Finishing our 2nd night and express checking out early tomorrow. Gotta say given the rave reviews my expectations were set high and the stay was overall disappointing.

First, I would say generally that the service here was quite good and at times exceptional. The welcome was good and they were pretty good about explaining the benefits and stay. However, I do think they could have done better in setting expectations such as the spa and NY bar.

The hot baths for the men being down was such a bummer. I only found out about it after seeing it myself, no one informed me and it wasn’t announced anywhere.

NY bar I guess was understandably packed on January 2 since it was still a national holiday so it was reservation only and booked out. We were told it would be first come first serve starting the next day, which was kind of true but not really. Just in case I called ahead on the day of with a different staff member and was told we could be put on a priority list. So I guess it was still kind of reservation based as when we asked for our desired time of 6pm we were told a later time would be a better chance of getting in. So we went with a later time. When we got there it was fairly packed and we got a bit of a bad spot on the side a bit further from the music and the windows. We ordered drinks which took over 40 minutes! It came out almost immediately when we asked about it since people who came earlier than us got their drinks before us. I am not sure what happened as I asked if our order was forgotten and they said to not to worry that it was on the way. The drinks were mediocre and the music was good but we were a bit far. NY bar felt quite overhyped imo.

Now that I pointed out the bad, I gotta say that the hotel definitely has its charms and I can see why people call it timeless. It has aged gracefully and I like the rooms even if it’s a bit dated (the walls look old). If something was a bit off they tried their best to apologize and fix things. They added a personalized touch and remembered that I mentioned we recently had a birthday. Some staff we barely interacted with remembered our faces and would refer to us by Mr and Mrs Dsywon which I honestly have never had in a hotel of this size. The super deep bows they did made me feel almost uncomfortable with how much respect they were trying to show. I think they are trying their best, but unfortunately seems like post covid times have been trying.

also this is the first high end Hyatt I’ve been to besides the Maldives without Chromecast. And the connecting cable they provided for macs is nice but kind of out of date. It is not thunderbolt compatible which is all the new macs use lol. Not the biggest deal but we found Chromecast convenient.

I would say this hotel was worth trying and certainly open to trying again after renovations but in it’s current state I can probably do elsewhere. I want to try the Andaz or Grand Hyatt.

For Tokyo we stayed at the Regency and the Centric besides this one. I think the Regency was the best bang for the buck. Way cheaper but the service was really good, think they punched above their weight and my expectations. Obviously not PH level but not massively behind. Room and food was mediocre but enough. The view at Regency was surprisingly good.

The Centric in Ginza had the best breakfast and room was 2nd best. View was bad. Service was mediocre, they are understaffed for sure. Location is amazing.

PH was still the best hotel for sure but it didn’t blow me away as I had hoped if we take the price/points into account. I’ll return again one day hopefully with a better review