Grand Hyatt Denver Review – Downtown Hotel With Many Positives

Grand Hyatt Denver Review – Downtown Hotel With Many Positives

In my Grand Hyatt Denver review, we’ll cover the positives and negatives of this downtown hotel. I was surprised by just how large it is; with a hotel this big and this busy, how was service? And how were the guest rooms? I’ll cover the public spaces, guest room, and overall service in this Grand Hyatt Denver review. First, let’s look at how to book this hotel.

Booking Process

The Grand Hyatt Denver is a category 3 property. Thus, it requires 12,000 points per night. You could also stay here on a Hyatt free night award, which you get annually from the Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card. These certificates are good for a free night at any category 1-4 property.

The cash price of a standard room during our stay was $227 per night. Booking with 12,000 points provides a value of 1.9 cents per point, which is on par with our valuation of Hyatt points.

My wife and I booked this hotel during the recent Miles to Memories Diamond Group meet-up in Denver. We stayed at the hotel for 2 nights.

Grand Hyatt Denver Review – The Property

How was the property? Were the features good? Did they work? Was it lacking anything that could make it better?

Overall, we thought the property was really great. First impressions speak volumes, and our first impression on arrival at the hotel was great.

Location

The Grand Hyatt Denver is located in the downtown / Central Business District area of Denver. It’s near the 16th Street Mall, which has numerous shops and even outdoor events on weekends. It’s also within 15 minutes’ walking from Union Station (Amtrak trains to other cities and the train to the airport) and Coors Field (Rockies baseball games).

Lobby

The lobby is bright, spacious, and attractive. There is plenty of seating in various types.

I also really liked the firelight behind the bar area. Lighting was good without being obnoxiously bright.

The main entrance, with revolving doors, is in the driveway area. There are side doors to the lobby, but these entrances are currently closed. You can exit through these doors, but you can’t enter.

Courier Market / Breakfast Restaurant

Behind the lobby sits the elevators, and past those you find the Courier market and the breakfast restaurant.

The Courier market has decent options. We stopped to check it out but didn’t actually buy anything here.

Breakfast is buffet style was included (free of charge) because of my Hyatt Globalist status.

While the breakfast looks generous, we were “less than impressed” for a few reasons. First, seating was not sufficient the weekend we stayed at the Grand Hyatt Denver. My wife and I (plus others who wanted breakfast) opted for takeaway containers for the buffet and took food back to our room. That’s because the wait for a table was estimated at 20-30 minutes both mornings.

Additionally, the fruits on the buffet were not ripe. We didn’t enjoy them.

Options included eggs made-to-order, pancakes, several types of meats, oatmeal, fruits & more. Despite looking great at first glance (before eating or finding out the waiting times), for us breakfast wound up being “meh”.

Gym

While nothing impressive, there is a fitness center / gym. It has a decent set of equipment.

There are also plenty of towels available.

Swimming Pool

The swimming pool is next to the gym. It’s not large by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s big enough to soak in or for kids to have fun jumping in.

Parking

Wow, I’m glad I didn’t have a rental car or need to pay parking prices here. While these would be waived for Globalists, the price is steep!

There is a self-parking option and valet option, and both are plentiful.

Event Rooms (Pinnacle Club)

We had access to the Pinnacle Club. This is one of the event spaces at the Grand Hyatt Denver, and my review would be incomplete without mentioning this. It’s actually located in a building across the driveway from the hotel proper, atop an office building. It’s on the 38th floor and is spacious. 

Access To Guest Floors

The elevators are of decent size.

Decorations are nothing special, but they’re clean and well lit.

I also really like that they remind people to be quiet in the hallways.

Guest Room

As a Globalist, I was upgraded to a King Corner room. This is a larger room in a corner location. As the hotel was quite busy this weekend (our check-in agent mentioned “a lot of Globalists here this weekend” as the reason I didn’t get a suite upgrade. I had expected that and didn’t mind.

We were on the 20th floor, and I appreciated this signage when coming off the elevator.

Our room was 2026 at the end of the hall.

The entry to the room took an immediate left then right and then opened into a large room.

Mini Bar

Immediately after the entry area, there is a mini bar area.

World of Hyatt members of all levels get 2 free bottles of water per day, which is an understated perk in many places.

There is also coffee and tea.

The mini fridge is empty but is a nice feature to have in a hotel room.

Bed

The bed is large and comfortable. We slept well. The pillows include 1 firm and 1 ultra-soft (the kind where your head hits the bed under the pillow like it’s not there) on each side.

While the sheets and duvet are comfortable, I do need to point out that the feather duvet and feather pillow could be improved a bit. Each morning, we woke up to feathers on the carpet. I’m sure that’s not fun for the cleaning staff.

Each side of the bed has a night stand. Both of them have outlets and a lamp. The night stand closest to the door has a phone, while the other side has an alarm clock.

Closet

The closet is on the smaller side but includes a luggage rack, 2 bath robes, an iron & ironing board, and curtains. It was much more than we needed, since we stayed for just 2 nights.

Views

We had a view out over much of the city, but there was nothing of particular interest. However, it was nice to have a huge window without a tall building directly across the street blocking the view.

Bathroom

I wouldn’t consider the bathroom large, but it’s sufficient on space. We didn’t have to climb over each other or fight for space in the bathroom, which is nice.

The walk-in shower is large and spacious, though. Water pressure is good & consistent. It gets hot quickly.

There is only 1 sink, which is a bit surprising in a higher-end hotel these days. I had expected 2 separate sinks. However, the positive is that we had a lot of counter space.

There is also a make up mirror, plus mouth wash and toothpaste. These are beyond typical expectations. There’s also the standard soap & hand lotion.

Under the sink, we had plenty of towels and a hair dryer.

Room Amenities & Internet

I want to highlight several amenities in the room. First, this circular chair in the corner was spacious and comfortable. I liked it a lot.

In the other corner, there is a desk with chair, lamp, and ethernet cord. There are also multiple outlets for your devices near the desk.

Next to the desk, inside the cabinet is the safe.

The TV is a good size and rotates. We especially liked this, because we could turn it into a good position for lying in bed watching the Olympics during our stay.

On the wall near the bathroom, you have the A/C control and curtain controls. The thermostat is touch screen and really easy to use.

To control the curtains, there is a blackout layer and a day curtain. It took a bit of playing with the controls to understand why each had 5 buttons and what they do (how far down/up you want it to go). The windows are big and let in a lot of light, which was really nice.

Overall Thoughts On The Room

While the room is very nice overall and has all the features you’d want, there is something that could be fixed. They tried to fit too many things into a space where they don’t fit. Enter the dresser drawers.

When I opened the dresser drawers (under the TV), I immediately noticed that the one on the end hit the night stand. It can’t open all the way. If you need to put stuff in here, it could be a hassle.

Considering that there is room to spare in other areas, this is a weird design flaw.

Grand Hyatt Denver Review – Staff

Now that we’ve examined the hotel and its amenities, how were the people working there? Bad staff can ruin a great hotel for me, while great staff can turn a “meh” hotel into a great experience on other occasions.

Prior To Arrival

We didn’t have any communication with the hotel prior to arrival.

Check In

At check-in, I didn’t notice any sign for “World of Hyatt Elite Check In” or anything like that. However, there was only 1 person in front of us. The reception area had 4 separate desks, rather than one big balcony. Each seemed to move quickly and efficiently, and we didn’t wait long.

The woman who helped us was fantastic. Really friendly, efficient, and good at her job. She thanked me for my loyalty and remarked that I didn’t get a suite, just a corner room, because there were so many Globalists checking in that day. She even said she’d “never seen so many Globalists at the same hotel at the same time.” I laughed and told her we were all there together for a meet up. (side note: I chuckled when I heard her relaying this to other staff when we walked away, because it was a apparently a noteworthy thing for all the staff that day.)

After a quick check-in with explanations of our free breakfast benefit, where breakfast is, and how to find our room, she asked if we wanted to know where the gym was. I joked that we don’t work out on vacation, and she gave us our keys to send us on our way. She was great and set a positive tone for our interactions with staff at the hotel.

During The Stay

As I mentioned, we didn’t have a car, so we had no interactions with parking or valet staff.

We stopped by the front desk a few times asking for info and also asking for our daily bottled water. On each occasion, we found staff to be helpful, friendly, and efficient. They always seemed to know what they were doing, knowing the answers quickly.

We also interacted with breakfast staff. Both times we went down to breakfast, the restaurant was packed and had a long wait. Staff asked if we wanted to wait or preferred “to go” containers to fill at the buffet then take to our room. We opted for the latter. Breakfast staff were efficient. While not bubbly, they were also busy and avoided chit chat to get things done quickly. They were good.

Check Out

At check out, the friendly woman saw the breakfast charges on the bill and said we didn’t need to wait around while she cleared them, as long as we were OK with an emailed receipt. I accepted, and we were on our way. 20 seconds, tops!

Problem is, 20 minutes later I got a room bill with charges for breakfast both days. The woman wrote a note to herself and then…forgot it, I guess. I called the hotel from the Denver airport and told them our bill was incorrect. As a Globalist, the breakfast charges should be erased. It was a friendly, easy conversation. The front desk person on the phone apologized and promised a new bill showing $0 within 10 minutes. True to her word, I had the corrected bill in 7 minutes.

Final Thoughts

Our interactions with the staff were overall great and cemented our view of the hotel. Throughout my Grand Hyatt Denver review, I noted a few small things that could be improved (such as delivering a correct bill and the dresser drawers), but those are very minor. In terms of big picture, the room is nice with a comfortable bed and good wifi, plus there are lots of amenities and the location is good. Would I stay here again? Definitely. Would I recommend this hotel to others visiting Denver? Definitely. It’s a quality use of a free night award with Hyatt.