When investigating our hotel options for Oklahoma on our 50 state road trip, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Hyatt Regency Tulsa was a category 1 property in the World of Hyatt loyalty program, which means they require the fewest number of points for a free night.
The vast majority of their category 1 properties are Hyatt Places. I actually enjoy staying at Hyatt Places, but it was nice to have an opportunity to stay somewhere different using our points.
We ended up booking a five night stay at the hotel and had a great stay. Here’s a complete review of the Hyatt Regency Tulsa including photos of our room, the club lounge, amenities and its restaurant called the Daily Grill.
Arrival
We arrived at the hotel at about 6pm, pulling up at the front of the hotel on 2nd St. After unloading the car, I left Shae and our dog Truffles with our stuff and moved the car to the adjacent parking lot.
There was some kind of special event going on that evening, so the parking lot entrance was open. The parking attendants waved me through when I explained I was staying at the hotel, despite not yet have a hotel parking card. Ordinarily, I’d assume you’d get a ticket when entering, then discard it once you get a parking card from the hotel.
After parking near the elevators, I made my way up to the hotel and entered through the lower lobby where I met back up with Shae. The check-in desks are actually on the upper lobby floor, so you need to take the escalator or elevator up to check in. The lower lobby appeared to have a couple of self check-in desks, but they were out of service.
Check-In
The upper lobby has plenty of seating and is also where the Manager’s Welcome Reception is held (more about that later).
The check-in process was a little confusing. There are three check-in desks; the middle and right-hand desks were manned with guests being checked-in and a couple of other people were waiting in line.
The other desk had a sign for World of Hyatt members, offering priority check-in for those with Discoverist, Explorist or Globalist status. Seeing as I have Explorist status, we went to that desk and figured someone would come to check us in.
After waiting some time and not being acknowledged by the existing agents who were now checking in different guests, Shae asked one of them if we should be standing at the priority desk or waiting in the now-longer line. He said we needed to wait in the main line, so we moved over there. Almost as soon as we did that, someone appeared from out back to work the priority check-in desk, so we moved back over and got checked in pretty quickly from there.
Seeing as we’re traveling with our dog, we had a sign a pet form. Once that was done, we headed to room 1019.
Bedroom
When entering our room, the bedroom area was straight ahead and the bathroom off to the right.
We’d booked a room with a king bed and it was wonderful. We’d had a terrible bed for the previous 10 nights at the Residence Inn Oklahoma City South, so this was a welcome relief. The blackout curtains were fantastic and kept the room extremely dark into the morning.
Considering the Hyatt Regency Tulsa is a somewhat fancy hotel, it was disappointing that there were no charging ports or outlets on the bedside tables. The left side had no available outlets, while the right side had one available outlet along the wall (the other outlet had that side’s lamp plugged into it).
To the left of the bed was a fairly comfortable couch, but it was a little surprising and inconvenient that there was no coffee table or even an ottoman on which to rest items.
The views out the tall windows weren’t bad and it was nice having so much natural light. There was a narrow balcony, but it wasn’t possible to open the door in order to go out there.
Opposite the sofa was a desk and office chair. The desk had numerous power outlets attached to its left side.
On the desk was a list of items you could either keep, borrow or buy if you needed them during your stay.
To the left of the desk was a cabinet with the TV on top and a good-sized fridge beneath. Unfortunately the fridge didn’t get cold and there was no temperature control inside to make it colder. To be fair to the hotel, we never got around to reporting the problem; I’m sure they’d have replaced it or fixed it if we’d asked.
The TV had a wide selection of channels available, with a list of them printed on a handy remote holder.
Between the cabinet and the desk was a double trash can which had a section for recycling. I always appreciate when hotels offer that as we like to recycle when possible.
Back towards the room’s entrance, there was a closet on the right containing a safe, luggage rack, iron and ironing board.
Opposite the closet was a table holding the coffee maker. It was nice that the table was so tall, as it meant we could store our portable kitchen and other bags beneath it.
If you’re a World of Hyatt member, you can forgo housekeeping in order to earn 250 bonus points per day. We ended up hanging this on our door every day of our stay, so we should end up earning 1,000 bonus points (you wouldn’t earn points on the final day of your stay seeing as they have to clean the room).
Bathroom
When entering the bathroom, the toilet was straight ahead and the sink and vanity were to the right. The vanity had a shaving mirror on top and a great hairdryer (according to Shae) below.
The sink seemed clogged up the first few days of our stay, so we called down to ask if they could have someone unclog it as it wasn’t draining properly. That was fixed by the time we returned a few hours later.
Also on top of the vanity was a bar of hand soap, small bottle of lotion, shower cap and beauty kit containing cotton pads, cotton swabs and a small emery board.
The bathroom also had a bathtub with shower. The shower had excellent water pressure, so it was incredibly refreshing.
On the morning we checked out, I got into the shower only to find out that there was no hot water. That wasn’t really the hotel’s fault though – apparently due to the buildings’ ages, many hotels in downtown Tulsa are served by steam power. The company that supplies the steam had problems that day, so none of the hotels they serve had any hot water.
The bathtub had an additional bar of soap, along with shampoo, conditioner and body wash.
Overall, we liked our room at the Hyatt Regency Tulsa. It felt spacious, although it would’ve been nice to have had a coffee table and power outlets available by the bed.
Club Lounge
Although we hadn’t booked a room with automatic access to the Club Lounge, I used one of the four Club Lounge passes you get for havingĀ Explorist status. I’d called Hyatt before our stay to apply one of those passes, as the Hyatt Regency Tulsa will likely be one of the few Hyatt properties we’ll stay at in the coming year that actually has a Club Lounge.
The lounge doesn’t serve breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings, so if you have Club Lounge access over a weekend, you’ll get breakfast coupons for the hotel’s restaurant instead.
The lounge itself is quite nice and there’s quite a lot of seating at tables, along with taller chairs along the counter looking out the window.
The lounge is open 24/7, so you can use the space and get soft drinks at any time. There are a couple of small fridges containing sodas and bottled water.
There’s also a machine serving coffee, hot chocolate and hot water for tea. As machine-created hot chocolate goes, it was fairly good. They had a selection of eight different types of Tazo tea, but sadly no English breakfast tea which was surprising.
Neither Shae nor I like coffee, but if that’s your thing then there are three types of Starbucks beans you can choose from.
Outside of the set hours for breakfast and evening hors d’oeuvres, there aren’t any snacks served in the lounge other than a fruit basket.
If you need to use the internet or print something off, the lounge also has a business area with two computers, a printer and several magazines.
Club Lounge – Breakfast
Breakfast is served in the Club Lounge from 6:30am-9am on weekdays. They have a fairly good selection of items, including three hot items each day. One of the hot options one morning was gravy (not sausage gravy), while another day there was something unlabeled which may or may not have been grits.
On the day I took these photos, the hot options were bacon, scrambled eggs and pancakes. On other mornings there was turkey sausage and pork sausage patties.
In addition to the hot options, there were breads, bagels, English muffins, cream cheese, preserves, etc.
Those weren’t the only carb options as there were croissants (that were extremely buttery), chocolate chip scones (delicious), muffins, donut balls, pastries and more.
On the not-so-carby front, there were hard boiled eggs, yogurts and salsa…
…along with fresh cut pineapple, canteloupe, honeydew and watermelon.
There were also three types of breakfast cereal…
…along with granola bars and oatmeal bowls.
As for beverages, there were the fridges with soft drinks and the coffee machine as always. At breakfast, there were also carafes with apple juice and orange juice…
…as well as some bottled juice drinks and soy milk.
One thing I should mention is that the person working at breakfast every morning during our stay wasn’t at all personable and was borderline rude. Other than a brief “hello” on one morning, there was no friendliness whatsoever. She seemed to avoid eye contact, there was never any smile and no “hello” any other time even when we said hello. She was also pretty abrupt with Shae one morning when she’d gone up to the lounge to work.
We both got the impression she didn’t want to be there. That was unusual given that you’d think they’d put someone who cared about customer service in the Club Lounge seeing as most guests with Club Lounge access are probably paying $$$$.
Other than the employee though, we were pleased with the breakfast served in the lounge.
Club Lounge – Evening Hors D’Oeuvres
In addition to breakfast, evening hors d’oeuvres are served in the Club Lounge of the Hyatt Regency Tulsa. Those are available Sunday-Thursday from 6pm-8:30pm.
Due to other dinner plans, we only ended up taking advantage of the hors d’oeuvres on one evening of our five night stay. There was wine and beer available, although they weren’t complimentary – they cost $5-$10 each.
It initially appeared that there were three hot options the evening we visited. However, it turned out to only be two options as two of the heaters contained mac n’ cheese bites.
The other hot option was some kind of soup/stew. It was OK, but tasted a little bland.
There was a large tray with cheese cubes…
…salad, vegetables, hummus and dressings…
…and a couple of dessert pastries – one was chocolate and the other lemon.
It wasn’t the most extensive range of hors d’oeuvres, but there was still enough for it to act as our dinner for the night.
The poor service in the Club Lounge at breakfast every day was a sharp contrast to the service in the evening. The guy working that night was much friendlier, so it’s a shame he wasn’t able to work the morning shift too.
Amenities
The Hyatt Regency Tulsa had one of the largest fitness rooms I’ve seen in a hotel. Most hotels we’ve stayed at have a fitness room with barely half a dozen pieces of equipment, whereas this one had far more.
If you need to cool down after working out, there’s an indoor swimming pool. It’ll certainly cool you down as the water was ridiculously cold – there was no way we’d ever swim in there.
Next to the swimming pool was the guest laundry area. There was one washer ($3 per load) and one dryer ($2 per load).
If you don’t have access to the Club Lounge, there’s an additional business center that’s available for all guests.
As you’d expect, there are also vending and ice machines.
The Hyatt Regency Tulsa has several other services. There’s a coffee shop, spa and gift shop, although we didn’t make use of any of these.
Manager’s Welcome Reception
On the Monday evening of our stay, a sheet was passed under our door inviting us to the Manager’s Welcome Reception on the Wednesday evening. The note advised that there’d be complimentary beer, wine and hors d’oeuvres; I’m not one to say no to free food and booze, so we RSVP’d to say we’d be there.
I’ve no idea how you get an invitation to the reception. They might reach out to guests that have Explorist and Globalist status, but that’s just a guess.
The spread was better than what was offered in the Club Lounge in the evenings, plus they had a nice Pinot Noir. There was vegetables, cheese and crackers, pita bread, mini tacos…
…something I’m not sure what it was (possibly spinach artichoke dip), panko-crusted chicken on a stick, mac n’ cheese and grilled chicken pieces…
…and several toppings like scallions, bacon bits, jalapenos, grated cheese and more.
The food was tasty and I especially enjoyed the teeny-tiny tacos (you can see how small they are between the asparagus and grilled chicken).
While at the reception, we met Tonya Jimenez (business sales manager at the Hyatt Regency Tulsa) and another guest called Katie who works for Southwest. They were both lovely and we ended up chatting to Katie for the rest of the reception.
The hotel held a draw for a $50 gift card to Daily Grill (the on-site restaurant) and Katie won. She incredibly kindly gave it to Shae and I for us to enjoy – budget win! We’d enjoyed chatting to her, so we invited her to join us at dinner when we took advantage of the gift card.
Daily Grill – Breakfast
We ended up eating at the Daily Grill twice during our stay – once for breakfast and once for dinner. Seeing as we checked in on a Saturday evening, that meant breakfast wouldn’t be served the next morning in the Club Lounge (it’s only served up there Monday-Friday).
As a result, we were given a couple of coupons for free breakfast on the Sunday morning in the Daily Grill.
The vouchers state that they’re for a complimentary Hyatt breakfast special. The menu lists that as consisting of two eggs, breakfast potatoes, toast, bacon or sausage and coffee or tea. That sounded good, but the server mentioned that its $11 value could be used towards any other items on the breakfast menu.
I therefore decided to get the bagel and lox which was very tasty. Shae was sleeping in that morning, so I ordered her a bagel with cream cheese and chopped banana which they were happy to package up for me to take back to our room.
Daily Grill – Dinner
As I mentioned earlier, we’d been given a $50 gift card to the Daily Grill by Katie who we’d met at the Manager’s Welcome Reception. We met up with her for dinner at the restaurant a couple of days after we’d checked out (we stayed at a different hotel in downtown Tulsa for four nights after that).
It took quite a while for me to decide what to order as there were so many great-sounding options.
Katie shared that she’d ordered the salmon in the past and enjoyed that. The blackberry pork chop sounded fascinating, the braised short rib with horseradish mashed potatoes sounded delicious, while the blackened ahi tuna salad seemed like it would be both tasty and healthy.
My eyes kept returning to the Moroccan spiced chicken though, so I ended up ordering that. It was a great choice as the grilled vegetables were excellent, the rice was very good and the chicken was nicely spiced.
Shae went for the angel hair pasta pomodoro and loved it too.
Parking
There’s both self-parking and valet parking at the Hyatt Regency Tulsa. Self-parking is $8 per day and includes in-out privileges. Valet parking is $15 for day parking and $20 for overnight.
Pet-Friendliness
One of the reasons why we chose to stay at the Hyatt Regency during our time in Tulsa is because it’s pet-friendly. There’s a $50 pet fee which covers the entire stay rather than being per night. That’s a very reasonable fee, especially if you’re staying for an extended period of time.
If you’re staying there with a dog, exit the hotel on the upper lobby floor via the doors by the Daily Grill. There’s a small park outside with lots of grass for your dog.
If you need somewhere your dog can run around, Joe Station Dog Park is only a couple of miles away. There are separate sections for large and small dogs and both sides are very spacious.
Service
Overall, the service at the hotel was very good. The person who checked us in was pretty friendly, the guy working in the Club Lounge in the evening was very personable, all the servers we interacted with in the Daily Grill were friendly and professional and Tonya who we met at the Manager’s Welcome Reception was very bubbly.
The biggest letdown service-wise was the person working in the Club Lounge in the morning, but otherwise I don’t think we had any issues.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi at the hotel was free, fast and had a good connection. One minor irritation was that my phone didn’t automatically reconnect to their Wi-Fi when returning to the hotel. I think that’s something to do with their Wi-Fi setup rather than my phone as that doesn’t happen at other hotels.
The good thing is that all I had to do was tap the notification and it automatically reconnected me. I therefore didn’t have to sign in or complete additional steps each time, so it was only a minor inconvenience.
Location
The Hyatt Regency Tulsa is in a great location seeing as it’s about as central as you can be in downtown Tulsa.
It’s only a few blocks from the BOK Center – an indoor sports and event arena. If you stay at the Hyatt Regency, there are several great restaurants, bars, etc. within walking distance.
Cost
We booked our stay at the hotel using points as it only costs 5,000 points per night. That means we paid a total of 25,000 points for our five night stay.
The great thing is that our stay coincided with two separate World of Hyatt promotions. The first offered a 10% points rebate on award stays for World of Hyatt credit cardholders. Seeing as I have their credit card, we earned 2,500 points back.
The second promotion offeredĀ bonus points based on the number of nights you stay which, unlike many hotel promotions, included award stays. The first five nights during the promotion period earned 2,500 points.
In addition to that, we waived housekeeping services in order to earn 250 points per night, earning us an additional 1,000 World of Hyatt points.
That means we earned a total of 6,000 points back, making our net cost 19,000 points for five nights. By contrast, the nightly rate during our stay would’ve been $172.72 per night if we’d paid cash. That means we got 4.55cpp (cents per point) of value from our points which is excellent for World of Hyatt points.
Final Thoughts
Shae and I loved our stay at the Hyatt Regency Tulsa. It’s a fairly fancy hotel (by our standards), but it wasn’t pretentious. Our room was nice, the food in the Club Lounge, restaurant and Manager’s Welcome Reception was tasty, service was – for the most part – great and the hotel is in a great location.
If we return to Tulsa in the future, this hotel would probably be my first choice so long as it remains a category 1 property and thus only costing 5,000 points per night. That offers excellent value, especially if you have access to the Club Lounge via status.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! I think this was one of her favorite hotels so far on our 50 state road trip as it was so quiet. We appreciated that too as it meant she didn’t feel the need to protect us by barking at all the danger outside our room š
There were lots of grassy areas around the hotel, plus it’s in a good location to walk around Tulsa.
Our Rating
Room = 4.4 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.5 / 5
Food = 4.7 / 5
Location = 4.9 / 5
Service = 4.6 / 5
Overall Value = 4.6 / 5
Total = 4.62 / 5
Address
Hyatt Regency,Ā 100 E 2nd St, Tulsa, OK 74103
It was so nice to meet you during your stay in Tulsa. Thank you so much for the great review! Please let me know if you come back through. I would like to meet Truffles next time!
Tonya (the bubbly girl from Hyatt!)
Thanks! It was great getting to meet you too š