PWMTrav

I appreciate it, I'm here now!

I started tipping when we receive the car. It might be confirmation bias, but it did appear that one of the valets yesterday seemed annoyed that he wasn't tipped for opening the door when we got back. Not sure what they're used to, but it's fairly frustrating as a guest to pay $35 a day with no self-park option, have to make sure I have small bills on hand, and then tip both ways? I don't know, I'm just going to stick with tipping when I get the car and not feel bad about it.

As an aside, I did tip the maintenance guy this morning. I'm not sure that I think there's any obligation, he was just a nice guy and managed to get in and out before my 10:00 meeting so I didn't have to relocate to the balcony.

This is my 3rd stay here and I'm not going to stop coming or anything, but for a hotel with valet parking only ($35) and a mandatory resort fee ($25), I think they should seriously look at going to a "gratuities inclusive" system. Add $5 to the resort fee if you need to and just tip out everybody. The restaurant already tips out 20% when you have breakfast included in your rate. Extend that to valet and everybody else that causes us to have to keep a supply of 1s and 5s. It'd be a better experience.

777 global mile hound

Glad we could be of assitance
What you experienced may have just been rudeness.Something I never experienced at the property.
In twenty plus years from 3 star to 5 star properties I tip when they bring the car up without incident.
I do smile and thank them when opening the door and never had an issue alone or with others.I think its guilt on your part
Now if I am departing and someone is putting luggage in my car trunk a separate gratuity in addition to the valet who brought the car up is in order.
It gets old I just went to the bank and stuffed 30 singles in my travel wallet along with 5s for gratuties
Its the nature of the beast.It gets old but when in Rome do as the ...........
Traveling is expensive!

PWMTrav

Yep, I agree, I think it's just guilt I do always tip for bags. Honestly, if they offer me a couple bottles of water on arrival, I'll tip a couple dollars there too. Just not for opening the door. I believe I was at The Boulders a year or two ago and gratuities are rolled into their resort fee - as a guest, that was a better experience. I'm not against tipping, but I am against having more to think about on vacation.

SanDiego1K

Park Hyatt Aviara is under mandatory evacuation due to Carlsbad fires. Hotel is relocating guests to area Hyatts. Should you be booked here tonight, you'd best check before you drive to it.

Nearby Palomar Airport is closed.

I believe that Legoland, also nearby, is closed.

steveholt

Had a really bad stay here (checked out the morning before the fires started, obviously hope everyone in/around the hotel is OK). Room was pretty badly dated; locks on front door and patio door were coming off of their hinges, two phones in room each had different issues, and television was badly pixellated before I called for service. Amazingly for a five-star hotel in 2014, the hotel didn't have an HDTV in this room; it was a standard def TV connected by RCA cables. Hotel had a circuit breaker short out which cut power to the room for a half hour the next day.

Knew that the hotel was charging $35 a night for valet and $25 a night for resort fees, which isn't great, but I was willing to tolerate it if it meant good service. That wasn't the case. Valet left a can of soda in the backseat of my car. In the middle of the afternoon, one jacuzzi was covered with bugs, and the other didn't work. Hotel knew about the TV issues because I called to have them fixed. Told them about the rest at checkout (at 4 AM because of an early flight), expecting to (but not insisting upon) have them remove at least one night of resort fees or valet fees from the bill. Front desk instead said that they would let management know and wrote the issues in a notebook. They said this in a way that suggested they hear about stuff like this a lot. Really can't imagine this hotel being billed as a Park Hyatt, and there's not the level of investment happening here that should be occurring.

Oh - was on a FHR rate as a Hyatt Plat, but the hotel recognized me as a Hyatt Diamond in addition to the FHR benefits, which I appreciated, but it makes me wonder how they process that stuff. Amenities didn't stack, so I still only had breakfast for two, only in the restaurant, and only the buffet.

PWMTrav

Did you happen to be in room 411?

steveholt

I was not. Third floor.

PWMTrav

Hah, just curious because they were apparently charging my parking to that room for a while. I'm a diamond and apparently they didn't know what room I was in. It wasn't that one!

baglab

I am torn between two different rooms... Park Suite and Panoramic View King. We are going for a 10 day stay, and the room differential is only $30/night. We will be doing several daytime activities, so the view isn't critical... so long as not overlooking a parking lot! We stayed here 10 years ago when it was a Four Seasons, and just loved the property... of course it was our honeymoon, and that helped... we had a park King then, and had a view of the foothills and the street. Any help/advice would be appreciated!

PWMTrav

If it's just two of you, go for the panoramic view. The view is great, and it's out toward the end of the hotel wing so it's quieter there. It's going to be a 500 sq ft room anyway, so you won't hurt for space. If you have kids with you, I vote park suite - we did that last time and the extra space was great for her. Little kids mean more time at the hotel

mylegs

We've stayed here twice since it moved to the Park Hyatt, both times with kids and both times booked through a Virtuoso agent. Excellent upgrades and free breakfast. Yum.

When we were there in 2011, we arrived just as the power to all of Southern California went out. The hotel went out of its way to feed, cool, and help everyone until power was restored in the early hours of the next morning. No charge for food or beverages and we were very pleased to see they comped our room for that night and gave us a credit. It wasn't their fault at all... Service was great and they were very accomodating with kids.

We went back last summer and stayed in a suite, which was quite spacious. My in-laws had a room next door to help with the kids. All in all, we like the property, maybe particularly so because we escape there from the Texas summer. It's not stuffy, but service has always been great. The area is close to lots of things we like to do, but hanging out by the pool or playing tennis is fun for our family too.

Enjoy!

bhrubin

Does PH Aviara allow dogs? We have 110 lb dog and live in Newport Beach and were considering a little getaway at some point--never been there.

jayer

Got followed onto the elevator by a woman with a pit bull. I assume she was a guest. I have pet dander allergy and sneezed for half an hour. I'd just as soon it were a "no dog" hotel and would really break out in a recent dog room, but I think your answer is yes, you can bring Fluffy. Elevator dog was well-behaved but big enough to do some damage to me or the room.

Now that we've gotten the Fido report out of the way, some quick observations in random order.

• Beautiful hotel.
• Real value in return for using a suite upgrade.
• I'd go again.
• Not that near the ocean.
• Not near the bay either, despite how it looks on a map.
• It's a golf resort, and a place to quietly escape as a couple. One of those needs to work for you to stay more than two or three nights.
• The pools are not big enough for anything resembling a full house, but why would you want to be there when it is full anyway?
• Breakfast area was steering people toward the buffet, which was mostly standards with an omelette station, but very well executed. No signature food item, but "the juice of the day" was interesting.
• The room was loud, crowded, and a bit awkwardly arranged, but the wait staff was good.

bhrubin

Thanks--we live on the ocean so not having ocean access isn't an issue for us when we getaway. We'd be looking to just get out, do some hiking with our dog, etc. Sounds like it might work for us--especially at a low season time.

skunker

Where are you looking to go hiking? Quite a few places don't allow dogs.