We've stayed at this hotel several times over the last few years, and this visit really let us down. It could be that we were just unlucky on this stay, but it was bad enough (both with staff interactions and our room) that we'll look at other options in the future.
Things started poorly at check-in. We had booked several reservations using points because we weren't sure how long we would be staying. We called ahead and asked the hotel to combine the reservations so that we wouldn't have to check-in/ checkout each day. The rep we spoke with said that the bookings had been combined and not to worry about it.
Front desk interactions
At check-in, we were told that it was not possible to combine the reservations (even though we called ahead and were told our booking was already combined). We would need to come to reception each day to get out room key recoded. This was a bit of an annoyance but no big deal. But the staff at the front desk rep Tanga was less than welcoming and made no mention of our Hyatt status. The fact that the hotel did not combine our reservations continued to be an irritation for our stay since housekeeping ignored our 'do not disturb' sign to ask us to check out. I explained we had an additional night in the room, but it's disconcerting to have hotel staff ignore the do not disturb and come into the room.
The Room
If you've stayed in a Hyatt house before then, you'll be familiar with their layout. Our room came with a small kitchen, living room, bathroom with shower, and a queen-size bed, all of which were in good shape.
The bed was comfortable with both sides of the bed, having easily accessible outlets (but not USB). The bathroom is simple but with good water pressure and plenty of hot water (we were on the fifth floor).
The TV is on a swivel so that it can be viewed in both the living room and from the bed. Unfortunately, the back of the television is covered so you cannot connect your computer to the tv via an HDMI cord. This was frustrating since we spend a lot of nights in hotels, and being able to access our media via the hotel's tv is a significant factor for us.
The room came with a microwave, coffee maker, and refrigerator (which includes a separate freezer). We noticed that the fridge struggled to stay cold, so we turned it to its highest setting. We put a water bottle in the freezer section on it's maxed cold setting, but even then, it was unable to freeze the water.
Internet
The Internet signal was consistent and excellent. We were able to stream Netflix from our computer without a problem. We also did not need to re-login each day, and the WiFi stayed available during our entire stay.
Air Conditioning
Even in early November, it is a t-shirt in Charleston. We set the air conditioning to the lowest setting (65 degrees), but after 12 hours, our room refused to get below 74. After 24 hours in the room without the AC getting any colder, we decided to do a little research. It seems that the thermostat can have been preprogrammed not to get colder (thus saving the hotel money). We did a manual reset of the thermostat, and the temperature dropped to 69 reasonably quickly. It was frustrating that the thermostat refused to get colder until we found a workaround.
Breakfast
Breakfast was also disappointing. This Hyatt House shares the lobby with a Hyatt Place. We've stayed at both locations and prefer the Hyatt House (mostly for breakfast, which includes an omelet bar). The two hotels each have their own separate breakfast area. During our stay, the Hyatt Place breakfast area was closed, and everyone shared the Hyatt House breakfast area. Having two hotels share the same complimentary breakfast area is hectic, crowded, and dampened our experience considerably. We had this happen all three mornings of our stay.
Elevator
the Hyatt House side of the hotel has two elevators, both of which work very well, and we never had to wait.
Environmental impact
Unfortunately, this Hyatt still uses lots of single-use plastic (such as around the soap or the shampoo bottles), and the room did not have a recycling bin.
Parking
There is a parking garage near the lobby that charges $1 per half hour or $18 a day for parking. Alternatively, Hyatt has valet, but they charge $34 a day for the privilege, which seems steep.
In the past, I would have given this Hyatt House a 4-star rating, but after poor staff interactions and several problems with the room, our experience was a 2-star stay or less. Had we known what our experience would have been like, we would have gladly chosen a Hilton or Marriott instead.
