Threy

Weatherboy,

agree 100 % with your comments concerning the staff at the RC, stayed about a half dozen times at Coconut Point and was extremely pleased during every stay.Definitely on par with the fantastic staff at the Grand Cypress, who is also among the best.

Generally the service in Europe is more formal, but also very attentive, but not so warm and open to communication, in the US the staff is more interested to chat, in Europe they are trained to be more discrete and calm...

Weatherboy

Regardless of rate paid (or not, as the case may be), Coconut Point has always upgraded me to their best available accomodation during my stay due to my Diamond Status. At worst, I've had a gulf-view Regency Club room here.

divaof travel

Very amateurish service here for my first (and last) visit. No Diamond upgrade whatsoever (not even a “view room”) and they could not even accommodate my request for double beds. I even had difficulty getting a rollaway, as they said there was a waiting list for them.

I had to show my Diamond card to three people before they believed it, and I still had to ask for an amenity card. I had to ask for breakfast coupons as well, and then I had to have them call GP CS as they did not want to feed my children.

(BTW, I used my Diamond card instead of my Courtesy Card on this visit as they don't give breakfast with the Courtesy Card.)

The food is hit or miss, and the restaurant service level is also very poor. Not enough people on duty for a sold out holiday weekend, either. Prices are the highest I have seen for a US resort. The whole area is a traffic mess, and you it is very difficult to get a reservation at a decent restaurant.

And all of this is just the tip of the iceberg. They need to train these rubes, and get some management in place who can do simple math.

divaof travel

The seafood restaurant (Tarpon Bay) indeed had outstanding food, and we had reasonable (but still slow) service on Saturday night. We sat at the bar, or else we would have had to wait for 45 minutes. Unfortunately, Tarpon Bay was closed last night. Tonight, it will be the only restaurant open here. We will avoid it as the hotel is still sold out. But you shouldn't have to leave the property to get decent service.

Weatherboy

But you *did* pay for it, although not with traditional cash. I've never had the problems you've had at Coconut Point and I just hope they had a rush of spring break traffic that they just weren't equipped to handle for your stay. I've found the hotel staff here to go out of their way to make things right, so I'd suggest you reach out to the Hotel Manager right away and explain your poor experience.

With a 6 year old there, checking out the adjacent timeshare property that Hyatt owns may also be worthwhile --there's a lazy river and some nice pools there that I'm sure the Hyatt will let you visit (once they get you a blanket.)

Threy

It is indeed a well known "secret" that Hyatt`s operated by Hyatt International ( therefore by their famous CEO Bernd Chorengel ) are the better managed properties in comparison to the Hyatt`s operated by Hyatt Corporation

Hyatt International operates all international properties ( don`t know exactly, if MEX and Guam are part of it as well ) and all US based Park Hyatts...

I have had great stays at the Coconut and was always upgraded to the club level or given excess and a better room on a lower level, but resorts ( and they even charge a nasty fee for some add. services ) should have enough staff to be operational and all problems should have been sorted out after a few years of operation...

Agree with the positive comments about the Grand Cypress, this is old school brilliance, especially the older ladies in the RC provide constant and excellent service !!

Have just been to the Grand Atlanta ( talking about quality issues ) and was surprised to see their RC closed on the weekend.This is after all a hotel with a 4 Diamond rating ( second in Atlanta only to the Ritz Carlton Buckhead and that is another league ) and you can count all other Atlanta 4 Diamond hotels on one hand and they still charge in excess of $ 150 on weekdays, but cannot justify a few hundred dollar to operate a Regency Club on weekends ... ?

I understand that any hotel manager had to save some serious $$$ after Sep.11 , but at some point you have draw a line... and I feel a highly rated hotel should offer all services on a weekend as well, especially with the economy bouncing back at the moment...

Michael899

Wow... it certainly sounds from the posts here that Coconut Plantation needs to go on a hiring binge to upgrade service levels.

When I was there for a week last fall, the experience was extremely pleasant. I was upgraded to a corner Regency Club room. The room/surroundings were spotless, the RC itself was staffed by very friendly employees, the food/selection in the club was good and plentiful. Even though the RC level seemed full, the rest of the resort was maybe 60% or so occupied--hence no service lapses to speak of due to lack of manpower. I did NOT waste any time with the vacation time share folks.

I also had a rental car, so dined at many locations nearby instead of solely relying on the limited choices in the hotel.

One comment for those who haven't been there--the beach isn't adjacent to the hotel--you need to take a (mostly pleasant--but pour on the Deet when dusk falls) 15-minute boat ride to the "private island" where there a good stretch of white sand. Of course, that means that you can't wander underneath the stars on the beach on your own at night as there are only selected times that the hotel boat will run.

BoulderHyattHopper

As many of you know, IHH and Mrs. IHH and Mr. BHH and myself (as well as BHH, jr.) have been to this resort many times since two weeks after it opened. We have had amazing service everytime. Anytime we had an issue, it was immediately rectified, far exceeding what was deemed necessary. Almost everytime we were offered a suite and RC.

I would seriously consider talking to those on staff immediately while you are still on property, because I have found them extremely accommodating!

divaof travel

Well, the service here is obviously hit or miss. If you want to risk a terrible "miss," go ahead and spend your precious vacation time here. I won't consider visiting this property again due to the possibility of another disastrous experience..

I immediately took my concerns to management during my recent stay with no satisfaction. Of course, most of the problems could not immediately be rectified by the management (such as lack of staff at the restaurants resulting in hours of delays, not enough blankets, hours spent waiting for elevators, broken elevators, no more rollaway beds, etc.)

But quite frankly, they didn't give a damn about my Lifetime Diamond and Courtesy Card status, either.

Sometimes there is no quick fix.

Weatherboy

I'm planning a return trip to Coconut Point later this year, this time with a bunch of people. Rather than book individual rooms (lowest available rate at the time I'm looking at is $220/night), I was thinking of booking a suite instead that we can all pile into. As few as 3 or as many as 6 will be traveling ...and I'm the (un)lucky one paying for the accomodations.

The Presidential Suite is available for $975/night while a suite "a little bit smaller" is available for $775.

Also available are a 2-bedroom "Island Suite" for $590/night (1 kind bed in one bedroom, 2 double beds in another) and a 1-bedroom Junior Suite for $435/night. Both of these suites have a living area with a sleeper sofa.

With points, I can book the "deluxe rack rate" at $310/night and spend 6,000 points to upgrade to a suite ...unfortunately, all they can do is upgrade me to a junior suite with a single king bed.

Has anyone booked a stay in a Coconut Point suite and can share their experience with each? How many suites are in the hotel (I thought there were only 3 on the RC floor, but I guess I'm wrong)?

And if I book 2 or 3 regular or RC floor rooms, if I note so in my comments, do you think the hotel will combine my rooms into a single suite for my 3-day weekend stay? (I'm a Diamond returning to this hotel for my 6th or 7th time.)

BoulderHyattHopper

I have never booked a suite, but have been upgraded to one multiple times. Sometimes, I have been given a suite on a non-RC Floor (17th Floor), but given access to RC.

I would recommend them. We usually get the XX24 which is the corner parlor room overlooking the Gulf and the XX25, which is the King and the XX23 which is the doubles, I think. IHH, can you correct me? The XX24 parlor room has a couch, as well as a murphy bed.

I may have e-mail pictures if you want them.

Shannon

jayer

Was there for a single night more or less as a scouting trip. RC was open and quite good. Staff there was wonderful. Grounds, room (I think it was a junior suite on the RC floor), and pools were all superb. Since there so briefly stuck to RC and can't comment on dining venues.

What was not so good was the "private beach". (For benefit of others, you take a shuttle boat ride out to a small island). Not much beach left after Ivan at all, and what is left is close to the channel and has current. The sand fleas were biting, so nobody stayed out there long.

The new Fort Meyers airport terminal was beautiful and hits you with a Florida feel when you get off the plane (kind of like Honolulu screams Hawaii but on a smaller scale). Sanibel Island was cleaned up and fully open, but some places still under repair, and seemingly a bit overgrown. My old favorite beach place on Sanibel, was well..gone and scraped to dirt. Since the Hyatt isn't on the beach I guess I'm still looking for a replacement, but otherwise its wonderful.

stephem

We just had a two night stay here last weekend (10/7-8) and I thought I would post some observations.

First the caveats, we didn't pick this hotel so much as end up there because of some other factors, so we had no expectations. We just wanted a quick weekend away from the mounting Seattle gloom and wanted to get in one more 2x promo flight on NW for my wife so she would make Gold this year. The nearby Ritz was booked up so we came across the Hyatt in a search and thought we could at least get a FFN credit in the process.

We did 1-800-checkin and were upgraded from our basic room ($159 per night) to a regency club level golf view room. Our checkin was very late, about 12:30am. The clerk who checked us in didn't know about or understand the 1k diamond amenity, so we still have to make a call to get that. I asked about other rooms, she said this was the best they had and that it was in a section of the floor where the balconies where actually extended out so that we would have some views of the bay and ocean.

The room was on the northeast corner of the building (actually only a few doors down from the regency club) and the description was accurate. The one thing we immediately noticed, we had reserved a king and were given a queen, without even a mention, such as "we've given you a different bed to get you on the RC floor with a better view." That knocked the place down in terms of my perception of service. The room had floor to ceiling windows and from the balcony you did have a nice view off to the left of the bay and ocean. The one big negative- the aircon system on the roof of the parking gargage below. It was soooo loud, even 17 floors up. We contemplated asking for a room on the other side of the hotel, but it was late. I would urge anyone staying here to consider a room on one of the other sides of the building. I would have preferred a non-RC floor if necessary.

The rooms are nice, clean and they seem to have been renovated recently. I would put them in the top 80% of Regency properties I have stayed in. They still have the older bath products (crabtree I think) and we had no complaints about the bed, bedding or towels.

Since we were arriving late we were happy to learn that there is a 24 hour store open in the hotel with drinks and basic sandwhiches/food. This was a very nice feature, prices and selection were good and I presume if you are here with your kids this is a welcome feature.

The next day we got up, bought some food at the shop and headed to the beach shuttle. It's a boat that runs across the bay on the hour, it takes about 15 minutes. As other posters have mentioned, the beach is a letdown. There isnt much of it left, that is the main problem. The beach was rough (constant chop breaking) on Saturday with a strong current sideways, I'm not sure it is a good place for small kids. We had to walk up the beach into the current before we went in, since we would inevitably drift wuite a distance with the current in the water. We took an afternoon shuttle boat back accross the bay in the afternoon, overall the shuttle is fine, but we really didnt like the beach and decided to hit the pool for the rest of the afternoon.

The pools are nice, there is a lap pool, a free form pool with a waterfall and then a kids area with a pool and waterslide. We got the impression that this was a good place to come with kids. It's not overrun with kids (and even if it were I wouldnt criticize it as such) but it's not the sort of thing we would return to for a romantic weekend (again, a romantic weekend wasn't exactly what we were after on this trip).

Toward the evening they were setting up for a wedding, this seems like the kind of place where weddings and other events probably happen on most weekend nights (oh, that's right there was a fall formal for a local university on Friday night when we arrived).

We used the concierge to try to find a nice place for dinner off premises in Naples. He recommended several places, we had some detailed back and forth about ambience, style of food and the "color" of the restuarants, ultimately we thought we got him to understand what we were looking for and he recommended a place called Zoe. It turned out to a nice enough place (quite nice actually) but there was a place down the street called something like Bistro21 that was more our style (a bit younger and hipper). In addition, the waiter at Zoe mistakenly sized us up as young vacationers who weren't going to spend much. By the time he realized he was wrong he had already made some misteps. Anyway, not a bad recommendation, but I've had much better concierges and it was clear when we walked by the other place that it was what the concierge should have receommended.

The next day we asked for and received a 4pm checkout so we could hang at the pool as long as possible (we had a 5:30pm flight out). It was pretty much impossible to get service at the pool, so I just walked up to the bar and ordered drinks. Not sure why the service was so poor, it's not like it was all that busy (a few tables having lunch).

Overall a decent place, but not much more, and I'd have to agree with other posters that the service is not great and the beach is probably not worth the trip over.

Weatherboy

I'm back again... arriving today for a weekend getaway. And while I'm only a day into my stay, I am again very pleased by the warm, outgoing, friendly service in the resort.

My car service car was greeted by a valet who helped with my bags; a bellhop came over and welcomed me to the resort, and two others from the bell staff held the front door open while I walked in, each welcoming me to the resort. I went to the check-in line where an abundance of friendly check-in staffers were.

Even before I had a chance to whip my Diamond card out of my wallet, one of the check-in agents presented me with the ammenity card. They were able to upgrade my AAA weekend saver rate to a corner suite. The suite (I believe they call in a Bay Suite) had sweeping views of the water, with the bedroom having a balcony, the dining room having 2, the living room having 1, and a bathroom --completewith a wall of windows, having the last. This is the only Hyatt I've been to where a bathroom wall is made of windows... then again, being this high up, I suppose it doesn't matter. The Diamond amenity (in this case, wine, chocolates, and dessert bites) arrived within 5 minutes of me getting to the room.

The Regency Club room was staffed by 2 people at all times and had sufficient food/drink.

I had to call for turndown service (I guess they don't do it automatically anymore) and that service was friendly and fast.

Overall, I just don't see the staffing issues others have had. I see plenty of helpful, friendly staff everywhere ...from outside the front door to the front desk to the Regency Club staff. Every staff member has been professional and friendly, with service at a level you'd expect at a Hyatt resort.

So while I'm 1 day into a 3 day getaway, I'm sure this trip will be just fine. ^

CWAnderson

I agree on the "hit or miss" comment. This weekend being a "miss" for us.

I am a diamond member currently staying on FFN in Bonita Springs for 2
nights. I was somewhat surprised when I found no recongnition of status upfront and when asked about RC, was told my "reservation" did not afford an upgrade or RC access. I don't know if that was because it was an FFN stay and not a paid stay. Only after I brought up my diamond status, they gave me an amenity card. (Rooms by the way, were no upgrade in my opinion - no view/no balcony, etc) I asked about RC or breakfast and they said no. I indicated that I was going to call GP and ask about it and they said "fine". I called GP and they contacted the hotel and apologized...and the hotel sent up some breakfast coupons for a cont. breakfast in the restaurant. Then I got a call from the RC Concierge inviting us to the RC! When I couldn't get to the floor this am, I called the RC Concierge back to see how I could get access. I just received a return call from the front desk indicating that my invite was actually a mistake, and they would let us come up for breakfast today, but no further access would be allowed. A bit upset now, I said I wasn't interested.

Well the pools are nice and we haven't seen the island they have yet. I'm so used to places with consistently exceptional service from Hyatt resorts such as the Grand Cypress or Lake Tahoe, who always enjoy exceeding expectations, that I've been a bit disappointed here. My wife is still going to break me on her spa treatment here for the remainder of this weekend, but I think I'll concentrate our future resort stays elsewhere.