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Grand Hyatt New York
Grand Hyatt New York is located right in Midtown Manhattan, above Grand Central Terminal on 43rd Street. Nearby higher-end Hyatt properties include Andaz 5th Avenue and Park Hyatt New York, both within 1 mile.
Booking
This hotel is a Hyatt Category 6 property. If you want to redeem points, it costs 20,000 Gold Passport points, or 12,500 points plus $150. I paid cash for a standard room and did not use points or a free night certificate. I checked in on Saturday and checked out on Monday. On the weekend I stayed, rates were not too expensive: $279 before tax, which is quite reasonable for Manhattan.
Because I was a Hyatt Diamond member at the time (matched at the end of the previous year), and I could never use up my 4 annual suite upgrade awards (DSUs), I looked into using one here. At this Grand Hyatt, the suite upgrade award could only be applied to the smallest suite category, the Junior Suite. The room size was a shocking... 37 square meters... But the catch was that a DSU could only be used if the suite was being sold. In reality, there were no Junior Suites for sale on Saturday, so I couldn’t apply the DSU.
Fortunately, a week later, Junior Suites opened up for sale again for both weekend nights, so I quickly called in and added the DSU to this reservation.
Check-in Experience
Surprises always happen when you least expect them. Three days before check-in, I received a welcome email from the hotel. But this email had a weirdly mafia-like vibe to it. The whole thing was just one image, the font looked bizarre, and the photos of the three managers at the bottom were unintentionally creepy, with the proportions distorted.
After staying two nights at Westin Times Square, I dragged my suitcase over to this Grand Hyatt after lunch. The lobby area, renovated in 2011, looks very modern. It also features a pair of distorted-head sculptures (one appears on the left side in the photo below). They are reportedly works by Jaume Plensa. As someone with no artistic sensibility, I naturally didn’t get it. But his Wikipedia page is full of similarly surreal sculptures if you’re curious.
The lobby is enormous, with many check-in counters, and it immediately feels like a hotel built to handle large crowds. (Grand Hyatt is Hyatt’s brand with the largest room counts.) There was a tiny sign pointing toward the check-in line for Hyatt Platinum and Diamond members, but it was very easy to miss. There wasn’t even a carpet marking it, so unless you asked, you probably wouldn’t find it.
About halfway through check-in, the front desk agent cheerfully told me that the Junior Suites were sold out, sold out, sold out... and that I should come back later in the afternoon because they’d give me something even better. Two minutes later, I was sent next door to store my luggage. There was a sign at baggage storage saying that if you store luggage on your checkout day, there is a fee (tip not included), and it claimed this was a New York hotel union rule. Something to keep in mind when staying in New York.
(Fast forward to the afternoon...)
When I returned to the hotel, I went straight to the front desk to check in. I chose the 1,000-point Diamond welcome amenity. My room had been upgraded to a Premier Suite, the highest suite category other than the Presidential Suite, at 93 to 130 square meters. And the hilariously odd room number, 3322, was a sign that this was not going to be an ordinary hotel stay.
Room
When you open the room door, there is a bathroom immediately behind you on the right.
To the left as you enter is a small sitting area, with a sofa large enough to sleep on.
A little farther in is a bar counter and another dining table, large enough for eight people to eat at. Off to the side is yet another table and a sofa that wasn’t especially comfortable.
From the left side of the living room, you can enter the bedroom area, which faces the main bathroom. There is also a small TV built into the middle of the glass.
Next to the bathroom is a shower room.
Directly across from the bathroom is the bedroom, with a small sofa next to the bed.
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Grand Club Lounge
The Grand Club is on the 16th floor, and you need to tap your room key in the elevator to access it.
The Grand Club serves a continental breakfast every morning, and drinks in the evening. It closes at 10 p.m.
First, here’s some of the food. This is the Grand Club breakfast buffet.
Out of frame, there was also smoked salmon and more. Hyatt breakfasts always seem to follow the same formula.
There is also an outdoor terrace just outside the Grand Club, where you can eat and drink outside. But it had rained a bit on the day I visited, so there weren’t many people out there.
Gym
On the top floor of the hotel is a Stay Fit gym. It is long and narrow, but for a hotel gym, it is quite large.
Bonus
Think the review ends here? There’s one last bonus.
On the first night of my stay, I returned to the hotel and couldn’t find my room. Seriously—had room 3322 mysteriously disappeared from the 33rd floor?! After several minutes of detective work worthy of a TV mystery show, I finally discovered the problem: my room number plaque hadn’t been attached properly and had fallen onto the floor...
As if that weren’t enough, on the night before checkout, the hotel slipped a notice under every room door saying there would be emergency maintenance and the entire hotel’s water would be shut off. Guests were politely invited to prepare some extra water themselves.
Summary
Aside from those two complimentary “bonus surprises,” Grand Hyatt New York is still a pretty good hotel. The facilities have been nicely renovated, and the property has a huge number of rooms. The location is excellent, sitting right above Grand Central Terminal with direct access to trains and subways going in all directions. Sitting outside at the Grand Club is especially pleasant. Because the hotel is so large, the fitness and leisure facilities are also quite extensive. The in-room electronic control system is fairly advanced as well—you can control the lighting modes for the whole room from the bedside touchscreen, which is very convenient. While the stay didn’t wildly exceed expectations, it was still a solid place to stay. When New York hotel prices are high, this can be a good points redemption option: 20,000 Gold Passport points (transferable from Chase Ultimate Rewards) is a very good deal if cash rates are above $400+. Of course, if you have an unrestricted free night certificate from the Chase Hyatt credit card, I’d still suggest heading out and booking Park Hyatt New York instead.
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