AJLondon

I had some time off between work in Delhi and Mumbai and decided to head back to Goa, and this time booked 3 nights at the newly opened Grand Hyatt.
During the below stay report, where possible, I will try and reference a comparison between the facilities at this hotel and the Park Hyatt in Goa, where I stayed few weeks ago.

Executive Summary: The stay has been outstanding so far, and I will not hesitate in returning to this property again.


Details:

Airport to Hotel:
• I had booked airport transfers thru the hotel and the hotel rep was there in arrivals with the appropriate placard. Hotel provided (one of their two) spanking new BMW’s for the pickup.
• Grand Hyatt offers comp airport transfers for all Grand Club and suite guests. Park Hyatt, which is also much closer to the airport, offers it for all guests.
• The hotel is about a 30 minute drive from the airport.

Check-In:
• Conventional “business hotel type” check-in desks with one bearing a prominently placed sign showing “Priority check-in for diamond and platinum guests.”
• Park Hyatt has a more open-air resort style check-in with guests offered a seat in the open-air lobby and coconut water, and wait there until a rep comes to you. I did not see any queue/priority at the Park Hyatt check-in.
• The hotel still does not have maps/facility guide printed and the receptionist offered to explain the details verbally, and also told me to call guest services as and when I had questions.

Rooms/Suites:
• Base rate was just under US$ 200 per night, and I used a Diamond Suite Upgrade to confirm myself into a “Grand Suite”. The details of this suite can be found at: http://goa.grand.hyatt.com/hyatt/hot...cale=&start=12
• The hotel still has a significant number of rooms that are not ready. These include all the higher category suites upto and including the presidential suite.
• The base suite, i.e. the Grand Suite is currently the only available one.
• All Suites have a bay/sunset view. ^
• All Suites have a private Jacuzzi/whirpool in the balcony. ^ ^ ^ I spent yesterday evening watching the sunset over the bay/hill while sipping a very decent NZ Sauvignon Blanc. Bliss!
• The hotel is built much closer to the water as compared to a lot of other Goa hotels including the Park Hyatt. I would guess-timate that the walk from the closest room to the beach is about half that from the equivalent one at the Park Hyatt.
• The tea/coffee in room here is of the instant variety. Here the Park Hyatt clearly wins with the Nespresso machine they had in the suite I was in. However the Grand Club here offers all day fresh leaf teas and also “proper” coffees.
• Both Hyatts use “Forest Essentials” toiletries, an Indian Ayurvedic brand. The choice of scent I think is however different.
• The television in the suite bedroom is at a 90 degrees angle to the head of the bed. Makes for mildly uncomfortable viewing, but not a biggie.
• Beware of using the shower in the bathroom though, as the drainage seems slow and there is significant water accumulation over the bathroom floor. Very slippery!!

Grand Club / Diamond Recognition
• Diamond amenity was a bottle of Merlot (Indian, but still very drinkable) as well as three packets containing cashew nuts, candies and cookies. There was also a whole fruit basket with a reasonable selection. ^ ^ All in all, much superior to the Park Hyatt where the equivalent was three mini muffins!
• Grand Club is the “7th wing”. (My suite was also located in this wing, but there are suites in other wings too.) All suite guests anywhere in the hotel, and room guests in the 7th wing have club access.
• Breakfast is not currently served fully in the club. Only croissants and juices are laid out, in addition to hot drinks. But you can go the main dining restaurant for the full buffet instead. The main restaurant was a little busy, and it took two reminders to get the cappuccino I wanted.
• Grand Club service is outstanding however. Very friendly and professional staff who genuinely feel happy to be there and it shows. ^ ^
• Evening hors d’ouvers between 6-8pm are very well presented and off excellent variety and quality. There are printed menus with a list 5-6 cold savoury items, 4 hot items and 5-6 desserts, as well as a full cheese platter.
• For eg. Last night there was smoked salmon, crab cakes, chicken tikka, corn patties, samosas etc. Dessert included crčme brulee, cakes, Indian sweets etc.
• Drinks included 4 wines (2 Indian, 1 NZ Sauvignon, 1 Chilean Chardonnay), 2 sparkling wines (1 Indian, 1 French) as well as whisky, rum, gin, beer etc. I didn’t notice all the brands, but the gin was Bombay Sapphire.

Internet
• Wifi in the room is very slow and only works in the living room and not the bedroom! The lounge wifi is fine though. You have the accept the charge and it will be reversed at check-out. The wired access (atleast in my room) doesn't work at all.

Spa
• Currently not open, but the soft opening (half of the 19 treatment rooms) should be this week, and it looks amazing! As a temporary solution, a limited number of treatments are offered in-room during the closure.

Beach/Pool
• Pool is quite large and spread out. The Pool side bar and grill is currently not open, and is one of the only remaining F&B outlets to be so.
• If you have kids, then I think you will really prefer the facilities at the Park Hyatt which are more kid friendly including huge shallow child pools as well as water slides etc. The kids camp also seemed very aggressively prompted at the Park, while Camp Hyatt here was always deserted.
• Do not go this hotel for the beach! The location of this hotel means that the beach actually suffers from getting the residue of the industrial port from which it is opposite. As the result the water is not ideal for swimming especially as it does not circulate.
• The Arrossim beach at the Park Hyatt is outstanding however and one of the best in Goa. Very fine sand, and very very well maintained by the hotel.
• However, if like me, you prefer to be near the beach and looking at the sea, as opposed to on the beach and in the sea, then you will love this place!
• The view here is much nicer here than the Park, thanks to the hill in the distance over which the sun sets, as well as the twinkling lights from the town on the other side of the bay in the evening. After dark, the Park Hyatt sea view, is just the blackness from the water.

Overall
• Well, I would certainly return to the property if they continue to keep up this level of service, especially in the Grand Club.
• After discussing the hotel with a couple of staff (as well as comparisons with the Intercon and Park Hyatt and Taj Exotica) bear in mind that is going to be a very convention focused hotel and is built from that perspective. In the short 3-4 months there have been almost 20 conventions already and several more are booked. The number of individual travelers & honeymooners is a relatively small percentage, especially so far, that the spa has not been open.
• Also, IMHO, this hotel will also be an excellent use of the Diamond Suite upgrade, given the private whirlpools in the balconies of all suites.
• However, if you are going with kids or if want to spend time on the beach, I would really recommend the Park Hyatt over the Grand. Me personally, you will find at the Grand over the Park!

AJLondon

BTW, please shout if there are any specific questions, as I will be here for another couple of days.

chanp

Great review. On their site, there is no info about mandatory new year eve dinner or food requirements. Can you find out if there will be and if so, what the costs will be and what they are planning?

Thanks

AJLondon

I queried this with a manager this morning.

Firstly, their paid rates over New Years eve will have a 2 night mandatory minimum stay requirement, and the basic category room rate will be around $500 per night. (Not sure about awards.) FWIW, the Park Hyatt is already sold out of rooms over New Years and they currently only have a couple of suites left at about $1200 per night.

This hotel hasn't yet decided what the New Year gala will be, and of course it is their first year, but the person I spoke to confirmed that it will be in line with what the Marriott, Park Hyatt etc are offering. This person worked at the Marriott for the last 4 years, and the procedure there was that paid rates over New Year's included the mandatory supplement and were non-refundable. Those who had made award bookings were emailed as soon as the booking was made and asked to pay the supplement for the gala dinner which was around $300-ish. He expects this hotel to follow a similar policy.

New Years eve is much more expensive in terms of pricing and restrictions, supplements than Christmas eve. Expect Christmas pricing to be about 60% of the peak New Year pricing.

P.S. Everything above is based on the conversation I had with one person, so please do check carefully before making any non-refundable commitments!
Hope this helps!

Chalky White

Thanks for this review. I will be staying there December 27-29 using my Hyatt card nights. Can you upload any pictures? There are a few on tripadvisor, but not many of the beach area and the public spaces. Thanks!

chanp

Thanks, I booked from Dec 29-Jan3rd with points and dinner/breakfast deal.

Rubal

Do you mean passport escape?

chanp

That's it. But now the more I think about it, its really 3 dinners, as I get breakfast as a Diamond. So not sure its worth 35k points for 3 dinners. Maybe AJLondon can chime in if 35k points are worth 3 dinner for 2?

GUWonder

If it is a way around paying cash for a New Years "gala", I'd consider it even as a Diamond. I don't think the Park Hyatt Goa would go for it, but Grand Hyatt Goa, who knows.

AJLondon

It is only 3 dinners really as a diamond. And IMHO, definitely not worth it at the GH because of the very decent F&B Grand Club offering in the evening. Maybe at the PH, but certainly not at the GH.

Now whether the 35k will allow you to escape the mandatory gala I do not know. To be honest, if I was in yourshoes, I would save the 35k, have a standard dinner (inside/outside the hotel) for two nights and then splurge for the gala on NY eve... YMMV...

Main courses in the restaurant / room service are in the range from $10-20 so on an average day dinner should not be that expensive, especially if you do drinks and appetisers in the Grand Club!

chanp

Well since there is no mandatory dinner listed when I made the reservation, I wonder if they will make me pay for it?

Yea, I think I will cancel it, def try some meals around the local area. I have some friends at the Taj for new years, maybe meet them that night, if I'm not required to pay/stay.

AJLondon

Some other random facts about the GH:

- There are building regulations in place in Goa (for a couple of decades now) that do not allow any new construction within several hundred metres from the sea/beach. Hence the distance between the room blocks and the beaches at the Taj Exotica, Park Hyatt, Intercon etc. All of which are a few hundred metres.
The GH room blocks are just 50m from the "beach"! The reason: It is technically not considered a sea beach but is a bay / river mouth, albeit salt water. Hence the proximity rules did not apply. Or so they say.

- The PH currently levies a service charge of about 5%, while the GH is charging 10%. Both on the room rate. (This is separate and in addition to the current govt. luxury tax of 10.3%.) So an equal base rate at both hotels will be 5% dearer in the end at the GH.

4aks

Do the service charges replace the expectation of tipping staff ? Or is it equivalent to a 'resort fee' , where US properties claim pay these for beach towels, etc

AJLondon

To be very honest I wouldn't consider it as either.

I tipped where ever I felt appropriate i.e. housekeeping, food servers etc. I am quite certain they do not see any part of the service charge.

I also wouldn't consider it as a resort fee either, as that is not a concept I have seen in Goa, or fact that matter anywhere else in India.

The "service fee" seems an Asia specific thing. Most hotels, even city centre ones, in thailand and Singapore for eg. charge such a fee. I just think of it as part of the total room rate, kind of like fuel surcharges for airlines!

GUWonder

For ocean fronts, there are indeed regulations applicable throughout India that limit building near coastal waters. The Union government limits are superior to any State level determinations, although both Union and State officials of course do routinely get involved (in collecting money if only to rubber stamp). Creative approaches to legal compliance is an Indian legal specialty, even where "chai"/"bakshessh"/bribe (or "facilitation services" if somehow "legal") may not be involved. Property developers have their ways, that run the gambit.