Hotel Review: HYATT CENTRIC LAS OLAS FORT LAUDERDALE

Review written by a Floridian. When it is safe to travel to Florida again, I am looking forward to staying at this hotel!

I have wanted to visit the new Hyatt Centric Las Olas Fort Lauderdale since before it opened. I made reservations for April, July and August, but had to cancel them one-by-one due to the pandemic. My Floridian friend, Marcos Gonzalez, and his lovely wife Mabel, recently stayed at the hotel and wrote this review for Will Run For Miles. 

LOCATION

Hyatt Centric Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale opened officially on April 2nd, not the best time to open a hotel during a pandemic. It is located at 100 Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale, the tallest building in the city. Las Olas is a trendy area in the city full of dining and shopping venues. The hotel occupies the first 15 floors of the building, from floor 16 and up there are residences.

BOOKING 

HC Las Olas is a Category 4 hotel, which means that it requires 15000 points to book an award night, or a Category 1-4 free night certificate. Since paid rates at the time of my booking were $120, I opted for paying cash and save my points for more expensive properties. 

CHECK-IN 

Check-in process was fast since nobody else was waiting in line. 

We were offered a Balcony King Bed room…. which is an upgrade…and features a balcony with city views.

We were given a welcome PPE kit!

BALCONY KING BED ROOM

This is a nice room but, with only 350 square feet, it is small. The balcony is large, with beautiful views. I had in my mind the Cabana room, and went to the lobby to ask for a room change.
 

CABANA KING BED ROOM

When I went to the front desk to request a change to a Cabana King Bed Room, the front desk clerk initially told me that the system asked to upsell the room. However, after a few minutes, she gave us the key for a Cabana room. Cabana rooms are the most expensive at the hotel — they are essentially the same small 350 square foot rooms but include a small patio with chair and direct access to the hotel pool.
   

Note: when we requested to be moved to another room, the front desk clerk asked us several times if we touched anything in the room because rooms are sterilized. We hadn’t. It was clear that they don’t want to send somebody to clean the room again. This is a good tip to keep that in mind in your next hotel stay…if you are not happy with your room, don’t touch anything and let the hotel staff know right away.

POOL

The pool is very nice, but I think it is on the small side. The pool was not crowded when I was there, but if the 238 rooms at the hotel was close to full, it could be a problem. 

Pool cleanliness was the only issue of our stay.  We always saw staff cleaning at the lobby, restaurant, and other public areas. Never during our 2-night stay was the pool cleaned. And it was noticeable.

RESTAURANTS

Harbor Wood is the hotel restaurant. Breakfast is served there from 6:30am to 11 am.  We tried Las Olas Huevos, Omelet, and The American Breakfast. All were very tasty.

Next to the restaurant is the bar, with the same name. Elev8 is the bar at the pool. Opened at 11am the time that we were there to around 8pm. It is supposed to be a full bar, but the service was limited. Other than beers or canned drinks needed to be ordered from the bar at the lobby. We tried some wings and flatbreads…they were good but nothing extraordinaire.
   

HOTEL FITNESS CENTER

CONCLUSION

This was my third stay in a Hyatt Centric (I’ve also been to Hyatt Centric South Beach and Hyatt Centric Miami Brickell). While Hyatt Centric Las Olas is not perfect, it is in a good location, has friendly staff, and has reasonable rates, making it my favorite of the three.