Hyatt Regency Vancouver - REVIEW - MASTER THREAD
 

I just booked some award reservations for the Vancouver Hyatt for later this year and on my confirmation there was a note saying the Regency Club will be closed after breakfast beginning December 10, 2005.

Has anyone stayed here recently to confirm this info.? Also looking for a email contact. Thanks.

Yes, I believe they are closed until March? Not sure on the exact date. I find using points in the summer here is pretty good value! They have excellent Regency Club staff in my opinion.

I contacted HR Vancouver and they said they didn't know whether the RC remodeling would be finished by May. Any car rental offices near the hotel??

A few things I can add -- I stay at this hotel most weeks:

1. The RC is closed until some time in March (or later). But the news isn't all bad! In the meantime, they give you free breakfast coupons to use at the Mosaic Bar & Grille. The good news here is that it's not for a continental breakfast, but a full-out, a la carte, whatever you want off the menu. I presume this is only offered to Diamond members. I agree with others, however, that this hotel does have excellent RC staff, and their absence is felt.

2. The hotel currently has about 50% of its rooms open, as the others are being remodeled. I spoke to the GM and he predicts that the first of the new rooms will open sometime in March. I did not hear specifically about the RC, so not exactly sure on when it will reopen. I did have a preview of the new rooms, and I think you'll be very pleased when you come for a stay later this year.

3. I typically rent from Avis, and there is a rental location tucked behind the Hotel Vancouver on Howe St. The Hotel Vancouver is kitty corner to the Hyatt, so it's very easy to get to.

yyzDJ, thanks for the information. I've made my Avis reservation already. I had one more question. Do you which RC floor rooms have the large balcony?

When in Vancouver one does not usually need a car due to walkability, excellent public transit & the high cost of parking--think Chicago, Toronto, New York.
I usually do downtown when I go & save the suburban/ outlying stuff for the beginning or ending day or 2--so I rent a car one-way airport to downtown or vv.
Come to think of it, sounds like this is already HS's plan!

Hey There,

I'm not there this week, so I can't say with absolute certainty, but I'm quite sure that the XX01 rooms all have the large balcony. There are definitely 3 more on the floor, and I'll try to confirm them for you on my next visit.

Cheers!

I just returned from my stay at the HR Vancouver and I am very pleased. The Hyatt is still going thru construction but I did get 2 of the new renovated rooms. I slept very well on the new Grand Beds. I found the rooms here to be large too. The staff is great here too. The new rooms here are a great use of GP points.

Great news on renovation. We're there in July for the Folk Festival and we'll be happy to get a better bed. ;)

As for parking, we are there on the weekends and there seems to be pretty decent on street parking around there later at night.

lala

In case you can't find street parking, valet or self park at the Hyatt is $24/CAD per day.

Am at this property now. The staff couldn't be more kind and helpful.

Entire Rgcy. club floor is still closed for another few weeks or so. Room renovations are being done starting with upper floors -- not all of which are open. Renovated rooms have rather stark decor -- lots of black, gray, white -- sort of like sleeping in an office. Some minor operational glitches with the new rooms but nothing serious if you like this decor. Also, flat panel TVs installed and granite shower with overhead shower head built into ceiling.

If you receive bkfst coupons, make sure you receive the ones for a full bkfst, including the buffet, which is better than many HY bkfst buffets. Our plan included a "full American bkfst" and the desk gave us coupons for a "Canadian bkfst" which we thought was the same. Not so. Costs $7/pp extra to "upgrade"; but when I explained our rate plan to the Mosaic mgr., she honored the coupons w/o extra charge.

I was looking towards staying here on Sat June 3 but was getting a rate around C$400 and forgot to call Hyatt CS to see if there is award availability so ended up staying at the Hampton Inn on Robson. Oh well, missed opportunity since my last stay at Hyatt Vancouver was in 2002 and that was before making Diamond and also during a renovation I think.

I was 3 nights at the Hyatt - parked the car 2 nights and "saved" $24/CAD for one night and parked the car on the main street, 200 feet from the hotel... and somebody broke in and took all from the luggage department, nothing really important (couple of wine bottles and food from an Indian shop). It was an Impala from National car rental. The car was again closed by the thieves, no scratches, nothing. Never again - we were just lucky.
BTW, we went to an excellent fish restaurant, about 300 yards away, near corner of Robson .. the best salmon we ever had. We had to make a reservation through Hyatt in order to get a seating. Forgot the name .. it's a two-story venue, owner/director is an African-American. Excellent food, first class service.

IMO Vancouver has some of the worst car prowls in North America. I have been broken into several times; in public parking garages, garages with guard dogs, etc. I think many people make a living by breaking into cars there. I have never been broken into in the hotel garages but they charge to darn much but sometimes if you can get an after 6 pm weekend rate but only until 6 am and then it than it goes hourly again.

Any updates on this property. I will be staying here from 06/30 to 07/04 and am hoping that the Regency Club will be reopened by that time. Also, of course having one of the refurbished rooms would be nice, the place was starting to look very tired.

Also, can anyone tell me their experiences here as a diamond member in terms of upgrades, I have always received a regency club room but never a suite, hoping to use a suite upgrade certificate for this stay though.

I stay fairly often. The front desk greet me by name before I even get to the counter - always impresses me! The hotel's location is very good! It is in the heart of town, close to great restaurants and entertainment.

I have always been given a regency club level room when they are open. I have only once been able to snag a suite and that was using a coupon. I don't think they have many suites, and they are pretty hard to come by.

The new rooms have new carpet, a restyled more modern layout and flat LCD tv's. I was told the regency club should be open soon.. The club staff are excellent as are the hotel staff.

I was surprised to find out so many people have had problems with parking on the street here. I often park on the street as I arrive about 8:00 pm and leave at about 9:00 am, so I use the free street parking all the time. I have never had any problems. Perhaps it is cars with "US" plates or "Rental" stickers that get broken into. Parking is very expensive in this area, and I think it is something like $25 cdn per night.

Pro's
Staff
Location
RC staff
Cheap point rate, I think 8000 per night

Con's
Cost per night in the summer
Parking rates high

Fish and Co or Lucy Mae Brown?

No, Joe Fortes
http://www.joefortes.ca/

Thanks for this post - I checked and it indeed is 8000 points per night - so I reserved it for my pre-cruise end of August - was planning on using stay certificates (at $165) since cheapest rates on hyatt.com was like $300.

New to Hyatt and would appreciate some insight from experienced members. We expect to be staying in Business Plan room in mid-September. Can someone tell me how this differs from Preferred View room? I know the site gives a nice description of the Preferred, but says almost nothing about the Business Plan rooms except they're on 30th floor, so it's difficult to compare.

Also, I cannot find any way to search for Club level rooms. How would I find out the price difference from Business? And, is it worth the difference?

Thanks!!

I believe that at most Hyatt's any room can be made a Business Plan room - which includes free local calls, continental breakfast, and free high speed internet. Usually Regency Club Rooms (normally dedicated rooms) are slightly higher rate than the Business Plan rooms with access to the Regency Club (which has continental breakfast and appetizers in the evenings) - but no free local calls and no free high speed internet. Whether the additional cost is worth it to you depends on what your preferences are.

We had a pretty good stay at the HR Vancouver on Friday and Saturday. We had a renovated room on the 27th floor (corner with a balcony). The room is fine, nicely decorated and the bed is very comfortable. The bathrooms look great and I love the showerhead in the middle of the tub. TH wasn't that taken, but then admitted it was okay. They delivered robes when we asked and refreshed our toiletries regularly.

They were apologetic about the state of the carpets in the hallways, they are atrocious and soon to be redone.

The things I didn't like were that that we must have been on a smoking floor because I could smell smoke while I was showering and that the lighting is all tied in to the main light switch, meaning if you wanted to read in bed, you would have to get up to turn off the light.

The RC looks exactly the same, nice staff and okay breakfast. We left at 8:30 in the am and didn't get back until 11 each night, so I didn't see any evening service.

We did manage to find on street parking both nights and our car was not molested in any way.

The tim hortons directly across from the entrance is a great thing.

lala

Something doesn't sound right with the last post. The Regency Club has been closed for quite a while. I'm a frequent Diamond traveller here. I just checked in last night for a 2 week trip and I got a rather large envelope of breakfast coupons to use as I need. The front desk did confirm that the RC is still closed and under renovations.

Okay, I am not hallucinating. I was there on the weekend and I received RC access and it was the same old crap - cold breakfast, coffee to go and an exceedingly loud tv that no one was watching. The 29th floor and we were in Vancouver. :rolleyes:

It was a weekend, does that help?

Anyone have any updates on the renovations?

When I was there 4 months ago I had a room on the 8th floor and it was an old style room. 2 months ago I had a room on the 21st and it was renovated with the plasma TV, shower from the ceiling, etc. Has the whole hotel been completed yet? If not, what floors shoud I stay away from?

This is not very recent but I was there late in August 2006, and the RC had reopened and the RC floor was completely renovated. I would think that at this point, the whole property has been done. Since your profile indicates that you are a Diamond, I think the chances of you being in a non-renovated room is virtually nil. Hopefully someone who has been there more recently can chime in.

I believe that they are - our corporate rate got bumped up :) Just ask for a room on a high floor, as they did the renovations top-down. My last 2 stays there (August 2006 and October 2006) I have been in a renovated room.

I would say that a year after they started they should have finished their renos. We're there again for the VFMF in July, I'll report back.

lala

I was there in February. I didn't notice any renovations going on. My stay was perfect. Good gym. Fine Regency Club. Excellent hotel location.

anyone recollect what the toiletries were? TH is not a fan of the white ginger, so I may just pack our own.

Hyatt Regency Vancouver Review - August 2007
 

Remodeling is finished, I believed.

I nailed a recent TravelZoo promo $119 CAD/night during the prime August 2007 travel season.

Hotel is very conveniently located. It is a short walk to Robson Street. It is right next to the Burrard Skytrain station.

They got those self-service check-in kiosks in the lobby. We didn't use it as the check-in clerks were not doing anything, and they were very helpful.

Individually, thermostatic controlled room.

The room decor felt like a boutique hotel. Flat screen TV. There was also a fancy radio with an iPod docking station.

Our room had an excellent view of the Fairmont. Very large windows. Beds were Grand Hyatt bed from Sealy, I believe.

Bathroom: I felt it needed more towel racks. But, it was decorated nicely. The walls and floor had a dark rock-looking type of finish.

Wireless web access: $9.95/24 hour

Pro: Stocked fridge mini-bar in room. You can move things around w/o getting charged.:) We use the fridge mini-bar to chill our outside drinks.^

Con: The ice and soda machine are not located on every floor. They are key accessed on another floor.:td:

Great gym. New equipment.


For those arring late and very, very hungry, there is a 24 hour McD's right next to the hotel.

Hotel had a cafe in the lobby. And, I believe there was a bar also.

Also, those wishing to take the YVR scheduled bus to and from the airport, the bus does stop in the bus area next to the hotel.

A very good stay, and we hope return again someday.

I'll be staying at this property in early Feb '08...I will report back.

BTW, I heard the RC is closed until March '08...is this true?!

The RC was open in December, but the RC gals told me that it would be closed late in December. The RC staff is top notch as is ALL the staff at the hotel.

Although in my opinion the hotel is a good quality Hyatt, it is the customer service from the staff that makes this a very good Hyatt in my opinion. Diamonds are always recognized and I have always been given regency club access on every stay! If you ask for something the staff will do there best to make it happen and will do so promptly. (I think they should invite the staff at the Grand Hyatt in New York to visit so they can see HOW staff should provide customer service)

Anyhow the rooms are fine, they have been renovated and have flat screen TV's and you will get breakfast certificates that should give you enough off for most breakfast items. The restaurant is probably the weak point in the hotel. However, the hotel is located in the heart of the city and many great places to eat and drink are within walking distance.

The hotel does not have many suites so don't even bother asking about one.

Suite Upgrades at Hyatt Regency Vancouver, BC (pics inside)
 

I just finished a four night stay at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada.

I was upgraded to an "executive suite", room 3307, on the 33rd floor. I would say my suite was about the size of two regular guest rooms. I know this hotel has some other suites which are bigger...about the size of 3 regular guest rooms.

If you want an upgrade to a suite, contact the reservations manager directly. I think suites are at this hotel are very limited, so contact her before arriving.

and now to the pictures!

Views from my suite:
http://www.robspics.com/gallery2/mai...serialNumber=1
http://www.robspics.com/gallery2/mai...serialNumber=1
http://www.robspics.com/gallery2/mai...serialNumber=1
http://www.robspics.com/gallery2/mai...serialNumber=1
http://www.robspics.com/gallery2/mai...serialNumber=1


Pictures of the suite:
http://www.robspics.com/gallery2/mai...serialNumber=1
http://www.robspics.com/gallery2/mai...serialNumber=1
http://www.robspics.com/gallery2/mai...serialNumber=1
http://www.robspics.com/gallery2/mai...serialNumber=1
http://www.robspics.com/gallery2/mai...serialNumber=1
http://www.robspics.com/gallery2/mai...serialNumber=1

Personally I am against this practice of having to contact each and every hotel beforehand to ensure proper upgrades. Most of my international stays are on SPG and IC this year due to the fact that they seem to appreciate elites and upgrades to suites are a guaranteed benefit of the program.

I like to call ahead of time to make sure I get what I want :)

No suprises.

What is the best way from the airport to the hotel? Taxi? About how much does it cost?

Is the lounge open? There seemed to be some to and fro-ing as to whether the lounge would remain open.

Are there decent restaurants in walking distance from the hotel?

The public bus that goes to the airport stops very close to the hotel (maybe 100 ft walk). It is $2-3.50 (depending on time of day). Of course, you have to take the free shuttle from the airport to the main bus terminal where you then catch the bus to downtown terminal. I don't know about the status of the train link to the airport, but there is also a train station right by the bus stop close to the Hyatt as well.

There is a big & decent dim sum restaurant very close to the hotel (but the Asian restaurants in Richmond tend to be better).

Parking
 

Is there alternative parking in the area other than at the hotel? I think the hotel charges about $25/day.