Posts Tagged With: Hyatt

Lodging Review: Story Hotel Studio Malmö

Posted on November 28, 2024 by 2btravel

Introduction: Late Summer in Scandinavia
Flight Review: American Airlines B737-800 First Class, MEM-DFW
Flight Review: Finnair A350-900 Business Class, DFW-HEL
Flight Review: Finnair E190 Business Class, HEL-CPH
Lodging Review: Fairfield by Marriott Copenhagen Nordhavn
Our Time in Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Best Western Hotel Hebron, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Next House, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Story Hotel Studio Malmö
Our Time in Malmö and Ystad, Sweden
Lodging Review: IKEA Hotell, Älmhult, Sweden
Our Time in Älmhult, Sweden and High-Speed Train to Stockholm
Lodging Review: Motel L Älvsjö, Stockholm
Our Time in Stockholm
Flight Review: SAS A320neo Economy Class, ARN-OSL
Lodging Review: Comfort Hotel Grand Central, Oslo
Our Time in Oslo
Lounge Review: SAS Lounge, Oslo airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A320-200 Business Class, OSL-FRA
Flight Review: Lufthansa 787-9 Business Class, FRA-MSP
Flight Review: Delta B737-800 First Class, MSP-MEM

Story Hotel Studio Malmö

Location

The hotel is super-convenient to the Malmö Train Station. If you come up through the main part of the train station and exit, keep the station behind you and you’ll be facing north. Turn left and walk across a bridge over a canal. Turn right and walk beside the canal (it’s a pedestrian area) and walk until you reach the next street. The Story Hotel is on your left! Once you’re familiar with the area, as you’re heading from the hotel back to the train station you can use the entrance that goes under the street that bridges the canal and enter that way.

How This Stay Was Booked

The Story Hotel is a category 1 Hyatt, which meant I was able to book one night using the free night certificate I get with the Chase World of Hyatt Visa. There were no rooms that allowed for three adults, but it was so cheap that I was fine spending 5000 points per night for two rooms. So total cost was 15K points + one free night certificate for two rooms where the refundable rate was $259/night though I could get a corporate discount for $233/night. If I value Hyatt points at 1.5 cents each, it means we got each of the rooms for $75 per night which is quite a bargain! Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Europe, Hotel, Hyatt, Lodging Review, Sweden, Trip Report | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lodging Review: Park Hyatt Vendome, Paris, France

Posted on March 22, 2023 by 2btravel

Return to International Travel – Introduction
Review: SWISS A340-300 ORD-ZRH and Marhaba Lounge ZRH
Lodging Review: Sina Villa Medici, Florence, Italy
Our Time In Florence, Part 1
Our Time In Florence, Part 2
Lodging Review: Park Hyatt Vendome, Paris, France
Our Time In Paris, Part 1 (Louvre, Sainte-Chappelle, Arc, Eiffel Tower)
Our Time In Paris, Part 2 (Versailles)
Our Time In Paris, Part 3 (Catacombs, Musee d’Orsay)
Viking Kari and an Afternoon in Montmartre
Our Time in La Roche-Guyon and Vernon/Giverny
Our Time on the Normandy Beaches
Our Time in Les Andelys and Le Pecq
Lodging Review: Renaissance Republique, Paris, France
Review: Air France A350 CDG-ORD

I admit it. I’m influenced by travel bloggers when looking for places to stay when I travel. So many of them have raved about the Park Hyatt Vendome that I figured we had to try it out.

We made reservations for our October 2022 river cruise back in the summer of 2021. We knew we wanted to get to Paris a few days early but we weren’t sure exactly how many days in advance we’d arrive. Then I learned that Hyatt was increasing the prices in each category. So I went ahead and booked the night prior to our cruise for 30K World of Hyatt points. The prices did increase to 35K per night and once our plans were nailed down I booked three more nights at that price. So we got four nights for a total of 140K WoH points. The hotel has since been elevated to a Category 8.

Paris has an official rating system for each hotel in the country and hotels must post their rating near their main entrance. The scale is typically 1-5 stars but there are eleven hotels in Paris that exceed five-star and are rated as “palace hotels”. The Park Hyatt Vendome is one of those and is the only one in Paris that’s bookable using points. You can read more about the hotel star system here.

Location

The hotel is located on Rue de la Paix in the 1st Arrondissement, an area that is convenient to the Tuilleries Gardens and Place de la Concorde to the south and the Palais Garnier (opera house) and the Opera metro stop to the north. It’s a bit of a longer walk to the Louvre but it’s an easy one. There are lots of shops and cafes in the area and the office of the Big Bus (the hop-on/hop-off bus) is right on the way to the Louvre. Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Europe, France, Hotel, Hyatt, Lodging Review, Trip Report | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Return to International Travel – Introduction

Posted on March 17, 2023 by 2btravel

Return to International Travel – Introduction
Review: SWISS A340-300 ORD-ZRH and Marhaba Lounge ZRH
Lodging Review: Sina Villa Medici, Florence, Italy
Our Time In Florence, Part 1
Our Time In Florence, Part 2
Lodging Review: Park Hyatt Vendome, Paris, France
Our Time In Paris, Part 1 (Louvre, Sainte-Chappelle, Arc, Eiffel Tower)
Our Time In Paris, Part 2 (Versailles)
Our Time In Paris, Part 3 (Catacombs, Musee d’Orsay)
Viking Kari and an Afternoon in Montmartre
Our Time in La Roche-Guyon and Vernon/Giverny
Our Time on the Normandy Beaches
Our Time in Les Andelys and Le Pecq
Lodging Review: Renaissance Republique, Paris, France
Review: Air France A350 CDG-ORD

After two years without an international trip I was thrilled to finally be able to travel internationally again. I researched Viking River Cruises that we had not yet taken and was excited to see that an extension on the Seine Cruise was a visit to Highclere Castle (aka Downton Abbey). As a relatively new fan of the show and films that would be something I’d love to see. However we like to cruise in October and not only did that particular extension package end in September, that extension was sold out for all but about two dates during the summer. So we decided to do something different.

In 2008 we had taken a Western Mediterranean cruise where in a single day we visited Pisa in the morning and Florence in the afternoon. We had a whirlwind tour of Florence, just enough for the famous museums and monuments to be pointed out to us but not enough time to get to explore any of them. So we decided to do a few days in Florence before flying to Paris to take a cruise on the Seine out to the beaches of Normandy and back. While the river cruise would start on Wednesday, we flew to Paris the Saturday before and had several days to explore things at our leisure as the mood struck us.

Red: Memphis-Chicago-Zurich-Florence (United and SWISS) Green: Florence-Paris (Air France) Blue: Paris-Chicago (Air France)
Maps generated by the Great Circle Mapper – copyright © Karl L. Swartz

Continue reading →

Categories: Air France, Autograph Collection, Award Travel, Cruises, Europe, France, Hyatt, Italy, Marriott, Renaissance, River Cruise, SkyTeam, Star Alliance, SWISS, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lodging Review: Hyatt House Dallas/Las Colinas (DFW Airport)

Posted on March 12, 2022 by 2btravel

On a recent ski trip I experienced more travel interruptions than I think I’ve ever had on any trip. My original plan was to fly from Memphis to Steamboat Springs, Colorado (HDN) via DFW on American (AA) on a Friday late in February. Things changed late the Wednesday before I was scheduled to leave when AA canceled the first leg of my trip and re-booked me for Sunday. Not wanting to miss out on my vacation, I managed to get the MEM-DFW leg rescheduled for Thursday night where I’d spend the night in the DFW Airport area and then take the second leg of my flight as scheduled on Friday.

I had a free night certificate from my World of Hyatt card that was good for a category 1-4 hotel. While I did not receive any exceptional value by using this certificate, I have a number of similar certificates from various credit cards so I was happy to be able to use it. I did look into staying at the Grand Hyatt DFW, which is accessible from the inter-terminal train (SkyLink) but they did not have any rooms available on points and that property is a category 5, so I couldn’t have used my free night certificate anyway.

Hyatt House Dallas/Las Colinas (photo from hyatt.com)

I’d previously stayed at the Hyatt Place DFW and had absolutely no complaints so this time I thought I’d try the Hyatt House in the area since I knew both limited-service properties included breakfast. What I hadn’t considered until after I’d booked is that for the Hyatt House, at least, the complimentary shuttle, originally shut down due to COVID, had not yet been restarted. As the hotel is only 8 miles from the airport I didn’t think it would be difficult to get a ride. Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Hotel, Hyatt, Lodging Review, North America, Texas, United States | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lodging Review: Andaz Savannah

Posted on July 9, 2021 by 2btravel

Southeastern US Road Trip
Andaz Savannah
Embassy Suites Charleston Historic District
Anderson Ocean Club and Spa
Country Inn & Suites Asheville Outlet Mall

Our road trip was planned with the idea of using as many of our free-night certificates as possible. I only had one Hyatt certificate as I earn new ones in December and I’d already spent the 2019 certificate at the Hyatt Place Denver Airport in early 2020. But I have plenty of Chase Ultimate Rewards points so I transferred enough to my Hyatt account and we booked the Andaz Savannah using one night on points and one night with the free certificate earned from renewing my Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card.

Hyatt Andaz Savannah

The hotel has a great location in the heart of the historic district. This also means there’s no free parking. The hotel offers valet service but there’s a garage practically next door so for us the valet service wasn’t worth the extra money ($37/day). I will say that despite the fact that we didn’t use the valet service, the valets were always super-nice, opening doors for everyone and ensuring our stay was a good one. They also helped us load our luggage on to a cart before parking the car.

The front desk is located just inside the lobby and the associates were always very friendly. She thanked me for being a Discoverist and we were given a room on the fifth floor. She pointed out that the mini-bars were empty but if we needed any of the complimentary items usually found there (water, soft drinks) that we could just ask at the front desk. She also told us of our welcome amenity of a free beer or champagne (or soft drink for me) and we took advantage of that. Though I wasn’t sure I’d need it, she gave me a complimentary 2 PM checkout time as well.

Continue reading →
Categories: Award Travel, Colorado, Georgia, Hyatt, Lodging Review, United States | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Lodging Review: Hyatt Place Denver Airport

Posted on April 4, 2020 by 2btravel

To wrap up my ski trip to Copper Mountain that included a couple of nights at the Hyatt Place Keystone and a week at the Village Square Condos, I spent the last night of the trip at the Hyatt Place Denver Airport. I’d hoped to be able to ride back to the airport with my ski club but my flight was much earlier than theirs. There were no shared shuttles leaving Copper in the wee hours of the morning so I’d already decided to use my free night certificate at this hotel. It turned out to be a good move because there was another snow storm due to arrive the day of my flight and it turned out some friends with a car were driving back to Denver that night too so it all worked out well.

Continue reading →

Categories: Colorado, Hotel, Hyatt, Lodging Review, North America, United States | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lodging Review: Hyatt Place Keystone

Posted on March 19, 2020 by 2btravel

I stayed here for a couple of nights on a ski weekend. The hotel has a great location, right on Highway 6 and there are a couple of easy ways to get to the slopes.  The hotel is on the ski shuttle route and it’s only one stop to the River Run base area. If you have gear for several people, grab one of the red wagons to help cart your stuff around. Ingenious idea! When returning to the hotel you may find it more convenient to choose the stop across the highway from the hotel then use the crosswalk. That’s certainly faster but depending on your ski party that may or may not be the best option. If you stay on the shuttle it is probably another 10 minutes or so before it circles back around to Hyatt’s side of the street.

Hyatt Place Keystone

Note that you don’t have to take the shuttle to reach the slopes. There is access to the area with the Argentine and Peru Express lifts that’s just a little bit of a walk away. But I was set to meet folks who were driving up from Denver and parking at River Run so taking the shuttle made more sense in my situation. Continue reading →

Categories: Colorado, Hotel, Hyatt, Lodging Review, North America, United States | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Review: Hyatt Place Chicago O’Hare Airport

Posted on September 23, 2019 by 2btravel

At the end of my business trip my LOT Airlines flight arrived in Chicago too late to catch the last flight back to Memphis on a Friday evening so I booked a stay at the Hyatt Place Chicago O’Hare Airport. The hotel has a free shuttle that runs every half hour. As I have a friend in the area I did not take the shuttle to the hotel but did take it back to the airport in the morning.

One thing I like about Hyatt Places is the consistency and this hotel did not disappoint in that respect. The check-in desk is just inside the front door and I was greeted promptly and thanked for my loyalty as a Discoverist (gained by holding the Chase Hyatt Visa) and offered a free bottle of water. Check-in was quick and I was assigned a room on the second floor.

The lobby seemed a bit larger than I recall at other Hyatt Places, or perhaps it’s just because the hotel is shaped a little differently. I later realized there were several conference rooms which I don’t believe is something I normally see at Hyatt Places, so perhaps that’s why there was more seating.

Hyatt Place Chicago O’Hare Lobby Seating

Hyatt Place Chicago O’Hare Conference Room Lobby

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Categories: Hotel, Hyatt, Illinois, Lodging Review, North America, United States | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hyatt and American Airlines Join Forces

Posted on May 14, 2019 by 2btravel

Hyatt and American Airlines have teamed up to offer some reciprocal benefits. If you have status in either program you should have received an email stating what your benefit is. I’m a low-level elite with Hyatt, called a Discoverist, thanks to my Hyatt credit card. Here’s the email I received:

It’s hard to read but the only benefit I get is that in addition to earning Hyatt points I can also earn American frequent flyer miles. All I need to do is to click on the box and log into my account. That takes me to this page:

Where I can link my accounts. I haven’t done this yet as there’s a note indicating the names on the two accounts must match exactly and mine don’t. My Hyatt account has my “called by” first name (like the vast majority of my credit cards) whereas my American account has my legal first name to match my photo ID. So I’m checking with Hyatt to see if this will be an issue or not.

But it’s very easy and those with higher status either with Hyatt or American should enjoy even greater benefits. What kind of offer did you receive?

Categories: American Airlines, Hotel, Hyatt, OneWorld | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Lodging Review: Hyatt House New Orleans/Downtown

Posted on September 10, 2018 by 2btravel

For the second consecutive year I found myself back in New Orleans just before Labor Day for an event at the Hyatt Regency. Last year I stayed at the Regency but this year a friend was coming with me and we were going to stay over for a couple of days to play tourist. As I started comparing prices, and knowing we’d need breakfast, I realized we’d be better off at the Hyatt House which is next door to the Regency but is connected by a walkway.

We stayed three nights here, using a combination of cash, the free night certificate that comes with the Chase Hyatt credit card and World of Hyatt points. I called in to make the reservation and got a fantastic agent who compared my corporate rate, member rate and the AAA rate to figure out which night was the cheapest so I could pay cash for that night and use the certificate and points for the other two night. Then she was able to put that all on one reservation for us, which was terrific. I’d hoped for a room with two beds, but none were available on points so we got a room with a king bed and a sleeper sofa.

The building housing the hotel is at the corner of Loyola Ave and Poydras Street, with the hotel occupying floors 11-17. The Hyatt House entrance is on the Poydras Street side and there’s an express elevator up to the 11th floor main lobby.

Check In

As I arrived after 10 PM there was no waiting to be checked in and the whole process was quick and efficient. Every staff interaction I had was very pleasant. My Discoverist status (a result of holding the Hyatt credit card) was recognized and I told I was being given a slightly larger room. I asked again about a room with two beds, just in case one had opened up, but none were available. I was offered a choice of two of several welcome amenities and I took the 1000 points plus a plate of fruit. I was also given a large bottle of water, and one was available each day per guest.

One large bottle of water per guest per day is complimentary

Hyatt House New Orleans/Downtown Elevator Lobby

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Categories: Hotel, Hyatt, Lodging Review, Louisiana, North America, United States | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

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