How do Hyatt treat you as an Elite?

[Berlin]

Property: Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf, Germany
Tier: Globalist
Booked: Standard King
Received: Very nice corner King room with great views

Stayed here just earlier this week, maybe our 3rd or 4th stay at this property. Overall, really nice hotel still with excellent service at reception and especially the bar.

The club lounge is a bit disappointing but what many might not know, you’re actually allowed to use the space by the bar and, in Summer and better even, the outside terrace. You can also order real local Duesseldorf Alt Bier at the bar on the house if you have club access which we absolutely love love love. Give me several rounds of free Alt Bier over some wraps and salads any day!

As Globalists, we got a nice room on a high floor which great views of the city and the Rhein-Kirmes (large fair ground with rides and rollercoasters) that’s currently one which we thoroughly enjoyed. Actually- while no suite upgrades were available this time, we almost enjoyed this “standard” King corner room with a view more.

Only disappointment, and it is a big one, was the housekeeping service which was totally not up to scratch. Never had any issues like this at this property before but somehow whoever was going out room was either badly trained or outright lazy. We had a nicely written card on the bed asking (in German and English) for fresh sheets as we sweated a lot during the Summer weather and while the card was gone in the evening, we clearly just got the old sheets again. We also were silly and had some cookies in the morning and all the crumbs wrote still there even! Likewise, our red wine glasses had clearly been flushed out under water and returned to the shelf, stains still all over it and water glasses even had fatty finger prints all over. Yikes.

So yes, overall pleasant as ever and we surely will return next time in Dusseldorf but the housekeeping service was a real fail this time around.

 

[Gold Member]

Only disappointment, and it is a big one, was the housekeeping service which was totally not up to scratch. Never had any issues like this at this property before but somehow whoever was going out room was either badly trained or outright lazy. We had a nicely written card on the bed asking (in German and English) for fresh sheets as we sweated a lot during the Summer weather and while the card was gone in the evening, we clearly just got the old sheets again. We also were silly and had some cookies in the morning and all the crumbs wrote still there even! Likewise, our red wine glasses had clearly been flushed out under water and returned to the shelf, stains still all over it and water glasses even had fatty finger prints all over. Yikes.

That just sounds like most properties post-Covid trying to cut down on housekeeping expenses by demanding more of their staff within less time.

Was the sweat in bed due to insufficiently cold air conditioning and therefore sleeping unbearably hot? Or dare I ask, just from day activities and not showering before bed? Assuming the former, did you approach them about it, and what was their response?

 

[Berlin]

That just sounds like most properties post-Covid trying to cut down on housekeeping expenses by demanding more of their staff within less time.

Was the sweat in bed due to insufficiently cold air conditioning and therefore sleeping unbearably hot? Or dare I ask, just from day activities and not showering before bed? Assuming the former, did you approach them about it, and what was their response?

Yes, it was the former. And complaints about air conditioning seem to be responded to in one or two ways in Germany (and most of Europe in general): A. Complete shoulder shrug and pretend that it all runs fine (this is how the Dusseldorf Hyatt but also the one in Berlin treat it) or, worse even and particularly prominent in Germany, B. A lengthy preach on the implications of CO2 emissions and how you can save the polar bears by sweating all night in your room. In other words, I regret each time even attempting to complain as it never leads to an attempt to fix, let alone providing you with an apology and/or other remedy.

 

[Berlin]

Property: Grand Hyatt Berlin, Germany
Tier: Globalist
Booked: Standard King
Received: Standard King, high floor. €30 voucher to make up for the lack of suite upgrades

And speaking of air conditioning, here we go again: We used to really love this property, one of our favourite Hyatts anywhere. Unfortunately, things seem to have gone severely downhill since our last stay about a year ago.

Received the quite standard email a few days ahead that no suite upgrades would be available. No issue there, property was really full this weekend and last year they had upgraded us- nothing one can ever expect and they even offered us a €30 F&B voucher instead which is better than most other properties would do to compensate. The standard rooms are actually big enough themselves, something that we’ve always appreciated here. However, applying stinge measures to the air conditioning is not a good look. Very common in Europe in general but never an issue here in the past, the aircon is set to full cooling on the dial in the room, but does nothing more than a faint fizzle so we sweated like pigs every single night. Yes, it was rather hot during our stay but last year was even more so and we did not have any issues. Asking at reception was met with the usual disregard and just confirming that “everything is running as expected” which is also the answer you always seem to get on this issue in Europe and especially in Germany. The property has also added some really awful rubber toppers on the mattress which in combination just turns the entire room into a sweat box. Not good enough, Hyatt.

The executive lounge was just okay, while technically on the highest floor, they strangely managed to make it feel really dark and claustrophobic with windows only onto the inner courtyard and very dark and uninviting furniture with decade old pictures of movie stars on the wall. Food offerings are very very limited and the place is generally overfilled- on Saturday night we had to stand awkwardly (!!!) in the middle of the lounge and so did other guests. That did not feel very executive.

Finally, the generally nice roof top pool with nice outside sun loungers is getting totally spoilt by hoards of outside guests hawking the place. This is one of my pet hates and was a problem already last year: Not only is the property selling gym and spa membership passes to random locals which is annoying enough, they also offer day memberships via a strange voucher system to total strangers. No idea where they come from, some German equivalent to Groupon or similar dodgy site I am assuming. As a result you always have to queue up for ages as a hotel guest just to use the pool for a quick splash, then in front of you there are masses of cheap tourists (usually from Bavaria or Saxony for whatever reason) with their monster back packs in tow, who somehow got a day spa voucher for the Hyatt pool while otherwise staying at some rotten hostel for a fraction of the price. How these people behave in and around the pool is easy to guess. This drives me mad each and every time and is clearly just a money grab with total disregard to the full paying hotel guests.

Finally- the breakfast, oh what a mess! This was one of the highlights of this property and now turned into the total opposite. Two staff members half way attentive with the others doing everything to avoid any work. Management busy with the blue screens of death on their computers and unable to help the situation at all. On the weekends, breakfast is technically running till 12 but beware you come in the last 90 minutes as most items won’t be replenished anymore. First morning they had run out of buns and eggs so you could only order the latter from the waiter which sounds good in theory but unfortunately it takes about half an hour for any egg dishes to arrive and that is once you’ve managed to get the attention of a waiter and they hit your order correctly which turned out to be a challenge. Strangely, they had three to four people in the kitchen at all times but they managed to cook less omelettes and scrambles than some single chef kitchens do in other, better managed properties. They used to have a larger selection of normal buffet items, but a lot have been taken away and replaced by a useless oversized “Vegan corner” which takes up about a third of the entire breakfast space. As per usual, no one ever touches any of the chemical-loaded plastic food there besides the fruit selection but hey, we’re hip and “on trend”, jaaa! We noticed on day two that every second table had a complaint for something going wrong and the overall rather useless staff just gave the typical “Meh, so sorry” response without addressing any of the problems.

All in all, as guests who stay here pretty much every year, we were rather disappointed. And that makes me sad, this hotel can be fantastic (and has been in the past). The air conditioning needs urgent work as a bad sleep just ruins an entire stay and management has to get the breakfast and spa situation under control. It’s otherwise a shame as the property itself is great and in a really good location for tourist activities and business needs alike and in great condition for a property that opened in the late 90s. I’m really hoping the hotel reads this and takes action on these points as I would hate to stay elsewhere in Berlin next time around.

 

[Ansett Nostalgic]

Property: Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf, Germany
Tier: Globalist
Booked: Standard King
Received: Very nice corner King room with great views

Stayed here just earlier this week, maybe our 3rd or 4th stay at this property. Overall, really nice hotel still with excellent service at reception and especially the bar.

The club lounge is a bit disappointing but what many might not know, you’re actually allowed to use the space by the bar and, in Summer and better even, the outside terrace. You can also order real local Duesseldorf Alt Bier at the bar on the house if you have club access which we absolutely love love love. Give me several rounds of free Alt Bier over some wraps and salads any day!

As Globalists, we got a nice room on a high floor which great views of the city and the Rhein-Kirmes (large fair ground with rides and rollercoasters) that’s currently one which we thoroughly enjoyed. Actually- while no suite upgrades were available this time, we almost enjoyed this “standard” King corner room with a view more.

Only disappointment, and it is a big one, was the housekeeping service which was totally not up to scratch. Never had any issues like this at this property before but somehow whoever was going out room was either badly trained or outright lazy. We had a nicely written card on the bed asking (in German and English) for fresh sheets as we sweated a lot during the Summer weather and while the card was gone in the evening, we clearly just got the old sheets again. We also were silly and had some cookies in the morning and all the crumbs wrote still there even! Likewise, our red wine glasses had clearly been flushed out under water and returned to the shelf, stains still all over it and water glasses even had fatty finger prints all over. Yikes.

So yes, overall pleasant as ever and we surely will return next time in Dusseldorf but the housekeeping service was a real fail this time around.

I have found memories staying at Hyatt Dusseldorf several years ago - was a Diamond then so used DSU to stay in a suite, having also used a BRG claim which meant I had the suite with breakfast and club access for 120 euros a night.


The breakfast was exceptional for a European hotel, although I felt sorry for the old German lady on the egg station who was being incessantly hassled by some rude Middle Eastern guests who seemed to talk to her like she was a mere slave.

On a more positive note, the indoor heated pool was nice and the steam room seemed to always have attractive young females sitting naked in there, as is the custom in that part of Europe.

 

[MrJetset]

BER doesn’t have a PH, do you mean GH?

We had an excellent stay but booked a suite in advance. Review on FT.

 

[Berlin]

BER doesn’t have a PH, do you mean GH?

We had an excellent stay but booked a suite in advance. Review on FT.

Oh sorry, of course I meant to say Grand Hyatt. We used to only have excellent stays here in the past as well, even more disappointing that this time was a real mess. I ended up complaining at the front desk and got a bottle of free (proper French) champagne as an apology which was a nice gesture though I’d much rather see them fix the air conditioning and get their staffing and training in order.

Will no doubt stay again next year around the same time so keen to see if anything has improved again to how it used to be in previous years.

 

[Berlin]

Property: Me and All hotel Kiel, Germany Tier: Globalist
Booked: Standard room
Received: Still small but best room in the house

After it was announced just a few weeks ago that this former budget subsidiary of Lindner Hotels had now been fully purchased by Hyatt and is meant to be rolled out more widely and even outside Germany, I got really excited and simply had to give it a try during our current Europe trip.

The Me and All in Kiel happened to be close enough to a few places I hadn’t seen since childhood so it provided a convenient base, even though the city itself has nothing much to offer (and is, sorry Kiel, one of the ugliest German cities I can think of). The Me and All chain is aimed at a hipster, younger budget crowd and often gets compared to the likes of Moxxy and Aloft. After our stay, I can happily say that it’s actually better than both of those.





Design-wise, the property was VERY modern, sometimes a big cringe worthy so bit that is something you find at Moxxy or even W as well. Style-wise, the closest I can think of would be Tommy in Austin, Texas which is also in the Hyatt portfolio and actually very similar in terms of design and perceived quirkiness of the tiny rooms. Actually- if Hyatt really wanted to roll out Me and All beyond Europe, it would be super easy to slap this name on the Tommy and claim it’s the first M&A in the US. What was nice is that the M&A was actually much smarter designed than the Tommy and made really clever use of the space inside the rooms. Yes the rooms are small but they are well designed so it doesn’t feel so. It’s still a small room but a bit bigger also than your typical Moxxy and the design much easier on the eye also than the cookie cutter everywhere the exact same as Aloft. Actually, they included a lot of “locally inspired” design elements- here in Kiel up at the Baltic Sea, it was a lot of seafarer and ocean kind of themes (I have to think of the Hyatt Centric in Long Beach, CA which is quite similar to this). So I’d prefer this over many of the other small hotel chains in this price group.





Service was always super dooper friendly though not necessarily always the most efficient. We were very happily greeted and acknowledged as a Globalist and received one of the best rooms in the house (away from the noise train tracks in the back, on the highest floor and with great views of the water inlet). We had a small issue with the parking lot constantly being full (34 spots for about 160 rooms tends to do this!) but contacted the My Hyatt concierge to help us secure a spot for our rewards stay as a Globalist. This was quickly sorted and it turned out that the property never ever had a Globalist asking for their free parking on an award stay before, which I found rather cute. Everyone was super apologetic as a result and even left us a nice block of German chocolate with an apology in the room on the second day which was better “Service recovery” than most Grand or Park Hyatts would do. We also had to chase our 3 qualifying nights with Hyatt which I am sure the property also simply did not know about but again, our my Hyatt concierge solved this very quickly for us so no biggie.



Other than this, the breakfast buffet was surprisingly generous and providing lots of choice and the room good enough for our short stay. The bed was actually okay, better then some higher class hotels on our Europe trip and while aircon was not running well enough (as per usual in Germany) at least there was an aircon at all which is better then some other hotels.

So all in all, really nice for the rate. Would I personally rather see Hyatt roll out Andaz or at least Hyatt Centric properties all across Europe? Sure. Is the whole “Gen z” design with free table tennis and a barber shop in the lounge area of the hotel (!) a good idea? Meh.


Guests were mostly 50+ year grumpy Germans who only stay here because it’s relatively cheap but then again, Germans are known for being rather stingy, especially when it comes to enjoying life or, heaven forbid, having fun so this style of property suits (I’m allowed to say these things as I was born here and still hold a German backup passport besides my Aussie one). But given this is what Hyatt intends to roll out more widely and considering the chain has plenty of white spots still on the map here in Europe, I’ll be quite happy to stay in more of these going forward and understand the decision for Hyatt to snap up this brand for development. It gives them access to a “younger” budget brand that has way more personality than many other such hotel brands.

 

[Berlin]

Property: Hyatt Centric Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong, China
Tier: Globalist
Booked: Standard King room
Received: Rather small King room on a mid level floor, apparently the water views count as an “upgrade” but I can’t imagine how there could be anything worse tbh

We are usually big fans of the Centric brand and some of their properties (Melbourne Australia, Montevideo Uruguay and even Long Beach California come to mind) as they tend to have a cool and upbeat vibe that is meant to target a younger and/or trendy audience. We were therefore so excited to stay here in Hong Kong but unfortunately, this concept does not work at all in this specific property which left us rather disappointed.

First of all, this is clearly not a real Hyatt Centric and I believe it originally opened as a different brand. This is the case for the aforementioned property in Long Beach as well but there a pretty good attempt was made to “centrify” the property which has not happened here in HKG. They’ve added ONE single centric branded onto the bed head mirror but other than that, the entire property could be a tired old Hyatt Regency or worse. Actually that’s an insult to most Regencies: There is no cool design whatsoever, only bland grey and beige carpets and hallways. I can’t even really describe how awful and boring the decor is- quite exactly the opposite of how the Centric brand sells itself. Faux marble and grey tones everywhere, not even a token attempt to add some proper arts or colour accents to it. The hotel also offers the tiniest of rooms and bathrooms that are even smaller so that it would be an insult at a Novotel. Add to this un-labeled and un-branded bathroom amenities (shampoo is seriously labeled “One”, conditioner “Two” and so on) and you feel truly like in penny-pinching family hotel.

Which leads me to what we found the worst part: As a result of this hotel being so bland and situated in one of the least desirable neighbourhoods of Hong Kong (far away from everything, only overfilled and old-fashioned public transportation available and truly horrific public amenities and crumbling infrastructure nearby), it simply gets frequented as “the cheap Hyatt”. So, the fancy hip lifestyle Centric advertisement video that’s running on endless loop in the lounge is out the window and in come the misbehaved boring families with their screeching kids and babies in tow- mind you, not a single family or screaming child in the entire video so this brand is obviously not made for them. But alas, at this property there is hardly anyone staying but families and hence, all the atmosphere/coolness/desirability that the Centric properties we love usually have, is nowhere to be seen here. The Hyatt branding advertises Centric as a “Gen Z” lifestyle brand but proper Gen Z could never afford it and “cool” (uncomfortable cough) Millennials like us should avoid it at all cost as it is the very opposite of cool (and if we think it’s uncool, then it’s REALLY uncool!).

The property is oddly spread over two towers with the slowest elevators ever but the worst example of being void of any type of coolness or at least atmosphere is the rooftop pool: It has waaaay too few lounge chairs available, there are screaming toddlers and badly behaved kids everywhere with entitled parents who of course could not be bothered to look after their offspring. Despite the pool rules, staff is too shy to enforce anything so you have messy jumps,sprinkling water and noise everywhere. If you can get a deck chair at all (and there are deck chair hawks on the hunt pretty much constantly), the chair mattress is most likely soaked with water. No one bothers to wipe up the floor with a squeaky thing either but staff rather chit chats all day with their fellow staff members, so there’s water all over the deck and simply nothing gets ever done.

We found the breakfast to be a similarly messy affair but at least there’s quite a bit of choice, the breakfast actually was the highlight of the property. Elsewhere across the hotel, the staff were rather blasse and as Globalists, we got the same tiny King room as everyone (I believe there’s only 10 suites or so in the entire property so good luck with ever getting upgraded) but at least we could see the river. However, we were given level 11 out of 23 (twice, as there are the two towers) so being a Globalist means as much to this property as staying at a Hyatt Centric. Nothing at all.

Finally, this Centric is the only one I know of with an Executive lounge which sounds good in theory but is a rather sad place in practice. “Posh” piano music (it’s 2024 for Pete’s sake) and the space is way too small and hence so overcrowded that the hotel needs to tell guests to queue up in time for the 5:30 “coughtail hour” as you might otherwise be denied a seat. The food is all pretty average and certainly nothing to write home about. Again there are loads of screaming kids all around turning the atmosphere into a day care centre instead of an exclusive refuge. The worst aspect is the alcohol choice which is certainly no “coughtails”but rather cheap no name brand liquors and equally dirt cheap bottom shelf Australian wines on offer, the kind of plonk no Australian would ever consider touching. If you want a headache next morning- this is the place to go!

So- very disappointing through and through, bereft of any soul and really nothing positive to say about this so-called Hyatt “Centric” other than the variety at the breakfast buffet. It’s a Centric only in name and if anything, it is seriously damaging to this brand.