt has a feeling of an upscale hotel in the lobby with attentive staff members visibly present and usually available for guest services and the rooms have a more traditional hotel décor.

There were three upholstered chairs in the room. The desk chair had wooden arms and two other matching chairs with a small table provided comfortable seating options.

Grand Hyatt San Francisco bed

The room was around 350 square feet with a door entry section, main room of 18.5’ x 13’ with bed, desk, a 32” traditional TV, and chairs. A separate space leading into the bathroom contained a dresser and closet space and an enclosed bathroom area.

Grand Hyatt San Francisco room decor

Club Regency floors are on 31-34 of the Grand Hyatt San Francisco.

Floor 35 has the fitness room with a large selection of fitness equipment.

Grand Hyatt San Francisco gym, 35th floor

Floor 36 is Grandviews Restaurant and bar. The bar has incredible views of North Beach, Coit Tower, Alcatraz and Nob Hill. The windows face towards Nob Hill and offer a fantastic view of the InterContinental Mark Hopkins and probably the second best views in San Francisco (Mark Hopkins Hotel Top of the Mark restaurant probably tops San Francisco locations for the best scenic view of the city).

Grand Hyatt San Francisco Grandviews Bar

I went to the Hyatt Grandviews bar for lunch at 2:30 and ordered a tomato and avocado salad. Fortunately, bread and butter was provided to fill me as the salad alone may have not been sufficient to get me through the day.

My same room location on floors 31-34 would probably be high enough to see Golden Gate Bridge. I am on floor 23 and most of the surrounding buildings are 25 to 30 stories tall.

First impression of the hotel is that it is grand. Hyatt Regency San Francisco has a modern W-like room decor style whereas the Hyatt Grand is tasteful traditional elegance. The room has lots of gold highlights on picture frames, carpet, and lamps. Lighter wood finishes and upholstered chairs.

Dislikes:

• electronic mini-bar, patio door only opens four inches
• Internet is $9.95 for 24 hours.
• No convenient outlets for ironing board. The perfect place to set up ironing board (near TV) had no outlets around. Fortunately a 12-ft cord and I could reach under table to plug in iron.

• Drawback of Hyatt Grand is bathroom needs remodeling. First off would be the simple addition of a curved shower rod. This is one of the few rooms I have stayed in over the past few years without a curved shower rod, and the only upscale hotel without this simple feature. It is a $10 upgrade. And then the shower curtain they have was quite difficult to pull closed as the curtain stuck to the rod.

• Cracks and chips in bathroom counter and floor tiles became more noticeable to my eye after a day in the room (not spent exclusively in the bathroom).

• Back to the mini-bar and I see that domestic beer is $6.50 and imported beer is $7.00. That isn’t surprising to me. What is shocking, and I don’t ever recall seeing this before in a mini-bar is that on top of tax there is a 20% restocking fee. That $7.00 imported beer is $8.40 + 14% tax = $9.58/beer. That makes a neighborhood bar look like a great deal.

Grand Hyatt San Francisco bathroom TV

Likes:

• The Regency Club lounge is on the 32nd floor. This is available to invited elite members or Club Regency room rates (usually $40 to $100 per night more). The lounge provides the same great views as the Grandviews restaurant on the 36th floor. The lounge is open throughout the day for a space to hang out with sodas and some beverages available and food during certain times of the day.
• The staff were attentive, receptive, and proactive at the Grand Hyatt at Union Square which is a level of service I didn’t see at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco or at the Westin St. Francis on Union Square over several stays last November. This is the level of service I typically find at upscale international hotels.

Room rates are frequently higher at Grand Hyatt San Francisco compared to the Hyatt Regency San Francisco.  The Grand Hyatt San Francisco is only a Category 3 hotel for Hyatt Gold Passport points redemption at 12,000 points per night while the Hyatt Regency is a Category 4 hotel at 15,000 points/free night.

I would definitely take advantage of the lower redemption rate and stay at the Grand Hyatt while that option is available.