MarkOK

I know the reviews on this thread are somewhat moderate, but on Hyatt's website and others there is a host of bad reviews -- again though, seems mostly construction related which shouldn't a problem next year anyways. I always just like to have an assurance that things are on the up and up. I am not comparing this Hyatt to others in Paris (which are a bit beyond my means, whether in points or as cash) as much as this compared to a trip to the cat 4s GH Berlin or HR Amsterdam, both cities I've been to just brief enough to know I want to go back. I'll have globalist (lite) next year, tens of thousands of points to burn, and time to travel in the summer, and I look forward to using it all somehow.

I am looking at hopefully doing a free cat1-4 certificate from the Chase card, and then probably the 7500 pts+100 a night rate for the rest -- it makes a stay in Paris quite affordable. And the small room size doesn't bother me at all because the kid hopefully won't be coming along .

jameswes

As an FYI, I had a family of 6 in two rooms (two adults, four kids). They even assigned rooms that had a connecting door, so 3 in a room is quite doable (even if it's tight). The Deluxe rooms (Twin & King, I had one of each) have a little sofa/chaise that was big enough for a kid to sleep on.

jameswes

Completely agree. Really the only complaint is that the rooms are small, but that's true pretty much everywhere. And even though they're small they are very well designed and laid out such that it didn't feel cramped in 200 square feet.

Having the metro in the basement of the building is awesome, makes the location so much better (and really it's not a far walk to Arc de Triomphe and at that point you're into the center of town)

TerryK

You mean HR Etoile only offers renovation rooms now. No suites and no pre-renovation rooms?

martyYYZ

Correct. When I was there in May all base rooms they were selling were renovated and the suites were being renovated so they were not available to book. I don't know if the suites have all been renovated yet

ILuvParis

And when we say "renovated," I presume we mean renovated by Hyatt, as opposed to the poor attempt by the previous owner to renovate some of the rooms?

MarkOK

Well, I just booked this for 7 nights in June, on points + cash (7500 pts per night+$100; point value of 3.3 cents/pt compared to the current cash-rate ). The only problem with points plus cash is the only room option is the deluxe double, but I hope that my then-Globalist status will get me at least a nice view! I normally don't like to book this far in advance, but I couldn't stop thinking about the possibility of them upping the category after the upgrade or dropping the cash/pts options. I think they probably wouldn't upgrade the cat, but the line of evidence that concerns me is that even the Hyatt House and Hyatt Place in Manhatten are cat 5s

We've been wanting to go to New York as well, and it turned out that it was fairly cheap airfare-wise to nestle a round trip mid-week JFK-CDG tickets within roundtrip SWO-LGA tickets (all told - $1000 per person for both roundtrips, compared to $1500+ for any SWO-CDG tickets or any multi-city tickets (which aa.com was pricing out in the 2K-3K range)). I am totally jealous at how the coastal markets get competitive airfares.

So: Grand Hyatt NY for three nights, HR Paris Etoile for 7, back to new york for the Times-Square Hyatt Centric for three more nights. I should actually be able to get my 5-brand certificate next year

TerryK

Is Brand Explorer an annual award? I thought that's only for 2017 as WoH is new.

MarkOK

No, I don't think they are annual, but it isn't calendar year based or anything either. My understanding is the award is based on when one hits 5 brands, whenever that happens (and a second award at 10 brands). I currently have checks for HP, HR, and HHs --- the GH and the Hyatt Centric should get me that certificate next year (as long as they don't drop it).

I rarely seem to travel to many cities with other brands, or when I do, the other brands have ended up being quite too much for those dates for me to justify (aka. last time I was in New Orleans, the HC was more ~$350 while the HR and HH were about 160-200. As much as I wanted to try out the HC, I wasn't going to spend twice as much for it). On this trip, I am not too keen on the GH new york, but right now it is 200$ cheaper than the Andaz's which I would rather try out (and a little be harder than GH for me to find)--I will monitor the prices and hope to switch reservations.

ILuvParis

And the "clock" started on 4/1 - so who knows?

firecracker725

I've booked a one night award stay here in December to shake off some jet lag before heading to the Alps. Can anyone tell me how much the breakfast is currently and if it's worth it? Or would I be better off with a quick bite from Paul?

ILuvParis

If you have to pay for the breakfast, I'd go to Paul (but, I may be prejudiced, I'm a Paul lover). If I recall, the hotel buffet breakfast was around $30 (maybe more) a few years ago, but it was good and a large variety.

Jaimito Cartero

We arrived here Tuesday afternoon. The temporary entry was a little weird. A guy in an overcoat just started taking our bags from our Uber, and he had no uniform or name tag on. We just got a bag tag, that doesn't even list the number of bags on it.

Elevator up to the 4th floor, and a bit of a schlep to checkin. They were painting nearby, and I started to get a headache immediately. Two people working, so a 5 minute wait or so.

Nice checkin agent. Got a 23rd floor room, with Eiffel Tower view, much to the delight of the family. Remarked that we got a "great" rate.

The room is tight, but functional. It got fairly hot in the afternoon. The bathroom is even tighter, with the toilet in a bit of a cubby. It does have a handheld sprayer for the toilet, which is nice.

The bed is quite comfortable. Nice duvet, which helps at night once the room cooled down. Small fridge, barely big enough for our whole roasted chicken from Auchon to fit in.

Bags were delivered quickly, and a gentleman set up the sofabed for my little monster.

We missed evening cocktails as we were tired, and didn't feel like dragging ourselves downstairs, between 6-9pm.

The Hyatt website said the property had "self laundry", but here it just seems to mean they'll pick it up and send it out. The wife hates to have dirty clothes about, so I guess we'll have to find a lavarie nearby. Google shows 2 places within 500m.

Aventine

GH NY is probably the worst out of all NYC Hyatts. Couldn't get Hyatt Union Square or Andaz 5th?

hotelfanatic

My vote for worst would be HP midtown.

And my last visit to Andaz 5th was just Meh - cold breakfast and hard sell by FD for room upgrades.