When planning out our 3.5 weeks in Connecticut, I was considering a 2 week stay at the Hyatt House Shelton seeing as that would give us a kitchen in our room.
However, they didn’t have award availability for the entire two weeks we’d be in the area, so that option wasn’t available to us. Instead, we booked a 9 night stay there and then moved to the Hyatt Place Milford/New Haven for 6 nights seeing as that was also a category 1 property in the World of Hyatt program.
We’d loved our stay at the Hyatt House Shelton (check out the full review here), but were subsequently a little underwhelmed by the Hyatt Place Milford/New Haven. It certainly wasn’t a bad property; it simply wasn’t anywhere near as good as the Hyatt House for a number of reasons.
Here’s our full review of the Hyatt Place Milford/New Haven in Connecticut.
Check-In
I think part of the reason we didn’t enjoy our stay at the Hyatt Place as much is because the service was nowhere near as good as the Hyatt House. At the Hyatt House Shelton, every member of staff was warm, friendly and welcoming.
When we arrived at the Hyatt Place on the other hand, our check-in experience was extremely lackluster. The two guys at the front desk weren’t rude; they just didn’t seem too bothered with being there.
Still, it didn’t take too long to get checked in and we were soon on our way up to room 516.
Bedroom
When entering our room, the wet bar and desk were on the left, the living area on the right, while the bathroom and bedroom were ahead on the left and right respectively. If you’ve ever stayed at a Hyatt Place, this layout will look extremely familiar.
While the corner sleeper sofa didn’t look worn, it did look extremely dated. We’ve stayed at a ton of different Hyatt Places and they all seem to have the same type of corner sofa – this is the first time I’ve seen one that looked like this. The seat cushions weren’t great as the front edges would get pushed down into the sofa because of it doubling up as a sofa bed – that’s something I’ve never experienced with other Hyatt Place couches.
One of the features I love about Hyatt Places is the large blanket that they always have in your room that’s left in the side table next to the couch. Our room didn’t have one though, so we had to ask for one from the front desk.
One of my pet peeves with Hyatt Places though is that they usually don’t have power outlets accessible near the couch. The Hyatt Place Milford/New Haven on the other hand had a couple available behind the side table. I prefer to work from the couch rather than the desk, so it’s always nice to be able to plug in my laptop there.
On the opposite side of the room was a wet bar. Most Hyatt Places only provide a dry bar, so it was nice having the additional sink in the room.
Another positive feature of the room is that it was a little more spacious than normal. There was probably only a few extra square feet in the room, but it felt noticeably more spacious, especially in terms of the distance between the wet bar and the desk. That gave us space to store things along that wall without it feeling too crowded.
To the right of the desk was the room’s TV which I didn’t happen to get a photo of, other than the side view of it in the photo of the room’s entrance. They had DirecTV service at the hotel, so we had a good selection of channels to choose from.
The bedroom itself had a king bed which, as always, was extremely comfortable. The room had what appeared to be blackout curtains, although they weren’t great at keeping out a lot of light in the morning.
On the opposite side of the room was the closet. This contained an iron, ironing board, spare pillow and a luggage rack.
Bathroom
To the side of the closet was the room’s dresser, sink and vanity.
The toiletries were the same Barney Kenet M.D. brand that you’ll find at all Hyatt Places.
We’d loved our shower at the Hyatt House Shelton as the water pressure was fantastic, so we were pleased to discover the shower at this Hyatt Place was also excellent.
Breakfast
Breakfast is free for all Hyatt Place guests provided you book directly (i.e. not via an Online Travel Agency like Hotels.com). Having said that, I haven’t noticed many properties enforcing that rule since that policy was introduced in November 2018.
There were scrambled eggs and breakfast potatoes every morning, while the other hot options rotated. The day I took the photos there was bacon and waffles; other mornings there were sausages, corned beef hash, pancakes, etc.
The other breakfast options remained the same each day. The breakfast staff did a good job with keeping the food well-stocked throughout the morning and I loved that there was a selection of five different types of fresh fruit each day; the blueberries in particular were delicious.
The fruit juices at the Hyatt House Shelton had tasted a little watered down, so I liked that they were a little stronger at the Hyatt Place in Milford.
I was less impressed with the coffee and tea station though. Hyatt Places normally have a selection of 8 different types of Tazo tea, but the Milford property only had a couple – Chai and some other flavor that I don’t care for.
Amenities
The Hyatt Place Milford/New Haven doesn’t have a ton of amenities, so this section will be short and sweet.
They have a fitness room on the first floor with a few pieces of equipment and weights. It was a slightly larger room than you sometimes get at hotels, so that was nice. Something else I appreciated was the fact that guests can adjust the temperature – there’s little I hate more than a hot and humid fitness room.
The hotel doesn’t have a swimming pool, although they have a very large indoor whirlpool.
There aren’t any guest laundry facilities at the hotel. They do have a business center though which has a couple of computers and a printer.
Pet Policy
The Hyatt Place Milford/New Haven is a pet-friendly hotel. They accept one dog weighing up to 50 lbs or two dogs weighing up to a combined weight of 75 lbs. It costs $75 for a stay of 1-6 nights or $175 for stays of 7-30 nights. Seeing as we only stayed 6 nights, we only had to pay $75 for having Truffles with us.
Other than a grassy section at the very front of the hotel, the property doesn’t really have anywhere to walk your dog. However, there is a sidewalk running along outside the hotel, so you can walk your dog safely there.
There are also at least two dog parks in the area. Eisenhower Dog Park is in Milford and has a very sizable section for big dogs and a smaller section for small dogs.
Shelton Dog Park isn’t too far away either and that also has large and small dog sections. I preferred that location as it had more shade and we were visiting while it was 80-90°.
Service
I mentioned earlier that the front desk staff were lackluster when we checked in and that seemed to be the case for pretty much all the front desk staff. Again, no one was rude, there just wasn’t the high level of service we’ve experienced at nearly all the other Hyatt Places we’ve stayed at.
The hotel had the loudest housekeeping staff too. Not in terms of them being vocal, but they constantly slammed the doors as they went in and out of rooms which seemed to shake the entire floor. They’d leave the security latches turned so that the door wouldn’t lock, but it then slammed noisily as they went in and out of a room seemingly every 30 seconds. Doing this also seems to be doing considerable damage to the doors, as all the bedroom doors have worn down marks from where the door’s hit the security latch over and over.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
The check-in time is 3pm and check-out is at 12pm.
Wi-Fi
The Wi-Fi connection was frustrating. It would often be fairly slow and other times would completely cut out. Another frustrating feature was that you had to log in every single day, rather than being able to log in once for your entire stay like some hotels allow. We also had to reconnect our phones to the Wi-Fi every time we returned to the hotel, so we’d sometimes be reconnecting multiple times a day.
Location
The property’s location is fairly good. It’s in a safe area and is just off I-95, so it’s a convenient place to stop if you’re traveling through.
Connecticut Post Mall is a couple of minutes away, as are numerous restaurants, gas stations and ShopRite and Stop & Shop grocery stores.
Parking
Parking at the Hyatt Place Milford/New Haven is free. There are only half a dozen parking spots at the very front of the hotel, but there are plenty more parking spots down both sides of the property.
Cost
We booked our 6 night stay using points. It’s a category 1 property in the World of Hyatt loyalty program which means it costs 5,000 points per night.
If we’d paid cash, the room rate would’ve been $115.19 per night. That means we got 2.3cpp (cents per point) of value by using our points which is fairly good.
Final Thoughts
I have mixed feelings about our stay at the Hyatt Place Milford/New Haven. The service wasn’t as good as we’ve come to expect from Hyatt Places, there weren’t many amenities, the Wi-Fi was frustrating, the corner sofa wasn’t overly comfortable and the blackout curtains didn’t work very well.
On the other hand, breakfast (other than their tea selection 😉 ) was kept well-stocked, our bedroom was more spacious than normal, having DirecTV meant we had more channels available than some of our stays and it was also great having a wet bar rather than just a dry bar.
Overall, it’s not a bad property. However, given that the Hyatt House Shelton is only 15 minutes away and is also only 5,000 points per night, I’d recommend staying there rather this Hyatt Place.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the Hyatt Place Milford/New Haven 3 paws out of 4 – pawsome! They didn’t get the 4th paw as she didn’t like housekeeping constantly allowing doors to bang throughout the day, while the front desk staff didn’t fawn over her like they did at the Hyatt House. Truffles is very much a people dog and so loves getting all the attention.
Our Rating
Room = 4.4 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.0 / 5
Food = 4.6 / 5
Location = 4.2 / 5
Service = 3.6 / 5
Overall Value = 4.2 / 5
Total = 4.17 / 5
Address
Hyatt Place, 190 Old Gate Ln, Milford, CT 06460
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