Having earned Globalist status with Hyatt last year (see: My Cost Of Earning Hyatt Globalist Status: 1,362 Points & $24.70 Per Night), one of the benefits I earned was a free category 1-7 certificate.
That certificate meant we could stay at any of Hyatt’s hotels worldwide, no matter the room cost. It was due to expire at the end of April, so I realized a few weeks ago that we only had a couple of months left to use it.
Based on our travel plans in March and April, we would only have had a chance to use it in New York or Kentucky. It therefore made the most sense to use it in New York where there were far more options. After asking around, we settled on the Park Hyatt New York which also happened to be the most expensive Hyatt property in New York when booking our stay.
Seeing as we were using a free night certificate, we only stayed one night. Thanks to my Globalist status though, we managed to maximize our time there by staying 32 hours. Here’s a review of our short stay at the Park Hyatt New York.
Check-In
Shae and I arrived in New York City at about 7:45 am, having taken an overnight Greyhound bus from Norfolk VA up to New York. Yep, from a $45 bus ride to a $1,000 per night hotel!
I’d reached out to the hotel manager before our stay to see if we’d be able to check in early. He said he wouldn’t be able to guarantee anything as early as 8am, but that it might be possible. We therefore decided to give it a try and headed straight to the hotel.
DeVon greeted us downstairs and took care of our bags. He said that if we weren’t able to check in that early, they’d keep our bags and we could go explore the city. His colleague showed us to the elevators and we headed up to the lobby level.
Those elevators open in front of the hotel’s restaurant, so you have to walk around the corner to get to the front desk.
If you have other people traveling with you, there’s some seating in the lobby where they can wait while you check in.
Amy checked us in and was very friendly. She checked their system and said there was a room available for us even though it was only 8am. Amy advised that we’d received a room category upgrade which appeared to be from a ‘1 King Bed’ to a ‘1 King Bed with City View’. This was a little disappointing as the room upgrade benefit with Globalist status includes standard suites and I think they still had some available. We were tired though and grateful we could check in so early (the normal check-in time is 3 pm), so I didn’t push it.
Amy asked if we’d like to take advantage of the 4 pm late checkout the following day, so we confirmed we did. She shared that we should let them know if we checked out by the standard time of 12 pm though. That’s because they award Globalist members 500 bonus points if they don’t use the late checkout benefit. I’m normally all about the points, but I knew we’d forgo those in order to enjoy the hotel for an extra four hours seeing as we were only staying for one night.
Before heading up to our room, she also shared details of our breakfast options. For Globalist members, the Park Hyatt offers guests a cold beverage, a hot beverage and a breakfast entree for free. This can be taken in either the hotel’s restaurant or via room service, with room service charges being comped as well (more on that later).
With all our questions answered, we made our way to a different set of elevators and went up to the 21st floor as we’d been allocated room 2102.
This was our first time staying in a hotel as fancy as this (the Kimpton Gray Hotel in Chicago was our fanciest before this), so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. The Park Hyatt New York is tastefully decorated and thankfully isn’t too garish or opulent.
Bedroom
As I mentioned earlier, we’d been allocated a room with a king bed and a city view. When entering room 2102, the bedroom area was behind a wall on the right, with the bathroom to the left.
In the entranceway, there was what looked like an old-time suitcase.
At first we thought it was just decorative, but then we realized it opened on the left. Inside was a safe and a couple of books.
The top drawer included a few amenities including a shoe shine kit, shoe horn, lint roller, sewing kit and more.
To the left of that travel trunk was the first of two tall closets.
This one was empty, although it had shelving units at the bottom for additional storage.
Behind the closet was the main bedroom area. There was a king bed in the middle which was extremely comfortable – so comfortable in fact that I had a two hour nap soon after we arrived.
To the left of the bed was an armchair and footrest. I never got around to sitting in it, but Shae tried it and said it was extremely comfortable to sit in.
The bed had lamps on either side, along with nightlights just above the bed. Those nightlights could be controlled using a button to the side of the bed. That control panel also had buttons to close and open the drapes and sheers, along with turning on other lights around the bedroom.
There were coffee table books on the bedside tables on either side.
On the opposite side of the room was a desk and office chair, as well as an extra stool. A TV was mounted to the wall in the corner. There were also a couple of apples waiting on the desk as a welcome amenity.
Next to the desk was a cabinet with a phone and tablet on top. We didn’t need to use the tablet, but we did use the Bluetooth speaker that was on the desk beside it.
The Park Hyatt New York is at 57th St and our room looked out towards Central Park.
Off to the side were some more city views.
To the left of the desk was the room’s second closet. This one was a little more narrow and contained a bathrobe, umbrella, iron, ironing board and two sets of slippers.
To the left of that was the room’s mini bar. One of these days I’d love to be a baller for one night and not worry about the cost of items from the mini bar.
For now though, as much as I love gummi bears, I’m not paying $18 for a small jar of them.
One side of the mini bar held cups and glasses. Seeing as I’m not going to pay $18 for gummi bears, I’m not going to pay $65 for a small bottle of wine either. We did appreciate having these glasses though as we went out to a liquor store to grab a couple of bottles of wine.
The mini bar also held a drawer containing some additional items. It seemed like this section should’ve been refrigerated, but none of the items felt cold.
I hadn’t fully appreciated at the time quite how large this bedroom was by New York standards. 6 days afterwards at the Holiday Inn Manhattan 6th Ave-Chelsea cured me of that misapprehension!
Bathroom
The bathroom area was almost as large as the bedroom area. On the far wall were two sinks set in a long vanity.
There was a small container on top containing some cotton buds, cotton balls and makeup remover towelettes.
On the shelf below there was a box containing other toiletries including toothbrushes, a hair brush, mouthwash, a nail kit and more.
The mirror even had a TV built into it, although I couldn’t get the sound to work.
When entering the bathroom, there were double doors that slid in from either side. Those were connected, so if you started pulling one side closed, the other side started to close too. That’s something Amy had warned us about when checking in to ensure we didn’t accidentally close the door on the other person walking through on the opposite side.
To the left of the bathroom entrance was a smaller room containing a toilet. There was a small stool (as in seat 😉 ) in there, although I’m not sure how often you’d have someone using that.
There were two standout elements in the bathroom though. The first was the shower. There were two shower heads – one was a rainfall shower and one was a wall mounted (but also handheld) shower head.
The rainfall shower was hands-down the single best shower I’ve ever experienced. The water pressure was phenomenal and was incredibly refreshing. The shower alone is almost worth the ~$1,000 per night room rate.
In addition to a couple of bars of soap, the shower contained small bottles of Bergamote 22 shower gel, shampoo and conditioner.
The other standout element was the bath. I’m not a bath person, but even I was tempted by this one. If you’re concerned about your modesty, the bathroom has a separate set of buttons controlling the lights and drapes.
Shae took a bath and was surprised by how large it was once she was inside. She slid down into it at one point but thankfully managed to hold her Kindle above the water.
We thought this might’ve been related to her height (she’s on the lower end of 5 feet), but our friend visited the next day and took a bath. She’s on the upper end of 5 feet but she also slid right down into the water while bathing, so it’s probably best not to use any valuable electronics while in there!
In addition to the bathrobe in the closet, there’s one hanging up in the bathroom. Quite a few hotels I’ve stayed at that offer bathrobes only have one, so it was nice that the Park Hyatt New York has two of them.
Breakfast
I mentioned earlier that World of Hyatt members with their top tier Globalist status get free breakfast at the Park Hyatt New York. This includes a cold beverage, a hot beverage and one of their breakfast entrees.
You can choose to have this in the restaurant or delivered to your room, with the room service charges being comped. Even better, breakfast is served until 12 pm each day which, seeing as I’m usually a late riser, was awesome.
Even though I was up long before midday that day, we’d eaten fairly late the night before and so ordered room service at about 10:15 am.
Here’s the breakfast menu:
Our breakfast arrived about 25-30 minutes after ordering it and was brought in on a wheeled table. Once you’ve finished with breakfast, you can call down to the front desk and have someone pick it up. We just moved it out of the way after breakfast though for them to remove it after we checked out.
For our cold beverages, Shae got an orange juice and I ordered a pineapple juice. For our hot beverages, Shae got a hot chocolate and I got a pot of English breakfast tea (what with being English and all).
As for our breakfast entrees, Shae ordered the steak and eggs which came with a grilled romaine heart. This was a fantastic choice and if we stayed there again, this is what I’d order. The steak was cooked perfectly, the eggs weren’t runny (Shae had ordered them hard) and the romaine heart was phenomenal. We’ve started watching the Food Network over the last year and have seen people grilling romaine hearts a few times, but had never tried it ourselves. It was surprisingly flavorful and delicious, so it’s something I’m going to have to try making sometime.
Any time smoked salmon is on the menu though, I’m going to have a hard time passing it up. I therefore ordered the Eggs Benedict which came with perfectly poached eggs that were also incredibly neatly prepared. Both of our entrees also had half a dozen roasted fingerling potatoes.
When the food arrived, I had to sign the bill for breakfast which came to something like $140. I’d never pay that much for breakfast, but it was fun getting to experience such a fancy breakfast knowing that my status meant we wouldn’t be charged for it.
Room Service Menu – Dinner
We didn’t take advantage of it, but here’s the dinner menu if you want to order room service during your stay.
Fitness Room
The fitness room is on the 25th floor of the hotel and is certainly one of the best hotel fitness rooms I’ve experienced. There were numerous treadmills, cycling machines, ellipticals, weight benches and yoga mats and balls.
Other than the weight benches, all the pieces of equipment had a towel and bottle of water ready for anyone using it.
There’s a separate shelving unit housing extra towels when entering the fitness room. In the center of the room there were also a couple of drawers containing chilled bottles of water and chilled towels. Having a chilled towel when working out was lovely, although it did have a faint mildewy scent.
The treadmills and cycling equipment look out over neighboring buildings. The side of the fitness room with the yoga equipment on the other hand looks out over Central Park, so the room had been given a smart layout.
I’m not sure what temperature the fitness room was set to, but it must have been on the cooler side of things as I didn’t get too hot, something I appreciate very much when working out.
Swimming Pool
The Park Hyatt New York has a stunning indoor swimming pool, an amenity you won’t find in many Manhattan hotels.
There’s also a fairly large whirlpool which Shae and our friend enjoyed before we checked out.
Other Amenities
The hotel has a few other amenities that guests can use and enjoy during their stay. There’s a spa on the 25th floor and, although I didn’t check at the time to see how much treatments cost, it’s not too surprising that they cost $$$$$$.
If you want to save money on a treatment, head on over to the fitness room and jump on one of the exercise bikes. Those offered a discount of up to 20% depending on how far you cycled.
If you need to use the internet during your stay, the hotel has a business center. The printers weren’t working when Shae went to use it, but she was able to email her document to the front desk and they printed it for her.
The Park Hyatt New York also offers Afternoon Tea At The Park in their restaurant called The Living Room. This costs $45 for adults and $25 for children.
The hotel has a car service that guests can use based on availability. We didn’t use it during our stay, but my understanding is that it’s free other than a tip for the driver.
Pet-Friendliness
The Park Hyatt is a pet-friendly hotel, although we’d left Truffles at a pet-sitter for our trip up to New York. If you’re staying there with a dog, there’s a pet fee of $100 for stays of 1-6 nights and $200 for stays of 7+ nights. There’s also a 50 lb weight limit for dogs.
I didn’t notice any grass immediately around the hotel, but it’s only a couple of blocks from Central Park and so it’s actually a fairly good place to stay in New York with a dog.
Service
Service at the hotel was fantastic. Amy who checked us in struck a good balance between being very warm and friendly yet also professional.
We also loved DeVon (I think that’s how you spell his name) who worked at the entrance of the hotel. He was unfailingly welcoming and polite, while also being extremely fun. When ordering food to be delivered to our room, he was also the person who brought it up to our room.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi at the Park Hyatt is free for all guests and had a good speed – no complaints here.
Location
It can be hard to say whether a hotel is in a good location in New York as it largely depends on what you want to see and do during your time there.
That said, it felt like the Park Hyatt New York was in an excellent location. It’s only a block away from 57th St station, so it’s a short walk to get to the subway. It’s also only a couple of blocks from Central Park.
The hotel is also right opposite Carnegie Hall and the Russian Tea Room.
Parking
Parking in New York is expensive and parking at the hotel is no exception. Self-parking is $65 for up to 25 hours, while valet parking is $75 for the same amount of time.
Cost
Our stay at the Park Hyatt New York was completely free as we used a category 1-7 free night certificate that was earned when attaining Globalist status. The Park Hyatt is a category 7 property, so it costs 30,000 points per night if booking a regular award stay.
When making our reservation, the cash price for the standard 1 King Bed room we’d booked was $795. With taxes included, that came to ~$915.
As you can see in the image above, the room we were upgraded to – a 1 King Bed with City View – cost $895, or ~$1,030 including tax.
There’s no way I’d ever spend that much on a hotel room as that’s 10x our daily budget on our 50 state road trip. For one night of luxury though, it’s fun knowing that we’ve stayed in a room retailing for $1,000.
Final Thoughts
We loved our stay at the Park Hyatt New York. Even though we only stayed one night, being able to check in at 8 am and getting a late checkout at 4 pm meant we were able to enjoy our stay for 32 hours.
The room was a great size for New York, Shae loved the bath while I absolutely adored the rainfall shower. The fitness room was extremely well-equipped, the breakfast was delicious and was made even better due to it being free.
I don’t have any complaints, although I do wish we’d been upgraded to a suite seeing as that’s meant to be one of the benefits you receive with Globalist status. There were a couple of minor things that could be improved – the TV in the bathroom mirror didn’t have any sound and the chilled towels in the fitness room had a very mild mildewy scent – but neither of those had a negative impact on our stay.
Would I stay at the Park Hyatt New York again? It depends:
- Using a category 1-7 free night certificate? Yes, I absolutely would.
- Using 30,000 points? I personally wouldn’t, but that’s only because that could get us 6 free nights in a category 1 property, thereby saving us hundreds of bucks on accommodation costs on our road trip. For other people that are points-rich (especially if you have Chase Ultimate Rewards you can transfer to Hyatt), I’d say it could be a good option. Even more so if you have Globalist status (or know someone with it who can book a Guest of Honor stay for you so you receive the same benefits) due to the free room service breakfast.
- Paying ~$1,000? No way. Even if I was a billionaire, I’d have a hard time spending that much money on a hotel room for one night. Well, I’d like to think I would anyway. One thing I would say though is that after staying at the Park Hyatt, we stayed six nights at the Holiday Inn on 26th St where we paid ~$175 per night which is about 1/6 of the cost. The Park Hyatt is easily more than 6x nicer than the Holiday Inn, so from that perspective it’s worth it. I just couldn’t ever justify spending that much for a hotel room.
Our Rating
Room = 4.8 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.5 / 5 (n.b. the amenities it did have were excellent. I only awarded 4.5 though seeing as some hotels have far more amenities)
Food = 4.7 / 5
Location = 4.8 / 5
Service = 4.9 / 5
Overall Value = 4.3 / 5
Total = 4.67 / 5
Address
Park Hyatt, 153 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019
Outstanding and detailed review. I stayed there last year for 2 nights while a globalist as well and there is one additional benefit you did not mention. Free valet parking for Globalist members. They do take the car offsite to a 3rd party location and made a huge deal that there would be a charge if we went over 48 hours but it was a nice added perk.
Thanks! Yep, free parking on award stays for Globalists is an awesome perk.