notquiteaff

HP Frankfurt/Airport is another example where breakfast is not included with every room rate for everyone.

serfty

Tryue enough.

I believe they tried to value-add; having a 'continental' then asking guests to pay more for hot items.

CHOPCHOP767

So, I'm not really a breakfast person at all (espressos and coffee are all I need), so watered down oatmeal, greasy sausages, and nasty waffles aren't going to convince me to stay with them. But I'm happy that WoH plans to modernize the Hyatt Places. Honestly, some of these properties are real dumps (Hyatt Place Richmond Chester and GSO, to name but two) and with a foot print 1/10 the size of Starriott, it really makes it difficult to keep staying with them. Heck, most Courtyards beat out HP these days and even some Fairfield Inns

And if you think the WoH complimentary breakfast will be hard to enforce, I'd love to see where they're going to get room for gym improvements. Some of them are like closets.

joe_miami

I either see closet-sized gyms or large gyms that are maybe one-third filled with equipment.

CHOPCHOP767

Fair enough.

Unfortunately, many clients are in smaller cities so I'm stuck with Residence Inns, Four Points, and HPs. HPs IME are so all over the place that's it really driven me away from Hyatt. Still, total speculation, but Loews would be a nice get for Hyatt even if they do have a small foot print. I really love the Loews Ventana resort.

Also curious if Loews will maintain some sort of non-disclosed/advertised recognition program like Four Seasons...

chicaloca453

I can add an interesting data point to this. I looked at booking a group block for a Hyatt Place next year. The sales manager told me that because it was a group booking that breakfast would not be included unless we paid extra. The group was master bill and for a sports team. I think Hyatt is digging its own grave on this one because that group will go to another chain that doesn't gouge. I get maybe charging for people who book with OTA's, but to do that to groups where one person (a Hyatt Elite actually) is the name on the contract and no option for points earning in each individual room, that just seems unreasonable. This group would fill 20% of the property for 3 nights. You'd think they'd want to encourage that type of guaranteed business.

joe_miami

They encourage it by offering a discount on the room rate. A lot of groups probably don't want meals included, since they might be eating at an event, etc.

The flip side to you being a Hyatt elite is that a lot of other Hyatt elites would rather the breakfast area not be overrun with rowdy youth sports teams, etc. (I'm not necessarily one of them, but that's been mentioned above and/or in other threads.)

MarkOK

How much extra?

Once a year or so I have a small group (needing up to maybe 5 rooms) and the breakfast at HP is usually quite worthwhile with staying there vs competitors (plus, I can rack in the points ). I am wondering what the rules are with groups (will everyone need to get a WoH account?).

The one thing I am holding out for hope on is the upgraded furniture. The couches at HPs are absolutely, atrociously uncomfortable. If they replace it with something more comfortable, I would consider the 'refresh' a win.

antonius66

It is hilarious to me that someone would think to charge for a HP breakfast. HP breakfast is the kind of thing you maybe nibble at if you are famished as you head out to a real breakfast. It is usually varying degrees of disgusting. Charging someone is absurd. The idea that it is anything but included for everyone who stays at one is also absurd.

notquiteaff

The breakfast food items (plus staffing) do have a cost associated with them. If there is a significant group discount for the room being offered, it might be reasonable for it to exclude the breakfast. The alternative would be to just offer a higher group rate. I assume the OP wasn't expecting to pay the regular room rate for his large block of rooms. Everything is ultimate negotiable and you get what you pay for. Just because some other chain includes the breakfast in their price doesn't mean it's necessarily a better deal.

I have seen plenty of sports teams (teenagers) happily raid the HP breakfast selection, so it is hilarious to me that someone would claim (effectively) that the breakfast is unsuitable for human consumption. It may not meet your personal needs and culinary standards, but then why are you staying at a HP in the first place

antonius66

When I'm staying at a hp, it's because it's the only Hyatt option and I need or want credit. That's the only reason, since over half the high end luxury brand is now limited service hp/hh properties.

joe_miami

MarkOK

I never prefer HP, but have stayed about a dozen locations in the last 4 years or so. I would say at 75% of the places, the breakfast is perfectly fine and suitable. At 25% of the places, the eggs or egg dish is completely inedible (in my opinion). The thing that annoys me the most is when you are there the day they are serving some crap dried out Turkey sausage -- I don't know what would be so wrong with serving real sausage every day. And really, I have been to a few lounge breakfasts at HRs and GHs where I would have rather taken a chance at a HP breakfast, so I don't think full service Hyatt breakfasts are always on the up and up.

I think it is a bit of a risk to charge some people for it because if someone pays 10 bucks for a breakfast, they aren't going to be happy with powder eggs and turkey sausage usually. Hopefully, the HPs up their game a little but I don't stay at them frequently enough to have any idea (haven't been to one in the last 50 Hyatt nights, next time I might be at one is next May where I have no other options), On the other hand, the free breakfasts at limited service competitors (if it is even offered) is nearly always less and/or worst (just things I never eat like cereal and muffins). I don't know, I am not going to care about this all that much -- I am truly more interested in what kind of hardware changes they make.

Katlor

I've been wondering when Hyatt Places were going to up their game, design-wise. The orange/brown/green color scheme from the original Hyatt Places is an absolute eyesore, and there are still a lot of those around. That generation of Hyatt Places also seem to have been engineered to make the lobbies feel uncomfortable/not a place you'd hang out in, which goes against the current hotel-guest trend for comfortable lobbies. The second generation Hyatt Places are sometimes slightly less ugly, but still have the awkward bathrooms. Hyatt Place is probably feeling the heat because the new-generation Fairfield Inns are really nice, with modern furniture and comfortable beds (and free breakfast). Fairfield Inns also give free tea and coffee all day in the lobby.

CHOPCHOP767

I can't speak to Fairfields; but I would add some of the refurbed Courtyards' lobbies are nice and even some Residence Inns have pleasant lobbies, at least within the Marriott portfolio. I also think the HPs would benefit from a "social hour" or "manager's hour" a la Residence Inn and Kimpton. While Hyatt House is more akin to the Hyatt portfolio's Residence Inn, HPs would benefit from not only aesthetically more pleasing lobbies, but functions within those spaces as well.