The Hyatt Centric in Guatemala City is a fancy hotel with a fabulous breakfast. It served as a comfortable base for my stay in Guatemala.
Hyatt Centric Guatemala City Review
I spent two nights at this property, paying $129/night. It is located in Zone 10, just a short distance from GUA Airport. You’ll find a very walkable neighborhood with great restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and even a large mall close by.
Common areas of this hotel are quite attractive, with plenty of space to lounge and hang out.
Above the lobby level is a meeting space area:
Breakfast
I’m going to start with the breakfast because it was the highlight of my stay. While not exactly respecting privacy concerns, guests can find their tables pre-reserved each morning by looking for a small chalkboard bearing their name. I’m not sure if this is due to the pandemic or a longstanding policy of the hotel, but it avoids the need for a hostess…
Breakfast, in the Zamat restaurant, includes a buffet, juice bar, and and a menu of egg dishes you can order. That’s fairly standard, but several things impressed me:
- Coffee on-demand from a barista with superb espresso
- A large selection of fresh-squeezed juices
- Delicious pico de gallo and guacamole
- Fresh berries
- Lovely cheeses
- Five types of milk (I prefer whole milk)
I’d say the only room for improvement was the baked goods: the bread and croissants were not especially fresh.
There are few breakfasts more satisfying than scrambled eggs with black beans, pico de gallo, and guacamole.
Service was also fabulous, with very kind waiters who were attentive and engaging.
Coffee
I mentioned the coffee with breakfast and the hotel has a nice coffee shop called Ezprezzo Corner in the lobby area. Guatemala City is so full of great coffee shops that I only had coffee here with my breakfast, but I recommend it.
There’s coffee in the room, a Nestle machine with capsules…skip it.
Bar
I don’t drink when traveling alone, but the hotel has a really swanky rooftop bar with a great cocktail menu and nice atmosphere. I noticed when coming back from dinner that a lot of well-dressed locals appeared to be going upstairs to enjoy it.
There’s also a bar on the lobby level that was closed due to the pandemic.
Room
There are suites at this hotel, though I was assigned a deluxe king room on the 15th floor, room 1508. It features a desk with chair (greatly appreciated, take note hotels trying to appeal to millennials!), couch, easy chair, and a king size bed.
During daylight:
Sitting near the bed was a brightly-glowing alarm cock which I promptly unplugged. Of course it was about four hours off. I think one areas hotels can cut is alarm clocks…
> Read More: Marriott Is Welcome To Remove Alarm Clocks…I Hate Them
The bathroom included a walk-in shower, but no bathtub.
Toiletries were Transat branded (not Yves Rocher but a local company called Intercorp) and provided in a sealed ziplock bag (along with hand sanitizer).
Somehow, despite the pandemic apparently making it dangerously unsafe to clean rooms in the United States, the room was tidied up on the second day including a crisply-made bed and fresh towels. What a concept!
Coronavirus Precautions
In addition to the lobby bar and coffee shop being closed, temperatures were checked upon entrance, a bag for masks was provided beside the bed, and a sign indicated that elevators were disinfected every hour (though I never saw that taking place).
Pool
Above the bar is a rooftop pool and plenty of space to lounge. From the rooftop you can look out over Guatemala City.
A sign indicated the amount of chlorine and pH level of the water, as well as its temperature.
Fitness Center
Adjacent to the bar is a fitness center featuring late-model fitness equipment and a cool L-shaped mural that stretches from two walls all the way across the ceiling.
Service
The front desk staff was very nice. I checked in after midnight and the overnight manager welcomed me and checked me in. He spoke Spanish and I did my best to engage back in Spanish. My credit card was denied–my bank thought the charge in Guatemala was fraud–but a quick call fixed it. After he heard me speaking English on the phone, he switched to English.
Staff downstairs are stationed at the entrance in order to take your temperature as you enter the building and I was always greeted warmly upon arrival.
During normal times, the hotel offers shuttle service to the airport, but not during the pandemic. Room service has also been scaled back.
Perhaps for security reasons, you need to take an elevator to the lobby level then switch elevators to go upstairs to your guest room. It gets a bit tedious…
CONCLUSION
Clean, comfortable rooms and a great breakfast are my takeaway from the Hyatt Centric Guatemala City, but there’s also a nice pool, fitness center, two nice bars, and a convenient location. I don’t even know what other hotels Guatemala City offers – I will certainly be returning here next time.
This is part of my Guatemala trip report.
I find your review to be too long. Some good pics, but too long for such a basic hotel.
Nah… long reviews are great.
I found the review length to be too short. So between my comment and tim’s, net neutral.
The signs for breakfast are new, but what a great concept! I think this is what Hyatt intended the Centric brand to look like.
FYI- the main reason In the US that you’re not getting your room cleaned on a daily basis is staffing shortages. Just like in every other industry, for whatever reason, there are shortages of people willing to do that work.
Otherwise, the review was fine. Despite what looked like an overall nice breakfast and some kind service this hotel could have been anywhere. Like Des Moines. like Omaha. Nothing too noteworthy. I never understand why bloggers get so excited about mid level chain hotels.
You are certainly correct on the staffing shortages – the reason is why. Is it any wonder in a tight labor market even undocumented labor is not willing to work for $20/hr? The hotels are being cheap…it seems like a simply apply/demand problem to me.
As for the hotel, I mean it was no Park Hyatt or Four Seasons, but certainly a nice hotel with nice a gym, pool, and other facilities you may not see in flyover country.
I’ve stayed in hotels every bit as nice if not nicer in cities such as Des Moines, Omaha, Louisville, etc. that snobbery really is not helpful.
I’m not trying to be snobbish. Guess we’ve stayed at different hotels…
Who goes to Des Moines or Omaha unless you live in bum-ville USA
Whatever reason??? The only reason is because Grandpa Joe is sending money to people’s houses so they have no incentive to work. I see panhandlers everywhere where I live asking for money in front of stores with signs saying “We are hiring.” Why work if I can get money for free and doing not? Welcome to the new US. The bill will come sooner or later.
The PUA ended last month and the additional childcare credit doesn’t apply for most people so how is this Biden’s fault? My firm has had no problem filling our open positions but we don’t start folks at $10/hour. We have been getting former hospitality workers left and right because we’re starting them at $16/hr and bonus them if they are multilingual to meet our need. We’ve grown our call center by 20% since May of last year and have no intention to slow our hiring. If you aren’t willing to meet the market rates, that’s on you not me.
Seriously? He gave incentive for people to be lazy. FYI, I don’t have a job that hires people so I have no control over what other companies pay. Granda Joe just gave money away like there is no tomorrow. Problem is there is tomorrow. I know people that make over $500k a year, drive fancy cars, spent their vacation in Hawaii and were surprised to see a letter from Grandpa Joe with a check for their kids. BTW, I live in a place with 20 Fortune 500 companies. Do you know why they can’t reopen their HQs? Because Sodexo and Aramark cannot get their cafeterias up and running since nobody wants to work. The bill one come sooner or later.
Again, if Sodexo and Aramark wanted to hire people, they would pay the market rate. We’ve hired over 200 people in the last year because having people work for us is how we make money. Our biggest staffing issue is having enough people to train the new hires. If you think people don’t want to work, you’re deluded. People don’t want to work for what your hypothetical examples are offering. The market moved. These idiots didn’t. But sure, blame the President because your example’s business models suck. Also, your friend’s who claim to make 500K and got checks are lying to you because the IRS only sent checks to people making under 104K But again, it’s Joe Biden’s fault all your friends are liars or criminals.
Looks great – inspired to check out GUA over a weekend by this post series so far
Wow! I want to stay there soon.
I definitely will be staying there for a few nights in the near future… thanks for sharing.
Did you ask them what the policy was if you had failed a temperature check? Would you be denied entry? Would the local health authority be summoned and you be placed in automatic 7 day quarantine? Would they deny you entry but go into your room and bring all your belongings down to the sidewalk and tell you to leave?
This has always seemed to me such a useless test. Every time you leave the hotel you are risking not being allowed back in due to a false reading or some employee not knowing how to operate the device. Even constantly popping an ibuprofen doesn’t protect against a false positive. It all seems just so assault-like.
PS – I was fine with the length of the review and it sounds like a nice place, as long as I can be confident of entry.
I did not ask them. I don’t they pay attention anyway. It’s all a game.
This is a great review of a property that probably goes under the radar of most blogs. Looks like a fantastic option for GUA. Well done, Matthew and thanks for the thorough review.
A few takeaways…
1. Not sure about the use of your name displayed on the breakfast table. Cute, interesting, but I prefer a bit more privacy and my name not being on view for everyone.
2. Yes, please, a desk chair and proper desk. I can’t stand this new trend (even Four Seasons is doing it now) of the mixed use table and dining chair for your desk. I want a proper work station.
The only hotel that I’ve visited in GUA was the Hilton Garden Inn (in the same area of town), which was fine, but certainly not this nice. Thanks for the review.
Did you mean *more* satisfying? I mean fresh eggs, black beans, guac and pico sounds pretty dang good to me. Judging by the number of different plates containing guacamole I’d say you thought it was pretty good.
I can’t imagine starting a day with that combination in my stomach. LOL!!!
Well, I ate breakfast at 10am. I had already been up for hours. 😉
I think the review for this hotel is right on point, you didn’t mention how much was the breakfast, they usually charged from $20 to $30, that is outrageous, I usually stay at Marriott Cayala or in zone 10, there’s also Intercontinental hotel, about the breakfast you can get a much better breakfast and for a cheaper price at Cafe Saul or San Martin bakery, try it next time you will be happy with it!!!