m0hamed

I just checked in for a one night stay. Splitting several future stays between the Grand and Park to help with requalification to 2013. Checked in and was upgraded to a suite, albeit an unrefurbished one.

shillard

I've found this too - I sometimes stay here at the tail end of a trip to boost my stay count, and usually deploy a suite upgrade certificate. The separate bedroom at least isolates you from the hallway noise.

777 global mile hound

Greetings All,

I am just coming off a brief short highly satisfactory two night stay here at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne
Look forward to sharing some thoughts on my recent stay while looking back at the changes here over my 15 year history here as a guest
It is a very different hotel today............

Would like to also mention that in recent weeks there has been a change
with a new General Manager in place
Cheers

hautecouTours

Writing this from the Club Lounge of the GH Melbourne, where I have just spent a 2night stay using GP points. I feel that the property was a tremendous value at 12K points per night. As I am only a Platinum no upgrade was given but the room was very nice and the service impeccable.

In fact, after putting my travel companion into a taxi to the airport I myself had an hour or so to fill before taking a tram to the port, where I'll catch the ferry to Tasmania. When I couldn't log onto the internet I asked at the Plat/Diamond check-in if they could provide me with a code. When several attempts to circumnavigate the system failed, they offered me the opportunity to utilize the Club Lounge while I waited so that I could utilize the internet there. No canapes, though!

I love Hyatt... and am working hard to become Diamond by the end of they year.

ThomasBne

deleted

Jaimito Cartero

(Sorry, I had posted this in the PH thread, first.)

I had a quite nice stay here last week.

I used a leftover Diamond upgrade cert from last year, and got a nice suite on the 26th floor.

Very good club staff, especially the Thai lady. The two hot items every night were a little too similar some nights, but they had enough variety that it wasn't bad.

The worst part of arriving at the hotel was with a super rude cabbie. It's a shame, as it really negatively effects how you think about a city.

Two of the smallest apples I've ever seen on an amenity plate were in the room. I know there are bigger ones, I've seen them in the local Cole's. Seems a bit of a shame.

Had a nice breakfast downstairs too. I believe you can get the continental downstairs taken off your bill, or pay $20 for the full breakfast, which is very tasty. I just wish they had an egg menu in the lounge.

The only other problems is that the hallways seem a conduit for noise. I had some very loud talking outside my door. I opened it up, and found that the people talking were far down the hall.

Late checkout at 4pm, was standard.

Jorgen

So what we're saying is that if none of these factors really matters to me (location is a wash, I won't use the gym, I'm not a Diamond, the rates are only a few bucks different for my nights, and I don't give a darn about the time in Sao Paolo) then I might as well stay at the Park Hyatt instead?

777 global mile hound

Perhaps in your situation that may be the right way to go
The staff are simply sensational at the Grand Hyatt by any global service standard^
That was not always they case but shows what great management and the right team members who care about their customers and their hotel.
I'm jaded yet I felt appreciated and looked after like a vip all during my stay
The Grand Club what they call the Regency Club outstanding with superior offerings to PH Melbourne

If all your priority is the room or suite and you are especially able to get a suite then yes I would give the nod to the PH Melbourne based on room product alone.It is a cut above.The suites are more luxurious at the PH
If overall service, food and beverage quality don't matter over a slightly better room product then yes the PH

Its not like you can go wrong with the PH Melbourne its a very nice
hotel albeit with many service problems historically depending on ones own individual stay experience at the time.
Should something go wrong be prepared to possibly be ignored during and after checkout as happened to myself and others

I could never say don't stay there.The PH certainly a respectable nice hotel too by all means.They just statistically mess up more based on management who has a priority on running it operationally then focusing on guest service
And many fare just fine there

Just bring your patience just in case
By all means do give us an update if you do!
Cheers

m0hamed

I strongly recommend the PH. It is the property I stay at the most. The standard, and club rooms (standard rooms with club access) at the GH suffer from severe noise issues. Sound from the corridors flows in from the 1 inch gap between the front door and the floor, and the pipes in the building scream like a monster within the walls when someone, somewhere within your vicinity has a shower in their room.

If you have a corner Grand Suite, you escape both of the able issues.

The GH is more glitzy and modern, and the restaurant is sensational, however the room products leave a lot t be desired despite the $40 million refurb.

BKKROP

The GH is fantastic, but wild horses wouldn't drag me away from the Park. Just how wonderful is it to lay infront of the fire, reading the latest, you cannot put it down Rllins or Baldacci, only to realise you haven't done any work for that meeting in the morning. They are so caring, they always let me stay till late because the flight doesn't leave till 2330. Mmnnn, this does not matter now does it, since the Singapore hiccup, all my flights are now are now on SQ a reasonable time and in First.

777 global mile hound

I agree with most of your assessment though never had the shower problem noise in my 16 years staying at the hotel.Not that I doubt your experience in anyway
The Grand Hyatt is suite stingy unless using Diamond suite upgrades however
some of the rooms on the opposite side of the elevators feel like suites or oversized rooms and work great for me and I'm noise sensitive
The hotel has always relocated me whenever the room wasn't up to my personal liking.
I too am not a fan of the standard club rooms having said that.Have also survived in them more than a few times
The personal GH experience and superior in house food and beverage options including club offerings has sealed the deal for me
It is somewhat weird the hotel didn't get a better room renovation
to match the public area appeal.

m0hamed

Like most projects, they went over budget. It's bizarre you have a telephone with big cube buttons from the 1980s, and the bathrooms are also dated.

I agree that the club selections at the GH are superior. I have mentioned this to the GM of the PH.

I'll be at the GH this week, using a e-cert, simply because when I checked the rates at the PH were outrageous. They seem to have reduced since last month.

777 global mile hound

The GH bathroom may be dated however it's a really nice shower with good water pressure and there is nothing like their freshly baked blueberry muffins
first thing in the morning!
Those folks took great care of even after checkout serving me course after course in the Grand Club until my midnight flight departed
Have a great stay!

m0hamed

Checked in on Tuesday for a 4 night stay. The only reason I chose the GH over the PH was the rates at the PH were very high for this week. Due to previous noise issues, I used a Diamond e-cert for a Grand Suite.

Haven't stayed in a suite since before the renovations. While the living area and bedroom are modern, unlike the images on the website, the couches are grey in colour... on grey carpet. As such, the room appears very bland.

The most annoying aspect is the lack of light. There are no, and I mean no lights in the ceiling. The living and bedroom can only be light with lamps and I literally stubbled to read a magazine. The lack of light is a serious design issue with these rooms.

As mentioned previously the bathrooms are severely outdated.

The club offerings, as always, are superior to the PH, however I really shouldn't have to ask for hot canapés. They should have them out for self serve like everything else.

Decided to have breakfast in the main restaurant as I wanted some eggs, and I had to listen to the chef complain about her managers while cooking my breakfast. Apparently it didn't phase her that a guest could hear.

Also, the doorman seems to be running a taxi cartel. I was running late for a meeting, and a guest just arrived in a cab. A young bellboy opened the door for me and the doorman literally closed it in front of me and said that because the cab was dropping off, he couldn't pick me up. Rather he had to go and join the waiting taxi queue. I was frustrated at this stupidity, and during the week I noticed the same taxi cabs and drivers waiting in the queue. Taxis are for the guest's convenience, and I ended up having to wait another 10 mins or so while the driveway cleared to get one of the waiting cabs. I expect this in other countries but not Australia.

On a positive night, the housekeeper today followed me to the lift after I had left to give me my glasses. I wear contacts during the day, but appreciated how considerate this act was.

Overall, this stay confirmed my opinion the PH is vastly superior. The GH is just way too busy for my liking.

Jorgen

Following up on my post from several months ago where I was trying to decide between the PH and the GH, I wound up staying my first night at the Grand and my second night at the Park.

Overall I think I actually preferred the Grand. I found I actually got better service at the GH than the PH myself. I didn't have any tricky requests, I never really did anything except check in and out, but all the Park Hyatt staff I talked to seemed kinda disengaged, as if they were waiting for somebody more important than me to show up.

Other comments:

1) Grand Hyatt had a large, well-furnished room. Park Hyatt had a much larger, slightly better furnished room. I can see how people staying a week or more would prefer the extra space of the PH, but to me it was just surplus to requirements.

2) GH was kind enough to give me a south-facing room on the fourth-to-top floor, with views of the river, Federation Square, the Botanical Gardens, Government House, Eureka Tower, Port Philip Bay, the Dandenongs... well, everything really. Very impressive.

3) As a lowly platinum, the GH promised me at checkin a "food and beverage amenity" which never actually arrived. (Actually I went out for a few hours and left the "do not disturb" sign on, so it might have been my fault.) PH didn't promise me anything at all. So let's call it a tie.

4) Location is a clear win for the GH (unless of course you need to be at Parliament or something). Sure, it's only a few blocks further, but the GH location is hard to beat for convenience.

5) On the issue of room noise: it's true, the doors are oddly thin at the Grand Hyatt and you do get noise from the corridor into the room. I don't know why they didn't fix this in the big renovation. But the number of actual seconds of my stay that this actually bothered me was maybe fifteen, because there wasn't actually all that much traffic in the corridor. Oh, and the gap is nothing like one inch.

6) One more nitpick on the Grand Hyatt: the clear glass shower cubicle is located just a few inches too close to the toilet, and every time I bent down to sit on the toilet I'd bang my head on the glass. A few stickers on the glass would solve this problem. Or maybe I'm just an idiot.

In conclusion, if I were to do it again (which I won't, because in a couple of months I'll live in Melbourne) I'd probably go with the Grand Hyatt. Unless I were staying for an extended period of time in which case I'd go Park Hyatt just to get the bigger room.