Hyatt Regency Birmingham, England in a Regency Suite: Bottom Line Review

My in-laws are spending 2.5 weeks with us over Christmas and the New Year in the UK. We’d looked into visiting Germany for a couple of days to hit up some Christmas markets, but it ended up being too late to book flights and accommodation for good value, so we did the next best thing.

Birmingham, England is home to the world’s largest German Christmas market outside Germany itself, so we decided to spend a couple of days there instead. We booked a couple of rooms at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham which my wife and I have spent a couple of nights at in the past.

It’s a great hotel with a club lounge that’s actually open in the evenings with complimentary food and alcoholic beverages and is in the perfect spot for exploring the city by foot.

Hyatt Regency Birmingham, England Bottom Line Review

We needed two rooms for our stay and wanted to take advantage of my Globalist benefits for both rooms so that we’d all have lounge access, complimentary breakfast, etc.

I could’ve booked two standard rooms on my account, but there was no guarantee that the hotel would honor my Globalist benefits on the second room. As a result, I’d planned to gift my wife a Guest of Honor award and book the second room on her account. That wasn’t ideal as I wanted to retain that Guest of Honor award for next year seeing as it expires on February 28, 2027 and I’d rather get the extra elite night credit in the 2026 status year.

I subsequently realized that there was a third option available to us. There were both standard and suite award nights bookable with points. The Regency Suite is a standard suite and comes with Club Lounge access, so that would cover that benefit. The Hyatt Regency Birmingham doesn’t offer breakfast in the lounge, instead providing that in the main restaurant. That means a room booked with lounge access also gets complimentary breakfast in the restaurant. I had a suite upgrade award expiring on February 28, 2026 (so only a couple of months away), so that was the perfect solution.

We booked one room using two category 1-4 free night certificates (those were due to expire soon, so it was a good option despite this only being a category 3 property), while the other room was booked with points. You can’t apply Suite Upgrade Awards when booking a stay with free night certificates, so that was redeemed on the room booked with points.

When checking in, there weren’t any additional suites available for the room where we’d not applied the suite upgrade award. It sounded like one might become available later on once housekeeping had cleaned it, but we didn’t want to have to wait around for that.

As for the stay, we really enjoyed it. The Regency Suite was nice and spacious and seemed in good condition. We spent a couple of hours in the Club Lounge on our first night and while the food spread wasn’t as comprehensive as a lounge in Asia, there were sufficient cold cuts, pasta, potato salad, canapes, desserts, etc. to fill us up for dinner that night, especially considering we’d had a snack shortly before arriving at the hotel. There was also unlimited self-serve beer and wine (red, white, and sparkling). Seating was plentiful enough that it didn’t feel crowded in there; this was a Friday night, so perhaps during the week it’s busier if the hotel gets a lot of business travelers.

Breakfast in the morning had a good selection of items, with more than half a dozen hot items from the buffet, along with various other items you can have made to order. There were also cold cuts, freshly cut fruit, cereal, breads, pastries, fresh juice, and more, not to mention some of the most delicious flapjacks I’ve ever had (sorry mum).

As for the hotel’s location, it’s ideal for exploring the city. There’s a carousel outside, with the city’s beautiful library building right next door. The convention centre and Symphony Hall are a very short walk, Birmingham New Street train station is a ~10 minute walk (which has service to Birmingham airport), and the Bullring shopping mall is a ~20 minute walk. If you’re visiting in November and December, the Frankfurt Christmas Market is only a ~10 minute walk away too.

The biggest downside to the hotel is if you have a car. The Hyatt Regency Birmingham has an absurdly small parking lot for such a big hotel – you’re lucky if you can fit a dozen cars in there. We arrived at about 5pm and every space was seemingly taken, but the valet/bellhop told us we could park on the corner of the parking lot up on the curb by the entrance. If we had an expensive car or a nice rental, we might’ve been more inclined to pay for an off-site parking lot. However, we’re not precious about our 2008 Toyota Prius, so we were more than happy to park there seeing as my Globalist status meant parking was free on our award stay.

If/when we return to Birmingham, we’ll likely continue to stay at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham – thumbs up.

• Points Price: The Hyatt Regency Birmingham is a category 3 property which means it costs 9,000, 12,000, or 15,000 World of Hyatt points per night depending on if it’s at off-peak, standard, or peak pricing. For our dates it was at standard pricing, so a total of 24,000 points for one room and two category 1-4 free night certificates for the other.
• Cash Price: This can vary depending on the day of the week, time of the year, if there are any big events in the city, etc. For our weekend nights, it was $275 per night. The Regency Suite we upgraded one of the rooms to had a cash rate of $741 per night.
• Points Value: Very good, at least for the nights we were there. We got almost 2.3 cents per point of value by redeeming points for one of the rooms. Redeeming two free night certificates for a $275 per night room was also a decent result seeing as they might’ve gone unused otherwise.
• Resort or Destination Fee: None.

• Parking: Yes. It’s £27 per day (~$36.50), although it’s complimentary for guests with Globalist status when booking an award stay.
• Regency Suite: This was a good size. The living room had a three seater sofa, an armchair and ottoman, and a work desk. The bedroom had a king bed and a large closet, while the bathroom had a separate walk-in shower and bathtub, with the toilet being in an enclosed room at the end. Considering the size of the bathroom, it was a little surprising that there was only one sink, but that’s a minor quibble.
  The blackout curtains in the bedroom worked very well, while during the day we appreciated the floor-to-almost-ceiling windows in both the bedroom and living room as they let in a good amount of light, even though it was a dreary weekend outside.
  The bathroom had various toiletry items like razor kits, dental kits, etc. This might seem like a weird thing to notice, but it was nice that they provided four rolls of toilet paper because we usually decline housekeeping during our stays.
• Housekeeping: We hadn’t planned to get housekeeping, but the Do Not Disturb sign fell off when we left at midday and we didn’t bother putting it back on the door. When we returned later on, it turned out that housekeeping had been in to make the bed, replenish the toiletries, top up the toilet paper, etc.
• Turndown service: Not that I’m aware of, but we had the Do Not Disturb sign hanging in the evening, so perhaps they offer it.
• Internet: This was good. I didn’t have to do anything online that required a particularly great speed, but it all worked perfectly fine and it was nice that they didn’t make us log in again after 24 hours.
• Dining: The hotel has a few dining options:
  • Aria Restaurant – This is where breakfast is served, along with lunch and dinner depending on the day.
    • Monday-Thursday: 6:30am-4pm
    • Friday: 6:30am-10pm
    • Saturday: 7am-10pm
    • Sunday: 7am-4pm
  • Gentleman & Scholar Bar – You can have dinner and/or drinks here Sunday-Thursday from 4pm-midnight and from 4pm-1am Friday and Saturday.
  • In-room dining – This is available Sunday-Thursday from 7am-1am and from 7am-4am Friday and Saturday.
• Club Lounge: Yes. This is on the 22nd floor and is open from early morning until late evening, although breakfast isn’t served there. There’s a barista machine if you need a coffee fix, along with various sodas, water, and teas. I didn’t check it out in the afternoon, so I don’t know if they have any snacks like chips during the day. From 5:30pm-7:30pm, food is provided which includes various canapes, cold cuts, a hot option, and dessert bites. Beer and wine is self-serve and complimentary too.
• Spa: Yes, called Amala Spa. This features a fitness room, heated indoor swimming pool, whirlpool, steam room, sauna, and cold water plunge pool which are free for hotel guests. You can also pay for spa treatments and there’s a Turkish Hammam.
• Fitness Room: This is in the Amala Spa area. This had a good amount of cardio equipment, weights, etc., although I didn’t get a photo as someone was working out at the time.
• Pool: Yes, there’s an indoor heated pool and whirlpool, as well as a sauna and steam room.
• Welcome Amenity: Two bottles of water, two cans of flavored sparkling water and a tiny cake square.
• Service: The front desk agent was very friendly and helpful when checking in, while the breakfast staff were always attentive when it came to made-to-order items, coffee, etc.
• Pet Policy: Yes, dogs are allowed. They have to weigh 50 lbs or less and the combined weight of up to two dogs in a room can’t exceed 75 lbs. The pet fee is a steep £60 (~$80) per night, per dog.
• Location: Very good as most places in the city center are within a 20 minute walk.
• Elite Benefits: I have Globalist status, so we received the following benefits:
  • Lounge access
  • Complimentary breakfast for two
  • Free parking (as it was an award stay)
  • A suite upgrade for the second room might’ve been available if we’d waited
• Would I stay again? Definitely. It’s good value when booking with points and/or free night certificates, there’s a Club Lounge, and it’s in a good location.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Location – Much of the city is walkable from there
• Club lounge – There aren’t many Hyatt properties with a lounge in the UK, so this is a welcome exception
• Suite size – I liked the spaciousness of our Regency Suite

Cons

• Parking – It is available, but there’s very little of it

Image Gallery

Hotel

Regency Suite – Living Room

Regency Suite – Bedroom

Regency Suite – Bathroom

Club Lounge (evening food & drink)

Breakfast

Amala Spa Details

Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.