Hotel Review: Hyatt Regency Rochester, NY

To kick off our time in New York state we decided to stay five nights in Rochester. Rochester hadn’t been somewhere that had particularly been on our radar, but it was about halfway between Detroit, MI where we were coming from and Lodi, NY in the Finger Lakes region where we’d booked a stay a little later in August.

What made Rochester an even better choice as somewhere to stay was the fact that there’s the Hyatt Regency Rochester downtown. It’s a category 1 property in the World of Hyatt program and so is great value when using points.

We used a suite upgrade award to guarantee a one bedroom suite while we were there. It was nice having all the extra space, but there were a number of features about the suite that weren’t great and the hotel is showing its age.

Here’s a full review of our stay at the Hyatt Regency Rochester.

Check-In

Our check-in experience was one of the weirdest we’ve had in the six years that we’ve been living in hotels and Airbnbs. We arrived at the hotel and I unloaded our car while Shae went to check in. With everything loaded on to a luggage cart, I pushed it inside, only to discover that there was no way of getting it up the one floor to the lobby which is on the second floor.

There was an escalator, but you obviously can’t put a luggage cart on there. There was no regular elevator, but there was a handicapped accessible elevator next to the escalators. It might’ve been possible to fit the cart on there, but it was out of order.

An employee came up with a suggestion – he’d stand at the top of the escalators while I stood at the bottom. I’d load items one-by-one to the escalator and let it carry them up, with him taking them off at the other end. It was nice that he came up with that solution and helped in that way, but it’s just plain weird that the hotel has no way to get a luggage cart up to the lobby from the entrance.

To avoid that issue yourselves, what you should do is check in at the front desk, then drive up to the first level of the parking lot. There’s a section where you can pull off and unload your car, then wheel the cart in on the same level as the lobby.

Skyline Suite

Living Room

The kind of suite we were upgraded to was one of their Skyline suites. The hotel has 25 floors and we were on the 21st floor in room 2111.

When entering the suite you start off in the spacious living room which had quite a lot of seating options. There was a couch, an armchair and a couple of other chairs opposite each other with a table in between. Next to the thermostat was a control panel to open the blinds and curtains electronically.

There was also a chaise lounge on the other side of the living room.

The Hyatt Regency Rochester seems to be one of the tallest buildings in the city. As a result, you can get great views when on the 21st floor like we were.

There were frustrating design features all throughout the suite. In the living room, it was a little annoying that the wall-mounted TV was fixed in place and couldn’t be pulled out on an arm as it made it extremely hard accessing the HDMI ports behind. The TV also had very bad connectivity; I think is must be connected to the hotel’s very poor Wi-Fi signal, so TV programs would stop and start.

It was also strange that there was no trash can anywhere in the living room.

Bedroom

The bedroom was a pretty good size. The king bed was comfortable and the blackout curtains worked OK once we fixed them (both sides of the curtains had come unhooked at the ends where they meet). Similar to the living room, there was a panel to control the blinds and curtains electronically, but that was broken in the bedroom.

On the opposite side of the room to the bed was a long desk beneath a wall-mounted TV. At the end of the desk were a couple of bottles of water.

To the left of that was a surprisingly small closet area with a mini fridge and coffee maker. The narrow section on the right could be pulled out and housed an ironing board.

Questionable design choices came into play here too. The left side of the closet was incredibly close to the corner of the bed, so there was very little space to walk through to the bathroom without knocking against one or the other.

When we arrived, it also seemed like the mini fridge was broken as it wasn’t cold. It turns out that the mini fridge was plugged in to the same outlet as the plug which powers the lights built in to the closet. If you want those lights turned off, it also turns off the mini fridge which is an incredibly dumb design decision on their part. Thankfully Shae worked out that’s what had happened, so we just unplugged the closet light so that the mini fridge could remain on all the time.

The poor design decisions didn’t end there. The chair next to the desk wasn’t on rollers, so it wasn’t ideal as a work space. Considering how large the living room was, it might’ve made more sense to have a work desk and office chair out there rather than in the bedroom.

It also would’ve been preferable (in my opinion) to have the mini fridge and coffee maker in the living room rather than the bedroom, although I’m sure others prefer having it in the bedroom.

A more frustrating design choice is that both sets of bedroom doors – the one to the living room and the one to the bathroom – had frosted glass in them. That meant that if you had the light on in the living room or the bathroom, that lit up the bedroom. One of the purposes of us using a suite upgrade award to book a one bedroom suite is so that Shae could have a dark bedroom while I worked at night in the living room, but that wasn’t possible.

What also made it harder for her to sleep before I came to bed was the fact that the air conditioning didn’t work in the bedroom. When I came to bed we just left the bedroom door open to the living room to let the cool air come in from there.

On the plus side, there was a tray of tasty cookies in our room with a handwritten note as a welcome amenity.

Due to the layout of the suite, the bedroom had a different view to the living room.

Bathroom

The bathroom was also fairly spacious. The dodgy design decisions continued in here as the tap was installed to the right of the sink rather than behind it like the majority of sinks. I know that it’s kind of irrational being annoyed by this, but I don’t understand why they wouldn’t install it in the same place as 99% of other sinks.

Rather than having large bottles of refillable toiletries, there were small bottles of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and lotion.

The bathroom had a walk-in shower which had good water pressure.

The toilet was in its own separate room within the bathroom. It was nice having that privacy so that someone could use the toilet while someone used the rest of the bathroom, but they could really do with installing a bathroom fan in the toilet room.

As you can tell, I have mixed feelings about our suite. I loved that it was all so spacious (well, apart from the lack of space between the closet and bed), but it felt like someone made deliberate design decisions to make numerous aspects of it unenjoyable. It was unfortunate that this came only a month after having a similar type of experience at the Tru in Traverse City, MI.

Breakfast

The Hyatt Regency Rochester offers breakfast from 7am-10:30am in Astor on Main – one of the hotel’s restaurants. Breakfast isn’t complimentary for all guests. However, I have Globalist status with Hyatt which includes complimentary breakfast for the two of us.

Here’s the breakfast menu:

During our stay I tried a few of the options which were all tasty – the Standard, a build-your-own omelet and their parfait, the latter of which was particularly good.

Shae also ordered the Standard on one morning, while other times she got the pancakes and breakfast tacos. The breakfast tacos are listed as having vegan eggs, but you can order it with regular eggs like Shae did; she thought they were delicious.

On a couple of mornings during our stay they also had the option of a breakfast buffet instead of ordering off the menu. It wasn’t the most extensive buffet ever, but it had a decent enough selection and so I had that on one or two mornings.

Other Dining

In addition to breakfast, Astor on Main serves lunch and dinner, while The Street Craft Kitchen & Bar is also open every day for dinner.

Here are the dinner menus for both of the restaurants; apologies for the blurry Astor menu as I hadn’t noticed that until putting this post together:

While wandering around the hotel I noticed that they also have Center City Terrace & Lounge. I’m not sure of its opening hours as it was closed when I went by.

The hotel has a Starbucks on the first floor (i.e. the floor below the lobby) which can be accessed from both the street and by taking the elevator down to the first floor.

You can also order room service. There was this sheet in our room with a QR code you can scan to see the menu.

Amenities

Fitness Room

The Hyatt Regency Rochester has a fitness room on the third floor, although in the elevator the third floor is labeled as ‘H’ for ‘Health Club’. The air conditioning seems to struggle in the fitness room in the summer, so it gets very hot and humid in there, plus you’re not able to adjust the temperature yourself as the thermostat is locked behind a Perspex cover. It gets the sun on that side of the building in the afternoon, but even with the shade pulled down it doesn’t help much.

The fitness room has several treadmills, ellipticals and bikes, as well as weights. The treadmills they have aren’t great if you have a large bottle of water as there’s nowhere to put it. There’s a hole on the right side where you can put smaller bottles at an angle, but the shelf on the left is angled and there’s nothing keeping it upright behind it, so if you have a larger bottle of water like I do, you have to either leave it on the floor and not drink while you’re working out or balance it precariously and risk it falling off (which happened to me, but I managed to catch it in time).

Swimming Pool & Whirlpool

There’s an indoor swimming pool which you have to get to by walking through the fitness room. There’s an outdoor terrace, but that appeared to be locked which was strange as it was summer when we stayed there.

There’s a whirlpool in the pool area, although that seemed to be closed during our stay too.

Business Center

On the second floor (where the lobby is) there’s a business center with a computer and printer for guests to use.

Lobby Seating

Near the business center was a conference table, although it doesn’t provide privacy for meetings. There are separate meeting rooms and ballrooms you can book though.

Pantry & Ice

Next to the front desk there’s a pantry area where you can buy drinks and snacks. There’s a freezer in there where you can get complimentary bags of ice as the hotel doesn’t have any ice machines.

Shuttle Bus

At the time of publishing this review, the website for the Hyatt Regency Rochester states that their shuttle service is suspended. I don’t think that’s completely true as we did see people being picked up and dropped off, but they all seemed to be flight crew and so perhaps one or more airlines has an agreement with the hotel that they’ll pick up their pilots and flight attendants from Rochester airport.

There are a couple of shuttle buses parked at the top of the ramp as you arrive at the hotel. I can understand why they park there to drop people off, but it means there’s only space for one guest to temporarily park their car outside when checking in.

Pet Policy

The Hyatt Regency Rochester is a pet-friendly hotel. They charge a very reasonable pet fee of $60 regardless of your length of stay, with $10 of that going to a local animal shelter.

There’s a 50lb weight limit per dog, with a combined weight limit of 75lbs for two dogs which is the maximum they’ll allow in any one room. I’m not sure how strictly that’s enforced as we don’t have to worry about that with Truffles seeing as she’s only 10-11lbs.

While the hotel doesn’t have any grass immediately outside, if you walk a block up to the right when exiting the hotel there’s a grassy area outside the Chase building, with another park with more grass a block beyond that.

Service

Overall, service was pretty good at the hotel. The front desk staff were always friendly and they loved seeing Truffles whenever we went by.

We had to get a couple of packages sent there during our stay. We’d had problems with that at the Homewood Suites Grand Rapids Downtown a couple of weeks beforehand, but there was no issue getting them at the Hyatt Regency. One of the birthday presents I got Shae actually arrived a week late, so they kindly held on to it for a few days before I had a chance to drive back there while we were staying an hour away in Lodi, NY.

There was also a server called Garland at breakfast who deserves a special mention as he was always incredibly friendly and attentive.

Wi-Fi

The hotel’s Wi-Fi was awful. It was incredibly slow and would sometimes cut out, so trying to download and upload photos and videos was an exercise in frustration. I don’t know if we just got unlucky with poor coverage in the part of the building we were in or if it affects all guests there.

Check-In & Check-Out Times

Check-in at the Hyatt Regency Rochester is from 3pm, while checkout is at 11am.

Location

The hotel is centrally located in downtown Rochester. It’s only half a mile from the Strong National Museum of Play, less than a mile from High Falls and about 1.5 miles from the Susan B. Anthony House & Museum.

Parking

Parking at the hotel costs $10 per day on weekdays and $6 per day at the weekend. One of the benefits of Hyatt Globalist status is that you get free parking on award stays, so we didn’t have to pay for it during our stay.

When checking in we were given a sheet with a QR code on it; that gets scanned at the entrance and exit when coming and going to raise the barriers.

Cost

At the time of our stay, the Hyatt Regency Rochester was a category 1 property in the World of Hyatt program. That means it costs 3,500, 5,000 or 6,500 points per night depending on if it’s at off-peak, standard or peak pricing respectively. It was at standard pricing for all five nights of our stay, so we redeemed a total of 25,000 points.

For comparison, the cash rate for a standard room was $142.61 per night including tax, so we got 2.85cpp (cents per point) of value by using points which is very good. They were actually charging $826.61 per night for the Skyline Suite we were upgraded to which is absolutely nuts considering all its frustrating design elements.

Final Thoughts

As I mentioned earlier in the review, I have mixed feelings about our stay. Our suite was nice and spacious, but its design had all kinds of annoying features. On top of that, the air conditioning in our bedroom didn’t work (although it did work in the living room), nor did the electric curtains in the bedroom.

The fitness room was fairly well equipped, but they keep the temperature in there far too warm in the summer. It’s weird that there’s no way to go up in an elevator from the first to the second floor, but the front desk staff members are nice and friendly.

Overall, it was a decent enough place to stay using points and I’d likely stay there again if we return to Rochester as that’s such good value given its location, but the property is showing its age and needs updating.

Truffles Approval Rating

Truffles gives the Hyatt Regency Rochester four paws out of four – pawfect! At $60 for the entire stay, the pet fee was fair. Having a one bedroom suite meant our room was quiet at night even though we had to leave the bedroom door open to let cool air from the living room in. She enjoyed the attention she got from the front desk staff and it was nice having grassy areas so close to the hotel considering we were staying downtown.

Our Rating

Room = 3.7 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.0 / 5
Food = 4.3 / 5
Location = 4.4 / 5
Service = 4.2 / 5
Overall Value = 4.3 / 5

Total = 4.15 / 5

Address

Hyatt Regency, 125 E Main St, Rochester, NY 14604