Hotel Review: Hyatt Place Cleveland / Independence, Ohio

After spending a month in Cincinnati, Shae, Truffles and I made our way a few hours north-east to Cleveland. We’d briefly visited Cleveland in the first year of our 50 state road trip, but that was when we were staying with friends in Mansfield, so we didn’t end up seeing much of the city.

To be honest, we didn’t see much of the city this time around as many of the attractions there are less appealing right now due to COVID-19. As a result, we booked a hotel just outside of Cleveland which was near Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

The Hyatt Place Cleveland/Independence is a category 1 property in the World of Hyatt program, so it’s great value on points, but it got even better thanks to a couple of promotions Hyatt was running during our stay.

We stayed there for a week in July 2020 and it was a good stay overall. In particular, we were very impressed with how they dealt with everything COVID-19-wise which made me realize how little our previous hotel in Cincinnati had done in comparison.

Here’s a review of our week-long stay at the Hyatt Place Cleveland/Independence in Ohio.

Check-In

After what felt like a long four hour drive in torrential rain, we arrived at the hotel at about 5pm. No one else was in line when we checked in, so the process was very quick.

Rhiannon checked us in and she was incredibly friendly. I think we might have had to fill out a pet form because of having Truffles with us, but I can’t remember for sure (I’m writing this about a month after our stay).

Rhiannon gave us a print-off containing details about a number of their policies and services which had to change as a result of COVID-19. She also gave us a coupon which could be redeemed for a free snack or drink from the pantry area by the front desk.

We then wheeled our luggage cart up to room 401 which was at the far end of the floor. We appreciated this as it meant there was less foot traffic going by our room, so Truffles was less likely to hear people walking by and bark at them.

Bedroom

Most Hyatt Places have two types of bedroom style – one king bed or two queens – so we’d booked a room with one king. You enter into the living area, with a corner sleeper sofa on the right. Although the sofa looked like your standard Hyatt Place sofa, it felt much different. The seat sunk down a little and the back cushion went backwards when you rested against it. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was always a weird sensation when sitting down as it almost felt like you were falling into the couch.

In front of the sofa was an ottoman which we used as a coffee table. There was about a foot of space between the right side of the sofa and the wall which we loved because it gave us additional storage space for bags, boxes, etc. We travel full-time, so we bring a lot more stuff into the hotel than your average guest.

On the opposite side of the room was a wet bar with a mini fridge beneath. It was a little hard getting the right temperature setting and so we ended up freezing a couple of items at the back of the fridge.

Opposite the wet bar in the alcove was a desk and an office chair which was comfortable to sit in.

Between the desk and the bedroom area was the room’s TV. This could be turned a few degrees left or right depending on if you were watching from the living area or the bed.

There are usually a couple of drinking glasses in Hyatt Place rooms beneath the TV, but these had been replaced by four plastic cups, each in plastic wrap (presumably due to COVID-19).

Hyatt Place beds are always incredibly comfortable and the one at Cleveland/Independence was no exception, so we had a week of good sleep. The blackout curtains also worked well to keep the room nice and dark.

Behind the TV was the room’s closet which had an iron, ironing board, luggage rack and blanket for the sofa bed. Their blankets are extremely cozy, so we always make use of them when staying at Hyatt Places even though we don’t use the sofa bed itself.

Bathroom

Between the closet and the bathroom was the room’s sink. There’s some counter space to the left and a dresser beneath. This layout can be a little annoying if you’re staying in the room with someone else and one of you is up later and/or earlier than the other. That’s because it means having to use the sink in the dark unless you want to wake up the other person by turning on the light above the sink, so I just have to use the light from my phone at night time as I’m always up later than Shae.

In the bathroom was the toilet and a walk-in shower. The shower had good water pressure and heated up quickly.

It didn’t seem like whoever worked on the bathroom got around to filling all the grout lines, plus one of the floor tiles was a little bouncy.

Some hotel chains are moving away from small disposable toiletries in favor of larger, refillable bottles of shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. The Hyatt Place Cleveland/Independence still provided small bottles of shampoo and conditioner, a couple of small bars of soap and makeup remover.

Overall our room was much like the majority of Hyatt Place rooms we’ve stayed in in the past which is one reason we like the Hyatt Place brand – its consistency. Our room at the Hyatt Place Cleveland/Independence had the added benefit of an ever-so-slightly larger living area. While that likely wouldn’t make a difference to most people, it’s something we liked due to having more bags and boxes with us.

Breakfast

Hyatt Places normally provide a full buffet breakfast with hot items, cereals, freshly cut fruit, breads, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, etc. COVID-19 means those types of breakfasts have been paused.

In its place, the Hyatt Place Cleveland/Independence offered a couple of different options at breakfast. These breakfasts came in to-go bags and were somewhat similar, although the first option had additional protein options.

Seeing as we stayed there for a week, we decided to try both types of breakfast. Here’s what we got in our Fuel It Up bag…

…and here’s what was in our Early Bird bag.

While the overall choices were the same each day, I appreciated that they varied what was in each bag. You could choose whether you had apple or orange juice as those were kept in a fridge until needed. There were a couple of different flavors of yogurt, chocolate or blueberry muffins, different types of granola bars and even different types of apples. This was much better than our month at the Residence Inn Cincinnati North/West Chester where the limited breakfast options were exactly the same every single day.

If you wanted coffee or tea, you could still get that from the lobby in the morning.

As a tea drinker, I appreciated that they never ran out of the English breakfast tea during our week-long stay as that’s happened at a number of other Hyatt Places we’ve stayed at in the past.

Amenities

Due to the pandemic, the amenities at the Hyatt Place Cleveland/Independence weren’t quite as accessible as in ordinary times which was no bad thing considering the circumstances.

There were ice machines on the third and fifth floors, while the business center was still available on the first floor.

I don’t think they had washers and dryers for guests to use, but I didn’t check as we didn’t need to do any laundry during our stay.

The fitness center was available for guests to use, but only in 30 minute increments which had to be arranged with the front desk beforehand. I’m still cautious about using hotel fitness rooms due to the pandemic, so I gave it a miss. I wanted to get a couple of photos of the room though, so I took these from the outside while it was empty one evening.

The hotel placed a limit of two guests using the fitness room at any one time and staff disinfected the equipment after each person used the room.

The indoor swimming pool could be booked in 30 minute increments as well, with a limit of 15 people in the pool area at any one time. Neither the fitness room and swimming pool doors could be opened with your room key unlike normal, so the front desk must presumably give you a separate key to use when it’s your time slot. This setup was great as it meant there was no risk of over capacity, but it did mean I didn’t get a photo of the pool because I didn’t want to book a 30 minute slot just to take a photo in case anyone else would want to use that slot.

Next to the front desk was a pantry area with a good selection of snacks, drinks and – I think – salads and sandwiches, along with a few toiletry options.

Pet Policy

The Hyatt Place Cleveland/Independence is a pet-friendly hotel and has a $75 pet fee regardless of how long you stay. That’s obviously high if you’re only staying one night, but is more reasonable for longer stays like ours.

It was also one of the reasons I chose this particular property for our stay. Most Hyatt Places charge $75 for 1-6 nights and $175 for 7+ nights. Seeing as we were staying 7 nights, we’d normally have had to pay an extra $100. I don’t think we’ve ever ended up being charged that extra $100 for longer stays before, but it was nice not having to worry that it would be a possibility when checking out. In the end I needn’t have worried because we didn’t even get charged the $75 fee which was a nice bonus. Truffles is hypoallergenic and so doesn’t shed, so it’s not like the hotel would’ve had to have spent any more time or money cleaning our room; I therefore didn’t feel bad about not being charged the fee.

Dogs have to be under 50 lbs and there’s a limit of two dogs per room provided they don’t weigh more than 75 lbs combined.

The hotel has a number of grassy areas around the property including a dedicated pet walking area on the left side.

COVID-19

As mentioned earlier, we stayed at this hotel in July 2020 which was during the COVID-19 pandemic in case you’re reading this in the future once – hopefully – we have a vaccine.

I’ve started adding a COVID-19 section to our hotel reviews as I thought it would be interesting to see how things differ from hotel to hotel. We’ve mostly stayed in Airbnbs since March, so I was curious to see how the Hyatt Place Cleveland/Independence would deal with things.

I have to say – I was impressed. The staff were incredibly thorough when it came to disinfecting common areas and items. After we’d checked in and unloaded our luggage cart, I took it back downstairs. Rhiannon immediately came over and wiped it down with disinfectant before other guests would’ve had a chance to use it.

At other times during our stay I saw staff members going around disinfecting tables, surfaces, door handles, etc. That therefore gave me greater confidence that they were actually going in to the fitness room and pool area to disinfect equipment, surfaces, pool loungers, etc. like it said they would on the print-off they gave us when checking in.

There were signs up at the entrance and in the lobby encouraging physical distancing, mask wearing, etc., as well as signs by the elevator requesting that you limited the number of people inside to two unless you were part of a family group.

While I was impressed with how thorough the front desk staff seemed to be with cleaning everything, I was a little less impressed with housekeeping. We declined housekeeping throughout our stay and so that wasn’t the issue.

However, when we got up to our room after checking in there was some discarded chewing gum on the bedside shelf. While that wouldn’t be great in normal circumstances, ordinarily I’d just shrug and throw it in the trash can.

However, with COVID-19, all surfaces are supposed to be wiped down thoroughly with disinfectant. The fact that the gum wasn’t spotted by housekeeping means they didn’t bother wiping down the bedside shelf as they’d have noticed it when lifting the alarm clock. That made me a little more concerned as to what else in the room hadn’t been wiped down before we arrived, despite seeming to look clean.

Check-In & Check-Out Times

The check-in time at the Hyatt Place Cleveland-Independence is 3pm and check-out is at 12pm.

Wi-Fi

The speed of the Wi-Fi was good and there weren’t any connection issues as such. What was a little annoying though is that we had to reconnect to the internet every 24 hours. For some reason that’s the case at most Hyatt Places; I don’t know why they insist on doing that as it often cuts out right when I’m in the middle of doing something online.

Location

The Hyatt Place Cleveland/Independence is located to the south of Cleveland where I-77 and I-480 meet, so it’s a convenient stopping place if you’re traveling along either of those interstates.

It takes about 15-20 minutes to get to downtown Cleveland depending on traffic, so it’s not too bad. There aren’t really any restaurants in walking distance, although it’s only a few minutes drive to get to some.

The hotel is also only 15-20 minutes from Cuyahoga Valley National Park which is to the south. While it didn’t seem like a National Park I’d make a concerted effort to get to, it’s great having it nearby, especially if you’re trying to visit as many National Parks as possible. We took a trip there one afternoon to check out Brandywine Falls.

Parking

Parking is free at the hotel and there was plenty of it. While there were limited spaces at the front of the property, there was ample space at the back of the hotel.

Cost & Points Earned

As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, we booked our stay using points. That’s because the Hyatt Place Cleveland/Independence was a category 1 property when we stayed there which means it only costs 5,000 points per night in the World of Hyatt program. That means we redeemed 35,000 points for our seven nights there, but our net cost was much lower.

For starters, Hyatt was running a promotion which offered 2,500 bonus points for your first stay during the promotion period. That was valid on both paid nights and award stays, so we got 2,500 points back for that.

Even better, there was an additional Hyatt promo which was even more rewarding for us. That gave 15% of your points back if you didn’t have a Hyatt credit card and 25% of your points back if you were a Hyatt credit cardholder. I have a Hyatt card, so I got back 8,750 points based on our original redemption of 35,000 points.

Taking into account that points rebate and the 2,500 bonus points from the other promotion, our net cost was 23,750 points for the week, or 3,393 points per night which was excellent value. If we’d paid for the stay, it would’ve cost us $102.46 per night including tax, so redeeming fewer than 3,500 points was excellent.

Final Thoughts

Overall, we had a good stay at the Hyatt Place Cleveland/Independence. It was tough to get a true take on the property because COVID-19 meant things like breakfast and amenities were affected.

Having said that, we were largely impressed with how the hotel dealt with cleaning and disinfecting the property due to the pandemic. That’s obviously a big consideration for people when weighing up whether to travel right now, so it was reassuring that they were trying to keep their staff and customers as safe as possible.

If we return to the Cleveland area in the future, I’d have no problem staying at this property again. Having said that, it would also be nice to stay in downtown Cleveland too once the pandemic is over.

Truffles Approval Rating

Truffles gives this hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! Front desk staff at Hyatt Places tend to fawn over Truffles and the one in Cleveland/Independence was no exception. Truffles therefore loved stopping by and kept trying to go behind the desk to say hi as we walked through the lobby.

There were a reasonable number of grassy areas around the hotel and the pet fee of $75 regardless of the length of stay was good for us (although we didn’t actually get charged the fee).

Our Rating

Room = 4.4 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.3 / 5
Food = 4.2 / 5
Location = 4.2 / 5
Service = 4.7 / 5
Dealing With COVID-19 (a new – hopefully temporary – category for our hotel reviews) = 4.6 / 5
Overall Value = 4.7 / 5

Total = 4.44/5

Address

Hyatt Place, 6025 Jefferson Dr, Independence, OH 44131