sanFF

I am staying at the monterey Hyatt in September for 3 nights. Seems like many people get the rooms for $43 a night on PL. I have never usede PL so could anyone help me on how to bid and actually get this property as I need to stay only there and I dont want to get placed somewhere else.
Thanks

sanFF

Loved this charming old property. Went thru Priceline at $43 per night which translates to $47 with their surcharge plus 10% room tax of $5 and $11 resort
local tax so for $63 total per night it was a gem.
I arrived late and was relagated to the dungeon buildings which are buildings
20 thru 26, I had 21. These rooms are big time crap. I called the next am and got a room in building 9. Wow! Overlooking the Del Monte golf course at the 18th hole 30% bigger room and 60% bigger bathroom. It was like going from a one star to a three star room. I highly recommend if you stay here ask for buildings 6 thru 11 for the best rooms and views. Some rooms ,and mine did even have a balcony to sit out on. The restaurants are nothing to speak of
The conference center was nice and I was at a conference here for three days and another nice feature is that buildings 9-11 are right out front.
Hope this gives a little info for this property

wilma

I too stayed at Monterey this past weekend. Even though this is not a great property, I used a FFN because hotel rooms were very expensive in the Montery area due to the Jazz Festival. I agree that the rooms in Bldgs 6-11 facing the golf course are pretty nice. I'm always amazed though at the clueless people at the front desk and their total ignorance of Hyatt Diamond status. After the check-in person informed me of the $10 resort fee, I asked if this was waived for diamonds (it was last month when I stayed there). She claimed no, diamonds now pay the resort fee but we will get a free night. When I asked about the free night thinking she was referring to FFN, she said no it wasn't that & she heard about it at a recent meeting?? Who knows what she was talking about. I then had to ask her for the breakfast coupons and diamond amenity and she knew nothing about it so went to get her supervisor. The supervisor came out and just looked at me and said "What is it you want??" She reluctantly handed them over to me as though she was doing me a big favor. Oh well.....

jkc22

Sorry to hear your bad experience. I would have been very pi$$ed if I were treated like that. I would definitely file a complaint about the attiude of the staff.

One other thing: when I stayed there 2 weeks ago on FFN, I was given a suite and amenity already in the room when I arrived. When I checked in, the agent gave me another amenity card, which I still have now. Breakfast coupons were offered without asking. However, I DID pay the $10 resort fee, as I wanted some charges on my account so I didn't even bother asking for a waiver.

The stay showed up in my account with the correct MC Charge designation.

sy7

I've stayed at this Hyatt over Xmas for the past two years, both times on priceline stays.

It depends on what type of room you get. The first stay was in one of the motel like units overlooking the parking lot--adequate, but not great. The biggest negative of the room was that it felt "drafty," which is common in many motels but not hotels. Of course, given that it was on a $46/night rate, I didn't care too much and you still have access to the rest of the facilities.

We booked three rooms for the second stay (this past year), and I also was Diamond with Hyatt by then. Two of the rooms were via priceline, and one was a direct booking. We got two connecting rooms in one of the newer buildings that overlooked the golf-course. These were your typical 3-4* quality rooms. It was markedly nicer than the room we had the previous year--this was probably due to a combination of my Hyatt status plus the fact that we booked more than one room. The third room had a parking lot view, but it was the only available one when we checked in at ~1pm, and we wanted access to a room right away.

The hotel's staff were all very accomodating, and the restaurants were good. However, this hotel is not walking distance to anything in Monterey--you will definitely need a car (but parking is free).

If the room is important to you, I would try to call up the hotel beforehand and request a room in one of the newer buildings (eg the ones adjacent to the lobby). It sounds as though you have a cancealleable reservation, so the hotel would probably be happy to oblige.

vector

Absolutely AVOID the 2XXX rooms!

They are the ones that parallel the road. With the door closed you could hear the traffic loud and clear. Also the heat was on full blast with the thermostat set all the way down. I was relegated to building 23 and at 10pm I was the only one, judging by the lack of cars, in any of the 2XXX rooms. I asked to be moved to a cooler less noisy room and was sent to building 16. Passing by other rooms on the way I saw doors to the rooms open and thought it a bit strange until I arrived at my 85 degree room. Again the radiator was hot to the touch. At least the noise issue was solved! Called the front desk again and they sent me to building 8. It was a nice room on the 2nd floor overlooking the golf course. The parking area there was almost full! Unfortunately I had a 5am check out and didn't see any of the grounds.

I was on a priceline stay and it looks as though they treat priceline guests as second class citizens. My GP platinum status sure didn't help.

I would return only if I had a confirmed room in the "renovated" buildings.

Ocn Vw 1K

This is our favorite property in the MRY Peninsula area; but, as others note, it has its challenges: Bureaucratic front desk procedures (no elite line, required guest initialling of numerous places on the c/i form, etc), the schizo Q. of: is it a resort (charges the fee) or a non-resort property (so listed by HY); and inconsistencies in room quality. But once you get to know/anticipate these challenges, you can have a great stay.

This property does flag PL c/i forms with a computerized legend reminding staff that guest is on P/L res.

KansasMike

Stayed there last week -- big disappointment. There are no desks in the rooms. The rooms do not have individual climate control. Strange seating the in the restaurant.

Do not recommend for anyone on business.

365RoadWarrior

I visited about a month ago.

45 minutes to check in - no GP line. Woman at counter simply walked away when I walked up.
45 minutes to check out - no automated (i.e., telephone, television) check out.
Dismal room with broken furniture.
Recreation center consists of a smelly basement bunker and a broken ping pong table; paddles MIA.
Fine fitness center, open 24 hours.
I thought the breakfast was good, though all I wanted was fruit. Nice environment, though crowded at times. Great view.

JBlaine

Jazz on Friday nights is pretty good.

BAGoldBoy

Stayed at the Hyatt Monterey last week.

Check in was slow but the front desk staff were good and very friendly. I'd booked an AAA rate so was given AAA breakfast vouchers and upgraded to Petit Suite. Room was of good size and overlooking golf course but very hot and no a/c. We had a fan delivered but it was very hot and the screens on the windows were buckled so room soon full of mosquitos

The hotel is undergoing a $40 million makeover (overdue) so the restaurant is closed and the work during the day can be extremely noisy. Breakfast was good but one day we were charged tax on our "free" breakfast and the next we weren't

We parked our car in a space that was lined and the next day we had a fine notice on the car. SWMBO went beserk and collared a member of staff who explained that any "lined" spaces were not parking spaces and everyone in CA knew that

SWMBO melted him to the asphalt with her gaze and we didn't have to pay anything.

Overall our stay was OK but the rooms are poorly finished and need the refurb. Most of the staff were great and we do enjoy the location. We'll try again after the work has been completed

Explore

This property has transformed a couple of rooms to a Japanese style. Lots of woods, even a split wood stool, and some leather. Curved metallic desk light. Large granite shower stall, no bathtub. It's a complete transformation from the stagnant design of the rest of the hotel, exemplified by the stained yellow sofa in the Monterey Suite we also occupied.

The model rooms are in Block 5, next to the building housing the restaurant and lounge (still under reconstruction, reportedly at a cost of $50 million). One is #530 on the second floor, the other is next door (may be #528). Guests staying there get a survey to fill out.

I hope they re-do all the rooms this way to complement the transformation of the public facilities. It will be more difficult to provide convenient elevator access in each block (currently one elevator for each 3 blocks, with an open-air walk between them).

365RoadWarrior

From the Hyatt Monterey @ hyatt.com website:

"Be advised that from April 2007 - April 2008, We are pleased to announce that Hyatt Regency Monterey is undergoing a 45 million dollar renovation which involves significant changes to our guest rooms. "

Good news, it seems to me.

BAGoldBoy

This has actually been going on for some time. We were there in October last year when they were building the new restaurant and had just started refurbishing some of the rooms. Hopefully the end result will be better than before!

NOLAnwGOLD

For the second year, I got comped to Plat for Hyatt but until last weekend, never took advantage of the offer. I'm very disappointed with my experience with the rooms booked at the Hyatt Monterey with the Aquarium package including 2 day tickets and breakfast.

So it was Memorial day weekend so I expect things to be busy. Also a college PROM was going on which entailed lots of drunk college kids and loud music.

I marked early arrival on the reservations. The rooms were not ready at 11 AM but we apparently empty already. Not available at 2:30 and didn't get keys until 7 PM after the Aquarium. I see also why the resort is going renovations as they are old and worn.

They ran out of tickets to the Aquarium and had to get the remander of them by myself. Of course they would only sell a one-day ticket, not the ones that are good for 2 days.

Had to ask for the breakfast passes instead of just being given them. Of note, the breakfast and service was wonderful. Great spread!

Finally, on checkout multiple mistakes were on the bill, including wrong rates, resort fees which were not removed as promised, and was a very long process to make sure everything was correct.

So mistakes happen and well, that's just human. But the staff were just struggling to get by, even when told of an error on the bill at checkout the guy had to be reminded multiple times to get it off.

Is this how it always is? Are Hyatts all like this?