Grand Hyatt Seattle

You never quite know what you're going to get with a Hyatt. They run the gamut from icky airport properties, to 5 star beachfront luxury. You just never know. Happily, the Elliot Grand Hyatt is closer to the latter, minus the beachfront. It's in a great location - 7th and Pine, across from Pacific Place and in the heart of the shopping district. The rooms are nicely decorated and comfy and the restaurant - Ruth's Chris - is outstanding. more

Andy and I had a chance to visit the new Grand Hyatt that is in Seattle. The school had an auction there and we've been before for another auction. Also got a chance to hang out in one of the rooms thanks to Malc. Net, net, it certain is more upscale than the vanilla airport Hyatt (I've been to my share of hell holes in LAX, SFO and SJO, but that's another set of posts). The vanilla box with an atrium are so depressing you want to just shoot yourself after the free cookie. The Grand Hyatts are supposed to be the ultimate in luxury. Like the JW Marriots. This one is a nice mid scale hotel, but I wouldn't call it super elegant. It is super convenient at 7th and Pike and the lobby and the convention facilities are very nice. The rooms are OK. Probably a bit on the small side, although they have pretty good side views of the city looking out onto Queen Anne and around there. I don't know how expensive it is, but if you really want to splurge, the Fairmont and the Alexis and the Sorrento are probably better choices in town. This hotel isn't as Grand as say the ones in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong (those are really amazing), but they fit in a niche above the Marriotts and Hyatts. Probably along side the Ws. more

We stayed here on our wedding night. My Mom got us the corner water-view suite and it was gorgeous. The bed was super comfortable and the bathroom was ultra-luxe. The service on the other hand? Not so great. As a surprise, my Mom had pre-paid for us to have an en-suite breakfast, which never arrived. I called her in the morning to let her know we were going to grab breakfast at the Pike Place Market, and that's when she told me about the breakfast. When I called down to the desk they were like, "Oh yeah, we forgot. But now the kitchen's closed. Sorry." I had to go all Bridezilla on them and demand the breakfast be brought up, and they consented. The breakfast was great. If only we didn't have to demand just to get it. The other thing that was weird was that at about 4am someone actually came in our room. We were zonked, exhusted from our wedding and woke up to hear someone walking in the door. My husband yelled for them to leave, and they did. It was so strange. When I reported my disappointments to management they offered nothing. I was surprised they weren't willing to make us happy, but have just decided I won't be back. more