I recently stayed at the Hyatt Place Boston Braintree. Traveling with my wife and daughter, I wanted more space and they don’t have suites on offer. (Hyatt Place properties are exempt from Globalist upgrades in any case.) So I asked my Hyatt Concierge to contact the property about confirming connecting rooms in advance. It’s only a category 2 property, so this was affordable, and my concierge confirmed in writing that they agreed.
- Two rooms doesn’t make sense unless they’re connecting with a four year old
- And I didn’t want the three of us squeezing into one room. This is especially so since I get up early and don’t want to wake my daughter working.
I checked into the hotel and found it overrun with teenage sports teams. There were adults out front tailgating, and downing alcohol from full sized bottles.
There was one person working the desk and a line of people. When it was my turn I learned that they’d screwed up. Though check-in took awhile, with kids interrupting for staff help because they’d thrown their shoes onto the roof, I learned that:
- They blocked one of my rooms, but not both. The connecting room beside it was taken by another guest.
- There were no more connecting rooms available. The hotel was sold out, and all the pairs had at least one room checked into already.
We were stuck. It was late, past my daughter’s bed time. We took the one room, and I was promised that a manager would call me that evening, or the next day. No call ever came.
I found a hotel room with hair on the bathroom floor. There was no more housekeeping on site. And since I wasn’t on the top floor, and kids were running around late into the night, there was pounding on the ceiling above.
Following up with my concierge, she reached out to the hotel who told her they could not accommodate me because my early check-in meant the connecting rooms weren’t available yet. I checked in shortly before 9 p.m. That made my blood boil. I laid out the issue, and the concierge went back to the hotel.
I heard from the General Manager who seemed to think I was made whole simply because I wasn’t being charged for the stay (they didn’t hold me to checking into the second room that they did not provide). Nothing else but a return of the awards was offered.
Between the commotion, the lack of cleanliness, and the failure to deliver the committed rooms – compounded by the refusal to take ownership of the issue – I consider this to be my worst Hyatt stay in the sixteen years I’ve had top tier status with the chain. Maybe that points to how good my stays have been, or that I usually am very careful vetting where I stay.
Hyatt Place offers an inconsistent product. I much like their new builds in the limited-service segment, but their converted AmeriSuites are awful.
This property, though, is actually a conversion. It dates back to 1961 and was a Sheraton with a castle-like design that went from 374 rooms down to 204 rooms, with part of the property making way for shopping next door, and opened in 2012. (It was once the Sheraton Tara and Sheraton Braintree.) It closed in late 2019, and re-opened after renovations in May 2021. The physical plant was fine as far as it goes – the problem was multiple failures by the people there.
Rough times in Boston for you after that airport Hyatt experience this is dreadful
What’s going on that’s selling out all the hotels there this seems to corroborate the Kristen Bell story that all hotels were sold out and they were stranded at Logan
I’ve never had a good stay at a Hyatt Place. Ever. They like to position themselves as somewhere between a limited-service brand and a full-service brand. But in my experience, most are run like a Fairfield or Holiday Inn Express. Aimbridge is one of the largest owners and operators of Hyatt Place. They are just awful.
I’ve had similarly bad stays at Hilton hotels (Hampton Inn and Embassy Suites) — overrun by large groups that overwhelmed the staff, elevators, and amenities (namely breakfast).
In those cases, I received “Be My Guest” certificates that were valid for any Hampton Inn (resp. any Embassy Suites) as long as a standard room was available.
I still paid for the bad stays, but I thought the BMG certificates made me whole. I was only a Gold status member at the time, and probably not a very profitable customer by other metrics, as I was a college student mostly staying in lower-end hotels.
What is going on is the NAACP convention and yes Boston is sold out. Nonetheless EVERY person I know who has made the mistake of staying at that particular Hyatt Place has regretted it. Management has zero clues about the idea of a loyal customer.
Lol @ your room you specifically requested and that we later confirmed in writing not being available so we won’t make you pay us for that second room as being top notch customer service.
Glad you at least name and shammed the hotel and their bad management.
@Michael – this happened recently, but not this weekend
Is this an Aimbridge property?
Stayed there about 18 mos ago. Same thing, overrun with youth sports teams running amok at all hours. Elevators always full and breakfast selection fairly empty. Left to go into Boston on the subway red line and, yes, it was shut down for track work with substitute buses that were always full. Great visit.
@ Gary — I would expect Hyatt points equaling your out-of-pocket $ cost x 70, rounded up to the next 5,000. So, if you spent $100, I would expect 10,000 points. If you spent $200, I would expect 15,000 points.
For the most part, I am not in favor of compensation EXCEPT the hotel did nothing to quiet down the mob guests. The mob guests should be warned then expelled from the hotel. I once was in a Hyatt in Knoxville where a mob of some sort of teenage convention was going on.
If connecting rooms are important then cancelling the reservation without penalty and going to another hotel is proper.
A hair on the bathroom floor is no reason for compensation. Hairs on the bed from a previous sleeper is.
Brainfree.
Been there done that one in Boston.
I have seen this too. The ‘adults’ are really just big children themselves who want to be pals with the teens rather than serve in any sort of chaperone role.
I had a bad experience in Texas with a different place. In January I requested the one handicapped cabin with a wheelchair ramp. I gave my card number and received an email that the cabin was ours. I arrived in June after the office was closed. I didn’t look at the paperwork. I just headed for the cabin. A car was already there. When I did check out the paperwork we had been changed to a non handicapped cabin. No email before changing us asking us if we still/really needed that cabin. They mentioned the next day that $25 was needed to hold a particular cabin. No one had told me that when I made the reservation or at any time before we arrived. I had to deal with steps with my son in a wheelchair. Maintenance did make us a temporary ramp for the remainder of our stay. I found out we weren’t the only ones being moved around without prior notice. The employee doing this was let go.
Hyatt isn’t the same Hyatt it was five years ago. Experiences are mediocre lately or like this one bad. Become a free agent. I’m thinking of doing the same after having Globalist for 12 years. There is little quality control and mandate to do good for globalists. I find Hilton is better lately honestly with diamond status.
Not having the connecting rooms is unacceptable. At that same time, I’m not sure that’s worth more than a few thousand points in this situation (in addition to not having to pay for the rooms). You sort of get what you pay for with a HP or HH. Can’t expect there not to be a sports team or rowdy guests. And for a property that 8,000 points a night, how much compensation can you really expect. If you want better service and more respectful guests, book a nicer property.
@Gary: “Hyatt Place offers an inconsistent product.”
That is true, in my experience, but I have only had one Hyatt Place that I will never go back to and that is in St. George UT. Didn’t deliver s promised with a couldn’t-care-less attitude. Better to stay at the Holiday Inn next door.
OTOH, the Hyatt Place at LHR is very well run in my experience and I have stayed there a lot. Only a GBP20 ride to the terminals in the morning (Remember the driver is paying a GBP6 drop-off fee), in-house food and clean.
My family and I were in the Boston area last week and the entire area was absolutely mobbed. No idea what was going on, but National (and others) had no rental cars available- on Tuesday, mind you. Ended up overpaying for a car at Avis and it took over an hour to get a different car than I’d reserved. Apparently having Avis Preferred only meant a long line in the garage rather than at the main counter. We had an early Saturday am flight home and I had one hell of a time finding a hotel room in the area. Ended up at the HGI doing $ + points because I wasn’t going to pay $350 for a standard room there. And that was the best deal. No clue what was going on in the area but it was crazy. Sorry you had such a bad experience there, yet I’m somehow not surprised as to how it went.
I say this as someone who lived in New England for 7 years (about half that time in Boston) and then moved to the relatively friendly place that is NYC… between this and your Hyatt Boston Harbor stay, you’ve definitely experienced that legendary Masshole hospitality.
What????????????
Do my ears deceive me??????
One blogger posts one negative comment about Hyatt and the room fills up. What gives? I thought the program was perfect.
What does this have to do with the program at all?
Its a property issue
What are the six values of Hyatt?
Our Values
Empathy, experimentation, inclusion, integrity, respect, and well being are our shared core values. Our purpose, vision, mission, and values are brought to life by our colleagues, whom we refer to as the Hyatt family.
This Hyatt family franchise property fell far from the Apple Tree!
Hyatt has been stingy in the past year or two recovering from issues.Not the Hyatt I once knew who you could always trust
As you state all Hyatt Place properties are not created equal
Though they place in the top 4 according to JD Powers
many dozens apparently that suck were overlooked
The breakfast has always been trailer park trash for a company that should know food and beverage better.I suppose it saves their owners money.But thats why I also avoid them like the plague and it not like they are cheap either.
Hyatt Place Charleston was great for me. Several visits. All of them were fine.
Sorry to partially hear about your recent Hyatt stay. After 15 years of what seemed to be wonderful stays with Hyatt, it’s truly disheartening when a brand you trust and love falls short of your expectations.
I can only imagine how it must have felt to have to deal with subpar service, a lack of acknowledgment, and a room that fell short of what you were promised. It’s commendable that you didn’t let these issues slide and took the initiative to address your concerns with the hotel management. As a loyal customer, your feedback should be valued, and it’s essential for hotels to listen and make amends when they falter.
I genuinely hope that your feedback will lead to meaningful improvements for future guests, and that Hyatt recognizes the importance of compensating you for the disappointing experience. After being a loyal patron for 15 years, you deserve nothing less than exceptional treatment.
It’s understandable that you might be questioning your loyalty to the brand after this incident. I encourage you to “give them another chance to rectify the situation and demonstrate that they truly value their customers.” We all have our rough patches, and sometimes the true character of a company shines through how they handle challenges and criticism.
Wishing you the best in resolving this matter. If you decide to give them another shot, I genuinely hope your next stay with Hyatt will be the one that reminds you why you fell in love with their service in the first place.
At least it’s safe to say that your experiences helps others make informed decisions too. It takes courage to be honest and open about both positive and negative experiences.
This is so funny because that Hyatt is like my second home. I go to the Boston area about 15 times a year and that’s where we always stay. I’m a globalist too and I’ve stayed at a lot of different Hyatt Places. I like most of them, but I particularly like the Braintree one. I find the staff very friendly and accommodating. I wouldn’t call it a “nice” hotel, but it’s a darn good value.
I’m a hockey dad and I’ve stayed at that hotel when tournaments are going on. It’s disturbing what some parents let their kids do. I also don’t love having to wade through drunk people in the parking lot and lobby, especially not when there is a tired young child involved.
Greg asked, “What’s going on that’s selling out all the hotels there this seems to corroborate the Kristen Bell story that all hotels were sold out and they were stranded at Logan”
The answer is the law of supply and demand is not optional. Boston and MA have been housing people in hotels over the past year, namely people who unlawfully entered the US. We don’t have infinite housing and consuming available rooms drives up prices. This is not politically commentary just economics.
https://www.boston.com/news/the-boston-globe/2023/05/10/migrants-massachusetts-overwhelm-state-resources/
Used to be nice when it was a Sheraton.
I think your expectations were too high. HP and HH are gutter brands for Hyatt. You get what you pay for which isn’t much. You well know checking in at 9pm you are stuck with what’s left. Sometimes it’s a suite but it can also be the worst room that’s left. There is not much you can do except call ahead that morning and specifically ask for connection rooms. Most of them never read the notes.
It’s not your fault at all but a seasoned traveler knows this what can and does happen. Think of how bad it is for people who have zero status and no concierge.
“ I heard from the General Manager who seemed to think I was made whole simply because I wasn’t being charged for the stay (they didn’t hold me to checking into the second room that they did not provide).”
So were you not charged at all for the stay, or for the connecting room they did not provide? If the former, I don’t think you deserve more compensation. If the latter, then you definitely do.
I don’t believe the post is truthful. In fact, I believe it’s completely false. As someone who has coached and traveled with high school athletes, it’s GARBAGE.
What do you expect when you travel in the USA in a 3 star hotel?
This comes with the territory: it’s a country where nobody cares about the community. Didn’t you witness the self-centered awful behavior of anti maskers / anti vaccine crowd in regards to the wellbeing of elderlies and immunocompromised? Why would you expect anything different in regards to you? This is exactly what the populist politicians lobbied hard for. Enjoy the freedom!
@tda1986 – I was charged for the room I stayed in
The grammar in this article may be worse than your stay. It sounds like your daughter is working, but she is 4-years old, so that would be child labor. I originally to read that bullet as your daughter working and she having a daughter that was 4 years old.
Also, are the two rooms being connected by the four-year old?
LOL. The “thought leader”, being focused on proving that Hilton is the worst the major hotel chains, likely missed yet another great development introduced by… Hilton!… that would have avoided him this aggravation because, you see, not only does Hilton allow connecting rooms to be booked online, it offers a connecting room guarantee, which, due to the associated peace of mind, is worth much more than so-called late checkout “guarantee”.
Here’s the short of it from an open-minded travel blogger, NerdWallet, who did not miss this exciting development [1]:
I highly recommend the blog post [1] to anyone who might ever need to book connecting rooms and have the peace of mind of knowing that they are covered. There is also really cool trick in post about how one can save points with connected rooms.
G’day!
[1] Link to blog post provided in next comment.
[1] Link to: “Hilton’s Connecting Room Guarantee: How it Works”
https://bit.ly/3Odv11E
Sounds like you were “walked” for the second room. When that has happened to me twice before (though not at a Hyatt) I was provided accommodation at a different nearby property and transportation there both at no cost to me there or at the property from which I was walked. So in your case, I would argue that you should not be charged for either the room occupied or the one you could not occupy as in substance you were walked as the hotel admitted it was sold out.
Hmm – I see a Residence Inn and a Marriott nearby this hotel, where you would have likely been able to secure a suite of some kind at booking. And as DCS points out, the nearby Hampton Inn offers a connecting room guarantee. Why not choose one of those options instead? While your are a globalist I believe you also hold status with Marriott and Hilton via credit cards, lifetime status, etc. Sometimes hotel brand loyalty makes you pick properties that are inferior for your stay purpose. The Hyatt Place looks fine for what it is, but it is a Hyatt Place.
“I don’t believe the post is truthful. In fact, I believe it’s completely false. As someone who has coached and traveled with high school athletes, it’s GARBAGE.”
Sorry Steve, but that might be the truest part of the whole thing. Summer sports teams for the most part are the bane of a hotel’s weekends especially if the parents are there. Parents regularly sit in common areas/outside/parking lots and get tanked while their kids run amok around the building. Say anything to the kid and they tell you to go F-yourself and if you say anything to the parent, they either ignore you, tell you to go F-yourself, they have XYZ level of status which lets them do whatever they want and if you mention calling the police, they threaten your job or you personally.
I’ve done it for over two decades. It happens. All the time. Believe it.
The bulk of properties are staffed beyond thin and there is no such thing as security in most cases or even a second person which puts the one person there in a real bind. To say that it’s false or garbage from Gary, is complete laughable crap on your part.
As someone originally from the area, the hotel that you have chosen is across from a mall that has seen its fair share of car break-ins and shootings. In the future you may want to stay directly in Boston (instead of a suburb outside of Boston). I agree with the other commenter who recommend crossing brands. I would recommend either of the two Four Seasons, the Liberty Hotel or the Marriott Long Wharf. If you are looking for a boutique hotel, I would recommend the Colonnade. These hotels will provide the service that you may be accustomed to as a traveler.
Just consider yourself lucky that this hasn’t happened for 15 years.
Honestly this describes about a third of my weekend stays between weddings and sports teams. Breakfast trashed, loud ”adults” taking up public areas and no late checkout. Sound normal to me.
@DCS my first time using the Hilton connecting room “guarantee” they reserved connecting room types that don’t exist in the hotel. So it’s only a “guarantee” as far as the hotel doesn’t screw up. You may get compensation but you’re still out the room configuration you needed.
Ah, the stress of hoping to get a connecting room when traveling with kids; I must have heard the phrase “it’s only a request, not a guarantee” a hundred times in the past couple of decades. But now with Hilton Confirmed Connecting Rooms, the stress is gone. I have used this feature several times over the past couple of years and was so impressed by it (they have never failed to live up to the guarantee) that I have become a Hilton regular. I wish the other chains would follow this excellent example.
Reading this post as i am sitting in a full service Hyatt property and wondering to myself why i am still stubbornly loyal to Hyatt.
Checked in earlier today and have had nothing but issues and pitiful customer service. I’ve been a Globalist/Diamond since 2011 and always sung their praise… Definitely considering moving on and away from Hyatt. The Hyatt brand is not what it used to be…
Any hotel full of high school athletes will be a disaster. I’m surprised someone didn’t pull the fire alarm a few times during the night.
People Braintree is NOT in Boston nor is it near Boston. 13 miles between them. It is a 30 min taxi ride without traffic. The city of dorchester is between them
I will take that comment with huge grain of salt because (a) there is another comment just below yours that paints a completely opposite picture and, more to the point, (b) hotels do not get “to screw up” when the whole process is automated and done online. On the other hand, someone trying to reserve connecting rooms online for the first time can easily screw up if they are not clear on how it is done, and if you called the hotel instead of booking online, which it sounds like you might have done as one taking advantage of the feature for the first time, then “it’s your funeral”, as they say.
Have stayed at 5 Hyatt Place properties in the USA this summer as a Globalist. Almost all of my stays are on theMiddle East, Central Asia and Europe though, where you are made to feel special at every Hyatt property. Besides better rooms (usually huge suites), fruit baskets, wine in the rooms and full hot buffet breakfasts, usually the GM writes a personal note of welcome and the staff have been briefed about their Globalist guests
Then there is Hyatt Place Anytown USA, “Don’t forget your free bottles of water.”
The quality of USA hotels is in general just poor compared to the same brands overseas. I am also Bonvoy Platinum and same story.
Hotel loyalty is a fool’s errand anymore.
You get what you pay for when you roll the dice at a Hyatt Place. Suck it up…
@The Road Goes on Forever- RIGHT ON. I’ve had these groups of youths and their irresponsible parents and coaches ruin weekend stays are properties such as Hyatt House, Hyatt Place, Marriott Residence Inns and Hampton Inns. I now avoid these types of properties on weekends. Hotels shouldn’t allow groups like these to stay unless a minimum of 2 security guards are provided who WILL enforce rowdiness, drinking, obnoxious behavior, and late hour noise.
Did you just start traveling? It’s been like this at many properties across the country for three years. Especially limited service locations.
@Tomri Dorchester is not a city. Dorchester is a neighborhood of Boston. The city of Quincy is between Braintree and Dorchester, which as mentioned is part of Boston.
I’ve stayed at that property a few times because it is closest to my family in the area and was a reasonable points redemption. If it is empty (mid-winter) it is almost tolerable. At all other times it is a total &***show. Unless you have a reason to be right at that location I’d book basically anything else.