Grand Hyatt SFO = One of Best Airport Hotels in the World
Introduction I am surprised that feedback on FT about GH SFO is somewhat mixed; for what it’s worth my experience was very good is just about any aspect. I have only stayed there once which is not enough to draw solid conclusions, in addition I do not stay in USA hotels very often so I am perhaps not the best judge in this part of the world, that said compared to other airport hotels anywhere else, GH SFO is among the best, if not the very best airport hotel I have stayed at. What plays in GH’s favor is that most airport hotels are usually lesser brands such as Hyatt Regency, Hilton, Marriott, or Sheraton and there are not lots of hotels of the caliber of a GH which are directly connected to airport. I found the hardware to be great (at least the suite I had), the elite treatment excellent given covid circumstances, and the service was very good as well, in stark contrast to some hotels which currently fail miserably in covid times. Room Some Globalists have reported subpar room upgrades in the past and I would assume that the situation is different when the hotel is quite full which was not the case when I stayed. I booked the cheapest room type and was upgraded to a Grand Suite which I believe is two categories higher than the junior suite. It was done proactively without me asking anything at check-in and was obviously quite generous.I thought the Grand Suite was … grand! Well, at least for airport hotel standards - I have not seen a room this high quality at an airport before. First off, in my opinion suites must have 1.5 bathroom to be among the best and this one ticks the box. The main bathroom was spacious and well done including a stand-alone rain shower, in addition to the half bath near the entrance. I would be curious where else can we find a Toto toilet in an airport hotel outside of Asia, heck even in Japan some hotels do not have Toto toilets.There were other technological features which are a nice touch, for example instead of the traditional fish eye to see who is knocking at the door, there was an electronic camera that you can turn on and see clearly on the other side of the door. There were also small lights below the bed that automatically turned on when we stepped foot on the floor during the night, which I appreciated because I did not need to go to the bathroom using my phone as a flashlight.The views from the room were nice as well by looking straight at the airport terminal and the (few) aircrafts parked there at the moment and the hotel provided binoculars in the room.I rarely comment about beds in hotel reviews because they are usually neither great or awful… just average. But at GH SFO the bed was far more comfortable than the vast majority of hotels and made me wonder if the mattress was a Tempurpedic or something similar.Perhaps the only mild negative I could find about the room is that bathroom amenities were Pharmacopia in large dispenser bottles. This brand is possibly more aligned with Hyatt Regency than Grand Hyatt in my opinion. Dining The Club Lounge was closed due to covid but that was fully understandable given the situation in California, unlike some hotels elsewhere in the world which use covid as an excuse to cut costs. Rather than providing nothing, they offered 500 bonus points as compensation for the lounge being closed in addition to two vouchers for a snack which could be used in the evening or in the morning. The snack was not some poor offering like many other hotels, in fact I was impressed that we could have warm dishes for example chicken fried rice. Service While my stay was brief, every interaction was staff was good so I have nothing negative to report in terms of service. I was warmly welcomed upon arrival and explained the current situation at the hotel. All miscellaneous requests were met quickly and efficiently such as printing documents and delivering to my room and service at the snack shop was friendly as well. It might be that other guests who reported subpar service in the past had different experiences when the hotel was full and busy but at least for my stay it was flawless. Wifi Wifi worked ok during our stay with speeds of about 10 Mbps. Overall All in all I am struggling to find a weakness to this hotel based on my quick visit. Perhaps I wish it was a bit closer to the airport rather than require the Air Train, but even then, for me it’s still much better than having to take a shuttle bus which would be the case for any other hotel in SFO so in terms of location I cannot say it’s a weakness. I can highly recommend this hotel and even more so for Globalists members; I would dare to say it might belong on the list of one of the best airport hotels anywhere in the world, even better than in Asia.