Gold Passport Concierge

Hi ZBigFam,

When redeeming free night certificates or awards the maximum occupancy for adults is 3. You can have 4 people in an award reservations provided the occupancy is 2 adults and 2 children.

Correct, there is no additional charge for infants or toddlers under 3.

Yes, for children 3-12 it is the same as adults, 10,000 points per person/per night.


Thanks,


Brock S.

stephem

I've stayed along this stretch of the beach in San Jose for a number of years, in a condo on the beach in front of the Hyatt Place. I generally like the area for access to good restaurants in San Jose, so an all inclusive defeats that purpose. The beach here is nice and swimmable more often than other stretches along the corridor. I'm in town again this year and while there is some new development near the Ziva (across from Cabo Azul to be exact), the area is still digging out from a pretty bad crash and there is lots of building still frozen in varying stages of non completion in the immediate area.

I looked at rates for both cash and awards and I'd have a hard time recommending this place given all the dynamics. Cabo Azul has a far more exclusive feeling and layout and decor and to be honest, a place like the Sheraton is in a development where everything got completed and you have mature trees not 15 foot high stands of rebar sticking out of re ground as you stroll around.

Maybe I just looked at dates where the rates were pretty high and rest of season rates will be lower, but as a long time visitor to the area, I'm not clear of Hyatt's strategy or value proposition here.

PortlySpartacus

Maybe Hyatt is anticipating development picking up in the area. Now that I read your post I'm not sure I would want to visit this property. I have been to Cabo once and stayed at the Hilton and it was fabulous. Great location on the beach. I've never stayed at an all inclusive so I have my concerns about that format anyways. I wish there were more solid reviews from people that have stayed at this property to give broader perspective but thanks for your input.

cactus_flyer

Currently staying at the Hyatt Ziva resort:

The great: food - excellent food at speciality restaurants, best Japanese + Sushi we ever had at a resort. Service - extremely friendly and attentive.

The good: nice room, re-modeled (be sure to ask for building 3, the higher the last 2 digits the better your ocean views), family friendly evening entertainment (evening shows). Pools - always availability for a chair or lounger. Shade or sun. Towel service always has towels. Drink service at pool attentive and frequent. Adult pool has comfortable cushions.

And the 'not there yet': no Diamond recognition whatsoever. Zero. Example - best room available upon check-in benefit: They'd rather keep view / premium rooms for cash upgrade opportunities than give it to an elite member. Haven't found any Diamond benefit yet - other than a gold wristband (non-elite guests get white, premium rooms get silver).

Note building 2 is for grandfathered timeshare owners. Building 1 (lobby/ main building) isn't remodeled yet.

Had a talk with front desk supervisor today - and I'm hopeful that it's going to get better in the future.

With attention to detail and delivering the same consistent Diamond recognition I have received at any other Hyatt property this year - this could easily be my favorite resort 2 hours away from PHX. Will for sure give it another shot in the future.

rggale

Funny, we were there at the same time. I was there from 12/26-1/1.

My experience was very "meh". Acceptable but nothing to rant and rave about, like many of the other properties I've stayed at in Los Cabos.

We had a room in Building 1. I had no idea that the property was undergoing remodeling--it's so new (2006 or 7), but the rooms were certainly underwhelming but by no means poor condition. We were right in the center of the hotel in room 1621 with a great view of both the property and the ocean, albeit a decent distance away from the beach and the beachfront infinity pool. We were out of reach to catch the sunrise, but thankfully the sun rises close to 7am this time of year so getting up to catch it wasn't such a drag.

I had absolutely NO recognition as a Diamond. They didn't thank me for my loyalty, but I'm not "that" guy so I don't care about that, but figured others may. I asked what the Diamond room and amenity situation was, and he said they gave me the best available room and was very defensive about my simply stated question about amenities. At check in, the place was fairly empty. I highly doubt what we were given was the best available room. We had white wristbands, like the majority of the other guests. The only other colors I noticed were brown (for kids underage presumably) and silver for premium guests.

I couldn't get the manager to talk to me. There was one guy, with slicked back hair that checked us in and with whom I interacted several times at the front desk, that was particularly unfriendly. I have nothing but great things to say about the rest of the staff. The only staff-related complaint I have is the drink service at the beachfront beds lounges and cabanas was VERY infrequent--some days we went all day without seeing or hearing from anyone. And yes, I did tip early and well.

Pools were nice, big, and clean. The infinity pool closest to the beach is the smaller pool, but the only heated pool. The large pool was highly underutilized. I don't think I saw more than a half dozen folks in it the whole week. The water was freezing cold.

The beach is absolutely fantastic. Nice to walk or run up and down. A good few miles north and a couple south. If you walk along the water, you can't see anything up the hill so you really feel like you're in the middle of nowhere on an isolated beach.

Food:

Room service was excellent. Always delivered in 30ish minutes or less. We had room service breakfast almost daily with no complaints.

For two days of our stay, we got little treats in our room in the evenings. That was nice.

The worst food trait was the fact that there was basically no food available from ~5-6:30 if I remember correctly. Also, the hotel seems to run their clocks 15 mins fast because restaurants that were supposed to stop serving at x time always stopped serving at x-15.

The pool restaurant (Coco Loco??) served some awful pre-prepared soggy or dried out foods. Avoid that place, unless you're just trying to get a drink from their limited bar, or some guacamole and chips.

The beach restaurant Hacienda was closed for the first few days of our trip. I'm not sure why--it was the best place to get food during the day. They had an excellent salad buffet.

The main international buffet had a few good things to eat. Deserts and ice cream sucked universally at the buffet and specialty restaurants and the staff knows it.

The italian restaurant has an antipasti bar that has some great food. I got eggplant parm, which was a bit sweet, as in they added sugar to the sauce.

We were underwhelmed by the Japanese restaurant's fare, but we are sushi people. The miso soup was sweeter than a Hershey kiss. It's okay, we went to Nick Saan one night to make up for it.

The food in SJD and CSL is great, so an AI property, to me at least, isn't really worth it. But, having the convenience of AI when we wanted it was nice to have when cost is roughly equal. We booked last minute, so the other hotels I would have chosen were either sold out or cost the same $600/nt or more that the Hyatt Ziva was going for. Lucky for me, I only had to pay for one night--the rest came out of my points.

Overall, a great property with lots of room to improve but they have all the basics down. Property is clean, the food is more than edible, the drinks flow, the pool is filled with water, and there are plenty of lounge chairs. Just get the loyalty program benefits straightened out. That was the most disappointing part of the trip. But with weather this time of year, and for most of the year, a balmy 81 and sunny, the week's vacation with my +1 was nothing short of perfect.

nowstime

Planning a stay here this week.

Is it recommended to rent a car or using the hotel shuttle ($29 pp roundtrip) a better choice?

Read about people having bad experiences when it comes to renting a car such as dubious insurance charges and police harassment etc.

Is the Hyatt charing too much for the shuttle ride? I read online that some people charged $3 per person on a 8 person van ride. If that's the case the price seems quite steep.

bsktpdlr

Removed

lyst

If you use an award certificate from the Hyatt credit card, you can have 2 adults and 2 children stay on that certificate. Is that correct?

But if you use points, you need 10k additional for kids over 2. Am I understanding this correctly?

So it's different if you use the award certificate vs using points for 2 adults and 2 children?

benmaller

It has been mentioned that the award certificates from the Hyatt credit card can be used at this hotel. Is that referring to only the award certificates that come when signing up for the card or also to the annual free night certificate?

Gold Passport Concierge

Hi benmaller,

Only the original free night awards from the Hyatt Credit Card would be valid at this hotel. The anniversary awards would not be applicable to this location.

Safe travels,

Abrea H

nowstime

Gold Passport over the phone told me that now you have a point+cash option for children? For example, with two adults and one 5 year old, instead of 30,000 points I can do 20,000 points + $107? Is this a new change to the redemption options at Ziva?

Agent told me this is not a cash+point redemption and will not count as an eligible stay. Just another option to pay cash for extra person. Is this the case?

Can Hyatt Gold Passport confirm this...

Gold Passport Concierge

Good Evening nowstime,

The agent provided accurate information. When using points for the room, it is based on double occupancy and is ineligible for stay/night credit. Whether you use points or USD, any additional people in the room need to be accounted for with respect to the all-inclusive amenities of the property.

Warm regards,

Evan V

hungarianhc

Did something change here on redemptions? My wife and I are going in July. When we booked online, it didn't tell us the number of points, but it withdrew 128,000 points for 4 nights. I was confused as I thought it should be 20,000 per night, as seen here: http://hyatthotels.hyatt.com/content...-benefits.html

My wife called up, and they told her that no it had to be 32,000 points per night as it was "all suites." She said, "Why does it show a 20,000 point per night option then?" They said, "That is an error." Can we get this fixed? What's going on?

Gold Passport Concierge

Hello hungarianhc,

Please feel free to PM us your reservation details so we can look into this for you!

Safe travels,

Abrea H

nrdk

So that doesn't really answer the question. Is it 20,000 points a night then?