Faced with a 12-hour layover in Miami, I booked a room at the Hyatt Regency Miami, which served as a very suitable crashpad for our long day in town.
Hyatt Regency Miami Review
I used an expiring category 1-4 free night certificate from the World of Hyatt program for my stay since the prevailing rate was $270 (this was in high season…the rate can be half that during the heat of summer). It’s a Category 4 property and while not luxurious, it certainly did the job for our long day in Miami.
I reserved the room for the night before our arrival so that we could gain access to our room as early as 7:00 am when our cruise ship arrived at the Port of Miami. So that I was not marked as a no-show, I checked in on the World of Hyatt app and messaged the hotel the night before that I would not be arriving till morning.
We arrived closer to 10:00 am (via taxi Uber) and the hotel was quite accommodating, proactively granting us a late checkout. That’s not something you can count on, but I was given until 7:00 pm (instead of the standard 4:00 pm checkout for a Globalist member) and we did take advantage of that.
Guest Room
We were assigned room 1030. The rooms are refurbished with new carpeting and furniture, which is a pretty noticeable upgrade from a few years back when the hotel really felt dated. There’s a partition separating the sleeping area from a sink area, which is outside the bathroom.
The balconies are non-functional (they are sealed shut). Decent view from the room, though:
Breakfast @ Riverwalk Café
Augustine was hungry (seven-year-olds are always hungry), so we went down to the Riverwalk Café for breakfast.
Globalist members can order off the menu or take the buffet.
I ordered an omelet and bowl of berries from the a la carte menu while Augustine took the buffet (and polished off quite a bit of food). The buffet included mostly Western breakfast items.
The restaurant service was terrible… I just don’t know how else to say it. The hostess was very nice, but the waiter did do anything at all. We finally had to flag him down and he took our orders, but did not bring over drinks or flatware. Finally, I went up to the bar and helped myself.
Thankfully, he must have gone on break or something because Ingrid came on duty and was excellent. The omelet also wasn’t bad.
18% gratuity was automatically added (though note at the bottom it says “suggested and voluntary”). I left it because Ingrid was lovely and gratuity is included for Globalist members. Had it just been the other guy, I would have removed the gratuity even if it was included…
Market
Next door to the restaurant is a market offering lighter fare, coffee, and snacks.
Pool
A big reason for getting a room here was so that Augustine could swim once more (we have an olympic-size pool at our gym, but it’s not the same as an outdoor hotel pool).
While he swam, I sat under a cabana and worked…and eventually joined him too. He begged me.
Fitness Center
We also worked out in the hotel gym, which was a small gym in the hotel basement next to the pool. The machines were old and had seen better days, but I managed to squeeze in a good workout and Augustine worked out too…he wasn’t allowed to do that on the boat and can’t do that in our own gym in LA (due to his young age), so this was a treat for him.
The Accident
As we were walking out to catch an Uber to Little Havana, a van picking up an American Airlines crew ran into a car right in front of us. The woman driving the van and the man began arguing in Spanish and tempers flared. but it was the woman’s fault…she ran right into him. He was parked!
CONCLUSION
I quite appreciated my stay here and found great value in having use of this hotel for the day. The breakfast was fine, the room was clean, the fitness center was functional, and my son loved the pool. No, this hotel is hardly the lap of luxury, but I was grateful for it.
Personally love it when hotels allow for very late check-in and check-out. Appreciate this feature especially when I’m only at a location for about a day or so and this “service” seems to be more prevalent in the Middle East and East Asia.
Was just dealing with how to do this in Colombo last week. Landed at 630am and next flight was 1230am the next day. Did a Tuk Tuk tour in the morning and had lunch then booked a hotel for that night (checked out at like 8pm). Napped for an hour and spent a few hours by the pool.
Day rooms didn’t seem to exist. And searching by the hour just came up with dodgy places lollll.
For Miami maybe it’s better to just find a pool bar and swim and eat?
I thought my arrangement worked out very well, even if I would have had to check out at 4p.
The woman driving the van which hit the stopped car was likely studying her mobile phone whilst driving .
Hotels with bath tub and plastic shower curtain should all be category 1. That’s unacceptable in a Hyatt brand. Not even Hyatt Places have that. Automatic gratuity is a disgrace. Why don’t they raise the regular price by 18%? That’s easier.
Where are you flying to from Miami? 🙂
FLL-LAX on B6.
I don’t know if you had a chance to try the coffee from the market in the hotel… but it’s shockingly good.
I did not – was all coffeed out from the cruise ship. What kind of coffee is it?
I like this hotel because they at least follow Hyatt rules, honor globalist benefits, and usually upgrade. There is no concept of service or hospitality in Miami, so there’s no point in seeking that out elsewhere only to be disappointed.
Hyatt Regency Miami evokes memories of my suite filling with the bouquet of Marijuana through the connecting door from the orgy next door. Mind you this high end experience was preceded by the monetary negotiations for the a la carte services. I can’t unhear the extensive offerings up to that moment unknown to me were available for a fee. I’ve never watched adult movies that include those offerings. When I shared with the assistant manager in training the breakfast offerings : eggs Benedict with scrambled yolks on top of ice cold shredded beef, burnt omelet, frozen fruit and bread no grocery store would sell to a human his answer was :” I don’t eat eggs. You seem to have unrealistic expectations about food.”
Ugh. What is with Hyatt having Regency properties that are so dated? This looks very 1970s or early 1980s with a lot of lipstick on the pig over the years. You see this everywhere with Hyatt Regency. And look at that room. No real USB outlets. Hardly any accessible electrical outlets. Just an outlet bar/strip on the nightstand. And the bathroom. Tub and fixtures look close to original. At best, the decor theme at the vast majority of Hyatt Regency properties feels like a 1990s or early 2000s suburban shopping mall.
And how does a Hyatt Regency in Miami not have a club lounge? Miami is hardly some suburban or flyover property. Sure makes the explorist certificates — to say nothing of the globalist lounge access benefit — just useless.
I stayed at this hotel the night before a cruise using a cert. it was definitely convenient but boy, I couldn’t imagine paying some of the cash rates it tries to charge. Pulling up the exterior was definitely dated but whatever but then was made up by a very nice lobby area. Then get to the room and it’s just so blah. I know Regency isn’t the lap of luxury in most locations but this was by far the worst one I’ve stayed in. Again, it was free and did the trick but probably never again. Meanwhile my Uber from the cruise port to FLL was $80 on Friday rush hour so you lucked out.
Hyatt thinks Hyatt Regency is the equivalent to a Westin or J.W. Marriott but I find most domestic Hyatt Regency properties to be more no different than a Crowne Plaza, Delta or a Sheraton.
Does Hyatt really think that? I concur that the Hyatt Regency brand in the USA is much more like Crowne Plaza or Sheraton.
Hyatt considers the Regency brand to be the equivalent of a Westin. On paper, Hyatt’s “luxury” equivalent to J.W. Marriott is Andaz and Grand Hyatt. While Marriott considers J.W. Marriott a “luxury” brand, I reject that categorization at least within North America. I think Hyatt Regency, Westin and many, if not most, J.W. Marriott properties are the same domestically.
You can’t tell me the J.W. Marriott in Grand Rapids or the two J.W. Marriott properties in Miami are of a higher standard than a Hyatt Regency, except for maybe –– just maybe –– F&B. Hyatt
Regency, like Sheraton, doesn’t have good restaurants. And worse yet, you don’t get points at most Hyatt properties for F&B spend. So, there’s zero incentive to eat and drink at the hotel’s F&B outlets.`
I think it’s a solid choice if you like being able to walk downtown, which has a number of quite good restaurants within a short distance from the hotel.
And the Whole Foods across the street, which was very conveinent.