The Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay offers great views of the Tampa Bay. The location and views from this hotel offer a nice retreat for the business traveler. Unfortunately it is one of Hyatt’s oldest Tampa Bay area properties. This hotel was build about 20 years ago and is finally undergoing renovations in preparation for the 2012 presidential convention.

The hotel is a 3 category Hyatt hotel which requires 12,000 points per night for an award room. The typical weekend rate here at the moment is in the $140 range depending on the weekend and rate selected. We selected this property because of the location and it allowed us to hit additional stays for the Hyatt Possibilities Promotion. The first stay, we upgraded to a Casita suite using a Diamond suite upgrade that was about to expire. The next stay we were upgraded to a corner room overlooking Tampa bay.

Please excuse the quality of some pictures. A few pictures were taken on a sub-par camera because we left our good camera at home.

Hotel

The hotel offers a complimentary shuttle to and from the airport. The shuttle is dedicated to this hotel and does not share service between the Hyatt Regency downtown or Hyatt Place nearby. The shuttle took about 15 minutes after I called to arrive and I was greeted with a cooler of ice cold waters.

Ice Cold Water On Shuttle

We arrived at the main entrance to the hotel. If you are staying in the Casita suites, you’ll check-in to your room at the main entrance and then walk or drive over to the Casitas. The main part of the hotel serves breakfast / lunch from the restaurant Peetey Browns or a sports bar. The main building also has the club lounge and nice pool area.

Entrance

The picture below illustrates how far the Casitas and Oyster Catchers restaurant are from the main hotel. The Casita pool area is directly on the water and next to the Tampa International Airport flight path. Pretty cool to be sipping margaritas by the pool, looking at the bay, and seeing jets fly by every half hour or so.

View Of Hotel & Oyster Catchers From Dock

Planes flying overhead is a common site by the Casita pool. We saw Delta, American, Southwest flights while lounging by the pool.

Osyter Catchers is a great place to have an evening cocktail or Sunday brunch. Be sure to use Opentable to earn extra points if you make a reservation.

Oyster Catchers

The Casita has a nice relaxing pool by the bay. The servers are very attentive and will serve you food and drinks by the pool.

Casita Pool By Oyster Catchers

The Casita area has a nice dock in the bay. You can sometimes see a few local fisherman getting their bait fish for the day.

View Of Casitas From Dock

Fishing Boat

The beach at the hotel is artificial. While not the ocean, it is a nice oasis if you are on a short business trip to this small sunshine state city.

Artificial Beach

For a quick bite to eat, we tried Hyatt’s new cheeseburger in the main hotel bar. It was really tasty. Nice job Hyatt!

Hyatt Cheeseburger

The club lounge has a great view of the bay but is closed on the weekends. Diamond members are offered free breakfast in the Petey Brown’s restaurant.

Club Lounge

Casita Room

The Casitas are multi-unit suites near Oyster Catchers restaurant. The are starting to show their age. When we arrived the shuttle driver mentioned these are slated to be torn down in the May time frame to make way for new construction. I won’t be sad to see these go.

Casita

Hyatt Diamond members are provided a bottle of red wine and a cheese plate as a welcome amenity. It was promptly delivered to our room after check-in.

Diamond Welcome Amenity

Casita Living Room

The Casita bedroom needs a little TLC (it is being torn down anyway). The carpet shows significant signs of wear. The bathroom is old. The bed was not comfortable and worn. I was very glad to hear about their renovation in progress.

Casita Bedroom

Renovated Room

The renovated rooms are only on a few floors at this point, I think the top floor on the non-bay view side. Their stated goal is to have the main building rooms renovated by the Spring. The rooms feel like the standard Hyatt updated rooms that I’ve come to know and love.

Renovated Room Bedroom

Renovated Room Bathroom

Main Building Room

On a recent stay, we declined an upgrade to a Casita suite. Instead, we accepted a Diamond upgrade to a corner room overlooking Tampa Bay. Until the renovations are complete, I think this is one of the best options.

Main Building Bedroom

Main Building Bedroom View

Main Building Pool

Tampa Sunset

Breakfast

Diamond members are offered complimentary buffet or menu breakfast at Petey Brown’s restaurant in the main building. One look at the buffet and it was an easy choice. They had a hot station with eggs, sausage, bacon, oatmeal and other items. On the buffet, they also offer salmon, fruit, and just about every pastry ever made. Coffee, juice and other drinks are offered with breakfast.

Breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast

Bottom Line

The Hyatt Regency Tampa treats their Diamond members well. The location is good for in town and is not far from some great Tampa beaches. The hotel is in the midst of beginning a huge renovation. Once this hotel is fully renovated, it will top the Westin Tampa Bay for a near town hotel in my book.

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