I'm less than impressed with the property as of late, compared to the opinions of those above.
I've stayed at this property perhaps 50 nights in the last 2 years. It keeps going downhill and now, following the recent renovation, things, in my opinion, are getting worse.
I was told by the front desk staff last night that room service is permanently no longer available. This means that the Regency Club may not even have hot food going forward (similar to now with the temporary location), although the manager was not 100% sure if the hot food was definitively gone.
I cannot even fathom how they are catering for events without a central kitchen and room service. I was told by friends working at the front desk that many, many customers have been complaining. I just emailed the GM myself this afternoon. The duty manager yesterday told me that to make up for the lack of room service, the new restaurant will stay open until 11pm or later, similar to Knuckles is now. She also said that many Hyatt Regency's across the country domestically will soon stop room service for cost savings. I find this hard to believe, but nevertheless, she said Chicago is implementing this plan across the Regency chain within the US.
While I think the staff are quite friendly, and I appreciate their service and efforts (especially the day and night managers), I have found housekeeping to be poor (dirty dishes and glasses left in the sinks after a cleaning) and service within Knuckles to be terrible. The food is also pretty bad - they no longer have their signature dish (baby back ribs) due to "cost cutting" and now permanently have 5 bar options only plus a nightly dinner buffet (consisting of very few items which are reminiscent of a cafeteria food).
While I love modern architecture, I think the remodeled interior courtyard is quite ugly. I actually preferred the old design, which had much more greenery. The new one feels sterile. I'm sure it'll be better once they open the restaurant and bar.
The temporary club was so bad that the manager offered points in compensation. I love the club staff, but the quality and variety of the offerings, especially now, can't live up to the HR or GH downtown. It's sad to think that this may be the permanent club offering.
I did finally get a chance to try the pool and gym just this morning and was pleasantly surprised, they are both adequate. They were smart to put the pool on the eastern side of the hotel to minimize wind coming from the west.
All of my feedback considered, I still find this property to be a great value for 8K points. As a Courtesy Card member, I've had consistent suite upgrades which have been quite nice - the suites tend to be larger than many other properties.
Finally on the renovation, I found the new rooms to of course be nicer, but as others said above, some of the furnishings are still the old ones, mixed in with the new. Very strange. The fridge and phone were both not working in my room last night. Little consistent service problems like this are annoying to say the least.
I hope with consistent feedback from elites, they will improve the hard product more. I just feel like this renovation and cost cutting has simply hurt the hotel, when it was probably designed to improve the customer experience.
I'm glad the new Hyatt SFO is coming soon. I think it's a Grand if I recall correctly.