Shae and I fell in love with St Louis when we spent 11 days there recently. A large part of the reason we enjoyed our time so much is because we stayed downtown at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis At The Arch.
As the name suggests, the hotel is at the Gateway Arch (read more about it here). In fact, I don’t think you could stay anywhere that’s closer. It was amazing getting to walk outside each day and see the Arch right there. Neither of us could quite put our finger on why we liked it so much, but there’s something magical about the Arch.
Our stay was enhanced thanks to our Globalist status as it meant we were able to use a couple of Suite Upgrade Awards to get us upgraded to a spacious Executive Suite King. The status also meant we got free breakfast each day as well as free parking.
The Hyatt Regency St. Louis At The Arch is one of my new favorite hotels. It has a fantastic location, rooms have been updated recently and it’s excellent value when booked with points. Here’s a full review of our stay.
Check-In
Google Maps took us to the wrong side of the hotel, so we had to do a loop to get back to the entrance on Chestnut St. A friendly valet helped me get our car unloaded while Shae went inside to get us checked in as we’d booked the room on her account.
Unloading the car took a little while; in case you’re not familiar with our site, my wife and I are on a 7 year, 50 state road trip and travel with pretty much everything we own in our 2004 Toyota Corolla. Seeing as we were staying for 11 nights, we didn’t really want to leave anything in the car, so it took two luggage carts.
A couple of valets took care of our carts of stuff while I went to park the car. By the time I’d parked in the hotel’s underground parking lot, Shae had already been checked in and had headed upstairs with the valets where they started unloading our stuff.
Executive Suite King
The reason we’d booked our stay on Shae’s account is because she’d earned some Suite Upgrade Awards while earning Globalist status last year that we wanted to make use of. Each Suite Upgrade Award is valid on a stay of up to seven nights, so we redeemed two of those for our 11 night stay.
I knew ahead of time, but it was a little disappointing that the Executive Suite King is more like a Junior Suite as it doesn’t have an enclosed bedroom, instead being open plan with the living area. Having said that, there wasn’t much “Junior” about it because it’s a very spacious suite – 755 sq ft in fact.
I normally try to take photos for hotel reviews before we unload our luggage carts, but the valets were hard workers and had gotten everything unloaded by the time I’d gotten up to our room, hence a portion of our stuff being in the photo below.
We’d been assigned room 850. That was next to the elevators, but thankfully we didn’t have much trouble with noise out in the hallway during our stay.
Living Room
The living room area was about half the size of the suite. There was a comfortable corner sofa which I think could be converted into a sofa bed. There were a couple of additional chairs, side tables and an ottoman which doubled up as a coffee table.
On the opposite side of the living room was a desk and office chair. To the left of that was a storage cabinet with some drawers inside and a couple of complimentary bottles of water, with a wall-mounted TV above that. The TV could be pulled out a little which we appreciated as it meant we could access the HDMI ports to plug in our Fire TV Stick.
To the left of the suite’s entrance was a wet bar area with a couple of tall chairs.
I liked that this was a wet bar as it was handy having a sink there rather than having to use the bathroom sinks. There was also a mini fridge which worked well; some hotel mini fridges are either too warm or turn everything icy – this one was a Goldilocks mini fridge.
Opposite the sink and mini fridge was additional countertop space with cupboards beneath and a coffee maker on top.
Some rooms at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis At The Arch have a view of the Gateway Arch. Unfortunately the Executive Suite King room types don’t seem to have that as an option, but I can’t complain – we still had beautiful city views which included the Old Courthouse and some fantastic sunsets.
Bedroom
The bedroom was also extremely spacious. The king bed was lovely and we slept well on it throughout our entire stay. The blackout blinds worked well to keep our room nice and dark at night.
Opposite the bed was a tall desk and another wall-mounted TV.
The suite had two closets – one narrow one with an iron, ironing board, luggage rack and pillow…
…and a second wider one with a bonus ironing board, safe, pillow and blanket.
One of those closets is in a walk-in closet area of sorts. It’s not really a walk-in closet, but it does have a door separating it from the bedroom and also has a sink.
Bathroom
The bathroom was just off this not-quite-walk-in-closet. That meant there were two doors between the bedroom and the actual bathroom which was nice as it meant I didn’t have to worry about Shae waking up at night due to light creeping under the bathroom door when getting ready for bed (I’m usually up several hours later than her).
The bathroom had a bathtub with shower; the shower had good water pressure.
There were large bottles of toiletries mounted to the wall. The body wash bottle barely had anything in it though, so that ran out after a few days. I prefer large bottles like this because it reduces waste, but I wish housekeeping teams were more diligent about keeping these filled up as this is a frequent scenario at hotels that provide the large bottles.
Overall we were extremely happy with the suite. While it would’ve been nice if it had been a one bedroom suite, it didn’t end up having a big impact on our enjoyment. In fact, we were really sad to leave it by the end of our stay!
Breakfast
Breakfast is served in Red Kitchen & Bar from 6am-11am from Monday to Friday and 6am to 12pm at the weekend. I’m not an early riser, so I loved that we could have a leisurely start to the morning and head down for a later breakfast.
One of the benefits of Globalist status with Hyatt is that you get free breakfast. At the Hyatt Regency St. Louis At The Arch you get a choice of breakfast options. They have a breakfast buffet, or you can order an entrée off the menu, with drinks (e.g. tea, coffee, soda, juice) being included.
The breakfast buffet costs $21.95 per person, while the other menu items are all priced differently. Here’s the breakfast menu:
Breakfast Buffet
The buffet had a pretty good selection of items, with there being scrambled eggs, bacon, chicken sausage and breakfast potatoes each day, with other additional rotating hot options like French toast, egg frittatas, etc.
There were lots of other items to choose from. While it wasn’t the most extensive breakfast buffet I’ve ever seen, there was always more than enough selection.
Breakfast Entrées
Shae and I tended to alternate between having the buffet in the morning and choosing something off the menu. We tended to go with the buffet when we had somewhere we wanted to get to, picking entrées when we had more time in the morning.
The St Louis Slingers part of the menu particularly appealed to me, so I ended up trying most of those during our stay and they were all very tasty and extremely filling.
Shae tried some of the other menu items:
Side note – we got a side of seasonal fruit one morning which you can see in the ‘Southern Hospitality’ photo a little further up. Some seasonal fruit plates consist of a few small pieces of fruit; not at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis At The Arch! They provided a great portion of pineapple, honeydew and cantaloupe melons, strawberries and blueberries.
Something else I should mention is that service at breakfast was incredibly mixed. They had some truly excellent servers – fantastically friendly and the right level of attentive and proactive. Badal was one of the excellent servers, but I unfortunately didn’t get the names of a couple of the other great ones.
Service was awful other times though. In fact, one morning we were ignored entirely after we’d been seated, not being given any drinks and having to ask repeatedly for our check at the end. It was interesting how service would either be excellent or very poor – it wasn’t ever really the case where it was just fine.
Other Dining Options
Red Kitchen Bar & Grill
In addition to being the restaurant where breakfast is offered, Red Kitchen & Bar is open from 6pm-11pm each day for drinks. Snacks might be available too, but we didn’t end up having a drink there in the evening and so I’m not certain on that.
Ruth’s Chris
If you’d like a pricey dinner, the hotel has a Ruth’s Chris Steak House. We didn’t eat there because one steak costs more than our daily budget (slight exaggeration, but barely 😉 )
Starbucks
When checking in, the front desk agent hadn’t gone into detail with Shae about how breakfast worked at the hotel. I went down that evening to find out more and the front desk agent I spoke to said that in addition to Red Kitchen & Bar, we could get breakfast from Starbucks. She didn’t explain any rules about that (e.g. if there was a set dollar amount per person), but we were happier having the hotel’s main breakfast, so we didn’t explore the Starbucks option.
Saint Louis Brewhouse Historical Sports Bar
We also didn’t make it to the hotel’s other restaurant and bar – the Saint Louis Brewhouse Historical Sports Bar. This is open from 11am-11pm and has Happy Hour from 4pm-5pm Monday-Friday and 2pm-5pm at the weekend where you can get $1 off draft beer.
Club Lounge
Unlike some other Hyatt Regency properties, the Hyatt Regency St. Louis At The Arch doesn’t have a club lounge.
Amenities
Fitness Room
Although it doesn’t have a club lounge, there is a great fitness room. It’s a pretty big gym with lots of cardio equipment and weights. The temperature was nice and cool too which I always appreciate as I hate working out when it’s hot.
Housekeeping or whoever’s responsible for towels always did a great job keeping the shelving unit full of towels. They’d often also proactively place a towel on each piece of exercise equipment.
Gift Shop
If you need to pick up any souvenirs during your stay, there’s a gift shop next to the Saint Louis Brewhouse Historical Sports Bar.
CVS Vending Machine & ATM
Also on the first floor just off the lobby was a CVS vending machine with various toiletries. We didn’t need to make use of it during our stay, but it’s a fantastic feature as it means you have access to those kinds of items 24/7.
Business Center
Beneath the elevators going up to the second floor there was a business center. This had a couple of computers and printers for guests to use.
FedEx Office
On the second floor was a FedEx Office location. This also had computers and printers you could use, but I think that’s a paid-for service up there.
Speaking of which, a word of warning if you want to have any packages sent to the hotel. We had a few items delivered there and all of them get stored at the FedEx Office, even if they weren’t delivered via FedEx. The problem is that if you pick them up from FedEx, they charge you for the privilege of doing that. The first two packages we picked up were less than 1 lb each, so they only cost $2 each.
We had another package being delivered that we knew was going to be much heavier that we would’ve waited to have delivered elsewhere had we known ahead of time about the charge. Thankfully, it arrived while the FedEx Office was closed. The front desk staff can access packages, so they retrieved the package after it was delivered and so we didn’t get charged for that.
Ice, Vending Machine & Microwave
You might’ve noticed that our suite didn’t have a microwave. Each floor of the hotel has a public area with a microwave, ice machine and drinks vending machine.
Text For Anything
Shae and I tend to decline housekeeping and this stay was no exception. With us staying 11 nights though, we did end up needing some items during our stay. I tried to make use of the hotel’s text service where you can ask for items to be delivered to your room.
Unfortunately the experience wasn’t the greatest. I texted one afternoon asking for toilet paper and coffee cups. I thought they’d forgotten about us as nothing arrived until 3.5 hours later. Despite asking for toilet paper and coffee cups, they delivered towels and coffee cups instead. Fortunately, I’d seen a housekeeping cart out in the hallway shortly after sending that original text and so had already grabbed a couple of rolls of toilet paper, but it wasn’t the greatest experience.
Elevators
OK, so elevators aren’t a hotel amenity, but the elevators at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis At The Arch deserve a mention nonetheless. That’s because they’re incredibly fast. I hate some hotel elevators as the doors take forever to open and close, then move up and down so slowly that it’s like they’re powered by a hamster running around on its wheel.
Not this Hyatt Regency though. The doors would barely have closed when getting on at the first floor when all of a sudden we’d be at the 8th floor. It was a beautiful thing for an impatient person like me!
Pet Policy
The Hyatt Regency St. Louis At The Arch is a pet-friendly hotel. They allow dogs weighing less than 50 lbs and they have a $100 pet fee per stay of 1-7 nights. If you plan on staying 8+ nights they ask you to contact the hotel for arrangements, so I’m assuming they’d charge a higher fee depending on how much longer than 7 nights you plan on staying. I’d missed that part of the pet policy and so hadn’t let them know ahead of time that we’d be there for 11 nights with Truffles; we didn’t get charged extra.
Some cities have very little grass downtown, but St Louis is an exception – they have far more grassy areas than many other cities. Not to mention the fact the hotel is right next to Gateway Arch National Park which is a large pet-friendly park with lots of walking paths through it and tons of fields.
Service
Service was a little mixed during our stay. As I mentioned earlier, some of the servers at breakfast were excellent – incredibly kind, friendly and attentive – while others were mediocre. The valet guys were all friendly.
The front desk members that we interacted with were all friendly too, although they didn’t always seem too aware of answers to questions. For example, when I asked about the breakfast policy for Globalist members, I was given an answer but it seemed like she didn’t know if what she was saying was true or not.
Also, we had the hardest time trying to pick up one of our packages from the front desk when the FedEx Office was closed. The FedEx Office employee had let us know the previous day that the front desk staff could access packages at any time, but they didn’t seem to know they could do that or what was going on. They checked a sheet listing deliveries, but Shae had to point out to them a couple of times that the list had been printed the previous day which was why our package delivered that day wasn’t listed on there.
For the most part though, the staff at the hotel were nice and well-meaning.
Wi-Fi
The internet connection was solid throughout our stay. We had no problem streaming shows on our Fire TV Stick and had Zoom calls without any issue.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
Check-in at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis At The Arch is from 4pm and check-out is at 11am. My Globalist status meant we could’ve gotten a 4pm late checkout; we didn’t need to stay that late, but did take advantage of a later checkout and left at noon.
Location
Our favorite part of staying at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis At The Arch was its location because it’s right next to the arch. And by right next to the arch – this is the view from the hotel entrance.
All you have to do is cross over that road and you’re in Gateway Arch National Park. Shae and I adored being that close and getting to see the Arch several times a day when taking Truffles out.
St Louis is a very walkable city downtown too, so the hotel is in a great spot to wander around. It’s less than a 10 minute walk to Busch Stadium if you’re in town to see the Cardinals play and a similar distance to Citygarden Sculpture Park.
Pappy’s Smokehouse is 2.5 miles away if you’re after some great BBQ, while Forest Park is a 10-15 minute drive away. Forest Park is free to visit and features the equally free STL Zoo, Saint Louis Art Museum and more.
Parking
The hotel offers both self-parking and valet parking, both with in/out privileges. Self-parking is $36 + tax per night, while valet parking is $48 + tax per night. Parking is in an underground parking lot; the entrance is to the left as you exit the hotel.
As you can see in the photo above, the sign advises self-parking guests to park on Green Level P-2. That level was often full when we were there though, so you can also park on Blue Level P-3.
The parking spaces are helpfully numbered, so we tended to take photos of which spot we parked in. That was to remind ourselves as we drove to places a little further afield in St Louis a few times and so ended up on different levels and in different spaces.
One of the benefits of having Globalist status is that you get free parking on award stays when it can be charged to the hotel. That’s an awesome benefit which saved us more than $400 on this stay given how long we stayed.
Something to be aware of is that at certain times – particularly at the weekend – the self-parking garage levels can become full. That means you have to find an alternative parking lot or use the hotel’s valet service which costs more.
Cost
We booked our stay using World of Hyatt points. The Hyatt Regency St. Louis At The Arch was a category 2 property at the time of our stay which means it costs 6,500, 8,000 or 9,500 points per night depending on if the nights were off-peak, standard or peak respectively. Every single night of our stay was at standard pricing which meant we redeemed 8,000 points per night for a total of 88,000 points. We’d transferred those points over from Chase Ultimate Rewards as Hyatt is one of their transfer partners.
Those 8,000 points per night were for a standard room; the only room type available at the time of booking was a room with two double beds. Shae had some Suite Upgrade Awards on her account that were earned on the way to earning Globalist status last year, so we applied two of those to our stay ahead of time to ensure we’d be guaranteed an Executive Suite King.
For comparison, the two double beds standard room would’ve cost $172.51 per night, so we got 2.16cpp (cents per point) of value by using points. In reality, the value was even greater than that. Because you only get free parking on award stays as a Globalist, we would’ve had to have paid the additional ~$40 per night for parking on a paid stay, so that makes it more like 2.66cpp.
The Executive Suite King would’ve cost $290.44 per night for our dates. While that’s far more than we’d ever pay cash-wise, it’s a lower price than I expected given how expensive some suites are at other Hyatt properties.
Final Thoughts
We loved our stay at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis At The Arch. It’s in the perfect location right next to the Gateway Arch; I can’t emphasize enough how much Shae and I loved seeing it every day! It’s strange – neither of us had ever been excited by it when seeing images of it online and on TV, but there’s something majestic about it when seeing it right in front of you.
We also really enjoyed how spacious the suite was despite it not having a separate bedroom and living room. The fitness room was great and I used that nearly every day during our stay, while the breakfast entrées were good too. Service was hit or miss, but even when it wasn’t great the staff were kind.
If we return to St Louis – which I’m almost certain we will because we loved the city so much – we’ll definitely stay at this hotel again. I can’t imagine any hotel superseding it, although I do recognize that a large part of our enjoyment – free parking, free breakfast and a suite upgrade – was due to our status with World of Hyatt. If we didn’t have that, it wouldn’t have been such a great deal, but it’s still a solid redemption option when using points even if you don’t have status.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! It was awesome having the city be so walkable and having the park right outside the hotel. She also enjoyed how quiet our suite was.
Our Rating
Room = 4.7 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.4 / 5
Food = 4.4 / 5
Location = 5 / 5
Service = 4.3 / 5
Overall Value = 4.5 / 5
Total = 4.55 / 5
Address
Hyatt Regency, 315 Chestnut St, St. Louis, MO 63102
We stayed at that hotel last year and LOVED it! We had a larger non-suite room (since I was a lowly Explorist), but it had an amazing dead-on view of the Arch. I actually stayed up later and stared out the window at it when it was lit up at night. We walked to Busch Stadium to see the Cardinals play and also stopped in at the American Blues Museum nearby. A tip for you-if you buy a family membership at the St. Louis Art Museum, you get free reciprocal admission to over 900 museums around the US. We took a 6 state baseball themed road trip and the free reciprocal memberships really came in handy. You may want to Google “reciprocal museum memberships.” They can save a lot of money if you visit a lot of museums.
That’s good to know – thank you!
Truffles is so cute what a great picture! I currently am staying here in the exec king suite and this post was very helpful!
Thanks! I hope you’re enjoying yourself there as much as we did 🙂
Did you notice your room had any “dog smell”? I know the rooms where they allow dogs are on a certain floor, and my extremely allergic to dog wife and son(we have a poodle mix that doesn’t bother them) and at some hotels we notice strong dog smell. We would also be staying in the executive king suite.
Thanks!
No, I didn’t notice any dog smell. We were actually back there a week or two ago in a different Executive King Suite (this one had a view of the arch) and didn’t notice any dog smell in there either.