I recently had a 2 night stay here using FNAs and was surprised to receive an upgrade to a suite.

I proactively received an upgrade from the booked room (Renovated | 1 King Bed Deluxe) to a "Renovated | 1 Bedroom Suite 1 King Bed Premier." There were no communications in advance (about the upgrade, Globalist benefits, or anything else) or at check-in. The check-in area was absurdly busy, and the VIP check-in had already closed for the night, so I filled out my information on my phone and used the kiosk to finish the check-in process. I never interacted with anyone. The Hyatt app never reflected anything about the upgrade, either (before or after check-in), so the only mention I saw of the upgrade was when the kiosk was printing the keys. It listed the room number and room category.

The stay was on a Thursday night through Saturday night, and the hotel seemed quite busy throughout, so I was surprised to get the upgrade. I had never been there pre-renovation, but I thought they did a good job with the common areas and rooms. I ended up liking the theme a lot more than I expected to, probably because it's more of an "inspired by Rio" than a "let's try to recreate this city in Vegas" like Paris Las Vegas and The Venetian. All of the retro beach pictures in the room were honestly nice. Small touches like the cashier being labeled "Banco do Rio" and some of the main thoroughfares having the Copacabana Beach sidewalk mosaic design, but in muted colors that blended in, were pleasant surprises to stumble across. I was afraid they might have some awful exhibit with captive macaws and other birds (like the Hyatt Regency in Honolulu) but there were no live animals to be found, thankfully.

The pools were closed for the season, so there wasn't access to any hot tubs. The gym looked quite nice (and had the sole water dispenser I was able to find in the hotel). Breakfast at Hash House a Go Go was completely fine. Nothing to rave about, but no complaints, either. The dedicated Globalist line was extremely helpful in cutting the wait to get a table, even if the food did take a bit long to come out. The servers were friendly, the menu options were varied, and the different dishes we got (hash, biscuits and gravy, scramble) were all solid. The coffee machine was broken, so only filtered coffee was available. Some of the more expensive menu items (steak and eggs, friend chicken benedict, etc.) are on a "Hash House Originals" menu that's explicitly excluded from the Globalist breakfast benefit. There was no mention (verbal or written) of item or dollar limits. I asked to add bacon to a scramble and the server said I would have to pay for that charge separately. I agreed to that, but then she came back and said it was too complicated to ring up just that separately, so she decided to waive the $3 charge for the bacon.

Uber and Lyft rides to the strip consistently cost $10 to and from the hotel. The food court at the Palms isn't a long walk, and is open until later. It was very helpful the night we arrived, since all food outlets at the Rio were already closed, but we were able to get dinner at the Palms. There's a Walgreens a couple of blocks away. W Liquor Store is also only a couple of blocks away, and while it looks a little suss, the staff was very nice and the prices were incredibly reasonable (basically the same as at home). They also have a lot of variety, including some nice and hard to find bottles, which I didn't expect. I felt completely safe walking around the hotel at night (sticking to sidewalks on the major streets) because there were lots of casino employees coming and going to shifts, so it never felt deserted.

Given the right price (cash or points) I wouldn't hesitate to stay at the Rio again. It's definitely not ideal for someone who wants to be on the strip all day every day. But we generally went to the strip for a couple of hours during the day, and then for a couple of hours at night, so for us the location was completely fine.

This is my first time posting pictures, so please let me know if I need to make any edits to it.