After leaving Houston, we made our way southwest to stay in Corpus Christi for five nights. In hindsight, I wish we’d stayed in Galveston instead as we loved it there so much when visiting on a day trip, but we’d booked a non-refundable rate at the Hyatt Place Corpus Christi, so there was no changing our plans.
Our stay at the hotel was OK and there wasn’t anything inherently wrong with the property. However, there were quite a few aspects we didn’t care for which reduced how much we enjoyed our stay.
Here’s a complete review of our stay at the Hyatt Place Corpus Christi, Texas.
Check-In
We’d taken advantage of a 4pm late checkout at our previous hotel in Houston, so we didn’t arrive in Corpus Christi until about 8pm. There was no line at the front desk, so the check-in process with Melinda was very quick.
She gave us a small bag containing a couple of bottles of water and a small pack of pretzels, presumably because I have Globalist status. Melinda also mentioned that seeing as our status comes with two free bottles of water every day, we could stop by the front desk to get those each day whenever we liked.
We’re traveling with our dog Truffles, so they assigned us a room on the first floor to make it easier to take her out which we appreciated. Once we had our keys, we made our way down the wide hallways to room 125.
One of the nice features of the hotel is that they have numerous luggage carts, with both regular hotel carts along with airport-style carts. Given that we now live in hotels and Airbnbs and have to bring in so many bags, I love when hotels have so many luggage carts so that you don’t have to wait for other guests to return them.
Bedroom
When entering our room, the living room area was on the left. That had a slightly different version of the Hyatt Place corner sleeper sofa as one side of it was a chaise longue which Shae enjoyed. I wasn’t a fan of the sofa part though as the seat cushions felt much thinner than usual and so it was very uncomfortable to sit on.
Something we like about Hyatt Places is that all the rooms have a large blanket (you can see it wrapped up in the side table). It’s very cosy and spreads out enough for two people to be able to share it.
On the opposite side of the room was a dry bar with a coffee maker above and mini fridge below…
…with a desk and office chair facing it. The room’s TV and ice bucket were perpendicular to the desk along the wall in the middle of the bedroom.
The TV had a good selection of channels.
To the right of the sofa and past the short room divider was a king bed. Both the Hyatt bed and pillows were comfortable as always, while the blackout curtains worked well.
The room’s closet was opposite the bed, behind the wall where the TV was located. The closet contained an iron and ironing board, luggage rack and a spare pillow for the sleeper sofa.
Bathroom
To the left of the closet was the room’s sink, with a countertop to the right of that and a dresser below.
The toiletries were the Barney Kenet MD toiletries you’ll find at all Hyatt Places. They’re OK, but the shampoo never seems to lather up very well.
The separate bathroom was to the left of the sink and contained the toilet and a walk-in shower. This was the most disappointing part of the room as it was possibly the worst hotel shower we’ve ever had. There was no water pressure, so it took ages getting our body wet, then even longer to rinse ourselves off after washing. The shower head had a few settings, but none of them improved the situation.
The drain in the bottom of the shower also seemed to have some kind of blockage as it took a while to drain after taking a shower.
Our room was fine overall, but it was let down by the shower and uncomfortable sofa. Something else that was a little weird though was the entrance door. It didn’t close slowly like most hotel room doors, but instead slammed shut quickly – and very loudly – almost as soon as you let go of the handle. We learned our lesson after our first couple of times entering and leaving the room and so kept hold of the handle until it closed.
Breakfast
Breakfast is included free at Hyatt Place properties so long as you’re a World of Hyatt member and you’ve booked directly with them (i.e. not via Expedia, Hotels.com, etc.).
Their scrambled eggs and breakfast potatoes were available every morning. The colorful breakfast potatoes were tasty and the right level of crispiness without being burned or dry. The eggs on the other hand were awful – they were just rubber cubes. They were gross the first morning, but I gave them another try on the second morning but had to leave them as they were inedible, so I gave them a miss for the rest of our stay.
The other two hot options changed day-by-day. The morning I took the photo there were sausages and French toast, but other mornings there was bacon, pancakes, etc.
The other breakfast options were pretty much the same every day, although the fresh cut fruit sometimes changed.
Something else that was inedible – for a couple of reasons – was their hot oatmeal. It was inedible the first couple of mornings because there simply wasn’t any (we noticed as Shae tends to have oatmeal for breakfast every morning when staying at Hyatt Places), while it was served cold on all the other mornings. Someone at the front desk mentioned that they’d only just started offering oatmeal at breakfast as the steamer had just been installed, so the coldness of the oatmeal might just be teething problems.
As for things to drink, there were fruit juices, milk, water, coffee and tea.
Amenities
The Hyatt Place Corpus Christi had a few amenities. There was an indoor swimming pool which was a reasonable temperature.
They had a guest laundry room, but when we asked where it was they advised that the washing machine was broken. We therefore had to go to a nearby laundromat as we had a pile of clothes that needed washing during our stay.
The hotel had a gym with a few pieces of equipment in an overly spacious room.
One downside of the fitness room is that the temperature control was broken. Even though it was set to 66°, it was a toasty 75° in there. In fairness to the hotel though, they’d made an arrangement with the nearby TownePlace Suites for guests to use their fitness room if needed.
The hotel had a business center just off the lobby which consisted of three computers. There was a shelving unit in the center which looked like it was where a printer should be, but there wasn’t one there. It might’ve been possible to ask the front desk to print something, but we didn’t need to print anything during our stay, so I didn’t check.
It was too cold to take advantage of it during our stay (we visited in November), but there were a couple of outdoor seating areas.
At the back of the hotel, there were a couple of Tesla charging stations.
Pet-Friendliness
The Hyatt Place Corpus Christi is a pet-friendly hotel. They allow one dog weighing up to 50 lbs or two dogs weighing up to a combined 75 lbs. They have a $75 pet fee regardless of your length of stay, although it seems like you might be charged more if staying 30+ nights.
The hotel has a few grassy areas around the hotel, although they aren’t very large. There’s a sidewalk outside the hotel though, so you can safely walk your dog further afield if needed.
Service
Service at the hotel was very good overall. All the staff members were friendly, especially Brian at the front desk. We also received a text from Melinda just after checking in to make sure everything was OK. This seemed to be connected with me having Globalist status, so I don’t think it’s something every customer receives.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi was free, had a good connection and seemed to be a decent speed.
Location
The Hyatt Place Corpus Christi is on S Padre Island Drive which seems to be the main strip where most stores and restaurants are located. It’s about 20 minutes to Mustang Island State Park and about 35 minutes to Port Aransas Beach.
Parking
Parking at the hotel was free and there seemed to be plenty of it. We were visiting in off-season though, so I imagine the parking lot is busier during the summer.
Cost
The Hyatt Place Corpus Christi cost us $112.81 per night (including tax), so $639.05 once the $75 pet fee was included. That’s more than we normally spend on hotels on our 50 state road trip. However, it was one of the lower priced hotels that was pet-friendly, plus Hyatt had a good promotion at the time which meant we’d earn a load of bonus points (more on that below).
At the time of our stay, the hotel was a category 2 property in the World of Hyatt scheme and so costs 8,000 points per night. That means we’d have only gotten 1.41 cpp (cents per point) of value by using points which isn’t great value for World of Hyatt points. It’s probably better value using points in the summer though when room rates are presumably much more expensive.
Points Earned
I earned 2,840 base points for our stay, along with 852 bonus points as members with Globalist status get a 30% bonus on base points.
That wouldn’t have been a great return for a $639.05 stay, but it got better. The five nights we stayed at the Hyatt Place Corpus Christi were the five nights we needed to cross the 40 night threshold during Hyatt’s promotion that was running at the time. Hitting that 40 night threshold meant we earned 25,000 bonus points which is excellent.
I also paid with my World of Hyatt credit card which earns four points per dollar when paying for stays at Hyatt properties. I therefore earned an additional 2,556 points from the stay.
That’s a total of 31,248 points overall – not too shabby for a five night stay. To put that into context, we tend to use our points at category 1 properties which cost 5,000 points per night. That means our five nights in Corpus Christi earned us enough points for six free nights in the future.
Final Thoughts
I have mixed feelings about our stay at the Hyatt Place Corpus Christi. The staff were nice and it wasn’t a bad hotel. There were just a lot of smaller issues that meant our stay wasn’t as good as it could have been – an uncomfortable sofa, an awful shower, some breakfast items that didn’t taste good, a fitness room that was too hot and guest laundry facilities that weren’t available.
Would I stay here again? Possibly. The sofa and shower issues might not occur in every room throughout the hotel, while there were enough breakfast options that avoiding the scrambled eggs and oatmeal wasn’t a hardship. As for the thermostat in the fitness room and washing machine, those will hopefully be fixed in the future.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives this hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! There was a reasonable pet fee and the hotel was quiet during our stay which meant she didn’t get disturbed by loud guests in the hallway.
Our Rating
Room = 3.8 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 3.7 / 5
Food = 4.0 / 5
Location = 4.3 / 5
Service = 4.5 / 5
Overall Value = 4.0 / 5
Total = 4.05 / 5
Address
Hyatt Place, 6773 S Padre Island Dr, Corpus Christi, TX 78412
Ok but yea when the hotel first open the place was more clean the showers werent stained at the floor the pressure was better and owned and ran by a better company if youve notices the breakfast use to be continental french toast blueberry froutaise and things of the like such as omlets hashbrowns more drink options then your average hospitol choices period and house keeping is very rare there seems like they just change bed sheets and has any of there staff memebers ever heard of dusting so no but if there rstes were about 80 a night thay would be way more understanding to there low standerds of comfortability comforts they she renmae the hotel motel 8 or something lol