After spending a month in Louisiana on our 50 state road trip, we headed west as our next state was Arizona. Our first stop there was Tucson and when looking into our accommodation options, I was surprised at how expensive everything was.
Hotels and Airbnbs were all $125+ per night, if not more expensive. With a daily budget on our road trip of $100, that kind of pricing obviously wasn’t going to work for us. Thankfully we have a good stash of hotel points and Hyatt had a couple of category 1 properties in Tucson which means they only cost 5,000 World of Hyatt points per night.
Both those properties were Hyatt Places, with one in central Tucson and one out by the airport. We’d never been to Tucson before, but figured that being in central Tucson would be a better option for being near restaurants, stores, activities, etc. (this was before everything started getting shut down due to coronavirus).
Our original plan had been that we’d visit Phoenix after Tucson, but when looking at our list of things to do in Phoenix, there was hardly anything there. We also had a couple of people we know say they loved Tucson but found Phoenix boring, so we decided to stay longer in Tucson and planned to just do a day trip or two up to Phoenix.
As a result, we stayed longer in Tucson than originally planned. We stayed 11 nights at the Hyatt Place before staying 5 nights at a different hotel in Tucson (I’ll share why when reviewing that hotel in the future). Here’s a review of our stay at the Hyatt Place Tucson-Central.
Check-In
We’d stayed overnight in Van Horn, Texas on our way through and had another long drive before getting to Tucson at about 8pm. Tray and Sergio were working at the front desk when we checked in and both of them were very friendly.
Tray was very thorough but great throughout it. He asked what days we’d like housekeeping because they offer 200 bonus points per day when declining it, offered us that day’s two free waters from having Globalist status and asked if we wanted to take advantage of a 4pm late checkout due to my status. Despite covering more stuff than usual when checking in, it didn’t take long at all and we were soon on our way down the hall to room 119.
Room
When entering the room, the first thing that struck us was how relatively small it was compared to normal Hyatt Place rooms. Hyatt Places tend to be pretty cookie-cutter, so any differentiation from that is always noticeable.
Although much of the furniture was the kind that you’ll always find in Hyatt Places, the room just had a different feel and seemed like it had been converted to a Hyatt Place from a different hotel brand. It turns out that was indeed the case, which is why the rooms were smaller and in a different layout compared to normal.
When entering the living area, the corner sleeper sofa was on the right. There was an ottoman with a shelf, along with a side table which was a welcome addition to the room.
Virtually every other Hyatt Place we’ve stayed at has had a room divider between the living area and bed, but there wasn’t one at the Hyatt Place Tucson-Central. The king bed was very comfortable and there were power outlets available on both sides of the bed. The clock radio also had a couple of USB ports built into it.
Opposite the bed was a dresser and a bench to the right of that. The wall-mounted TV was above the dresser, with a mini fridge in the cupboard below.
The hotel had a fairly good selection of TV channels, although we used our Amazon Fire TV Stick to increase the number of available channels.
To the left of the mini fridge and dresser was a desk and office chair, along with a coffee maker.
Back towards the room’s entrance was a closet which contained an iron, ironing board, luggage rack and blanket.
Bathroom
The bathroom was back by the room’s entrance. When entering the bathroom, the sink and vanity were on the right hand side.
There was a walk-in shower which had decent water pressure and so was nice and refreshing.
The toiletries were the standard Barney Kenet M.D. toiletries you get at all Hyatt Places in the US.
One of the ways you could tell the hotel hadn’t started life as a Hyatt Place was some of the workmanship. For example, here’s the baseboard in the bathroom. I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume the markings on the baseboard is part of the tile design rather than that section being filthy.
Overall, the room wasn’t bad, but it did feel much more cramped than normal. Its size is likely less of an issue to most people staying there, but seeing as we travel with pretty much everything we own, the room felt much more crowded here than at most hotels we stay at.
Another downside to our particular room was its location. It was at the end of the hall on the first floor which ordinarily would be quieter. However, the door to the outdoor pool was right next to our room, meaning people walked by our room all the time and were sometimes very noisy while doing so.
Breakfast
The breakfast policy at Hyatt Places is a little inconsistent. It used to be free for all guests, but Hyatt changed the policy almost 18 months ago so it’s only free if you booked directly with them. That means if you booked via an OTA (Online Travel Agency) like Expedia, Hotels.com, etc., you no longer get free breakfast.
This was enforced in the first few months at the Hyatt Places we stayed at, but since then hotel staff have very rarely checked at any Hyatt Places we’ve stayed at. That was indeed the case at the Hyatt Place Tucson-Central for the first week or so. However, during the last few days of our stay a guy came in during the morning who was either the hotel’s owner or maybe a regional manager. As a result of him being there, one of the staff members was always standing by the breakfast area to check room numbers to ensure only eligible guests were taking advantage of the complimentary breakfast. That always felt a little awkward, so I wish Hyatt would do away with this policy change and just revert back to all guests getting free breakfast.
As for breakfast itself, it was always good. The guy in charge of breakfast always did an excellent job of ensuring everything remained well-stocked.
As always with Hyatt Place, there are several hot options each morning. There’s always scrambled eggs and breakfast potatoes, with the other hot options rotating each day. The day I took the photos there were sausages, pancakes and monkey bread, while other mornings there was bacon, waffles and more.
The other options were the same each morning, although sometimes the fresh fruit was different.
There was also a coffee and tea station, but I forgot to take photos of that.
A couple of positive things to note about breakfast. First, we’ve stayed at a number of hotels in the last 6 months where they started clearing breakfast away before it was meant to end, with one clearing breakfast items away 30 minutes early. That wasn’t the case at the Hyatt Place Tucson-Central which we appreciated. They always came out to the breakfast area about five minutes before it was due to end to let us know so that we could get any additional food items we wanted and didn’t clear anything away until the correct time.
I also (to a probably irrational extent) loooooooooved how organized they were when clearing away our plates, silverware, etc. Most Hyatt Places only have one large bowl to place everything in, with guests piling everything in haphazardly. The Hyatt Place Tucson-Central had three bowls, with one being used for glasses and mugs, one for silverware and one for plates and bowls. It was therefore incredibly satisfying seeing everything stacked neatly each morning 🙂
Amenities
The hotel has a nice outdoor pool area at the back of the hotel. If I remember correctly, the pool wasn’t heated – we didn’t use it ourselves, but I think I dipped my hand in to test the temperature.
Next to the pool was a whirlpool.
Also in the pool area was a fire pit and some additional seating.
There was some additional seating at the front of the hotel…
…and plenty more seating in the lobby area, including a couple of slightly more private alcoves.
Next to those alcoves was a business center with a couple of computers and a printer.
The hotel has a fitness room with several pieces of equipment and plenty of weights. A feature I appreciated was that the temperature could be controlled by guests, meaning it didn’t stay too hot in there when working out.
Pet Policy
The Hyatt Place Tucson-Central is a pet-friendly hotel. There’s no restriction listed on their website for how many dogs you’re allowed in your room, but if you’re traveling with more than one pup then it’d be worth checking with the hotel that that’s OK. They do have a weight limit of 30 lbs for dogs.
The pet fee is $75 for stays of 1-6 nights and $175 for stays of 7+ nights. Seeing as we were staying 11 nights, we were resigned to paying a $175 pet fee, so were pleasantly surprised when we saw this wasn’t charged when checking out.
One of the nice things about our stay is that so many of the staff members fawned over Truffles, so she got all the attention she could hope for. Whenever we walked past the front desk, Truffles tried running behind to join them so that they’d pet her!
Due to it being so dry in Tucson, the hotel didn’t have any grass around the property. Most of the area surrounding the property is paved, although there is a small pet walking area at the front of the hotel. It’s covered in stones and has cacti, so your dog will need to be careful while doing their business.
If you head out to the left when leaving the hotel, there are a couple of grassy areas belonging to nearby businesses around the corner if your dog doesn’t care for going on stones.
Service
Service at the hotel was very good. The front desk staff were always friendly, while the guy working security at night was also very personable. The breakfast staff members were excellent too.
One negative experience was a lack of housekeeping one day. We declined housekeeping most days (due to the bonus points on offer), but one day we did want to receive their service. We left at a reasonable time in the morning and asked the person working at the front desk if they could have housekeeping come in seeing as we were going to be out for much of the day. When returning late afternoon though, they hadn’t been.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
You can check-in from 3pm, while check-out is at 12pm. I have Globalist status with World of Hyatt, so we were able to take advantage of a 4pm late checkout. This is something they proactively asked about when we checked in. I double-checked the night before that we were noted down for the late checkout and they confirmed that we were.
Wi-Fi
The Wi-Fi wasn’t great at the Hyatt Place Tucson-Central. During the day it seemed to be a decent enough speed, but at about 10pm it slowed to a crawl. Here’s a screenshot of a speed test I did showing quite how slow it got.
Seeing as it seemed to slow down at a similar time each day, Shae suggested that it might be that they back up their systems late in the evening.
Location
Tucson was a slightly unusual city. We really liked it there as it was so beautiful with the nearby mountains, but it felt much more spread out than many other cities. That was good as it meant views weren’t spoiled by high-rise buildings, but it did mean it took longer to get anywhere than it usually might, especially with all the traffic lights around.
The hotel is about 10 minutes from downtown Tucson, 20 minutes from the airport, 25 minutes from Catalina State Park and about 45 minutes from Saguaro National Park (both east and west sections) and Biosphere 2.
Parking
The Hyatt Place Tucson-Central offers free parking. There aren’t any parking spaces at the front of the property, with only a dozen or so spaces down each side. We therefore had to park behind the hotel sometimes which wasn’t so bad seeing as there was an entrance back there which was next to our room.
There’s a restaurant and another hotel next door, so parking at the weekend could be hard to come by. When arriving on Saturday night at about 8pm, we managed to get one of the very last parking spots, but there were more spaces for the rest of our stay.
Cost
Like I mentioned at the beginning of the review, we booked our stay using points as they only charge 5,000 points per night. That means our 11 night stay only cost 55,000 points which is pretty good considering you can usually earn that number of points as a signup bonus on the World of Hyatt credit card.
It would’ve cost $149.22 per night if we’d paid cash, so we got 2.98cpp (cents per point) of value by using points which is great value.
Points Earned
Using points for our stay rather than paying cash meant we didn’t earn any base points for our stay. We did earn 1,600 bonus points though because the hotel offers 200 points for every day that you decline housekeeping.
We declined it 8 days of our stay which is why we ended up with 1,600 bonus points. When taking advantage of these types of initiatives, we often don’t receive any points, or an incorrect number of them. It was therefore nice to see the correct number of points show up on my account a couple of days after our stay. I’m not sure if it’s because the housekeeping team tracked it correctly or if it’s because they asked what days we wanted housekeeping when checking in. I’ve a feeling it’s the latter because I think we would’ve ended up with 1,800 points due to them not providing housekeeping one of the days we asked for it.
Final Thoughts
I have slightly mixed feelings about our stay. Our room was probably my least favorite of any Hyatt Places we’ve stayed at seeing as it was smaller than usual, plus it was noisy at times being right next to the door leading to the swimming pool. It was also frustrating having such slow internet at times because both Shae and I work online.
However, the breakfast was always kept well-stocked, the staff were all fantastic and it was good value when using points compared to hotel prices in Tucson.
If we return to Tucson in the future, I’d be tempted to book the other Hyatt Place in Tucson (the Hyatt Place Tucson Airport) because that’s also a category 1 property and it presumably has larger rooms. The Country Inn & Suites Tucson Airport is also a great property. However, the Hyatt Place Tucson-Central certainly isn’t a bad place to stay, especially thanks to its great staff.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles couldn’t quite decide whether to give three or four paws, but she ended up awarding four paws out of four – pawfect! Although she would’ve liked to have a larger pet walking area that had grass, she adored all the attention she got from the hotel staff, plus they didn’t end up charging a pet fee. If they had charged the $175 pet fee, she likely would’ve awarded three paws.
Our Rating
Room = 3.9 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.0 / 5
Food = 4.4 / 5
Location = 4.0 / 5
Service = 4.8 / 5
Overall Value = 4.7 / 5 (based on using points)
Total = 4.3 / 5
Address
Hyatt Place, 1375 W Grant Rd, Tucson, AZ 85745
[…] Our first 11 nights were spent at the Hyatt Place Tucson-Central. While it wasn’t the best Hyatt Place we’ve stayed at because the rooms were much smaller than normal, the staff members were wonderful and Truffles loved all the attention they gave her. You can read our full review of the hotel here. […]