We just finished a weekend to Bali and my overall thought of these two properties is that you can do much better on Bali and I wouldnt suggest either one for a quick weekend getaway (what we were doing) not to mention a destination trip from the US. We stayed at the GH on Friday night and the Hyatt Bali on Saturday. Here are some thoughts.
The Grand Hyatt is in Nusa Dua and as many others have pointed out, this is essentially a tourist enclave. To top it off, the beaches here arent very good, there is a reef and so it's shallow for quite some distance out. There are some amazing beaches on Bali, the Hyatt disappoints. The tourist enclave... well put it this way, if you are coming from the US you might as well just stop in Hawaii and save yourself the extra 14 hours of flying- you could be anywhere in Nusa Dua. The property is also enormous- there are so many boutique properties on Bali, I can't see why you would want to chose a mega resort. We booked the lowest cost room (about $150US) and were upgraded to a Grand Club room with access to the lounge. But this isnt really saying much as the Grand wing is under renovation, so all we really got was a normal ocean view room with lounge access. The rooms are recently "redone" but really just cosmetic stuff like painting. This is a low end 4 star property with a website that poses it as a 5 star property. Overall, I can't see why we would ever return. At $150+ per night, I'd rather spend twice as much to stay in one of the true 5 star properties.
From bad to worse. The Hyatt in Sanur is a pathetic excuse for a Hyatt. I would strain to call it a 3 star property. It's a 1970's cement monstrosity, has terrible food outlets, a completely worthless beach, and rooms that are straight out of the 70's, maybe 80's. The place should be mowed down, but at a minimum Hyatt should get it's name off this place. We paid about $80 for a basic room and I used points to upgrade to a duplex suite. I have hundreds of thousands of Hyatt points, and I would still call this a complete waste of 8,000 points. We ate lunch in one of the restaurants and the Indonesian "specialities" were so bland and spiceless that we sent them back. I've never had the staff protest so little- they agreed with us that this is not evne remotely authentic Indo food. For anyone who lives in SE Asia and enjoys the real thing, the food here is a total let down. The next day we had lunch at the pool area and my chicken tikka roll had no tikka that I could taste. At this point we were so sick of complaining that we didnt even bother. But our more or less untouched plates didnt make it unnoticed by the staff and they again asked. We figured we had to pay for something, but they kept trying to remove the food charges from the bill. Sanur is nothing to spend time in either. We walked around and found a decent place for dinner, but really there is much better to be found in Bali.
I wasnt expecting much from either property, honestly this was a mattress run. But overall I am pretty disappointed in what Hyatt is offering in Bali. If you are considering a stay at either property, I'd think twice.