Hyatt Regency-Milwaukee REVIEW - MASTER THREAD
Sep 12, 2015, 12:54 pm
Sep 12, 2015, 7:50 pm
Sep 12, 2015, 9:03 pm
The hotel was quite dated. The room was small and the windows were filthy. Worked for a night and needed the Hyatt night. Location is convenient downtown.
Sep 14, 2015, 9:08 am
Sep 14, 2015, 12:58 pm
Mar 30, 2016, 8:57 am
Hyatt Regency Milwaukee
333 W Kilbourn Ave Milwaukee, WI US 53203
Mattress Run - Mini Review (0 Photo)
Hyatt Regency Milwaukee
(My first review on FT - unfortunately I didn't think ahead to take any pictures)
I'm doing my first real "Mattress Run" for the upcoming Stay More Play More promotion, and the HR Milwaukee is my first stay towards that promo.
Deal Details
Nightly rate was ~$88/nt with no special promos/codes. I booked four nights (3/29-4/2) using Citi Prestige, AND they were able to apply the COSTCO code (10% off, was the same as AAA or my corporate rate). Total price was $368 for the four nights, and Citi will rebate me $92, for a net cost of $276.
In return, I will earn:
- 1,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points for Diamond amenity
- 2,500 HGP points for lounge closure (Saturday)
- 2,400 HGP points ($368 spend, x5, +30% bonus for diamonds)
- 12,000 HGP points (3,000 per night - the promo ends up being 75K points for 25 nights, or 3K/night)
- 800 Citi TYP (~$13, since with Prestige I value them at 1.6 cents/point)
Deal Summary:
16K HGP points plus some pocket change in Citi TYP for $276, or 1.7 cents per point. And this is 1/6 of the way towards completing the promo and at the end of the promo I'll be halfway to Diamond, not counting any other stays/nights throughout the year
Check In
Just fine. The lobby looks nice, they recognized my Diamond status and proactively offered the points or amenity (I chose points). They didn't have much in upgrades available (more on that later), but I didn't care since I wasn't actually going to be spending the night there.
Room
I was in a Two Queen room on a middle floor. The room is nice enough - it has been recently remodeled so everything is fairly new, but it is pretty bland. It's a perfectly fine room. However, as multiple reviews here, as well as Yelp/TripAdvisor state, the outside of the windows are very dirty. Which since there's a fairly nice view of the downtown area is a bit distracting.
One other minor complaint is that the bathrooms are very small. When sitting down it can be difficult to close the door because it may bump your legs on the way around.
Dining
I only experienced the Club Lounge on the 18th floor. While I had lowish expectations, the lounge definitely exceeded those expectations.
I was there for evening hors d'oeuvres, and it was quite good. I was there with my family (we checked in on our way through MKE) and there was enough variety for all of us to feel full enough that we didn't need dinner later on.
- The star for all of us was the Usinger brats (local variety!) with fried onions and peppers.
- Well stocked drinks. Honor Bar with some local/craft brews, plus hard alcohol. Plus some sodas and a few types of bottled water (San Pellegrino, Acqua Panna) and some bottled juices.
- Grilled veggies and mozzarella to make a pseudo-salad (although no lettuce/spinach).
- A few meats/cheeses/crackers.
- Plus cookies, and a few candy jars.
Plus, one of the biggest things for me is Mark, the lounge attendant. He was very friendly, and provided a good amount of interaction as desired (left alone the couple people that weren't interested in talking, and engaged me and kids to talk about the area, his cute dog and just checking in to make sure that everything was going great.
Location
The location is great. Right in downtown, easy walking distance of almost everything.
It's ideal enough that there were actually two presidential candidates staying there one night. According to staff I talked to, it was Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz. I didn't ever personally see them, but I *did* see a bunch of secret service people outside one of the rooms. And as I was heading out for the evening I saw a motorcade of black Suburbans heading out (I'm assuming to the GOP town hall that was just a couple blocks away). My hunch is that's why there weren't any suite upgrades available (since the candidates and their staff/secret service) were in many of them.
Overall
The hotel met, and was actually a little above expectations. It's not a fancy hotel, but it's a perfectly fine place to stay, especially at the price. And, it worked out great for a mattress run.
Especially if you value a lounge for breakfast/dinner this is a good value on weekdays. And due to it being closed on weekends the 2500 bonus points (plus breakfast in the restaurant) is a nice perk.
If I can find a cheap rate, I'll definitely use the hotel again for a mattress run (and enjoy dinner/snack in the lounge at night). I think that the low-ish reviews come from people with much higher expectations.
Apr 11, 2016, 7:44 am
Location: Great for Downtown Milwaukee. However, if there's an event at the UWM Center which is right across the street, it can mean for a lot of traffic around the hotel. There is street parking which is free for the first two hours on weekends but they're in short supply. There are lots of lots around the hotel with prices ranging from $10-15 depending on what activities are going on. There's also an Enterprise Rent-a-Car office a block away.
Hotel: Typical older, 1970s style Hyatt Regency. It's very large, with a huge center atrium. The lobby has a small restaurant which serves breakfast, a small bar with limited seating (though some seats are available in the lobby) and a good sized sundries shop. The second floor has a lot of conference and banquet space. Do note, soundproofing, due to the hotel design, is bad. If people are out in the halls even on different floors from you, you'll hear it. Also, despite having the revolving restaurant dome on the roof, it's been closed for years apparently.
Check In: The agent was friendly but a little confused. He told me about the Regency Club and i said "isn't it closed on weekends?" and he said "oh, I usually work weekdays". We were given breakfast vouchers, but denied 2500 points due to the lounge being closed.
Room: I'd used a DSU and despite having booked a room with two beds I ended up getting a bedroom with just a king. The suites here are really weird. I got a bedroom connected to what's ostensibly a living room, but isn't. It had a small couch, a murphy bed (what is this, the 1930s?) and a lot of dead space. This did mean two full bathrooms at least. Wifi worked well but there were not enough outlets.
Breakfast/Other: The lobby bar is too small, it feels like an afterthought most likely because they used to send people to the rooftop bar. However, service was great and the kitchen is open late. Breakfast was really good, a large buffet spread with eggs, bacon, sausages, potatoes, pancakes, pastries, cereal, fruit etc. all of which was very high quality. service was great too. There is also a menu, but the Diamond coupons only get you the buffet. At check out, I asked again about the points for Diamonds for the closed lounge and was told the hotel didn't do it and "I got breakfast". I Tweeted Hyatt Concierge who confirmed I was right and I was going to have it deposited. Really annoying that two employees claimed I wasn't due it.
Overall, this is an old, somewhat dated hotel. It's also really noisy. Still, for Downtown Milwaukee it's a decent enough choice.
Apr 11, 2016, 8:21 am
Customer service has been great about this. I realized >6months after my stay that the lounge was closed for breakfast (had breakfast in restaurant) at the HR CDG. They call the property to confirm and credited me.
Jun 9, 2016, 4:08 pm
Then of course room service was horrendous, out of date menu, coffee was cold, the skillet was actually just some scrambled eggs with some sausage and veggies on a plate, a stale waffle - you get it. Then on Sunday when we tried calling to request a late check-out I got transferred to 4 different people and it took over 5 minutes just to get someone who said yes, we could have an extra hour.
Best of all, reached out to Hyatt via Twitter and was told the manager had been alerted and would be in touch with me. Never received any contact from anyone. Also, windows were filthy and bathrooms tiny - I don't really care about those things though.
It makes me kind of sad - I usually love the midwest vibe of cities but this hotel experience was just so subpar - not even factoring in the human waste found upon check-in. This whole post comes off as one of those people who .....es about everything, but I really am not. But even for a somewhat measly 8k points a night this was crazy.
Jun 10, 2016, 6:47 am
I like Hyatt and their hotels, but this is one of the worst representations of their brand, it's OLD and dated and there are better options in Milwaukee.
Jun 10, 2016, 3:13 pm
Proximity to the convention center and sports facilities gets them business they would otherwise lose out on (if the shabby physical conditions are considered).
Jun 11, 2016, 12:25 pm
I generally don't have a need to be downtown and I'm driving, so if I'm going to stay at a Hyatt it'll be the also-underwhelming HP MKE. The only redeeming value of the airport property is that it's a Cat 1.
Jun 23, 2016, 11:35 am
This is the first time I've reached out to hotel management after a stay and I'm pleased it seems like I may have gotten through a little bit. I certainly don't wish any ill will on the property, hopefully it can improve.
Mar 5, 2018, 1:22 pm