Hotel: Grand Hyatt SFO
Room type: Grand Suite, king bed…read moreCost: $2,300 USD/2 nights
Trip: solo, 1 person
Location: San Francisco, CA. (SFO Airport)
Rating: 4.0/5.0
The Grand Hyatt at SFO is an amazing property, Hyatt truly showed why they belong in the luxury tier with this entry. A 351-room (and suite) airport hotel, one of the best airport hotels in the world, and connected directly to the airport via presecurity (TSA) airtrain on airport grounds. This was quite a luxurious hotel, in a prime spot and a must-stay for avgeeks (aviation geeks). While not the most luxurious hotel I've stayed at, it proves it doesn't have to be. While providing fine dining (at the Quail & Crane Restaurant, more on that below) or fast and convenient to-go items that can be enjoyed in your room or on-the-go (more than likely when here, you're heading to a flight, see: Twin Peaks café, below), the Grand Hyatt at SFO offers unparalleled service for an airport hotel and deserves its 5-star rating. The fitness center by itself is huge and offers yoga mats, stretch balls, peloton fitness bikes, treadmills, standard recumbent bikes, free weights, circuit training and more, plus complimentary water and towels. What is more, is that they truly metaphorically bend over backwards to serve you which no hotel is obligated to do. If you order Uber Eats or Doordash, for example, they'll drop your food at their first floor valet lobby; it's no problem at all. Though the Quail & Crane Restaurant offers an excellent fusion of Western/American continental cuisine, while the Twin Peaks bar had an amazing selection of cocktails to make for you upon request, and the neighboring Twin Peaks market had a standard mix of cold beverages (water, soda, juice, etc.) and snack items including potato chips, and standard American/western fare And the views! Where do I start? This is where being an avgeek comes into play as an advantage and the hotel encourages this, providing an "aircraft identification guide," binoculars, pen, and paper notepad. I spent hours in my suite watching aircraft land, taxi, park at the gate, taxi to the runway then take off. NOTE: Request an apron-view room or suite, otherwise you get an interior room /suite. My suite had panoramic views of the International terminal and half of the "A" gates (the international terminal consists of one gigantic hall and two piers, "A" and "G" gates - Star Alliance aircraft depart out of the "G" gates, while everyone else uses the "A" gates and pier. Domestic terminals 1, 2, and 3 are strictly for gates "B" "C" "D" "E" and "F"). I had to get a pad of paper and a pen to keep track of every aircraft I saw. Would I stay here again? Absolutely! 4.0/5.0 is my final rating, only because 5.0 is the proverbial unicorn; no hotel gets 5.0/5.0, it is unfair to other establishments and there is always something any given hotel can do better, even if it is so unnoticeable to guests, it is behind the scenes. The only thing that could make the Grand Hyatt SFO better is a spa on-site but I'm being unnecessarily nit-picky here, which isn't fair to the hotel.