• Also see: Trip Report: Riding On Amtrak Business Class NYP-BOS

Since the BOS-DUB flight on Aer Lingus tonight flies out of, um, Boston, I decided to build in a day to explore this culturally rich city. As a base, I decided on the Hyatt Regency Boston.

It’s a Hyatt Category 3 hotel, meaning it’s 15,000 Gold Passport points per night, and also eligible for use with the annual free night certificate given as a perk to cardholders of the Chase Hyatt Visa.

Since I’d already redeemed my annual free night certificate earlier this year at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, I redeemed 15,000 Gold Passport points.

This saved me $313 for a one-night stay, which means I got a value of 2.1 cents per point – and meets my 2 cents per point minimum. However, since I’m a Chase Hyatt Visa cardholder, I’ll get 20% of those points back due to a promo they have going on right now until July 31st (but you had to register by March 31st). That gives me even more value out of the points redeemed – closer to 3 cents per point. Considering how easy it is to earn Ultimate Rewards points, I consider Hyatt stays one of the best uses of Ultimate Rewards – especially with this 20% discount going on.

Getting there and check in

After getting off the Amtrak train at Boston’s South station, it was a short 10-minute walk to the Hyatt Regency. The streets in Boston drive me absolutely batty. I’m a lover of the grid. Well-planned cities like Chicago and Phoenix appeal to my sense of order greatly. I can deal with New York’s mish-mash of a kinda-sorta grid. But Boston is something else altogether.

Once I found the Hyatt Regency, I entered through the sliding glass doors. You have to take an elevator up to the lobby on the 3rd floor, and from there, you have to take another elevator up to your room. So to enter and/or exit, you always have to take two elevators. This design feature/flaw was not my favorite thing in the entire world, and I can see how it could be confusing to some.

The desk agent was very, very welcoming and acknowledged that I was Platinum with Hyatt. After just a couple of minutes, we headed up to our room.

The room

We were assigned to room 1527, which was a recently renovated king bed room.

Overall, a very beautiful room. Bright and airy. Not a lot of lights, though. The only lights are a light over the door and, for the main room, just the lamps on either side of the bed.

The bathroom was pretty big and featured the usual KenetMD toiletries. I was in dire need of a shower, so I went down and asked the front desk for some toothpaste (which is part of their “Hyatt Has It” program, which is awesome) and came back up for a quick shower. I made sure to pack my coconut oil for this trip and used that to moisturize afterward.

Current view. #Boston #Massachusetts @hyatt #travel

A photo posted by Harlan Vaughn (@harlanvaughn) on Apr 27, 2015 at 7:39pm PDT

There was very comfy king-sized bed, a small sitting area with two plush chairs, a TV (which I never watch), and a set of cabinets with a fridge and coffee station inside.

We had a view looking out to the northwest, with the bay in the distance.

The wifi here was blazing fast, which I consider a necessity for a good hotel stay.

I heard that the breakfast buffet was lovely, but didn’t feel like dealing with it after my one and only night. My flight wasn’t until 9pm and I wanted to sleep in. Plus, it wasn’t included with the room and I’m not a Diamond, so I’d have to pay for it. I didn’t want to wake up early to have their breakfast, but instead slept in and then went out and had breakfast at a local bagel place in Boston.

The property also has event spaces, a pool, and a gym. I didn’t make use of those, either, but good to know that they are there if you need them.

A couple of minor complaints

The things that kind of annoyed me weren’t major, but I wanted to include them just in case anyone would want to know.

First of all, the housekeeping was really aggressive about wanting to clean the rooms. I came out to take a picture of the atrium and they asked me if I was leaving… I’d literally just checked in. I didn’t think too much of it until the next morning.

They banged on the door screaming “housekeeping!” at 8:30 in the morning. I uhhh… was out drinking the night before so I was like what the hell is that? I screamed back, “no thanks!” and they left.

Then again at 9:30am, the same thing happened. I was about to wake up anyway, but I was also thinking… I’m here for one night. I requested a late checkout (2pm checkouts are given to Platinum members [4pm for Diamond, FYI]). Can they not see that I’m there for one night and that I’m leaving at 2pm? I didn’t need any sort of housekeeping at all. And I didn’t like that they started banging at 8:30am when I was trying to get a little extra sleep for a long day and an overnight flight.

It’s my fault that I didn’t put the “do not disturb” sign on the door. Thank god I flipped the doorjamb though! Otherwise, would they have busted in? I just thought that my checkout and one-night status would’ve been more apparent to them from the management team.

The other thing was the condition of the bed. It was super comfy. I’d been told that I was in a newly renovated room at check-in, which I interpreted to mean… new. The bed was banged up and dirty around the corners. They don’t use fitted sheets on the beds, but instead use flat sheets that they tuck in. They strap on mattress pads underneath that. This mattress pad was sliding off, and after sleeping in and getting up a few times, the flat sheet became untucked. This is what the mattress below looked like:

Not a huge deal, but a little gross.

I’m not complaining exactly about these two minor issues, but just wanted to note it. I did feel the room overall was very clean, and the staff were all lovely. These two things could stand to be improved, though.

Bottom line

This Hyatt is very very very very well-located. Did I mention the location is phenomenal? Because it is. It’s easy walking distance to the Boston Ballet, the Boston Orchestra, the Orpheum Theatre, the Paramount, downtown, Chinatown, Boston Common, and many other amazing sites that are unique to Boston.

In addition, it’s a 10-minute walk to a strip of gay bars. As mentioned, I went out and had a few drinks. I hit up The Tam, had a fancy cocktail at the W Hotel, then wandered back north and hit up a few other places – kind of a bar crawl. The night ended with a few rounds of pool, and then we made our way back to the Hyatt Regency.

The two-elevators-required thing is kind of annoying, but whatever. As a Category 3 hotel, it’s easily bookable with points and the annual free night cert given by the Chase Hyatt Visa.

The room was (relatively) clean, and the staff were very welcoming. The location is amazing.

I’d stay here again – to have the breakfast, check out the gym, and maybe take a swim in the pool. This is a great base to begin exploring Boston. There were a couple of service-related issues, noted above, but that wouldn’t prevent me from staying here again. It does prevent me from giving this place 5 stars, but even still, the price on points and location can’t be beat.

Has anyone else stayed at the Hyatt Regency Boston? How does your experience compare? 

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