Hyatt Regency Chennai is one of the two Hyatt hotels in Chennai.
Hyatt Regency Chennai is at a fantastic location which is in the heart of Chennai. There are excellent food options and a great pool for a city hotel. However, the service isn’t that polished, and the rooms are in desperate need of renovation.
Location
Hyatt Regency Chennai is on Anna Salai, conveniently located to most places of interest. The metro station, where we could go to the airport, railway stations, etc., is just outside the hotel. The US Consulate in Chennai is close to this hotel, and you could even walk there. There aren’t many restaurants or other forms of entertainment here; it’s primarily a business district. But any such locations are not far from where we are.
A Decathlon store is just next door and we don’t even have to enter from the road.
Booking
I booked for two nights using the Hyatt Dining Club’s Complimentary 2nd Night Stay. We could book one night at the standard rate and get the second night free. Since the Hyatt Dining Club customer care is usually slow to respond, I prefer to book directly through the Hyatt App, where we only pay the average price for the two nights’ stay.
Two vouchers are included with the Platinum level of the Hyatt Dining Club membership, allowing us to receive two nights free each year.
One big caveat to note is that this rate does not earn points or tier night credit. Thus this stay didn’t contribute to my Hyatt status challenge. Unfortunately, I was unaware of this when I made my reservation and only learnt of it afterward. If you do not require tier night credits this could still be a good way to cut costs on Hyatt stays.
This hotel participates in the Hyatt Privé program. For a two-night booking, we get breakfast, an upgrade to the next category (before any status), and a $50 hotel credit. Alternatively, we could redeem Hyatt Points at 5000 points for standard redemption.
Arrival and Check-In
We drove for about eight hours before arriving at the hotel at 11 p.m. I’m unsure if we received the High Floor King Room that we had reserved. The hotel confirmation email says floor 2-7 is for King Room and thus 8 & above for High Floor rooms? We got a room on the 7th floor. Maybe instead of an upgrade, have we got a downgrade!
The lobby is three levels up and not on the ground floor as we arrive. It can get chaotic when more guests arrive at once because there are only two check-in counters and a World of Hyatt counter (which wasn’t operational).
There isn’t even a single seating area; however, guests may use the Lobby Lounge. The Lobby Lounge offers a lot of seating and is a pleasant place to unwind outside the room. For non-guests, they have a Rs 500 cover charge.
The hotel has a construction style that is somewhat dated and makes it appear more like a circular setting than a corridor when viewed from the inside. However, I seem to like it as we don’t get to see them often. On the outside, there were some art installations, including flying kites and bee hives. There are various art installations, such as miniature replicas of Mahabalipuram monuments, on each floor’s corner.
A special staycation rate included breakfast, your preference of either Pranzo or World on a Plate Brunch, and lounge access were available for Rs 13,000 ($160) as part of the hotel’s 11th-anniversary celebrations.
High Floor King Room
We were allotted a room on the seventh floor overlooking the pool. We could also see the sea at a distance. I guess a higher floor would provide even better views. Also, the Anna Salai main road was visible to the other side.
Thankfully, the connecting room we were given was quiet. The room was on the larger side and had a sofa, a side table, and an open rack that extended the entire length of the room on one side. A router is also present, allowing you to use a LAN cable to connect to your laptop. I received premium Wi-Fi access as an Explorist, and the speed was 15–16 Mbps.
There is no smart TV. The TV didn’t even have a DTH connection; it was connected to a local cable provider and had a limited number of channel subscriptions.
The lack of a health faucet for the toilet was the bigger problem. The majority of Indians don’t prefer using toilet paper, and I won’t go into more detail about this. The bathtub also looked old. The water from the bathing area did not drain.
The room had a revolving door partition for the bathroom and living room. The toiletries were from Pharmacopia. The box for placing the toiletries looked like an antique piece. The placement of the mirror and the sink is not ergonomic.
There was no refrigerator or mini bar at all!
Overall, the room looked old and tired. And in immediate need of renovation.
Breakfast
We went to the Japanese restaurant, Yakiniku, on the first day of our stay, where breakfast was being served to attendees of a business event. We were asked for our room number but not directed to the restaurant serving the breakfast! It was a very simple affair, and the entire time I wondered if the breakfast selection was really that limited.
In the all-day, multi-cuisine restaurant Spice Haat, breakfast is served. As is customary in this region of the world, the breakfast was excellent and well worth the price, even if your reservation or status didn’t qualify you for one.
Stations were serving continental, Indian, and Asian, freshly squeezed fruit juice, local Tamilnadu-style tea stalls, and more.
There was a live station where we could order a wide variety of made-to-order dosas, parathas, waffles, pancakes, and eggs. We liked the Aloo Paratha, which had the potato shaved and boiled rather than mashed.
The hotel has a long list of dining options in addition to Spice Heat, including the Asian restaurant Stix, the Japanese restaurant Yakiniku, the Italian restaurant Focaccia and the bar, 365 A.S.
Pool and Gym
The pool was big enough for laps and had cabanas and multiple lounging places. With some additional art installations, it is a nice and relaxing place to be. The pool is good enough for a city property.
The Gym and Spa were on the same floor and adjacent to each other. The Gym was on the smaller side but had a combination of cardio and weight equipment.
Bottom line
We were not given a preferred room; rather, we were given a connecting room, technically not a higher floor room, which is possibly a downgrade, a non-smart TV, worn-out rooms, etc. Added to this was the fiasco on the first-day breakfast.
However, we did enjoy our stay despite all these shortcomings. The food selections are good, and the location is excellent. And I have made some future bookings and hope to have a better stay.