Park Hyatt Buenos Aires = Possibly the Best Hotel in the City

We recently had a 4-night stay at Park Hyatt Buenos Aires which was booked cash & points before Hyatt killed the usefulness of C&P a few weeks ago by changing the required cash portion of such bookings.  I am not familiar enough with Buenos Aires to judge about the relative value of PH BA compared to similar hotels when entry level rooms can go for $400 USD or more; at first glance this seems a bit steep for this city, but I had no hesitation booking C&P knowing I had reasonable chances of a Globalist suite upgrade.  

We arrived around 1pm and were informed that we had been upgraded from the entry level room to a garden view room.  I was a bit surprised because I had seen suites available online and I asked if Globalist suite upgrades were available and I was told no, but that perhaps we could move to a suite the next day.  

I thought the room was in line with PH standards.  I am not sure the exact size but it’s relatively large for a non-suite.  Our room was in a corner therefore had large windows on two sides of the living room and a nice view of the garden.  The hardwood floors matched well with the wood panels on the bed side and the wood door giving access to the bathroom.  You can also have access to the bathroom via the long hallway which first goes in the closet and then in the bathroom.  The bathroom has separate partitions for the shower and the toilet & bidet, in addition to the tub near the sink.  There is a small window above the bathtub which provides some natural light to the bathroom which might have otherwise been a bit dark.  Overall if not being upgraded, this is a very fine room which ensures a comfortable stay.  

Later in the afternoon I was contacted by Guest Services and they informed me that someone in a suite had a late check-out (6pm), that we could move to that room perhaps around 7:30pm, and that it was the reason we were initially not offered a suite upgrade.  It was a different message than what I heard during check-in and I said we’d be happy to move to a different room a few hours later.  

To my surprise we were moved to a Park Deluxe Suite, which is not the lowest category suite.  This room has a separate living room along with a working desk off the entrance of the room so it is a proper suite, not a junior suite.  In order to reach the bedroom you have to walk into the large closet and from there you can access both the full bathroom and the bedroom. The bathroom has two large windows, one on the vanity side and one on the bathtub side which sits behind the vanity. There are two enclosures at the end of the bathroom, one for the toilet and one for the shower, which are similar to those in the first room we had.  The bedroom has two chairs plus a small table near the entrance and in the corner there are windows on part of two walls.  Finally, for convenience there is a small half bathroom in front of the main entrance.  As far as I am concerned, a suite in a luxury hotel is not complete without having that half bath.  I would estimate that the Park Deluxe suite is about twice the size of the first room we had and we were quite pleased with the extra space, considering that I did not even use a Globalist suite upgrade award because I had read before that the standard suite is more akin to a junior suite which led me to believe that PH BA was not the best hotel to use an upgrade; I wanted to save my upgrades for 2019.  

We had good sleep 3 of the 4 nights.  During one night, winds were quite strong and there was a whistling noise in the windows disturbing our sleep for a few hours. The issue is that several years ago I guess it was possible to open the windows looking at how they are set up. Now it is no longer possible to open them but they were designed to be opened, so with strong wind there are small gaps and windows are not fully hermetic.  This would generally not be an issue with a newer and more modern construction.  

Another consequence of this hotel being an older construction is that soundproofing is not at the level I would expect for a hotel in this price range.  We could hear other rooms flushing their toilet, we could hear muted noise of footsteps in the room above us, and some guests talking on our floor.  Nothing major but once again the more recent Park Hyatts generally better soundproofing.  

The other mild negative are the bathroom amenities. The shampoo, soap, etc. are not the standard Park Hyatt products and are rather something local which is far inferior. I can understand generic bathroom amenities for the cheaper Park Hyatts for example some in China, but given that PH BA generally costs over 400 USD (especially a deluxe suite would be over 600-700 USD) then more should be expected.  In addition, for a hotel of this caliber I expect mouthwash, razors, and/or toothbrushes to be available, but there were none in the room.  You could just call to have some delivered to the room which is only a minor inconvenience. 

Breakfast is free for Globalists, both the buffet and a la carte menu, with generous hours 6:30am to 11am.  I am not a frequent traveler to South America so I am not in the best position to judge how good breakfast was relative to local norms. I thought it was ok but not great especially if I compare to Asian hotels which is probably not a fair comparison. There was a decent selection of fruits and the menu was mostly North American with eggs, sausages, bacon, etc. The first morning they had a couple of Asian options, one was congee and the other was fried noodles with vegetables. However we found out that they had those dishes only because there was a Chinese group that day.  On subsequent mornings they did not have Asian dishes. Also when we went to the buffet to get a refill of the noodles around 10:45am we were surprised that they were gone already. We asked one staff and he said too late, the Chinese group is gone so they will not replenish the noodle dish. A few minutes later our server asked if we wanted something before 11am and since I was not sure if there had been a communication gap due to subpar English, I asked again about the noodles and they said no problem; they brought two more dishes freshly prepared from the kitchen 10 minutes later just for us which was even better than expected.  On the last morning we asked if we could have something a bit different than the egg choices on the menu and this was no problem.  In addition they also brought up an off the menu appetizer of avocadoes on toast along with salt and tomatoes, without us even asking.  It was delicious and a nice touch on their part.  

As mentioned we are not experts about BA, but we thought the location of the hotel is very good.  The neighborhood is upscale and there are several shops and restaurants within walking distance.   

The gym is a bit small for a hotel of this size but fortunately it was not crowded when we went there.  

Service in the hotel is great.  Only two times we had a very minor issue such as the lack of upgrade at check-in or the removal of the noodle dish at breakfast, but they more than made up for it so it turned out great.  I should mention also that housekeeping was very thorough and was done exactly at the time we requested each day.  Late check-out 4pm was granted without any issue.  

Overall we were pleased with our stay and we can recommend this hotel.  I am not sure if 400 USD per night is good value for the money in this city and I am not aware of how PH compares with the nearby Sofitel for example, but if I return to BA I would be more confident about room upgrades at PH than at Accor properties so I would probably stick with PH again even if it is moderately more expensive than Sofitel.