Hotel Review – Hyatt Regency Savannah

Walking along the streets near the Savannah River, one can’t help but notice the Hyatt Regency Savannah!  It is a large hotel situated right along the river.  It is well suited to large conventions and conferences and close to Historical Savannah.   The hotel would benefit from some modernizing, but is nevertheless clean, upscale and well-managed.

The Hyatt Regency Savannah is only two blocks away from the Andaz Savannah, where we stayed the first two nights. (Being on a conquest to maintain Hyatt Diamond status, we planned our third night at the Hyatt Regency.)  Earlier in the day, I tried to check in online on my iPhone, but was unable to do so. I kept getting this error message:

When I arrived, I learned that Hyatt’s computers were down system-wide.  The line was long, and the agents were taking down guests’ information manually.   Finally, we made it to the front of the line and the agent took our information.

Though it was now after 4pm, guests were told to wait a little longer until Hyatt could sort things out.  They were apologetic and handing out glasses of champagne.  The bellman checked our bags.  The agent gave us a coupon for a free drink at the hotel bar, the VU Lounge, which we took advantage of during our wait.

A little while later, we were given the key to our room and told that our bags were already delivered.  We went up the elevator, leery of whether the room would be already occupied and/or whether our bags had actually been delivered.  At least we weren’t in this room:

We were pleasantly surprised to see our room.  We were upgraded to a nice suite. It was a large room separated into a bedroom and living area by the television.  There was also a kitchen area with a Keurig coffee machine.   Here are some photos:

The bathroom was the standard toilet/sink/bathtub setup.

Below the room was a curious cement deck with lounge chairs.  It looked like there should have been a pool there, but there wasn’t.  Perhaps this was an area for parties?  Anyway, if I looked out a bit further, there was a nice view of  the Savannah River.

The hotel does not have a Regency Club, so, in the morning, after going for a run along the river, Won’t Run and I met for breakfast at Windows, the hotel restaurant  (Won’t Run is very nice to always wait for me to finish my exercise before going to breakfast).  The staff wanted us to choose the buffet, but I wasn’t in the mood for another egg and sausage fest, and, frankly, the buffet didn’t look very appealing.  I said that we preferred to order from the menu, and reluctantly, they let us do so.  We shared a fruit plate which was fresh and tasty.  We both ordered a crabcake dish, which was disappointing.  The coffee was fabulous.  Overall though, we were not impressed with the breakfast.

The hotel was fine, it’s just that it was hard to go there after being at the Andaz.  We were a bit spoiled.  Perhaps a bit Andazed.  How can I explain it – perhaps the difference between a hotel room that you stay at and one that is part and parcel of the fabric of your vacation? I emphasize that the hotel was clean, and management was helpful and knowledgeable.  In fact, the manager, Dan, was hands-on and present the entire time, and really went out of his way to make sure the problems were resolved smoothly.  He handled everything remarkably well.

Because of the check-in delays attributable to the computer issues, guests were offered 2,000 Gold Passport points and their choice of a pay per view movie, internet, breakfast, a desert or a beverage.  This letter was distributed to guests – and was a smart and professional way of handling the issue.

As a Hyatt Diamond, I was already entitled to some of these amenities, and I was not really interested in the others.  I mentioned this to the Hyatt personnel and they indicated that they would give me some extra Gold Passport points, which I thought was more than fair.

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