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Park Hyatt London to open as Category 5?!
In terms of the most anticipated hotels in 2024, Park Hyatt London River Thames has to have one seat. To be honest I find its choice of location a bit odd, but a Park Hyatt is long overdue in London, and I’m curious to see how it pans out.
On their website it is still “opening in late 2024”. When you search for hotels in London, the Park Hyatt is listed already, but not bookable yet.
Shockingly it is suggested as a Category 5 hotel. To put in into context, there are two Category-5 Hyatt Regencies in London, whereas the Churchill, Great Scotland Yard and Andaz are all in Category 6.
It’s hard to believe if Park Hyatt comes out as anything below Category 7. I will definitely watch closely though, and ifs it becomes bookable as Category 5 I need to bag a few nights as soon as possible…
Mispriced promotion: Hyatt points 36%-off sale
(Update: deal dead)
Hyatt launched a promotion on buying points, but they’ve mispriced the offer, to your benefit.
You can view the buy points page here. Until April 9th, you’re entitled to 20% discount when buying at least 3,000 Hyatt points. The regular price is 2.4c per point so the sale price should be 1.92c per point.
Hyatt has however, applied the discount twice in their system. At the time being you are paying only 1.536c (1.22p) per point. This is effectively 36% off, the best offer Hyatt has ever had.
There are many successful data points where the points were deposited instantly after purchase. Hyatt might withdraw (correct) the offer soon, but I doubt they could claw back the points if they’ve already arrived into your account.
Reminder: London NYE hotel bookable now on points
Just a quick reminder that, if you need a hotel for the New Year’s Eve, they have already been loaded into the system and bookable using points now.
If you are looking to watch the fireworks, the most convenient option is Marriott Country Hall. It is located in the White zone and all hotel guests receive wristbands prior to their stay. You could walk down literally 15 minutes before midnight to watch the show.
My friend who went last year had some troubles though as the staff insisted they must have tickets to get on the bridge. It was confusing and horrible, but luckily they got in eventually. You may also see (some of) the fireworks from inside the club lounge and certain guest rooms.
Availability of Marriott County Hall hasn’t been loaded yet but I expect it to be soon. It will be priced at around 120,000 points, and unlikely to sell out even close to the date.
Another similar option is Great Scotland Yard. It is not as close to the show as the Marriott, and you cannot see anything from inside the hotel. But it is in the Blue zone which has an arguably much better viewing angle.
Also it costs only 29,000 Hyatt points per night. Reward night is currently not available but a friend of mine managed to book it a few days ago.
Fireworks aside, here are some hotels that are good value on points:
- InterContinental London Park Lane – 84,000 points
- Holiday Inn London Oxford Circus – 42,000 points
- Holiday Inn Express London Limehouse – 36,000 points
- Bankside Hotel (Marriott) – 92,000 points
- London Hilton Park Lane – 80,000 points
- Hyatt Regency Blackfriars – 23,000 points
- Hyatt Regency Embankment – 23,000 points
Hyatt status challenge offer for corporate clients
Hyatt has brought back its exclusive elite tier offer, which allows members who work for select companies to earn Explorist and Globalist status much faster.
- You need your Hyatt membership number and a company email to register
- Once enrolled, you are on an Explorist trial for 90 days
- Stay 10 nights during the trial to extend your Explorist status through Feb 2026, or
- Stay 20 nights to earn Globalist status
To know if a certain company is eligible, just try with a random email address with the respective domain (e.g. [email protected]) and see if there’s any error message. Just like the current Hilton offer, it seems to be very widely available, and targeted companies include Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Huawei, Bloomberg, Cisco, KPMG, Accenture and more.
You’ll receive an activation email if the company email is qualified. Note that however, once you’ve confirmed the 90-day clock starts right away, and you can only sign up once every three years. The timing is important.
For those who are in need, it’s a great offer to earn Hyatt status in an accelerated way. For me however it’s a non-starter: I only stay at Hyatt hotels occasionally, and with the positive 2024 changes it’s really easy for me to enjoy Globalist benefits with my friends’ GOH privileges.
My review of The Grand Hotel Eastbourne
Thanks to a generous promotion from Hyatt, I received a Category-4 free night voucher but it was only valid for 6 months. Hyatt has few properties in the UK. There are a handful of nice SLH properties but reward availability is difficult to find and many of of them are hard to travel to.
My persistence paid out eventually though, as I managed to book The Grand Eastbourne for the August bank holiday. The Grand Eastbourne is, to quote them, the finest 5 Star hotel by the sea in Sussex. I haven’t been to Eastbourne yet so it works out perfectly.
The hotel is 30-seconds’ walk from the beach, right next to the Ferris wheel and easy to find. The hotel is also known as “The White Palace”, and that name does justice. Compared to Brighton I find the urban plan much newer and prettier in Eastbourne.
We arrived at 1pm and the room was not ready yet. The sightseeing bus stop is just in front of the hotel, which brings you to the beautiful coast.
The hotel was purposely built in 1875. It’s maintained very well considering that history, and you barely see wear and tear anywhere.
Upon entering the lobby, there’s the Palm Court Strings restaurant on the left-hand side that serves afternoon tea.
And a lounge bar at the end of the hall.
The receptionist thanked me for being a World of Hyatt member. As it’s a bank holiday I wasn’t expecting any upgrade at all, and it really surprised me when they mentioned an upgrade to the sea-view room. The sea-view however, needs to be taken with a pinch of salt:
As a lowly Explorist I’m not really disappointed.
The room is up to the standard of an old five-star hotel, except for that tiny TV from the last century.
Nespresso machine and tea kettle:
I don’t like the single bed or the stiff mattress so much. The key holder looks classy:
World of Hyatt bookings all come with complimentary breakfast, served at the Garden Restaurant.
The buffet’s spread is quite limited and I don’t praise its quality either. I find the breakfast at UK five-star hotels below average in general.
We ordered the traditional breakfast, porridge and pancake from the menu, which are so-so.
There’s an outdoor swimming pool and it is heated – have to give the hotel some credits for this.
In addition there’s an indoor swimming pool, jacuzzi and steam room.
Gym:
In a word, The Grand Eastbourne is a decent five-star hotel that gives you a resort experience to some extent. If you have a World-of-Hyatt Cat 4 free night certificate to redeem, it is probably one of your best options in the UK.
Act fast: Mr & Mrs Smith $65 voucher still works
Last month we wrote about a crazy offer that Mr & Mrs Smith was having. Unfortunately the two-night minimum stay requirement was added swiftly which made the offer much less appealing, but there are still good deals out there:
After applying the $65 voucher you pay only $30 for two nights at this hotel in Kuala Lumpur, which is really cheap even by Malaysia’s standard.
As a couple of our readers have pointed out however, there’s still a hack you could do to apply the voucher on one-night reservations.
- Book any hotel for two nights, go to the checkout page and add the voucher code e.g. BIRTHDAYUS, and then go back
- Book the one-night hotel stay you want, at the basket page remove the two-night reservation. You’ll notice that the coupon is there and discounted price is displayed
It’s not mission complete yet, as if you proceed to payment you’ll most likely see the following error:
What you need to do is: head back to the basket, go to the checkout page, keep your fingers crossed and try again. If you are lucky the payment will go through this time, and a confirmation like this will follow:
I’ve no idea why the second-time lucky is, or if you may need to try more or if it has anything to do with the payment method. But it works for me and some other readers.
Note that they’ve also added a geographical restriction on the coupon code, and BIRTHDAYUS only works on accounts based in the Americas now. Don’t forget about the limits: you can only use the code three times and no consecutive bookings are allowed, and your reservations would face cancellations otherwise – the hack here of course, is also against the two-night requirement in the terms, so I can’t guarantee that they would be honoured.
Hurry: €61 off all Mr & Mrs Smith hotel bookings
Mr & Mrs Smith, the hotel group that was recently acquired by Hyatt, is running an insane promotion to celebrate their 20th anniversary.
You can view the birthday offer here:
- Book by November 27th, stay anytime
- Limited to 3 uses per person, and reservations cannot be consecutive
- Promo codes:
- BIRTHDAYEU – 50 EUR off
- BIRTHDAYUS – 65 USD off
- BIRTHDAYAU – 100 AUD off
- BIRTHDAYSG – 80 SGD off
Most importantly there’s no minimum spend requirement. The codes are interchangeable so you should use the USD one for all bookings, as it’s equivalent to €61.57 off.
Be mindful the usage restrictions, as otherwise your bookings may be manually cancelled later.
(EDIT: minutes after my post they added a two-night minimum stay requirement, and removed some of the cheapest properties!)
With the discount, a one-night stay is almost free at certain hotels! Dusseldorf, Germany:
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia:
Given how ludicrous the offer is I’m highly doubtful that it’s gonna last till November 27th. Lock in your reservation now before it’s too late!
My review of Palacio Duhau – Park Hyatt Buenos Aires
My second time in South America and first time in Argentina! Marriott had a great 2x elite night credit back then so I was going to prove them my loyalty in Buenos Aires, until I saw a very good deal with Park Hyatt.
Park Hyatt Buenos Aires, a.k.a. Palacio Duhau’s nightly rate usually hovers around $700. Somehow I managed to find a Hyatt Prive rate of $1,050 for three nights – remember what I explained about how the exchange rate works here, so in the end I paid only ~$600. I have never been to a Park Hyatt hotel so it’s exciting!
The area where the hotel sits is called Recoleta. Recoleta is an affluent neighbourhood and you can see beautiful French-style “chateaux” everywhere, with Palacio Duhau being one of the them. The Four Seasons hotel is just around the corner although it looks pretty modern.
I took an Uber from the airport – it’s a 40-minute journey and costs less than $20. The Park Hyatt is comprised of two architectural parts: the main / old building is called The Palace, with two restaurants and a spa, and the rooms are more expensive.
The newer building is called The Tower, which is much taller (20 stories) and has one restaurant. The two buildings are connected by an underground gallery:
It’s a long walk with a few flights of stairs, although you could cut short by crossing the restaurant instead. Each building has their own entrance, so make sure you locate the right one when you arrive by Uber.
Of course I wasn’t aware of any of these so just went straight to The Palace when I arrived. The check-in agent was polite and professional but she didn’t notice I booked the Hyatt Prive rate and I had to remind her. I was granted 2pm late checkout as an Explorist.
A porter carried my bag and showed the way to The Tower. I received a double upgrade to a 1 King Bed with Balcony Deluxe room, located on the first floor.
Like what many people have suggested on Flyertalk, being a modern building The Tower probably doesn’t immerse you in the exquisite history as much as The Palace does. But to me personally, a modern and functional setup wins hands down, and I’ve stayed at a handful of real “palaces” in Europe already anyway.
This is the first time I’ve been to a Park Hyatt so I don’t know how representative this style is, but I quite like it. The room is rather monochrome and you don’t see things like marbles, granite or crystal, but the materials are definitely not cheap.
There’s a small wardrobe in the bathroom.
I wasn’t quite satisfied with receiving a room on the first floor. But it turned out to be the only floor with balconies!
The Boston Ivy adds a cute green touch to the building, and protects your privacy.
My welcome gift is a bottle of local Malbec and several macarons.
I had a tour around the old building on the day. Guest floors can only be accessed with dedicated room keys and I didn’t want to bother the staff.
You’ll find the gym and (mediocre) swimming pool in the basement. There’s no sauna or jacuzzi.
Breakfast starts at 7am and you can choose between two restaurants. Gioia in The Tower becomes a vegetarian restaurant after breakfast.
The buffet doesn’t offer a lot of variety.
And an a-la-carte menu.
You don’t get many to choose from but the quality is good. The other restaurant, Piano Nobile is in The Palace and it’s a-la-carte only.
I thought food here would consequentially be better, but the menu is almost the same with The Gioia. Personally I prefer the latter as it’s easier to fetch from the buffet yourself when you need anything.
The two restaurants are connected by the very instagrammy garden, with outdoor seating.
Locals may be confused when you say Park Hyatt, but everyone knows Palacio Duhau. Coming here for breakfast or afternoon tea is a ritual that many enjoy, kind of like The Ritz in London I suppose.
To use my credit I had lunch at Piano Nobile and ordered the most expensive Wagyu steak, which costs just $40 at the MEP rate. Unfortunately the Hyatt Prive credit is awarded at the official rate, which converts to $60 effectively instead of $100.
The steak is very good, but I wouldn’t say it’s much better than what you can have at local restaurants at a much lower price. Argentina is heaven for beef lovers!
When checking out I needed to request them to remove my 21% VAT, and that involved scanning a QR code to enter my immigration information. Remember that you must pay by card for the tax exemption.
It is no doubt a very solid hotel but service-wise I wasn’t very impressed. To name a few: no one proactively helped with my luggage when I got out of the taxi; not all staff greet guests; I asked the receptionist a question and he forgot to answer. As for the Park Hyatt brand standard I believe there’s room for improvement.
If you get a great rate like mine it’s very worthy of the experience. Otherwise just come for breakfast or afternoon tea – for $200 you can book a very good hotel in Buenos Aires.