I tried Hyatt Regency Sukhumvit for the first time a few days ago.  Overall I found that it’s a good addition to the Hyatt portfolio in Bangkok and Hyatt loyalists have a new choice which compares favorably to Hyatt Place, Grand Hyatt, and Park Hyatt.  That said, comparisons to some strong hotels in the Marriott chain might be a bit more difficult particularly if HR continues to be priced near 5k THB or sometimes above.  

Location

The hotel is located immediately besides Sofitel Sukhumvit, between sky train stations Nana and Asok, but a bit closer to Nana.  A new ramp has been built to allow easy access from the hotel to Nana station above street level rather than having to use street sidewalks, making the location of HR marginally better than Sofitel. The ramp is on the hotel’s second floor but you need to go to the ground floor first and use another elevator to go back up to the second floor, or get out of the hotel on the ground floor and then use the escalators outside to make your way up to the ramp.  

Room

My main issue with Hyatt Regency before trying it was that rates seemed to be a bit on the high side, often above 5k THB which at that price level would place the hotel in the same category as Grand Hyatt, and the two Luxury Collection hotels in Marriott (Athenee and Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit).  In most cities, a HR is not priced at the level of a GH or a LC.  Once I saw rates drop to 4.5k THB (flexible) for my dates I decided to give it a try.  I booked the entry level room and saw that suites were available and took a chance that I might receive a Globalist suite upgrade at check-in without using a suite night award.  

Thankfully, I did end up getting an upgrade to a Regency suite so I was pleased.  The hotel is new and obviously the room looks sharp.  Prior to staying here I had read comments about questionable construction quality so I expected something perhaps similar to the renovated rooms at Marriott Marquis or Millenium Hilton but I thought the room at HR was quite decent and I am not as negative as others.  Perhaps it will not stay in great shape for years and years but for now it looks good and the quality is better than what you can find at some other hotels. 

There are floor to ceiling windows in the living room and a half bath next to the entrance.  The bedroom is very bright thanks to windows on two sides of the room, and interestingly due to the room being at the very end of the building, there are also windows on two walls in the bathroom so you get great views of the city from there.  There is even a large window in the toilet enclosure with a view of the Sofitel pool and you can draw the blinds down when needed for privacy.  The bathroom is spacious and is for sure the strong point of this room given the views and windows everywhere.  The bedroom and the living rooms are smaller than suites in other hotels, for example at Grand Hyatt if you get a suite you will get more space everywhere except in the bathroom.  Given the smaller size of the bedroom, the large TV in the corner is quite close to the bed which has its advantages – if you need glasses to see what on the screen then it would certainly be a sign that a visit to the optometrist is overdue.  

There is a pillow menu to go along the comfortable bed; also air conditioning was working well and I had good sleep.  I could not hear any noise from neighbors particularly since the room is at the end of the hallway and the common wall with the adjacent room is in the living room not the bedroom, therefore when in the bedroom you are isolated.

Dining

The Regency Club lounge opened a bit over one month ago. It looks good, has great city views, and it has a terrace for those who want to enjoy their evening drink outside. The lounge is a bit small in my opinion although not all tables were occupied when I was there.  The lounge at Grand Hyatt is more spacious especially the room I usually pick on the far left when you enter that lounge.  At HR several people in the lounge during happy hour were there for group business meetings and even working during that time.  There is a large meeting room at one end of the lounge but when it was occupied other people had meetings in the open area of the lounge as well.  There were not so many people visiting on a holiday.

Breakfast is offered to Globalists either in the lounge or in the restaurant, which is better than some Marriott legacy hotels where the Platinum benefit is breakfast in the lounge only and for the restaurant you need to pay a surcharge.  Fortunately HR allows breakfast in the restaurant, because breakfast in the lounge is slim pickings.  There are hardly any Asian options there except for a noodle soup station so my takeaway was the same as at Grand Hyatt: I often like a quiet breakfast in the lounge, but there is simply not enough choice in the GH/HR lounge so it’s the restaurant for me every time.  For those who don’t mind the limited choice, then breakfast in the lounge will be a peace haven.  

The restaurant looks very nice with several seating areas of a different style, for example the long bar-like wood table near the window, or the cozy style of other spots in the restaurant.  There are plenty of tables available at least based on current hotel occupancy; I did not find it busy and/or unpleasant.  The tables close to the buffet are perhaps a bit tighter to each other and many guests sat around there, but if you choose a table farther away in the back then it’s quiet.  The downside is that staff seemed to forget guests over there. Once other guests left their table near me, their dishes stayed there for quite a while and nobody came over to clear tables or ask me if I wanted more coffee, etc.  When I sat elsewhere on other mornings the service was noticeably better, in fact after a few mornings staff remembered my choice of drinks and were more proactive.  

The breakfast buffet is ok but I would say average compared to other hotels in this price range.  This is the one area where HR can and should do better.  Grand Hyatt is for sure better than Hyatt Regency for breakfast, and same for SGS + Athenee.  The spread at HR was good with an Indian station, a Japanese section with baked fish, a Thai section with fried rice and a noodle dish, plus traditional Western choices as well.  However there were no prepared specialty salads, and for fruits there were not that many choices and not much rotation from one day to the other; at least I can say that I was glad they had passion fruit.  I wish they had something more interesting for fried rice like they do at Grand Hyatt where sometimes they have crab or shrimp fried rice, but it was a vegetarian variety every day at HR.  Same thing for noodles: the type of noodles changed daily, but vegetarian every day. In the same line of thought, many hotels have a curry dish with chicken/pork/shrimps etc. but none of this at HR.  Also you will not find a fish, chicken, or seafood dish besides the Japanese baked fish, that’s it.  Overall breakfast is not the strength of this hotel but still, I would much rather have this breakfast than being limited to the lounge so I appreciate that they go beyond normal Globalist rules.

Happy hour in the lounge 5:30-7:30pm is clearly better than breakfast.  For drinks you can have Prosecco along with two choices or white and red wine.  They also have cocktails changing every day which is a positive; many lounges in Bangkok do not have them.  The food offerings are fairly complete: veggies, 3-4 choices of prepared cold salads, 3-4 choices of hot food, fruits, and desserts. Nothing is missing.  I particularly liked the salads for example the spicy glass noodle salad and the minced pork salad were delicious.  If there is one criticism it would be that hot food is too western to my taste: melted cheese sandwiches (every evening!), chicken cordon bleu, potato gratin, bacon rolls, etc. are not what many guests are looking for in Bangkok.  In fairness they had some Asian choices like duck & rice or wonton soup, but western ones were more prevalent.  All things considered happy hour in the lounge might be a bit better than at Grand Hyatt particularly in terms of choices, but perhaps a small notch below in terms of quality.  Where HR might not fare as well is if we compare to some Marriott hotels, for example the lounge at Athenee is one of the best, and happy hour at SGS or Le Meridien have great drinking venues, plus the fact that happy hour is the standard 2 hours at HR but many Marriott hotels offer 3 hours or more.  

Gym

The gym at HR is very nice – great views of the city, new equipment, and several weight machines.  They also had three kinds of fruits available to refuel after exercise. 

Pool

The swimming pool is ok but it’s not the highlight of the hotel.  It is suitable for laps and you have some views of the city but it’s on the 6thfloor which is not that high, and the sky train runs nearby and we can hear a bit.  There is a decent number of chairs, some in the sun, and some in the shadow, including trees for a more pleasant décor rather than only concrete.  

Wifi

Wifi was ok but not the best, download 15 mbps and upload 8 mbps.  For a business hotel this is a bit on the low side.

Service

Overall service at HR was excellent in the lounge, but more hit and miss elsewhere.  I mentioned above the minor issues in the restaurant during breakfast, in addition one morning I called to ask for housekeeping to be done while I was having breakfast but when I came back to my room nothing had been done.  Another issue is that one towel seemed clean when folded however when I picked it up I could see a stain on the back side. Quality control clearly dropped the ball.  These service slip-ups generally do not happen at GH, SGS, or Athenee so HR lags somewhat in that regard.  

Similar as Grand Hyatt, at HR you have a mobile phone available in the room that you can take away with you when exploring the city and have wifi available at all times.  In addition you can make free calls to several countries including Australia, China, Germany, HK, UK, UAE, USA, etc.  While I personally do not need it, many guests will find this phone very convenient and is a perk that not many hotels offer besides GH and HR.   

During my stay, the hotel rolled out a new shuttle bus several times per day to go to Bumrungrad Hospital on Sukhumvit Soi 3.  I was quite surprised by this service – did they make  some kind of alliance with the hospital with special rates in order to attract a medical tourism clientele?  This particular private hospital is one of the best if not the best in Thailand and they have lots of overseas clients.  For anybody needing a major procedure which would cost a fortune in the USA, you can easily save money by flying F and stay one month in a big suite in Bangkok during recovery, before going back home.  

Overall

All in all HR is a decent hotel particularly the bright room and good odds of Globalist suite upgrades.  In terms of value for the money, in my opinion within Hyatt, Grand Hyatt and HR offer better value for Globalists than HP and PH, and the choice between GH and HR depends on individual preferences.  Rates at GH have come down a notch recently and is often priced not far above HR in fact sometimes is cheaper than HR.  Points redemptions at GH have also gone down from cat 4 to cat 3 so now it’s the same as HR.  HR has the newer hardware, a much nicer bathroom, while GH has more spacious suites but Globalists are far less likely than at HR to get an upgrade if you don’t use one of your 4 suite upgrade awards per year.  GH has higher quality food and better service.  It’s when you compare HR to Marriott choices that HR seems a bit on the expensive side although not be a huge margin. Overall I can recommend HR as a viable option in Bangkok although there are some minor improvements needed to move closer to the top of my list in Bangkok.