My mother is a diligent Hyatt Globalist, and last year, she used just about all her points to do…read morethe ultimate Hyatt booking: four rooms at the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome, for 45,000 points per room per night, for a big C. family vacation. That rate has since climbed to 75,000 points, and I don't think any of us are likely to go back for all that.
This was a free stay for me and my crew, so let me start by saying the hotel was generally very nice. The location was excellent, central and close to transit, and the common areas were opulent and attractive. Everyone I interacted with on staff was polite and helpful, and housekeeping did good work. I also appreciated the complimentary wine and chocolates left in our room, and the breakfast and dinner at the lobby restaurant.
My brothers and I had rooms on the 4th floor, while my parents were in a suite on the 6th. My room had a king bed and room for a rollaway, which my kids took turns sleeping in when they weren't just piling onto our bed. The rooms were comfortable and upscale, if more in line with 45,000 points than 75,000. No wow factor, and some things felt weird and old. The outlet situation wasn't great. There were no adaptors, and there were a couple USB ports, but they were for smartphone cables from like five years ago. The lighting was also nuts. We wanted to turn off most of the lights when our kids went to bed, but keep one on so we could hang out in the room. There was legit no way to do this, and we sat in the dark rather than have spotlights keeping our kids awake.
These are minor complaints, which I might have ignored if not for my big complaint: the planned power outage on the last night of our stay. We were not notified of this outage in advance of our trip, and only learned about it through a printed letter left in our room. The power outage was scheduled for between midnight and 4:30 in the morning, an we found out about it when we returned to the hotel after midnight and learned the elevators weren't running. We walked up the stairs and spent the night in an overheated room with no electricity in the middle of July. It was really unpleasant. When we woke up, we learned the electricity was still partially out, and neither of our phones had charged.
My husband's phone was dead, and he went downstairs to get it charged and complain to the front desk. He told them that the hotel shouldn't have been open for business, and they offered to refund my mom 45,000 points, the cost of our room for that night. This was a good start, but only accounted for one of our four rooms.
When we compared notes with my mom, we also learned that a hotel employee had opened the door to our room that night while she was in there watching our sleeping children. He didn't announce himself until she asked who he was and chased him out, and when she inquired with management about what happened, they told her we'd requested help with a safe. This wasn't true, but they acted like it was, and were generally dismissive and unapologetic.
My mom ended up emailing management about all of the above, and they were, overall, dismissive and unapologetic. At some point, they did quietly give her the 45,000 points promised to my husband, but there was no other acknowledgment that she had been inconvenienced.
As my husband pointed out, the hotel wasn't fit to be occupied that night, and there must have been a meeting to discuss whether or not to close for business. Management must have decided that would be too expensive, and that the letter would be sufficient.
Look, I'm not a difficult customer, and I certainly don't go around complaining about fancy hotels. But our Park Hyatt experience was a solid B. I wouldn't recommend it, especially not at the new rate.
