Shae and I recently spent ten days in San Antonio, Texas over Thanksgiving – you can check out everything we got up to here.
Our first three days in the city were spent at the Grand Hyatt, a large conference hotel that’s only a block from the River Walk. It’s a pretty nice hotel and we had an even nicer stay thanks to the status I have with Hyatt – more on that below.
Here’s a review of our stay in an Executive Suite at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio, Texas.
Check-In
We arrived at the hotel at about 4pm and pulled up in the valet parking area to unload our car. I’d contacted the hotel ahead of time to ask about the parking situation seeing as we wanted to self-park. They’d advised we could unload, check-in and then move the car as we’d need our room key to access the parking lot.
Shae waited outside with the car while I went inside to get us checked in. Both of the front desk agents were checking in other guests when I lined up, but a new agent appeared immediately and invited me over.
Julio was very friendly and got me checked in quickly. I have Globalist status, two of the benefits of which are upgrades to standard suites and club lounge access. I asked about the suite and he confirmed that I’d already been upgraded to an Executive Suite.
We’d booked our three nights as three separate one night stays – two under my name and one under Shae’s as we were using our free night certificates. Despite Shae only having Discoverist status, they were happy combining our reservations and letting us stay in the same room for all three days even though she wasn’t entitled to the upgrade.
Once I had the keys to room 748, Shae took one room key to park the car and I headed up with the bellman who brought our bags. We live in hotels & Airbnbs nowadays and tend to move every 5-6 days. We’re therefore so used to lugging all our stuff in and out of hotels ourselves, it felt weird having someone else take care of our luggage for once!
Executive Suite
When entering the suite, the dry bar was on the left, the living room was straight ahead, while the bedroom and bathroom were through a door to the left. According to the Hyatt website, the Executive Suite layout is 692 sq ft.
Dry Bar
The dry bar area was fairly large with a fridge, microwave and coffee maker. On the opposite side of that were a couple of long countertop areas with cupboards beneath.
One slight disappointment was that this wasn’t a wet bar. The bathroom was on the other side of the wall behind the phone, so I can’t imagine it would’ve involved too much plumbing work to add a sink given how much space there was for one. If you wanted to make a cup of tea or coffee, you had to walk around the counter, through the living room, through the bedroom, past the closet and into the bathroom, then back again. I know that sounds lazy, but given that it’s a room that normally costs ~$300 per night, it was a surprising omission.
There was also no trash can in the dry bar area, something else that would’ve been nice to have.
On the positive side, there was a Keurig coffee maker with a few different types of coffee and tea.
Living Room
The living room contained a comfortable sectional sofa, coffee table, armchair with footrest and an additional side table.
Something that seemed to be missing was information about the hotel. There was no binder like most hotels have detailing the fitness room hours, where the swimming pool was located, etc.
On the opposite side of the room was a desk, office chair, dresser and TV. The TV volume couldn’t be lowered below 8 which still sounded quite loud to me late at night, but the bedroom wall was apparently thick enough that Shae couldn’t hear it after going to bed.
Our room had an OK view, looking out at the nearby Marriott and La Quinta hotels.
Bedroom
The bedroom had a very comfortable king size bed with numerous small pillows and crisp sheets that were also comfortable. The blackout curtains worked well, so we slept well all three nights.
Both sides of the bed had power outlets and USB ports available which was appreciated.
Opposite the bed was an additional TV on top of a large dresser.
Off to the left was the room’s large closet. Inside that was a safe on the top shelf, as well as a luggage rack, iron, ironing board and bathrobe. I’ve still not worked out why so many hotels (including the Grand Hyatt San Antonio) only provide one bathrobe given that two people will frequently be staying in the room.
Bathroom
Off to the left of the closet was a good-sized bathroom. The left side of the bathroom had the toilet, sink and vanity, with a bath mat and hairdryer on the shelf below.
The vanity also held a bar of soap, body balm, mouthwash and toothpaste.
The bathroom had a wide bathtub and a shower. The shower head was small and so I was initially dubious about how good it would be, but it had decent water pressure and sprayed out more widely than I’d expected.
There were additional toiletries in the shower, including soap, shampoo, conditioner and shower gel.
Grand Club Lounge
The Grand Club Lounge at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio serves food and drinks for most of the day:
- Breakfast: 6am-10am
- Afternoon snacks: 12pm-3:30pm
- Evening hors d’oeuvres: 5pm-8pm
- Alcoholic beverages: 5pm-9pm
- Desserts: 8:15pm-10pm
In addition to the food and alcoholic beverages at set times, the lounge had tea and coffee making facilities, as well as a couple of fridges containing soft drinks that were available all day.
The lounge also offered a business center with a couple of computers and printers.
There was quite a lot of seating, although the tables and chairs were often pretty full during breakfast and evening hors d’oeuvres hours.
To save money during our stay, we ate in the Grand Club Lounge for most of our meals. Here’s what the options were like.
Grand Club Lounge Breakfast
There were usually a couple of hot options for breakfast – eggs and something else like bacon, sausage, etc. The only hot option on the day I took these photos though was scrambled eggs.
The other options tended to be pretty much the same every day:
It wasn’t the most extensive of club lounge breakfasts, but it was enough to fill us up each morning.
Grand Club Lounge Afternoon Snacks
I only made it up to the lounge mid-afternoon on one of our three days, so I’m not sure if the afternoon snacks are different every day or not.
The day I went up there were about 15 jars with all kinds of nuts, dried fruit, chocolate covered pretzels, trail mix, etc.
Grand Club Lounge Evening Hors D’oeuvres & Alcoholic Beverages
The evening hors d’oeuvres were similar most evenings, with cheese and crackers, roasted vegetables, other vegetables and cold cuts available each night. They did have a different hot option each evening though, with bacon-wrapped chicken pieces on the first night of our stay.
Similar to the breakfast in the Grand Club Lounge at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio, the offerings weren’t particularly extensive, but it was enough for us to be full.
Alcoholic beverages were also served during this time. They had a good selection of spirits, along with wines and beers. The best part was how cheap the drinks were – $3 for a glass of wine or bottle of beer and $4 per shot of liquor.
Grand Club Lounge Desserts
Once all the hors d’oeuvres were cleared away, they brought out several small dessert options. I tried a few of them one night and they were all tasty enough.
Other Dining Options
If you don’t have access to the Grand Club Lounge when staying at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio, or want something different to what the lounge has to offer, there are a few other dining and drinking options.
There’s a Perks coffee shop on the lobby level which is open 24 hours a day.
Also on the lobby level is Bar Rojo which is open from 3pm until 1am.
For something more substantial – and vastly more expensive – to eat, there’s a Ruth’s Chris Steak House at river level.
Room service also seems to be catered for by Ruth’s Chris which makes for an expensive dinner if you don’t want to leave your hotel room. The cheapest sandwich with tax, delivery charge and service charge included would come to ~$30. Want a side of broccoli? That’ll be an extra $18 (!) before those extra fees, while a children’s meal also costs ~$30. As you might guess, we don’t tend to frequent expensive eateries 😉
Amenities
The Grand Hyatt San Antonio has several amenities for guests to use. They have what’s probably the largest and nicest fitness room at any hotel that we’ve stayed at. There was lots of equipment, along with a separate yoga room. The only downside is that it was warmer in there than I like when working out.
The hotel also has a heated outdoor pool that looks up at the Tower of the Americas. Despite it being mid-November when we visited, the pool was warm enough for Shae to go swimming.
The pool is also nicely lit at nighttime.
I didn’t notice a guest laundry area at the hotel, although that’s not to say there isn’t one. We were staying in an Airbnb the following week and so knew we’d have laundry available there.
I also didn’t notice a business center other than in the Grand Club Lounge, but I’d imagine there’d be some computers available for guests that I simply didn’t notice. Like I mentioned earlier, our room didn’t have any information about the hotel.
Having said that, if there was anything you needed – or needed to know – you could text the hotel. That was a feature we didn’t need to make use of, but it’s great that it’s something they offer.
The hotel has a gift shop if there’s anything snacky or touristy you need during your stay.
The hotel also has all kinds of conference facilities and meeting rooms.
Pet-Friendliness
The Grand Hyatt San Antonio, Texas is a pet-friendly hotel which is one of the reasons we chose it as we’re traveling with our dog Truffles.
The pet fee is $100 for 1-5 nights and an additional $100 for stays of 6+ nights. That’s more expensive than most hotels we stay at, but the rest of our stay was (sort of) free and the hotel is in a great location, so we were willing to pay that.
There aren’t any grassy areas immediately outside the hotel but there are several within a block, so you don’t have to go far for your dog to do its business. That’s much better than the Kimpton Gray hotel in Chicago where we had to walk six blocks to reach any grass.
Service
Service at the hotel was very good, although I don’t think we had any staff interactions other than at check-in, check-out and in the club lounge.
All the staff were friendly though and it’s nice that they have the text service mentioned above if you have any questions or requests. We also greatly appreciated them letting us stay in the suite with club lounge access even though our third night was booked in Shae’s name and she didn’t have status that offers those upgrades.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi at the hotel was free – I’m not sure if that’s because of membership in the World of Hyatt loyalty scheme or if it’s free for all guests.
The connection was good and seemed fast enough. The only slightly inconvenient thing was having to reconnect my phone to the Wi-Fi whenever we returned. I don’t think that’s caused by my phone itself though as it doesn’t happen at all hotels we stay at.
Location
The Grand Hyatt is in a great location in downtown San Antonio as it’s only a block away from the River Walk with its numerous bars and restaurants. It’s also only a ten minute walk to the Alamo in one direction and Tower of the Americas in the other.
Parking
Parking at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio is pretty expensive – $31 per day for self-parking, $43 per day for valet parking and $47 per day for valet parking of an oversized truck. It seemed to be more expensive elsewhere though, so it seems to be the best choice.
One of the benefits the hotel offers to members with Globalist status is a $10 discount on parking. They might offer discounts for members with other status levels, but I didn’t think to check at the time.
The good thing for us is that we’d booked our three nights as award stays. When you book an award stay as a Globalist member, you get free parking. That meant we saved $92 for our three night stay. I’ve no idea why it’s free for award stays and not paid stays too, but that’s just one of World of Hyatt’s quirks.
The parking lot is connected to the hotel, so once you’ve parked you can take an elevator up into the hotel.
Cost
We paid for our stay using free night certificates. Two of those – one in my name and one in Shae’s – came from our Hyatt credit cards which offer a free night stay at a category 1-4 hotel each year (the Grand Hyatt San Antonio is a category 3 property).
I say free nights, but we have to pay their annual fees and so they aren’t actually free. I have the new World of Hyatt credit card which has a $95 annual fee, while Shae still has the old Hyatt card which has a $75 fee.
The other free night was another category 1-4 night, but this one was awarded when I earned the lower tier Explorist status earlier in the year.
If we’d paid cash for the standard king room we’d originally booked, it’d have cost an average of $228.10 per night including tax. We therefore got some good value by paying those credit card annual fees for the “free” nights.
Due to my status though, we were upgraded from that standard room to an Executive Suite. The rate for that room type was $248 per night, or $289.54 including tax. What would normally cost $868.62 ($289.54 x 3) therefore only cost us $170.
Points Earned
Seeing as it was an award stay, I only earned 556 World of Hyatt points which related to the pet fee. They only calculated points on the pet fee pre-tax which came to $85.65. That meant 428 points were base points, with the other 128 points being the 30% bonus from having Globalist status. I also earned 400 bonus points for paying the pet fee with my World of Hyatt credit card.
Final Thoughts
Overall, we had a good stay at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio. We loved its location and appreciated being upgraded to a one bedroom suite so that it didn’t disturb Shae’s sleep when I had the light on in the living room at night.
The Grand Club Lounge was pretty good seeing as food, snacks and drinks were available throughout the day, although the breakfast options and evening hors d’oeuvres weren’t the most extensive offerings we’ve seen.
There were some smaller things that could be improved – making the dry bar a wet bar, having hotel information in the bedroom, etc. – but I’d happily stay here again in the future.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the Grand Hyatt San Antonio four paws out of four – pawfect! She’d have given them 3.5 paws given the fairly high pet fee, but she’d prefer to keep her paws intact.
She loved having the spacious suite as it meant plenty of space to chase after her ball. Our room was also very quiet and so she didn’t feel the need to bark at noises in the hallway.
Truffles also enjoyed its proximity to the River Walk as it meant we went for walks there a couple of times a day.
Our Rating
Room = 4.5 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.6 / 5
Food = 4.3 / 5
Location = 4.8 / 5
Service = 4.6 / 5
Overall Value = 4.2 / 5
Total = 4.5 / 5
Address
Grand Hyatt, 600 E Market St, San Antonio, TX 78205
[…] put free night certificates from credit card renewals to good use, such as our stays at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio and the Kimpton Gray in Chicago last […]