Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine (Vineyard Creek) , Santa Rosa, CA - REVIEW - MASTER THREAD
Sep 26, 2018, 12:48 am
Still having CS issues with them over a left item. I notified them within 15 minutes of my scheduled check out time via the app that I left a charger/cable in the room plugged in next to the bed, never heard back from them, left another message 3 hours later, never heard back from them, called and spoke to front desk, they offer to email HK manager, so I asked to speak to a manager, connected to GMs voice mail, never heard back, this was a Friday afternoon. The weekend passes without any contact, sometime Monday afternoon when our flight was landing on Maui, HK manager calls me to say she can't understand my messages, I call back, tell her what I said here so far and haven't heard back from them yet. Imagine if somebody left something valuable in a room there?)
Hotel goes on my "avoid" list for now due to service. Physically, renovated rooms are ok. Will be better when they get the restaurant open.
Apparently they want the income from events and guests during their renovation and I certainly hope they change management teams once the renovation is complete. They meed to send their team to Santa Clara for training.
The 2nd evening of our 2 night stay, there was some sort of event going on in the hotel. The parking lot was full, cars were parked pretty much everywhere, in some cases probably blocking access by emergency vehicles. Eventually found somebody leaving, so we took their spot. Can't imagine what the parking situation is going to be like when the renovation is done. Doesn't appear to be any more room for additional parking other than a few spots with construction equipment.
Maybe it will get better when the reno is complete? Stayed there because it was a Hyatt and the price was right. And it was a convenient location for us.
-David
Last edited by LIH Prem; Sep 26, 2018 at 12:53 am
Dec 2, 2018, 4:15 pm
Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country
170 Railroad Street Santa Rosa, California US 95401
Very disappointing stay with uneven service and hard product failures (16 Photos)
Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country
Business in town and the chance to dine at SingleThread in Healdsburg led me to choose this Hyatt--the only real full service upscale hotel in the area. I usually would choose a Marriott brand property since I have Ambassador status, but the Courtyard across the street being limited service wasn't appealing. So I settled on this Hyatt, which last I visited for a stay some 6 years prior.
The hotel needed renovation on my last stay, and the hotel apparently has just come out of a renovation and addition of a new tower building.
Unfortunately, the new buildng and facilities look good but have many problems. The stairwells were filthy. And hallway lighting would go out suddenly for no reason during a storm--even as there was no interruption in power in my room at all. My room thermostat had a mind of its own and constantly reset to 85 F despite about 5 engineer visits. My room’s showerhead dropped so badly that it made the shower look uncleaned even on my first arrival, and apparently was so poorly done that it couldn’t be fixed even after an engineer visit. Not so impressive for new construction.
It is a lovely lobby/front desk/bar area on entry:
Parking was fine, but a bit crowded. There is valet parking for the same rate as regular daily parking, but I wasn't trusting the team here.
Check In
Check in was fine and friendly. Though booked for $131 in a double queen room, the FDA kindly moved me to a single king bed room in the new tower building. I did inquire if she knew the air con was better in the new buildingm, since I required excellent air con; she assumed it would be.
Since it turned out later that everyone knew there were problems with the new tower room thermostats resetting, it is quite disappointing that I was placed in one without warning even after mentioning my requirement for excellent air con.
Room
The room looked good...but had serious flaws.
The entry hallway:
The small but efficient bathroom:
The closet/bar area (with blinking light in the refrigerator being a very annoying feature!):
The bedroom area:
The view onto the parking lot wasn't so exciting (or quiet):
The air con seemed to work great:
Unfortunately, the air con would of its own mind reset to 85 F for no reason despite my setting it for 65 F or cooler and on hold. This became quite a service issue as it happened repeatedly during the first 24 hrs of my stay despite many engineer visits that supposedly corrected it.
Shower pressure was weak and quite disappointing, made all the worse by a constant dripping from the shower head that left the shower constantly looking wet (even on my first arrival) and which made for an irritating noise. Fortunately, my dinner at SingleThread the first night (and concomitant wine pairing!) left me unable to notice it while sleeping, but it was quite evident the next day. The fact that a new building had such an annoying leak didn’t speak to good craftsmanship. The fact that it couldn’t be fixed spoke even more poorly about the new hotel construction.
Street noise was also a surprising problem. I could hear parking alarms and other traffic noise quite easily from the room. One would think new construction to the Regency standard would include double paned windows to insulate for noise, but that clearly wasn’t the case.
Clearly, this new tower building was built quite on the cheap. It showed in so many ways, it’s stunning how poor the construction choices were.
Wifi was a decent 15 Mbps up and down. Once the engineer caught flack from management that they hadn't sorted the air con issue, the air con was set to 60 F and remained at that setting for the rest of my final night. Relief...after almost 36 hrs. Not impressive.
Service
Service was an issue here. Everyone was friendly and trying to be helpfull But the moment anything went wrong, the team fell to pieces and really didn't seem to know how to handle things. Even management seemed to be a bit inadequate in this regard, though they did pull through in the end.
On arrival, the room refrigerator light was blinking on and off--it was very off putting. It took 2 engineer visits to get it corrected for some strange reason.
I also noticed housekeeping hadn't emptied two of the trash cans even on my arrival. Minor, but gross.
The air con was a big problem. Despite being set at 65 F, the air con had reset to 85 F on my return the first night after my dinner--I assumed it just did that because I was out of the room, but I was wrong. It also reset again in the middle of the night, causing me to awaken at 6:30 am to 75 F. (I require it to be 67 F or cooler to sleep, and I always guarantee that before booking at any hotel.) I called to have it fixed, and the engineer came--and then it came again after it reset yet again. Twice more. It actually reset to 85 F in front of me while I was on the phone complaining for the 4th time! So I knew there was a problem. Then, suddenly, while still on the phone, it reset again to 61 F. Something was amiss for sure.
The engineers apparently fixed it finally by the time I returned on the second night, as it was set to 61 F and didn't move from that setting to my departure. But the whole matter was handled poorly--no real apology that the air con wasn't working, even after one FDA indicated they knew there was a problem in the tower. Why did they put me in the tower with known air con issues if they knew I wanted excellent air con?
Other minor service issues: the shower in my room was constantly dripping, something I fortunately didn't notice until the first morning. But it got worse it seemed through the day. On calling an engineer to fix it, he came twice and then disappeared. I had to call and ask and was told they couldn't fix it and might I like a new room. For my last night again on a 2 night stay, just after the air con finally had been fixed. I wasn't willing to endure a room change with poor air con, so I didn't bother. No more apology or anything offered for the inconvenience yet again.
Room service was actually pretty good--timely and efficient, always brough to me within 20-30 min. But calling room service was an exercise in frustration, waiting for 20-30 rings and no changeover back to the front desk even. So I constantly was calling and hanging up, calling the front desk and being called back by room service. Not impressive at all.
Room service usually got the details right, but they also served me an egg white omelette that wasn't egg whites. The nice girl offered to comp the bill when I said I had to go and couldn't wait for another order.
When I had asked to speak to the front office manager, I was told he wouldn't be in until 3 pm the first full day. I waited, but I never heard from him. I had to call my final morning to speak with him--the fact that he hadn't reached out to me first is disappointing. He knew what had transpired and let me know that 4000 points were added to my Hyatt account. I was insulted, and I told him so. I expected 1/3 or 1/2 of the first night's room rate should be discounted based on the air con fail alone. He agreed. Then when I told him about all the other issues, he did offer to comp the entire first night. That was appropriate IMO, but it took him a while to get to what was appropriate. I wasn't so impressed.
Overall, this is a Hyatt House dressed up nicely but not with the standards one usually associates with a Hyatt Regency. It didn't even operate as a regular Hyatt hotel IMO. Very lackluster service standards all around IMO.
Dining
Food was solid when the got it right. I ordered room service breakfast twice, and room service lunch and dinner as well.
The cheese cake was quite good, actually.
Location
The hotel is conveniently located just 10-15 min south of the Sonoma STS airport and right in walking distance to some nice restaurants in town. It was a mere 10 min from any of my meetings in town. It also was just 15-20 min south of Healdsburg, where we had dinner at SingleThread.
Overall
Overall, I was pretty disappointed with the Hyatt Regency Sonoma. Its service standard was lacking on many fronts, and its new hard product was uneven and had all sorts of problems. It wasn’t an expensive stay, but I've had far superior Hyatt Regency and Sheraton/Le Meridien/Westin/Renaissance stays for comparable rates.
I am unsure as to whether I'd return. The hotel needs to fix its hard product and cleanliness issues, and it also needs to do some serious service training for its staff. And perhaps its management, as well.
Jan 9, 2019, 2:19 pm
Jan 9, 2019, 3:06 pm
Jan 9, 2019, 4:29 pm
Jan 9, 2019, 4:32 pm
Either way, thanks for correcting that. Now I feel much better in my original assessment of this hotel!
Mar 16, 2019, 1:29 am
- What room type (i.e. Sonoma Suite, 1 King, 2 Queen, etc.) were you in (they've changed the names since I was last here)?
- New wing or original building?
- Did the room have a shower only, shower stall w/separate tub, shower+tub combo (typical hotel style), or large/deep soaking tub?
and my SO wants a tub deep or long enough to soak in, which those rooms use to have a spa jet tub. Two separate calls to the FD got mixed answers.
The spa tubs are supposedly all gone, but replaced by...what? Was told all King rooms are supposedly shower-only (which doesn't make sense for what use to be called the Exec. King suite, which had a shower w/separate tub)? Then, of course, there are the ADA rooms with "ADA Tub." And, are we talking the new wing or old?
Hotel website is not much help. In fact, it is possibly misleading, as there is a pic showing what looks like a renovated former Exec. King suite with a new deep (non-spa) tub, but no description of what room type that is now called. Thanks all!
Mar 18, 2019, 8:47 pm
All these rooms were booked by a group when I arrived so I was given a room on the top floor of the new building. This room was much different with pros and cons. To see pictures of the new rooms go through this thread.
Pros: Room was quiet, bed was comfortable, tv was huge, balcony and view over looking downtown was great.
Cons: Room was small overall and the Bathroom was much smaller. I prefer the shower in the junior suites in the original building.
I hate that this property still does not have a business center. I don't normally bring my laptop for a weekend but usually
have to print boarding passes and work documents. The front desk is very accommodating but I usually end up doing this at the Courtyard Marriott across the street. The tradeoff is that they waived my parking chsrges.
Breakfast in the restaurant is excellent here and the vouchers I received also worked for room service. A huge benefit as far as I'm concerned.
Overall a good stay. Given the choice I'd probably pick the junior suite in the original building. This property has always been great about upgrading me without using one of my suite upgrades.
Jun 1, 2019, 4:40 pm
Breakfast here was HORRIBLE, honestly the breakfast at a Hyatt place is better. There was a small corner of maybe 4 chafing dishes designed to feed close to 50 guests at a time. The restaurant staff didn't replenish the food for the hour or so that I was there.
Gym was decent, but not at all on the same level as the Kabuki.
Jun 1, 2019, 7:12 pm
Breakfast here was HORRIBLE, honestly the breakfast at a Hyatt place is better. There was a small corner of maybe 4 chafing dishes designed to feed close to 50 guests at a time. The restaurant staff didn't replenish the food for the hour or so that I was there.
Gym was decent, but not at all on the same level as the Kabuki.
Jun 2, 2019, 4:31 am
Nothing this property does would surprise me.
Jun 2, 2019, 9:14 am
The hotel was busy as it was memorial day weekend and the chafing dishes were almost always empty. Even the bagel drawer was empty. It was an embarrassment.
Jun 2, 2019, 9:33 am
In the future: order off menu, charge to room, ask front desk to remove. If necessary... escalate. Your are 100% in the right. The higher you have to escalate the more you’ll receive (i.e. Hyatt points). Plus the hotel will be reprimanded (and probably charged for the Hyatt points you were given) and this will correct the situation for all of us.
Jun 2, 2019, 10:26 am
- Relax in the Club lounge with continental breakfast and evening hors d’oeuvres daily. Or, enjoy complimentary full breakfast daily for each registered guest (up to 2 adults and 2 children) at Hyatt hotels and resorts without a Club lounge.