When I was sixteen I lived in California, and loved visiting Tijuana or certain spots in the Caribbean where I’d pick up fake Rolex watches. They usually carried the name Rolek or Bolex. And above the $5 price point the second hand would even sweep rather than tick. Of course you could also find these watches out in the open in New York City. Intellectual property can be tough to enforce!
Hyatt has apparently deflagged several hotels, removing them from the Hyatt Place chain, likely because their owners were unwilling to invest to bring the property up to standard. While I generally like new build Hyatt Place properties, many of the ex-AmeriSuites Hyatt Places are quite bad.
One of the properties is no longer using the Hyatt name – they cannot – but they’ve given themselves a questionable renaming?
Hyatt Place Tulsa-South/Medical District at 7037 S. Zurich Avenue now seems to be calling itself the… wait for it… “Hyad Park Hotel.”
Although it looks to me like it may have briefly been Hyde Park Hotel and Google just got the name wrong, in a way that makes it look more like Hyatt? In any case, it appears to have already been reflagged as a Hilton Homewood Suites.
Homewood Suites’ Tulsa South Medical Hotel and Suites
An ex-Hyatt calling itself “Hyad” probably wouldn’t go over well, though I imagine stays at this Homewood Suites won’t either.
There’s a long history of hotels losing their affiliations with a brand, but continuing to use the name. The happens frequently in the Mideast, beyond the reach of U.S. intellectual property and contract law. For instance,
- The Sheraton Basra in Iraq was built in 1981. The Western chain severed ties in 1991 with the coming of the Gulf War. Nonetheless, it continued to use the Sheraton name for nearly 20 years. It was renovated and now operates as the Basra International Hotel.
- Similarly, the Sheraton Baghdad opened in 1992 and lost its Sheraton management contract with the 1991 Gulf War. It used the Sheraton name for the following 22 years. Beginning with the 2003 Iraq invasion it was hit with occasional rocket fire. It was bombed in 2005, and the site of a car bomb in 2010. It was renovated and rebranded as the Cristal Grand Ishtar Hotel in 2013.
- The Sheraton Damascus continued to use the brand name without any Marriott affiliation for several years, even while being used as a prison (where guests had to pay a percentage of their wealth to check out).
- And the Intercontinental Kabul, which may be the most bizarre hotel in the world, continues to use that brand’s name despite having no affiliation with IHG.
However a U.S. hotel isn’t going to be able to keep the Hyatt name once it’s been deflagged by the chain. In Coming To America, the McDonald’s folks would never have tolerated John Amos’ Cleo McDowell running “McDowell’s.”
You may need to edit the Sheraton Baghdad bullet point. If it opened in 1992, how could it have lost its contract in 1991?
If you read the google map reviews for this place, you see why it lost its status. There were a lot of reviews of absolutely no upkeep, nothing resembling customer service, and bait and switch advertising. It looks like the final straw may have been when a company sent an employee for a 3 days stay, and they were in an absolutely atrocious room that they posted pictures of. The hotel desk did the classic Airbnb scam of telling you to check with the manager the next day and then denying that they ever had the conversation. His company was charged 3 days worth of stay for him to check out and refuse the room within 30 minutes. When you go trying to screw over corporate, they pull strings to screw back! I’m sure at that point Hyatt actually looked at the reviews from other people showing similar behavior and may have done their own investigation. Even the recent reviews show that they still aren’t maintaining the property at all. The four plus rating that they still have is only because of historical context, not recent trend.
I’ve stayed at the location 20+ nights over the last 8-10 years. It was pretty bad pre-pandemic, and the wheels fell off of it afterwards. The hallways wreaked of marijuana, and I’m pretty sure there was a drug/prostitution ring that had a room on the same floor as my left stay, because they had a new person coming in and out every 30 minutes. Good riddance.
Have you ever heard the story of rouge Burger King in Pittsburgh?
Many Hyatt Places are disgusting ,smelly, old and tired with sub par breakfasts
They oddly don’t lose their franchise agreement.
I avoid them like the plague. add in Hyatt House while we are at it
Certainly the new builds are ok but still a crappy breakfast and the franchise properties don’t understand what an upgrade is even for those that spend heavily with the chain
And you earn next to nothing in the Hyatt program to speak of unless you consider a stay credit substantial
If I will consider these dawg houses to sleep in I might consider a newer build Springfield suites or Hilton Garden Inn etc also no thrill but may be doable in the right situation
In my teens 20s and 30s I had to stay in these kind of places.Thankfully today almost never!
85°C is exactly 185°F. If the bakery and cafe chain ever has a family feud in the future.
Here is the real truth about this hotel. I live in Tulsa and drive by it everyday. This hotel was used as an Afgan refugee camp following the withdrawl for approximately 6 months. Had a friend that repaired the elevator there during that period. He claimed the refugees had absolutely trashed that property. it never recovered after that due to the bad online reviews.
Well it’s actually an unbranded Hilton hotel currently, called “Tulsa South Medical Hotel & Suites.” If this is the case it was probably sold and rebranded, but needs an extensive PIP.
Being a Tulsa resident I pass this hotel everyday. This hotel was used as an Afghan refugee housing facility following the withdrawal for approximately 6 months. During that time it was occupied 100% by Afghans. A friend of mine repaired the elevator during this period and stated that the hotel was trashed and filthy. When it returned to service as a Hyatt Place hotel, the online reviews were awful.
On a college road trip I remember staying in an “Armada” hotel. 🙂
In the 90s, we attended a family wedding in the super obscure town of Jensen, Utah (near Dinosaur National Park, on the CO/UT border). My father-in-law was excited to announce he had secured us reservations at the Westin Hotel there. I was a bit surprised (and dubious) to hear Westin had a property in such a small, out-of-the-way place; our trip took place before the Internet really took off as an option for research and information. On arrivial, turns out we were actually booked at the Weston Hotel.
Here’s hoping Hyatt continues the aggressive pruning, enforcing its brand standards, including with Hyatt Regency properties.
Prime example?: the Hyatt Lisle, in the company’s backyard (suburban Chicago). The condition is totally shocking. Read the Trio Advisor reviews for some solid entertainment.
Years ago, I served on the Sheraton Customer Advisory Board made up of those of us who plan and manage meetings and conferences. I remember when John Kapioltas (who lived to be 95) , then CEO (yes, that long ago!) explained why hotels lose their affiliation and brand. It all makes sense. But the name?! Oh a good copyright fight will be announced soon.
Best one of these I’ve seen is a Days Inn, Lansing Michigan. It didn’t meet Holiday Inn brand standards, so became Days Inn. Subsequently (somehow) managed to not meet Days inn brand standards and changed its name to Dads Inn. After devolving further into a homeless shelter, it’s now a 7-8 story Self Storage facility.
I AGREE THAT HYATT HAS SUBSTANDARD HOTELS. ALSO MARRIOT FROM AN EXPRERIENCE IN THE PITTSBUGH HILLS LAST NIGHT PROVES THESE CHAINS ARE CHEATING US. FAIRFIELD IS NOT ON MY NO STAY LIST. HYAtt lesser places also. might as well stay at Motel 6
Reminds me of when the Dallas Hilton Inn on North Central Expressway became the Hiltop Inn. This was actually somewhat clever as the nearby SMU campus is known as The Hilltop. The hotel was later purchased by followers of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Both properties are under new ownership and undergoing extensive renovations with the goal of substantially improving the guest experience.