Bottom Line Review: Grand Hyatt Macau (Standard & Premium Suites)

During the Party of 5 challenge, we visited Macau for a couple of nights. We spent the first night at the Four Seasons Macau, while the second night was spent at the Grand Hyatt Macau.

I think we’d all expected the Four Seasons to deliver the superior experience, but the five of us were in unanimous agreement that overall we preferred our stay at the Grand Hyatt.

Grand Hyatt Macau Bottom Line Review

Our stay at the Grand Hyatt Macau ended up costing more than originally anticipated. We’d booked both a standard suite and premium suite with points. The standard suite had two twin beds and a sofa bed, while the premium suite had a king bed and a sofa bed. That meant there were enough beds for the five of us, but it was the standard suite that ended up being slightly problematic due to the third person who was due to be in there.

I have Globalist status and booked both suites on my account, then transferred the premium suite to Carrie as a Guest of Honor booking to ensure both rooms would still get free breakfast, lounge access, etc. Lounge access was extended to both suites, but only to two people per suite. A day or two before our stay, the hotel emailed to advise that it would cost 1,379 MOP (~$171) for the third person in the standard suite to have lounge access.

That was an exorbitant amount to have to pay. An alternative was to redeem 12,000 Hyatt points for a third room; this would be a standard room, but we’d still get free breakfast, lounge access and be eligible to an upgrade to a standard suite. The thing was, the cash rate for a paid night was much lower than when we’d originally booked our stay – only $149.49. It therefore made more sense to book that third room as a paid night than redeem 12,000 Hyatt points as that would’ve been a poor redemption value. After emailing the hotel back to let them know that we’d booked this third room, they confirmed that they’d upgraded that one to a standard suite too and that it would have access to the club lounge.

Other than that little issue beforehand, we had a wonderful stay. The service levels at the hotel were truly fantastic. The standard suite was a good size and would’ve been comfortable enough to have had three people in had we not ended up booking a third room. The Grand Hyatt Macau is opposite the Wynn Palace which has their own version of the Bellagio Fountains which, in Nick’s opinion, are even better than the Bellagio’s. One of the great things about the hotel is that they have four types of standard suite, two of which have views of the fountain show and so you can watch that from the comfort of your room if you like.

The club lounge had an extensive food and drink selection which was easily enough to serve as dinner. Breakfast is served in the hotel’s Mezza9 restaurant and although the spread wasn’t as massive as our breakfast at the Four Seasons the previous morning, it was still an excellent buffet.

Overall, it was an excellent one night stay and it’s a hotel I’d more than happily stay at again if I ever return to Macau.

• Points Price: The Grand Hyatt Macau is a category 4 property which means it costs 12,000, 15,000 or 18,000 points per night for a standard room depending on if it’s at off-peak, standard or peak pricing. Award pricing was off-peak for our night there which means that our standard suite and premium suite cost 21,000 and 24,000 points respectively.
• Cash Price: When I originally made the reservation, the standard suite cash price was $560.94, while the premium suite cash price was $567.54, so only a little more. I didn’t make a note of the price for a standard room at the time. However, it was higher at that point than it was a day or two before our stay when I was able to book a standard room (not a standard suite, although we did get upgraded to one) for $149.49.
• Points Value: This can vary wildly. For our dates and for the suites, it worked out to be ~2.5cpp which is decent value. However, when searching other dates the cash rates were sometimes so low that using points would’ve been poor value even if off-peak.
• Resort or Destination Fee: Not as such. However, if booking a cash rate they charge a 10% fee which is listed as “Service Charge” which is completely separate to the tourism tax.
• Parking: Parking is free for all guests, regardless of if you have Globalist status or not.
• Standard Suite: The standard suite we booked was a ‘Grand Suite Fountain View Twin’. This had a good-sized living room with a large corner sofa, a coffee table and a dining table with four chairs. The bedroom had two twin beds and while it wasn’t particularly large, it didn’t feel too small either.
  The living room and bedroom didn’t feel as luxurious as at the Four Seasons Macau, but I personally preferred the decor of our suite at the Grand Hyatt as it felt warmer and more inviting to me. I also appreciated all the overhead lighting which assisted in making the living room feel warmer.
  The bathroom had both a rainfall shower and handheld showerhead, as well as a bathtub. A somewhat uncommon feature was the ability to see into the shower from the bedroom, although there was a blind that could be lowered for privacy.
  Perhaps the suite’s best feature wasn’t what was inside the suite – it’s what was outside. In the distance we could see Macau airport’s runways, while closer by there was the Wynn Palace’s fountain show right outside.
• Premium Suite: Greg ended up having the premium suite – a ‘Grand Deluxe Fountain View Suite King’ – all to himself seeing as we booked the third room at the last minute. Despite only costing 3,000 more points for the premium suite than the standard suite, it didn’t seem worth choosing the premium suite over a standard one. There wasn’t anything wrong with the premium suite, but there also wasn’t anything special about it either. It seemed to have an almost identical layout to our standard suites with just a little extra square footage. Due to the location of his room, he also didn’t have as good a view of the fountain show as we did in our standard suites.
• Housekeeping: We only stayed one night and so didn’t have any need for housekeeping. The room was very clean when we arrived though.
• Turndown service: Perhaps this was an option, but I don’t think we received it.
• Internet: I got some work done while we were in the club lounge and the internet connection and speed were very good.
• Dining: The Grand Hyatt Macau has several dining options:
  • Beijing Kitchen – Northern Chinese
  • mezza9 – Both breakfast and dinner is available here
  • Lobby Lounge – This is separate to the Club Lounge and features a pâtisserie.
  • Private Dining on The 37th Floor – Features 150 Chinese, Asian and international dishes
  • In-room dining – All kinds of food options
• Club Lounge: In addition to the dining options above, the Grand Hyatt has a Club Lounge. This is open from 11am-10pm. Light refreshments are available all day, with afternoon tea being served from 2:30-4:30pm and evening cocktails being served from 5:30-7:30pm. We arrived a little too late to experience the afternoon tea, but the evening cocktails had a good spread of food with numerous hot options, a made-to-order noodle or ramen bar, salad, etc., as well as beer, wine and numerous different spirits.
  Something to note is that breakfast isn’t served in the Club Lounge. Instead, that’s served in the mezza9 restaurant which is far more preferable anyway as there’s a much wider range of food available than they’d be able to fit in the lounge.
• Spa: Yes, there’s the Isala Spa. We didn’t get any treatments, but you can find out more information here.
• Fitness Room: Yes. I forgot to check this out while we were there. However, the photo on Hyatt’s website suggests there’s quite a bit of cardio equipment and weights.
• Pool: Yes, there’s a large outdoor swimming pool, a hot tub and a toddler pool.
• Other Amenities: The hotel has a casino and there’s a tennis court outside.
• Welcome Amenities: All three of our suites had a bowl of fruit, along with a container with individually wrapped local treats (almond cookies, sesame peanut candy and black sesame peanut candy).
• Service: Excellent across the board. As soon as we stepped foot out of the taxi we were greeted and someone took our bags and led us up to the Club Lounge where they have a dedicated check-in area for Globalist members and presumably anyone else who books a room with Club access. The agent at the lounge was very friendly too when checking us in.
  Even more impressive was the service at breakfast. Any time any of us started to head back to our table with a plate of food, an employee would rush over to take the plate from us to carry it back to our table themselves.
  At the Four Seasons Macau, it was a struggle trying to get a hot drink at breakfast and they let used plates pile up on our table. At the Grand Hyatt Macau, there was never any problem getting refills for tea and coffee and plates were cleared promptly.
• Location: The hotel is on the Cotai Strip opposite Wynn Palace which is where the fountain show is, as well as the Skycab Cable Car.
• Elite Benefits: I have Globalist status. Two rooms ended up being booked in my name, with the third room being booked as a Guest of Honor stay so that we’d all have access to Globalist benefits including free breakfast and lounge access. I confirmed with the hotel ahead of time that the second room booked in my name would have free breakfast and Club Lounge access granted to it in addition to the other rooms.
  The hotel offers free parking for all guests and we didn’t have a car, so that benefit was moot. We could’ve taken advantage of a 4pm late checkout, but we didn’t need that as we had to get back to Hong Kong airport.
• Would I stay again? Absolutely. We all loved our stay there and it was my personal favorite hotel of the entire Party of 5 trip.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Service – This was superb. It was what we’d expected of the Four Seasons, but didn’t get.
• Views – The rooms with views of both the fountain show and airport are awesome.
• Spaciousness – The suites were only about 700 sq ft, but they felt plenty spacious and were very comfortable.

Cons

• Two towers – The Grand Hyatt Macau has two towers – the Grand Tower and the Grand Club Tower. As the name suggests, the Grand Club Tower is where the Club Lounge is located. We were given rooms in the Grand Tower though which meant it took a while getting down from the 31st floor where our rooms were to walk across to the Grand Club Tower and then up to the 37th floor.
• Premium Suite difference – Or rather, the lack of anything setting the premium suite apart from its standard suite counterparts. Still, this is more of a nitpicky thing as the premium suite was still very nice – it just wasn’t worth the additional points versus the standard suite.

Image Gallery

Standard Suite

Grand Hyatt Macau Club Lounge

Breakfast in Mezza9

Here’s a video that gives an idea as to the extensiveness of the breakfast buffet at the Grand Hyatt Macau.

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Amenities

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