JIMCHI

Are you staying at the GH SFO (which is located at the airport) or the GH Union Square? If it's the GH Union Square, the Grand Club there is now open. Pre-pandemic I found their food offerings in the morning and evening to be quite good. However, we always found the club jammed packed and difficult to find a seat. As far as rooms, the hotel is perfectly square and 35 stories tall. Rooms above the 20th floor and facing directly north have the best views. However, I have heard from Globalists here that the hotel is particularly helpful in assigning those rooms. Keep in mind this is a very tall but thin hotel, with only about 10 rooms on each floor- you're never more than 30 seconds away from an elevator.

lsquare

Originally, I meant the GH SFO. I'm also looking for a Hyatt with good elite recognition in San Francisco itself.

EWR764

I just completed a stay at the renovated HR Downtown/SoMa (former Park Central) and was pleased. Good location for the Moscone (across the courtyard from Marriott Marquis), slightly better for that purpose than GH, IMO. Cool lobby bar, and nice Globalist breakfast in the hotel restaurant "La Societe" while the Regency Club is being finished (to open next month, reportedly). I only had some small bites at the bar for dinner one night, but the brasserie-style French menu looked appetizing and the snacks I had were quite good. There's also a market/coffee shop in the lobby.

The same small-ish rooms, but renovated and appointed with minimalist furnishings, very comfortable bedding. The large floor-to-ceiling windows were retained. Shower/tub combo of the PC has been replaced with handsome tiled showers. Room walls are pretty thin, however, and loud conversation and alarms could be heard (muffled) from adjacent rooms.

IMO, totally comparable to the Embarcadero and GH, and a good option for guests looking for something closer to SoMa or the Moscone. It's also convenient to parts of the Financial District.

MikeBOS

I agree with the general sentiment on this thread that Hyatt in SF is really weak, but disagree about HR Downtown/Soma. I think it's pretty awful, unless all you care about are the rooms. No food service other than a convenience store with limited hours (Globalist breakfast is microwaved breakfast sandwiches), no Regency Club (Marriott has reopened all of theirs in SF, Hyatt none), basically less service than you'd get in a Hyatt House or a Fairfield Inn. This was as of about a month ago; I gather that they've now reopened a full service restaurant for breakfast but still falls short of full service. I think it's a ripoff because they are charging prices comparable to full service properties and would not return until they restore all of these services.

777 global mile hound

The Grand Hyatt Union SQ is all thats left of interest to me @ present with a price point of 220 plus tax or the seasonal award pricing
of 23,000 points equals which equals approx $391.00 if you figure 1.7 a point Thanks to the new irrational seasonal pricing.
With a closed club and poor offerings last time I'm out ATM
The 218 plus taxes for revenue is fair enough if the breakfast was still on point.

I've switched to InterContinental on Howard (no destination fees on award or revenue for all)
As a mere Ambassador for the first time in years they gave me complimentary club access last time.
Can't count on that going forward
I've booked the hotel as low 20,000 points and now about 35k on average making it considerably less
than most similar properties based in this solid 4 star hotel

The program earns 10 points per dollar.So its an incredible bargain
I'm also going to try the Kimpton down in Fisherman's Wharf too next stay as its near one of my favorite restaurants so would be nice to just walk
Do I dare mention 4th award night free with their Premier credit card and a rebate of 10% on award nights if you have the legacy old credit card?
Once disliked their program but I've warmed up to them considerably

lsquare

Too bad IHG doesn't have an LT program.

EWR764

Your stay a month ago sounds a lot like mine while it was still Park Central at the start of the renovation... basically limited service at a nominally FS property. Things have changed for the better.

Now, there is full Globalist breakfast in the restaurant (La Societe). IME it was a high-end buffet plus a few nice a la carte items. The restaurant still has a dinner service. Regency Club is due to open next month ("after Labor Day") after it receives final approvals. I will withhold judgment on the RC until it opens, but my discussion with the front desk manager leads me to believe the delay is not a cost-cutting move (unlike Embarcadero) and they intend to open the RC as soon as it is ready. That combination: a full-service restaurant, convenience store, renovated rooms, Regency Club and good location for certain trips make it a solid HR option in my book.

I did not receive a suite upgrade this time, though it was offered for the last night of my stay (I declined). Of note is that the hotel appeared to be populated substantially by a few large foreign tour groups, which was nice to see unless you find yourself (like me) trying to go up or down to/from the 35th floor around the same time as the group(s).

777 global mile hound

I agree but that said being able to buy Ambassador and Plat status and breaking even once you count in the bogo, promos and points
is so much easier than really committing to the program long term.Perhaps they will some time down the road
The IHG customer service may take the honor of the worlds worst call enter.Has anyone ever done worse in history?
I prefer just as is with my Primary programs and using IHG on the occasion when Hyatt or others is over priced on award or revenue or just
that IHG has the better property in the market

Jed33d

Reading some of the reviews for San Francisco Hyatt options and I'd love to hear your thoughts on options for us. We are coming for a long weekend this summer and haven't been to San Francisco in almost 20 years. Mostly doing some of the touristy things and maybe catch a Giants game and eating some great food. Will be coming in and out of SFO so using BART to/from.

Looking at choices in the downtown area the one's I'm looking at are the Hyatt Regency SOMA ($165/nt), Grand Hyatt SF ($199), and Hyatt Regency SF ($210). There's also the Hyatt Place ($176) and the Hyatt Centric ($212). The Hotel Kabuki ($237) could be an option but seems a bit out of the main part of downtown? Reading some of the reviews on here it seems the SOMA went from not great to much better? My last experience with a Grand Hyatt was in Seattle and it was underwhelming in terms of how old it is (stay itself was good). Also, I am Explorist and could use a Club Access Award to "enhance" our stay and I've never had the opportunity to use one so might as well burn one off my four available. :-)

Just would love to hear some input from folks on the options based on the above info and if either club offering is worth adding versus staying at a non-club hotel. Thanks in advance!

projectmaximus

If I'm not mistaken, the GH and both HRs have their lounges open. Honestly, location-wise these are all (I'm eliminating the centric and kabuki) about the same for getting to/from SFO and Oracle. Some will have a preference between the Embarcadero location and Union Square which is basically where the other two hotels are located. I dunno, honestly it's pretty much a tossup to me. We loved our stay at GH last year. Granted we used an SUA, but also had booked the adjoining twin room for part of the stay which was perfectly well-kept so my impression of the hotel is quite favorable. The lounge was spectacular for views, decent for F&B. I would guess the other two lounges are comparable. If I was returning in your shoes, I'd probably take the SOMA at its cheaper rate, especially if it does have an open lounge as I suspect.

Kacee

I've stayed at all three. None will blow your socks off.

The HR Embarcadero is the best location for your purposes, right across from the water and right on top of Embarcadero BART/Muni. You could also use a lounge award there. All that said, I don't care for the property at all, the single pane windows let in lots of noise and many of the rooms are very sparsely/poorly furnished. The management doesn't care, it's a convention and event-focused property.

Personally, I like the HR Downtown best, as they provide best Globalist treatment, have a very professional and friendly staff, newly renovated rooms, and a decent (not great) breakfast. It's in a decent location, close to both the financial district and union square and 1.5 blocks from nearest BART/Muni station (Montgomery). Suggest reading the thread for more detailed reviews.

GH comes in last for me. It's farthest from BART/Muni. It's traditionally been very stingy with upgrades. Room's highly variable - lots of small oddly shaped rooms. Some have very nice views, but they are very stingy even upgrading to "bay view." Lounge is perennially overcrowded, as it's only about half as big as it needs to be.

poplarflyer

I actually really liked my (one and only) stay at the GH, but I think I got lucky with a room upgrade and had a pleasant (base level) suite. Looking at the Hyatt Privé benefits, I was interested to see that the GH only gives a $50 credit and one category upgrade whereas the HR Downtown SOMA gives a $100 credit an upgrade from 1 King Room to 1 King Suite - so that definitely implies they are more generous in general!

Kacee

The base suites at GH are lower floors with bedroom abutting the elevators. I did a buy-up to one of the premium suites during covid and it was pretty nice, but I'm not a fan of the base suite at all.

freckles123

For someone who has not been to San Francisco in 20 years, you should definitely go to the Hyatt Regency on Embarcadero over the other locations. They also recently underwent a light renovation of the guestrooms

Tweed Jet Set

I've stayed at all three, so here's my thoughts (though two stays were during 2021):

- Grand Hyatt: (Stayed March 2023) Rooms were slightly more dated, but they were still perfectly fine. Pretty good sized room. They gave me a room with a nice view despite not having status. The location is a little less chaotic being a bit farther up the hill from Market Street, but that means a farther walk to BART, etc. There is a new MUNI station very close by, but the frequency on this line at least on the weekend when I was here meant it was just as fast to walk or take the bus, especially if you're connecting off BART. They also have individual toiletries instead of wall mounted ones, if you care about that.

- Hyatt Regency (Embarcadero) (Stayed June 2021): I paid some extra to have a Bay view room, which was really nice, though the room was quite small. The lobby layout of it being on the second floor was especially annoying as the escalator wasn't working, so trips to my room involved two elevator trips from street level. Really huge expansive but dimly lit (iirc) lobby. Glass elevator in classic Hyatt Regency style if you care about that. More of a "wow" factor than the Grand Hyatt especially if you get a Bay View room. They did have a bizarre feature that automatically opened the shades any time you entered the room, I guess to show off the view. Very convenient to Embarcadero BART/Muni station, basically right out in front of the hotel. Close to Ferry Building. You're at the end of Market St, so a little less centrally located in the sense you can only really go in one direction on Market Street.

- Hyatt Regency SoMa (Stayed Dec 2021). I stayed here while it was under construction and transitioning from being a Park Central branded hotel, so the whole lobby set up was weird and under construction, but they were offering good rates at the time because of it. Room was really nice and newly renovated. Very convenient to Montgomery BART station, too.

May want to compare the "Resort fees", iirc there was some variation over what they charge, and I think some of the places actually give you some kind of market credit as part of it and on some you just get free local calls and worthless discounts. Or better yet, hopefully you get them waived