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Review: Grand Hyatt Atlanta Grand Suite
The Grand Hyatt Atlanta is located in the UBER POSH SUBURB of the Buckhead. It wouldn’t be unlikely to see a Real Housewife of Atlanta kickin’ it in the Hotel bar or see some famous actor or Athlete hanging out nearby. In fact, Peachtree, the street that the Grand Hyatt Atlanta faces is full of high end hotels: the Intercontinental and Mandarin Oriental are within a 5 minutes walk. There is also Lenox mall, which is pretty nice, that the hotel offers a shuttle to after 2pm, or they will reimburse you for your cab if the shuttle isn’t running. I digress. I just spent a guy’s weekend in Atlanta visiting a buddy who just bought a house, took a new job, and had a baby 6 months ago. Talk about mega life changes. We’ve known eachother for 20 years and this weekend worked out perfectly for our collective schedules, and we locked down a $210/night rate for Grand Suite at the hotel. Here’s my experience at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta in a Grand Suite.
The Deets:
- When: May 2017
- Where: Grand Hyatt Atlanta
- Loyalty: World of Hyatt
- Status: Explorist
- Benefits: Was given Club Access complimentary
- Room Category: Grand Suite
- World of Hyatt Category 3
If you wanted to use Points…but why would you with rates that cheap
Check In:
Dave and I had arrived at the same time into ATL. We hopped on the Marta which, for $3, is a heck of a deal to get you from the airport to Buckhead. The hotel is roughly 45-60 mins on the train and then 5-10 mins from the Marta stop in Buckhead. We arrived just as the sun was going down and there was a MASSIVE INDIAN WEDDING going on at the hotel. HOW FUN! The irony of the situation was the buddy we were all visiting got married in India and Dave and I, along with my family, flew to India to attend the wedding. If you’re ever invited to an Indian wedding you should go – they are unbelievably fun. Now we were visiting him in Atlanta and we were reminded of his wedding by the one going on at the hotel. They had quite the outdoor celebration the next day around 1oam. WHO DOESN’T LOVE A WEDDING?!
I thought for sure, when I booked the room, that the suite came with Club access. However at check-in we were told that it did not, but the front desk clerk gave us free access for the weekend. Very nice of him.
The Room: Grand Suite #1602
Very nice. Roughly 700 sq ft and has a pull out couch in the living room. Since 3 of us would be in the room, the space came in very handy, as did the pull out couch. I also need to sleep with some sort of white noise which can annoying…I took the living room while the other two dudes took the bedroom. I think, if you’re traveling with more than 2 people in a room, a Suite is clutch. If you can’t get a good deal, try and get the hotel to guarantee connecting rooms.
Club level:
There are multiple offerings throughout the day, but the room is one of the smallest club lounges I’ve ever seen at a Grand Hyatt. Even with that said, the entire time we were at the hotel I don’t think we saw more than 3 or 4 other people in the lounge. We frequented it 5 or 6 times during our stay and only two of those times were there actually other people there, including breakfast. The offerings are definitely MORE SNACK, LESS MEAL by quantity and size, but worthwhile nonetheless.
Location:
As I said in the intro the hotel is located in a very wealthy area of Atlanta and is close to two high end malls with a variety of restaurants and shopping. The other great thing is it’s only a 5-10 minute walk to the MARTA.
Amenities of the hotel.
Japanese Zen Gardens
Business Center
Overall:
I looked at several dates across the calendar as we were planning this weekend trip and consistently the hotel has rates starting around $130-135. I think that’s an absolute steal. I even saw dates where the Grand Suite was coming in under $200 – incred! These are rates that really can’t be beat for a Grand Hyatt anywhere, but in a wealthy suburb of Atlanta…that’s crazy. In fact, there is a Hyatt Place a block away and their rates aren’t much better and the two hotels are world’s away in terms of amenities.
As far as getting club level…if you have certs to use as an Explorist – the offerings aren’t bad, but if you’re headed to Asia save them for that trip. The biggest complaint I ALWAYS have is that Grand Hyatts in the States make you pay for beer, wine, etc. What a rip. The food is “enough” but you’re not going to replace meals by having club access, barring breakfast. Breakfast was enough in terms of cereal, smoked salmon, yogurt, fruit, yadi yadi. The evening food is for snacking and that’s about it.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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