Dear Santa, Please Bring These 14 Changes To Hyatt Place

The Hyatt Place brand sometimes gets a bad rap from Hyatt loyalists, but I love it. We’ve spent ~150 nights in their properties around the US over the past couple of years, so they’ve become like a second home (or more like our only home).

The rooms are spacious, we always sleep soundly on their beds, staff members are pretty much always great, most properties are pet-friendly, breakfast is good, there’s always a large corner sleeper sofa, lots of them only cost 5,000 points per night, etc.

It’s therefore one of my favorite hotel brands as we have a consistent experience at all their properties. Some people understandably prefer boutique over cookie cutter, but I like knowing what we’re going to get seeing as we spend so many nights in them each year.

Despite all the features I love about Hyatt Place, there are also numerous ways that they could improve. Seeing as it’s the holidays, I figured I’d ask Santa if he could bring about some of the following changes to the Hyatt Place brand over the coming year.

1) Add 1 Bedroom Suites

We travel with pretty much everything we own, yet it never feels crowded when staying at Hyatt Places as the rooms are so spacious, especially compared to brands like Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, etc.

Having said that, it would be nice if they offered 1 bedroom suites in addition to 1 king or 2 queen rooms. I tend to stay up working until 3-4am, while my wife often teaches online at 6am. We therefore both have to go work down in the lobby so that it’s not bright and/or loud while the other person is sleeping. Having a 1 bedroom suite helps solve that issue, but there are very few Hyatt Places that have that room type available.

2) Improve Globalist Benefits

Globalist status is fantastic, but most status benefits are moot when staying at a Hyatt Place. There are no suites to be upgraded to, breakfast is already free, there are no lounges, etc.

Based on the nature of the brand, there’s not much that Hyatt Place can offer Globalists. However, there are a few small things they could do like offer 250 bonus points per night or something like that.

3) Microwaves In Rooms

All room types have a wet bar or dry bar with a mini fridge, a feature we rely on. It would be nice to have a microwave in the room too though, rather than having to go down to the breakfast area where the keep the property’s one lone microwave when we want to reheat something for dinner.

4) Laundry Facilities

We’ve stayed at a few Hyatt Places that have guest laundry facilities, but more often than not they don’t have them. Most Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn Express properties we’ve stayed at have coin washers and dryers on site and it’s an amenity that we really value.

5) Cheaper Pet Fee

We travel full-time with our dog, so the fact that the majority of Hyatt Place properties are pet-friendly is a huge benefit for us. They also have consistent pet fees – $75 for 1-6 nights and $175 for 7+ nights.

While not extortionate, $75 is quite a lot if you’re just looking for a 1 or 2 night stay. Similarly, we’ve deliberately restricted past stays to 6 nights instead of 7 so that we wouldn’t have to pay an extra $100 once you hit the 7 night threshold.

My preference would be something like a $15 per night pet fee with a maximum of $150. That would likely increase how often we stay with them as it would make 1-3 night stays more economically viable.

6) 24/7 Coffee & Tea Station

Many hotel brands offer free coffee and tea 24/7 in the lobby. Not Hyatt Place though. Their caffeine center gets packed up as soon as breakfast is over.

7) More Plugs In Living Area

This is actually one of my main pet peeves when staying with them. When I’m not working in the lobby at night, I prefer working while sitting on the sofa. This can be tricky though as remarkably few properties have power outlets in the living area that are easily accessible.

The corner sofa is always pressed up against one corner, while on its other end there’s a side table which is usually right up against the wall as well. Even when pulling the table or sofa away from the wall a little, there are no power outlets. We therefore have to either rely on battery power or have our cables dangling across the room from the TV – if they even reach from there.

We recently stayed at a Hyatt Place where there were all kinds of outlets all around the living area – it was a thing of beauty.

8) Larger Mugs

The coffee/tea mugs they provide in the room are teeny. You can fit maybe a cup of water in them, so I just grab a disposable cup at breakfast to use later on as they’re larger. That’s not great for the environment though, so a slightly larger mug would be appreciated. Being British, the ability to make a proper cup of tea is essential.

9) Later Breakfast

As you might’ve guessed by the fact that I stay up until 3 or 4 am, I’m a night owl. I therefore love staying at Hampton Inns as they always offer breakfast until 10am. That’s a policy I’d love Hyatt Place to implement so that I don’t have to be downstairs before 9am at some properties.

10) Trash Can Liners

Hyatt Place offers two good-sized trash cans in every room. They never provide liners in them though, meaning food and drink waste can quickly make them messy.

11) Non-Frozen Fruit

Hyatt Place properties keep their milk, water and freshly cut fruit on frozen slabs to keep them cold. That seems to work fine for the milk and water, but all too frequently the fruit seems like it got into a fight with Elsa from Frozen and lost.

12) Different Toiletries

The Barney Kenet M.D. toiletries offered at Hyatt Places aren’t that great. The soap is fine, but the shampoo never seems to lather up well, so it’d be nice to have them provide a different brand in the future.

13) Revert Back To The Old Breakfast Policy

Hyatt Place used to offer free breakfast to all guests regardless of how they booked their stay. That policy changed in late 2018, so now only World of Hyatt members who book directly (rather than through an OTA like Hotels.com) get breakfast free.

That’s the official policy, but it’s not one that seems to get adhered to. Other than the first few weeks of this being rolled out, I don’t think we’ve been asked to provide our room number when going for breakfast so that they could verify if we were eligible for it being free.

I imagine that there are properties that do strictly enforce the policy though. That can create an inconsistent experience for guests, so it’d be good if they reverted their official policy back to providing free breakfast for everyone regardless of how they book their stay seeing as so few properties abide by the new policy anyway.

14) Make The Bathroom Doors Smaller

OK, so this is a weird one, but it’s a quirk I notice at pretty much every Hyatt Place we stay at. Their bathrooms have such large doors that you have to wedge yourself between the toilet and shower in order to close the door. There was one we stayed at (I think in Columbus/Dublin, OH) where the door was so large that it actually scraped against the toilet seat when opening and closing the door.

Question

If you could ask Santa for a change at Hyatt Place, what would it be? Let us know in the comments below.

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