macj86

Since I was coming from Guangzhou, I decided to fly into HGH. Very small airport but large enough to handle the 757. Took a "nice" taxi (i.e. 140 RMB instead of the 80 RMB that I should have paid...no biggie) to the Hyatt. Stayed two nights (Jan 6, 7), went to Suzhou by bus (60 RMB - 2 hours) for two days of business, came back for one more night at the Hyatt (Jan 10).

Those who've said that West Lake is nice have understated it. This may be among the most romantic places I've visited in China (I will find a way to get Mrs. macj86 to come with me soon). I rented a bicycle (18 RMB) for a 1.5 hour ride around the lake and got some incredible pictures. Went to a local Chinese opera...fascinating!

The Hyatt is very nice and the RC is average (meaning very good) for an Asian "regular" Hyatt. Fitness center is acceptable (small room, just enough space, free weights, machines, treadmills, elipticals, etc... Skilled but unintrusive attendants. Great pool and spa areas. Restaurants looked pretty good (I ate breafast and one supper in the Cafe), food was better than the normal hotel food.

All-in-all, very good experience. I'll definitely stay at this property again, if given the chance.

I'm going to try the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong again in a couple of weeks...hopefully all will go well there too.

somuchtosee

I agree, the lake is amazing indeed. It has serene peacefulness to it which I cant really describe. I heard this was a favored place by the artists and poets for thousands of years. I enjoyed it very much and was to go this weekend but had to change the plan to next weekend.

I was very satisfied with The Hyatt. The Club Level rooms were a bit small in my opinion but my SO thought it was a great size. The club offered afternoon munches and cocktails and carried the usual, water, OJ, coke, white and red wine, and some spirits. The breakfast was a bit downer though. It only served cold breakfast. Although it might be an unfare statement as I havent been to Regency and only comparing it to GH or FS. All and all, it was a thumbs up.

macj86

I've noticed the same thing regarding breakfast. Since I gots to have my protein in the morning, I usually book a "Bed and Breakfast" rate if I'm not going to stay at a GH.

(collector geek alert!) During my trek around the lake, I also found 2 starbucks locations and both had the 'coveted' Hangzhou City Mug.

lswcih

Completed a 2 night stay at the HR Hangzhou. To get there I took the express train from Shanghai which took 1 hour and 18 minutes. The "Soft Car" ticket cost 54 yuan...since I had the GH Shanghai reserve my ticket, there was an additional 30 yuan delivery fee added to the ticket. The train ride was very smooth and right on time. When we arrived at Hangzhou....there were probably 75 people in line waiting for taxi cabs. since the wait was indoors...it got pretty warm with all the body heat from all the waiting passengers. The wait was nearly 30 minutes before I got in front of the line for a cab.

When we arrived at the HR Hangzhou, the front desk clerked asked me for my GP Diamond card to prove that I was a Diamond member....this is the first time I've ever been asked for my Diamond card by a hotel.!! I told her that I did not have my card with me. She then escorted me to the Regency Club for check in. One night of my stay was GP points (12,000 points/night) and the second night was a paid night (my first for FFN - 1200 yuan). I asked for a lake view room but they told me I woulod have to pay for the upgrade...but they were willing to put me in a partial lakeview room, i.e, if you look out of the side of the window you can see some of the lake. The room was a little smaller than the room I had at the GH Shanghai. The food in the Regency Club was so, so. It did not have the variety which I found at the GH Beijing or GH Shanghai.

The biggest diappointment of this trip was during my entire stay at the HR Hangzhou it kept raining and raining. So the views of the lake were not what I've seen in pictures...and therefore did not take the boat ride of the lake (decided I did not want to get soaking wet). On the morning of my departure, when I opened my room door I found 4 towels in the hallway floor. The rain was so bad, that it leaked into the ceiling area and into the hallway. The room I was in was right below the Regency Club patio area, so I would guess there must have been some cracking of the concrete seam where the patio joins to the building.

Overall, the stay at the hotel was OK. The biggest disappointment was more due to the weather and not being able to enjoy the lake.

IncyWincy

Stayed there when it first opened, about 2 years ago. It was very new and evn smelled new. The lounge was good, not as good as GH Shanghai (it would be unfair to hold everything up to such high standards), a couple of notches lower, but good enough.

It was the cafe food that was disappointing. Bland cooking, even of Chinese dishes.

ChoChoGaGa

I have visited Hyatt HangZhou many times before and have been quite satisfactory, but my recent stay this past weekend was a disappointment. My stay was 3 nights total, the first 2 nights were paid stay with 1400 RMB and use 6000 points to upgrades to the suite, the 3rd night is on a 12,000 point stay which can't be upgraded to a suite due to a minimum of 3 nights suite upgrade policy on point stay.

When I arrived at the hotel, I was told that the suite for the 1st night was not available. They offered me the deluxe room for the 1st night and will move me to the suite on the 2nd night, and will again have to move me to a standard room on the third night. I told them it is too much moving around and I prefer to just stay at the same room if possible. As such, I took a lower grade room (than a suite) on the first night and second night and hoping that they will just let me stay in the same room on the 3rd night. But after the 2nd night, I was told that I have to either move or pay for the 1400 to stay in the deluxe room, not to mention that there are plenty of suites and deluxe room available since the 3rd night falls on a Monday. As a long time Diamond member, I was not very happy about the treatment especially given that the hotel is widely open and available, and I will leave very early on Tuesday morning. They should just graciously let me stay in the same room and save on the house keeping from changing all the sheets. But after much haggling, I was told that I will have to folk up another 6000 points for the upgrade if I don't want to pay for the 1400 RMB for staying in the same room. I told them that this is not even a suite and I have already over paid for the first two nights, why can't they just let me stay in the room and call it even. The RC club told me I will only be able to stay in the same room if I give them 6000 pts, or they can move me to a suite if I want. They were so hang on to the revenue factor and completely ignore how to properly treat a Diamond member. At that point, I had already spent hours reasoning with at least 3 RC reps and was told that the hotel manager will contact me, but never did. I got so tired and decided that it is easier just to move, but asked at least a standard room with lake view as Diamond should be able to get the upgrade if the room was available. Then again, I was told that I will have to pay for the price differential or they can only give me a partial lake view. I got so fed up and just told them that I won't pay anything more, just give me the best room they can or I will move to another hotel...... Finally, they give me a standard room facing the back hotel apartment, NO partial lake view as they promised, and I felt been cheated.

In addition to the room fiasco, I had to also face another saga for my cashmere sweater which I had left for dry cleaning. I didn't notice there were two small holes resulted from the dry cleaning until I checked out of the hotel. Luckily, my next stay was Hyatt on the Bund in ShangHai and the staff in the Hyatt on the Bund was very helpful to contact the HangZhou Hyatt to resolve the problem. Again, I was very turned off by the slow response and reply from the HZ Hyatt; they tried every tactic to avoid the responsibility at first. At one point, I felt very insulted that not only they were not apologetic; they even implied that the holes were already there before and as if I had tried to be benefited from my misfortune. They caused me many trouble by making me take the picture, find out the manufacturer, purchase date and price of the sweater where at the end only agree to fix it. This is a new sweater and I paid well over $300 for it and I am certainly not pleased that all they agree to do is just to manually sew it. Besides, they didn't even offer to wave the cleaning charge for it after all this. Of course, they couldn't finish it while I was in China because it took them more than a day just to decide what to do. I had to give them my address for them to mail back to me afterwards. I don't hold much hope that the fix will be satisfactory, but I will wait to see before I make further comments.

I had felt very strongly about my mistreatment and the bad services at the HangZhou Hyatt, so called up Hyatt customer service. A case has been filed and Hyatt corporate will investigate this issue and get back to me within 72 hours. I thought I will share my experience here and hope something can be done to shape up the Hyatt HangZhou management so they know how to treat a loyal Diamond member properly.

gregorygrady

Yikes, that's pretty poor. As per the T&Cs, as a Diamond you should have been upgraded to the Best Available Room (excluding Suites), so you should have gotton the Lakeview Deluxe room at no extra charge. And possibly RC access depending on if those were still available for sale...........

I was gonna recommend that you contact Hyatt C.S. about this, and then I read the end of your post and saw that you already did. Good job.......^

paul577

It's not a great hotel, but the location on the lake almost makes up for its lacks. The rooms are not great..small and quite claustrohobic. The food is pretty average, particularly in the coffee shop. But the lounge is quite comfortable and has a reasonable spread. The restaurant outside the hotel (to the right) is great...an old 3 story building with a deck overlooking the lake. I was staying there in July and a colleague with me became ill with a bad flu and couldn't fly as scheduled. the hotel was very helpful..to the extent of a young American staff member going out to buy flu medicines for her.

ChoChoGaGa

The Hyatt customer service representitive was very responsive and helpful. After reviewing the case, the 6000 upgrade GP points were refunded due to my dissatisfaction with the service provided by the rooming staff. However, the "best available room" upgrade policy for Dimond at this Hotel was still very unclear. After a few back and forth emails exchange with the Hyatt concierge, I learned that the upgrade to either a lake view room or the deluxe room at this hotel is completely at the discretion of the hotel, which means, it doesn't follow the Hyatt T & C. In addition, there are different level of Club room at this hotel, the lake view room and deluxe room has extra cost associated, which is confusing. The non-lake view Club rooms, in my opinion, is not worth for the stay.

Please see the attached response from Hyatt concierge.

I am disappointed that Hyatt doesn't enforce consistent “best room available” policy across all sites, but it seems Hyatt doesn't have control over all international properties, which is too bad.

If any Diamond visit HZ Hyatt and got different experience, I would love to know.

jimmychang

I feel for you and thanks for fighting this with GP, but your experience is no exception. In my first stay at HR Hangzhou in 2005, their club lounge was still under construction. So they did put me in a lake view room and offered the free breakfast in the restaurant. In a 2nd visit a year later, the club lounge was open. Then they were only willing to put me in a regualr non-lake view room on the club floor. When I argued that this was actually a downgrade of treatment to Diamond members,they stated that's what's writeen in the T&C that a Diamond is only upgraded to the Club room. So I would have to pay the extra for a lake view room on the club floor. And I did. Similar situation in Grand Hyatt Shanghai, where a Diamond would have to pay for a bund view room because " Diamonds are only entitled to use the lounge" as per the grand club staff. This is the area SPG shines because SPG Platinum equivalent to GP Diamond are also entitled to "Best Available Room" but including the standard suites. So this is no issue in SPG. GP really should change their wordings to " Best Available Room" on the club floor. So the hotels can't get away like this but clearly violate the spirit of T&C and make Hyatt umcompetitive.

gregorygrady

Well, that is the rules. There are a decent amount of properties that have different category Club rooms (for example many Resorts have Partial Oceanview RC or Deluxe Oceanview RC or even Mountainview RC). Any upgrade into an RC is according to their policy. And frankly, SPG's policy is fairly similar in that they can upgrade you to a Suite with no view just like Hyatt can upgrade you to an RC room with no view. It might be nice if a property such as this would give THE CUSTOMER the choice of either a "non-RC Lakeview" or else an "RC-non-view". Then at least it's up to the customer. But probably most customers would pick the RC over the view anyways or pony up a few more bucks if they want to pay for the better view. Cases like yours are how you can distinguish a property with GREAT customer service vs a property with normal customer service. There are some Hyatts I go to that will bend over backwards for you in every possible way (including upgrades). Guess what, I make sure I try to go back to those properties and stay away from properties that are complete sticklers. That's why sites such as FT and TripAdvisor are so valuable so you can find out before booking what the hotel is like.

BTW, I'm glad they refunded your 6k points, that seemed a little shady that they wanted to charge you 6k pts twice and make you go through all the room change non-sense. I've learned after about 6 trips to China in the past 5 years that many hotels in China are like that for some reason. I dunno why but that's how it is. Once you find a good hotel over there that treats you well, STICK TO IT!!!

macj86

Ditto. I've stayed several times at the Dongguan property recently and, especially during FFN, I've told that only bonus code is allowed per visit and that there is no welcome amenity bonus option.

When I mention the t's and c's to the front line employees (and the first level management), I get puzzled looks and the standard Chinese response of "really?" but no resolution.

I merely smile, call CS and have the proper bonus and FFN status handled. When I am tempted to be frustrated, especially during a long trip, I am reminded of how much better, in most cases, the customer service is in Asian properties and just enjoy my stay. It is also helpful to make small talk with the front line employees, practice my poor Cantonese and Mandarin and so on.

curren_yutaka

It is very hard for us to reserve train ticket from Shanghai to Hangzhou. The best way to go there is using plane, I belive.
But the express train is build by Japanese technology very comfortable only in first class coach.

domirule

Shanghai-Hangzhou by plane? I didn't know that such routing existed.

paul577

The point you make about lack of control of international properties is critical...and that is why Starwood will trounce Goldpassport otside the USA. Apart from one or two properties (most notably the Sheraton in Singapore), Starwood seems to consistently apply top quality benefits for platinum members...with Hyatt , outside the US, it's almost a lucky dip. You have absolutely NO IDEA of what to expect when turning up at a Hyatt in Asia/pac. As a Platinum GP ( former Diamond) it's just about nothing other than the room for which you have paid, as a Diamond it's often not more more ( again there are exceptions but few and far between in Asia)