Review: Hyatt House London Stratford – my new go-to London hotel

A couple of the gifts I got my wife for Christmas were tickets to see Josh Johnson (stand up comedian & The Daily Show presenter) at the London Palladium, as well as tickets to see the new theatre production of The Hunger Games: On Stage at Canary Wharf in London.

(Side note: The Hunger Games production was excellent, so I’d recommend getting tickets if you’re a fan of the books and/or movies. It’s in a newly-built theatre in Canary Wharf, with the stage in the center of the theatre. As a result, there’s not a bad seat in the house (see the photo at the end of this review). For Liverpool fans and/or those who watch Champions League coverage on Paramount+, Jamie Carragher’s daughter Mia plays Katniss which I hadn’t realized until after booking the tickets. John Malkovich plays President Snow, but he appears on a screen rather than in person. Anyway, back to the hotel review.)

I managed to get tickets for both events on the same weekend, so we headed south for a few days to enjoy both of those. We needed a pet-friendly hotel, we didn’t want to pay a fortune for parking for three days, and weren’t opposed to picking up a few extra Hyatt elite night credits.

After assessing our options, I picked the Hyatt House London Stratford. Although it’s not a very central location for a trip to London, it’ll likely become our new go-to property for stays in England’s capital.

Hyatt House London Stratford Bottom Line Review

For someone who wants to be able to step out of their London hotel and be in the thick of the action, this property probably isn’t going to be for you. However, there are so many other reasons to love it.

For starters, it opened in April 2022 which means that it’s still in great condition and not at all dated. There’s a Hyatt Regency in the same building, so you can choose which brand you prefer.

Despite not being in central London, it’s in an excellent location. Westfield shopping centre is literally right outside, while if you want to catch a Premier League match, West Ham Utd’s ground is only a 5-10 minute walk away. It’s also incredibly easy to get into downtown London as Stratford tube station is only a 5 minute walk away. Stratford is served by the Central, Jubilee, Elizabeth, DLR, and Mildmay lines, so there’s excellent connectivity. The Elizabeth Line stretches all the way to Heathrow Airport, so you can travel between the airport and hotel seamlessly.

Standard rooms booked with points include a fully-equipped kitchen which could be helpful if you’re wanting to limit how much you spend on eating out. It’s a category 3 hotel, so that can make it a great value redemption, especially if you find off-peak award availability. You can also use Suite Upgrade Awards (or points) to upgrade to a one bedroom suite.

For Globalist members, there’s a complimentary happy hour from 5pm-7pm with unlimited beer and wine, as well as canapes. Globalist members also get complimentary breakfast as expected; it sadly doesn’t seem to be included by default otherwise, although some cash rates do include breakfast.

Service was superb as well. From the valets/bellhops at the entrance who were unfailingly welcoming, to the front desk staff (particularly Medeea) who gave us all – and particularly our dog – a friendly welcome when checking in, to the housekeeping staff we passed in the hallway, everyone was lovely. It was easily some of the warmest, most genuine, hospitality we’ve received at any hotel over the last ten years.

There were lots of other reasons it’ll likely be our go-to London hotel going forward. It’s on the northeast side of London which makes it more convenient for us to drive to seeing as we live in the northeast of England, plus it means we don’t have to contend with proper downtown traffic. Parking is a not-completely-awful £25 (~$34) per night at the mall next door which is cheaper than you’ll pay when staying in central London. It’s also outside of the congestion zone, which means you don’t have to pay the £18-£21 ($24.50-$28.75) Congestion Zone toll.

The Hyatt House – as well as the Hyatt Regency in the same building – is pet-friendly which is helpful for us as we’ll usually be visiting with our pup. The nightly pet fee isn’t particularly cheap, but it’s still easier and cheaper than arranging a pet-sitter.

Overall, we had a fantastic stay at the Hyatt House London Stratford and will no doubt return.

• Points Price: The Hyatt House London Stratford is a category 3 hotel in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. That means it costs 9,000, 12,000, or 15,000 points per night depending on if it’s at off-peak, standard, or peak pricing respectively.
  The first night of our three night stay was at standard pricing, while the final two nights were off-peak which was surprising seeing as those were Friday and Saturday nights. As a result, we redeemed 30,000 points total for our stay.
• Cash Price: For our dates, the nightly rate was $237.70. We redeemed a Suite Upgrade Award to upgrade to a one bedroom suite which would’ve cost $308.47 per night for our dates.
• Points Value: Pretty good, but it’s worth comparing cash rates to points rates. It’s often possible to get at least 1.5 cents per point of value or more (we got 1.98-2.64 cents per point of value for our dates). That’s not always the case though. When picking a random night next month, a King Studio is $195 and includes breakfast, or it’s 15,000 points with no breakfast (unless you have Globalist status). That would only be 1.3 cents per point of value and you’d be potentially missing out on breakfast as well.
• Resort or Destination Fee: None.

• Parking: The hotel doesn’t have its own parking lot, so Globalists aren’t able to get free parking on award stays unfortunately. There’s lots of parking available at the Westfield shopping centre next to the hotel and that costs £25 (~$34) per night. The parking lot is massive though, so be sure to make a note of which floor and aisle you’re parked in.
• 1 King Bed Suite Cherry Park View: We initially booked a 1 King Studio room, but used a Suite Upgrade Award to upgrade to a 1 King Bed Suite Cherry Park View as we had one due to expire a few weeks after our stay. Bear in mind that the Hyatt House brand as a whole doesn’t have to offer suite upgrades to Globalist members, so I wouldn’t expect one when checking in unless you’ve actually booked it in advance.
  When entering our suite there was a fully-equipped kitchen on the right. This included a two-burner stove top, dishwasher, and microwave. There was a regular-sized (for the UK) fridge beneath the counter; this had a small freezer compartment in the top which is large enough for a couple of frozen ready meals or ice cube trays, but that’s about it. The cupboards had everything you’d need to dine in though including plates, dishes, and silverware, glasses, etc. for four or five place settings, as well as cookware, cooking utensils, etc.
  There was a desk and chair between the kitchen and living room, with the living room having a good-sized sofa, an armchair, a coffee table, and a wall-mounted TV. In case it’s important to you, that TV was fixed in place and I wasn’t able to access the HDMI slot at the back to use our Fire TV Stick.
  The separate bedroom had a queen bed with a decent amount of floor space which could come in handy if you have a lot of luggage with you. The wall-mounted TV in the bedroom was also fixed in place, but I was able to plug our Fire TV Stick in there as it had a little extra space to fit my hand in.
  The bathroom had a walk-in shower with both a rainfall and handheld shower head. Unfortunately the shower barrier only covered about half of the shower space. The shower floor meanwhile didn’t have a lip at the edge, so the floor ended up completely soaked the first time we used the shower. It’s a truly awful, nonsensical design, especially with the water not draining particularly quickly. However, that design flaw is pretty much my only complaint about the property.
• Housekeeping: We declined housekeeping during our stay, but the housekeeping staff were always friendly whenever we passed them in the hall.
• Turndown service: Nope.
• Internet: This was good. I had to do some work while we were there and didn’t have any problems with connectivity or speed.
• Dining: The hotel has a few dining options:
  • Elondi Restaurant – this is where breakfast and dinner are served. Breakfast is from 6:30am-10am Monday-Friday and 7am-11am at the weekend. Dinner is 5pm-10:30pm daily.
  • Elondi Terrace – This is an outdoor setting where you can have breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, and drinks. I’m not sure if it was open during our stay seeing as it was January and so it wasn’t very warm out.
  • Elondi Bar – This is available for brunch, lunch, dinner, and drinks every day of the week. It’s also where the Globalist happy hour takes place.
  • In-room dining
• Club Lounge: No. I don’t believe the Hyatt Regency that’s in the same building has one either. As mentioned earlier though, Globalist members do get free drinks and canapes every day at Elondi Bar from 5pm-7pm.
• Spa: Not as such, although you can book in-room spa treatments (the spa treatment menu is among the photos at the end of this review).
• Fitness Room: While not enormous, there are a few treadmills, some ellipticals, a couple of Peloton bikes, other cardio equipment, weights, etc. The fitness room can be found on the 12th floor and has windows looking out over the local area, so it’s not like you’re confined to some dingy basement hotel gym.
• Other Amenities: There’s a guest laundry room on the 11th floor. There are four washing machines and four dryers that are all complimentary; you’ll just need to get your own detergent (I’m not sure if the hotel has any small packets for purchase).
• Pool: No.
• Welcome Amenity: We received a plate with a macaron, some other kind of sweet treat, and a couple of (very) small pieces of fruit.
• Service: Truly excellent. When arriving, you’ll find anything from 1-3 staff members welcoming you on the ground floor who’ll direct you up to the third floor where you’ll find the front desk. No matter whether we were coming or going, they always greeted us, said hi to our dog Truffles, etc.
  The front desk staff were all lovely too. In addition to checking in and out, we saw them when getting ice on a couple of days, plus you walk past the front desk on the way to and from breakfast. They were always very friendly and welcoming.
  One morning on our way to breakfast, there was a guy getting some stuff prepared behind the bar before it opened. Despite not working directly with any customers at that point, he still greeted us and wished us a good breakfast.
  Overall, we got the impression that management at the Hyatt House and Hyatt Regency has set up an expectation of excellent service from their staff members.
• Pet Policy: Yes, dogs are allowed. They have to weigh 25 kgs (55 lbs) or less and there’s a limit of two dogs per room with a maximum combined weight of 40 kgs (88 lbs). The pet fee is £30 (~$41) per night rather than per stay. It’s a shame that it’s as high as that as it means costs can mount up on longer stays.
  The hotel is what I’d regard as pet-welcoming rather than just pet-friendly. When checking in, they let us know that they could set us up a table at Elondi Bar rather than in Elondi Restaurant if we wanted Truffles to join us at breakfast. She was also lavished with attention by so many different staff members (she’s a big attention seeker, so she had no problem with that).
• Location: The Hyatt House London Stratford is in the center of Stratford, right next to Westfield mall. It’s right next to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park which was built for the 2012 Olympics. That now has all kinds of walking trails, plus it’s home to London Stadium which is where West Ham play their home games nowadays in the Premier League. The Hyatt House is therefore in the perfect spot if you want to catch a game there.
  Stratford tube station is a five minute walk away in the opposite direction, with good service on several different lines. The Elizabeth Line is one of those lines which means you can catch a train directly to/from London Heathrow Airport without needing to change trains along the way.
  Having the shopping mall right outside the hotel is convenient if you need to do any shopping or grab something to eat as there’s a world food court inside, along with various other food trucks and restaurants outside.
• Elite Benefits: Stays at Hyatt Houses don’t normally confer many status benefits, but we did receive a couple of benefits for having Globalist status:
  • Complimentary breakfast (this isn’t included for all guests by default)
  • Globalist Happy Hour – complimentary unlimited beer and wine from 5pm-7pm, as well as a tray of canapes. The canape selection seems to change every night, so you shouldn’t get bored with the selection, but it’s nowhere near extensive enough to sub out for dinner.
• Would I stay again? Absolutely. Getting around London was a breeze with Stratford station nearby. The service was top-notch, our suite was spacious, the value when booking with points was good for our dates, it’s pet-friendly, and it’s easy to get to – for us by car, but also from Heathrow airport. We’ll almost certainly be staying here again in the future when we want to stay in London for one reason or another.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Service – Truly, truly excellent.
• Award pricing – Although it’s not always excellent value, the fact that it’s a category 3 property with excellent London transportation links makes it a good option to limit the redemption cost. Depending on the cash cost for your nights, it could also be a good redemption option for category 1-4 free night certificates.
• Location – It’s not true downtown London, but having easy access to the Central, Jubilee, and Elizabeth Lines mean it shouldn’t take you much more than 30 minutes on the tube to get anywhere you want to go.
• Kitchen – Base level rooms include a full kitchen.
• Large trash can – This might sound weird, but I really appreciated having a much larger trash can under the sink in the kitchen than you normally get in hotel rooms.

Cons

• Shower door – They really need to have a shower door that extends the entire length of the shower so that the floor doesn’t end up covered in water.

Image Gallery

Hotel

1 King Bed Suite Cherry Park View

Breakfast

Globalist Happy Hour

Other Dining

Amenities

Parking

Other Photos

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