Hyatt Regency Pier 66 — Consistently Misexecuted Service

by Gary Leff

This past weekend I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 in Ft. Lauderdale, I’m in the area frequently and most often I’ve stayed at the Westin Diplomat but I had a couple of expiring Faster Free Nights so I thought I’d burn them rather than converting them to 5000 Gold Passport points each.

My wife and I arrived checked into a 10th floor tower executive room on Friday night and there was old food sitting on the ground on balcony, attracting swarms of ants.

They had said the hotel was sold out when we checked in, it was late, and the ants weren’t likely to get into the room. So I didn’t worry about it.

The room itself was fine, it did smell like a South Florida hotel that’s 40 years old, but the view sort of made up for it.

We were incorrectly checked out after one day of our two day stay. Apparently, though the reservation was made as one two-day stay, in the hotel system it appeared as split up two one-night stays. This was noted at check-in, and I was told there’d be no problem. But when I saw the bill under our door in the morning I knew that was wrong.

It was a redemption stay and our bill had the Gold Passport internal reimbursement rate charged to us instead of to Hyatt Gold Passport. I saw that on the bill under our door on the first night. It was removed at the front desk, but it re-appeared after the second night.

As a Diamond I was told they simply take breakfast off the bill automatically, “the computer does it,” there are no coupons for breakfast in the restaurant. This was confirmed by the restaurant. But breakfast was on our bill and had to be removed.

I was in the room when housekeeping came on Saturday, I asked them to return later. When we went out to dinner I called down to ask for housekeeping to service the room. We came back four hours later, they never came. (And the turn down service offered at check-in never came, either.)

Consistent with my other experiences during the stay, the flavored water in the lobby was naturally empty and not replenished.

All minor annoyances for sure. The biggest issue was that my wife was working out on the treadmill in the hotel gym, only one of the three treadmills was functional (the other two had missing emergency stop switches and wouldn’t function at all as a result).

My wife is training for a marathon and needed to get in a run. A woman asked her how much longer she’d be on the treadmill, and my wife told her 30 minutes. The woman cursed the malfunctioning other treadmills and stormed off. Fifteen minutes later, she returned with hotel security and explained that the front desk had sent them to remove my wife from the treadmill because she was hogging it.

At that point my wife had only 15 minutes left of her run, and had never been asked if she’d mind ending her run early, which she would have done if the woman hadn’t simply run off in a huff.

My wife went to the front desk and the Front Office Manager said that the woman had never contacted the desk at all, security was there only because the woman had asked them to accompany her but hadn’t gotten an explanation as to why.

Now, the hotel was not at fault for the woman’s behavior, though if their treadmills were functional the confrontation would have been avoided. But their security guard’s behavior — he just stood by while the woman insinuated he was there in a show of force to remove her – was inappropriate, when he wasn’t there for any such purpose and hadn’t been sent there by management, contra the woman’s claims. The front office manager promised to ‘investigate further’ and be back in touch with us. He wasn’t, though I checked out with him the next day and he shared that the woman was both nuts and entitled, he couldn’t apologize enough.

Ultimately I suppose that the hotel is convenient for an overnight before or after a cruise departing Ft. Lauderdale. It has a decent pool area and rooms are perfectly well-renovated. But after the repeated service issues we experienced, we’re unlikely to return.

If my complaints are unreasonable I have no doubt y’all will let me know in the comments!

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Encountering someone acting obnoxious and entitled in south Florida? Impossible!

    🙂

  3. Did the obnoxious woman have a new york accent? 🙂

    All those little thing you mention add up. I hope you get a call from their Customer Satisfaction department though, the last few issues I had with Holiday Inn fell on deaf ears…

  4. Ahhh… I see you already have a response from Hyatt.

    The rest of us without a blog just sit here in envy… 😉

  6. Glad that Hyatt have responded here but sounds a terrible stay. It’s the little things that make the difference and in general with Hyatt’s I’ve fonud them to be attentive to this. But I think you are fully justified in your complaints, sounds like a bad property

  7. That is one hotel I just removed from the places to stay at in S. Florida.

    Sorry to hear about multitudes of problems you guys had at this stinking property.

  9. The flavored water and treadmill situation just caused me to X this place off my potential stays over Christmas.

    Inexcusable.

  10. The treadmill incident turned this from a “don’t sweat the small stuff” event to something bigger. The security guard should have known better. You handled it perfectly.

    I’ve had experience with crazy and entitled women. Best to walk away.

  11. Hmmm, I see Gary’s taking the whole Lucky approach – complain about a hotel stay, and try to look for compensation as management takes a glance.

  12. Would have been a cold day in xxxx when I gave up the tread mill just because security came to the room! I think there’s a little more to the hotels story about why they returned with the women then they would like to admit.

  15. You should try to stay at the Crowne Plaza Hollywood Beach (1 block from the Westin Diplomat). This hotel is also on the intracoastal waterway and has a beach access across the street. I stay there at least 4 times a year. everyone is so helpful and they have an amazing pool !!!!

  16. It is nice to see that Hyatt is quickly addressing the issues. Please let us know what steps Hyatt took.

  17. certainly an unfortunate incident.

    But, why didn’t your wife ask the security guard what the story was? It appears that he just stood there while the other woman vented out. Had your wife continued within her rights (usually a 30 minute max REQUEST is courtesy) I would have imagined that the guard wouldn’t have actually said or done anything. Had he initiated any request to leave or other, well then you would REALLY a story and IMHO case against the hotel staff directly.

  20. Regarding the Hyatt Pier 66 review and in general
    I am a Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond member
    Earned approx 1,700,000 points in their program and taken hundreds of stays through the years in Hyatt’s and many other brands outside the Hyatt family of Hotels. I too have stayed at this property and had ants crawling in my high floor room with balcony in the desk area some years ago. The team members were very nice to me at the time and I let it go.One cannot have food, snacks or beverage of any kind here in the guest rooms or the outcome is going to be quite similar to what the reviewer and I will assume others have or will experience.
    It’s a problem in the geographic area and I do not know the difficulty the hotel faces in bringing it under control. I have expectations like any other guest who takes a stay. It should be reasonably defect/problem free, enjoyable and productive. Reasonable guests should be able to let some stuff go.However when there are big concerns or many experienced a guest should typically be compensated or offered some form of goodwill gesture IMO.
    As frequent stay guests of any program we typically have even higher expectations. Many hotels get away with a lot especially in a cost cutting bad economy
    Some Hotels and corporate offices will turn the other head some percentage of the time and hope the guest will stay loyal to the property/brand and overlook the failures. The issues raised by Mr.Leff are relevant and could be dealt with through any consumer channel. So in regard to the previous poster its nonsense that Mr.Leff leverages his position here.Mr.Leff has written about far more positive stays than negative. The fact is he is a prolific writer and one of my personal favorites in the industry. He does us all a service by telling nothing but the true experience documenting it with photos to back up either the good or the bad.Somewhat off topic
    Hyatt has struggled with its brand assurance and guest satisfaction standards for some years now with mixed results/I am not sure if the fault lies with corporate or in Omaha with Consumer Affairs Manager who is in charge. I am going to say it takes two so both are at fault. It’s one of the reasons I like staying at Hilton properties and InterContinentals.They have a 100% written and unwritten satisfaction policy for their hotels and guests decide not the hotels who is at fault

    If Pier 66 cannot follow up and take ownership of a problem Hyatt’s Consumer Affairs should step in and come up with a fair solution.Perhaps the Hyatt lurker here will expidite.
    Based on the comments IMO a full credit of the free nights in question should go back in his account with a min 6 month window to use them. That would be the min expectation. That is my assessment based on many years on the road.
    This stay was a failure plain and simple.The hotel has serious issues to address on all levels.I would not pay or use points based on the upkeep report and overall experience.
    At the end of the day you don’t have to write a blog to get a resolution to such a problem either
    Another great review.Keep up the good work.
    Cheers

  21. Thanks for the heads up I will be in Ft. Lauderdale in about 3 weeks and was looking at staying there. You all just saved me the trouble.

  22. Wish I had seen this post before I stayed here. Not only did i have ants everywhere, but my safe was broken and after 2 requests and 3 phone calls…..and multiple promises and smiles, nothing happened. Oh wait, I did come back from dinner to find the maid in my room adding brand new wash cloths and more coffee. She didn’t seem to speak English well, so she didn’t understand when I asked about the ants…she thought I was telling her the floor was dirty (which it was) and she proceeded to sweep the room. Aaargh! Since I am here with a huge conference (infection control professionals no-less), with over 1500 participants at hotels all around the convention center, it is not possible to just change hotels without a big deal. So I will notify the planning committee to take this hotel off the list. The conference rotates to this city every few years. I also took photos of awful housekeeping: filthy baseboards, peeling grout, mildew smell (typical of FL hotels though), dirty tile floor (the bath mat became brown with dirt as I used it to shuffle across the floor to get my towel-wore flip flops all the time so I didn’t have to touch the floor with bare feet), dirty splatters on bathroom and bedroom walls, hair from previous guests on shower wall and tile (ugh!). I stayed at Embassy Suites last time I was here and had no problems at all. I’ll chalk this up to a lesson learned….the hard way!

  24. My only “thing” in reading the article and the ensuing comments was this idea of “I’m a Gold Member Passport Diamond Regal Ruby Member.” Both the author and one of the comments flashed that badge. All that dumb title does is plaster “entitled, rich, rude, asshole and wife” on your heads and only means that you fell for their marketing ploy (making people pay a fee that makes them “feel” exclusive). Hotel staff and management don’t look at you or consider you any different or any more important than any other guest (i know i work in one). In fact programs like that over the years have fostered the exact OPPOSITE effect. Staff enjoy serving people who genuienly enjoy it, not who feel entitled to it.

  25. My only “thing” in reading the article and the ensuing comments was this idea of “I’m a Gold Member Passport Diamond Regal Ruby Member.” Both the author and one of the comments flashed that badge. All that dumb title does is plaster “entitled, rich, rude, asshole and wife” on your heads and only means that you fell for their marketing ploy (making people pay a fee that makes them “feel” exclusive). Hotel staff and management don’t look at you or consider you any different or any more important than any other guest (i know i work in one). In fact programs like that over the years have fostered the exact OPPOSITE effect. Staff enjoy serving people who genuienly enjoy it, not who feel entitled to it. Spend your money where it really will get you the best service on the planet: tip your staff. It’s cheaper and will get you anything you want. Now THAT’s a travel tip!!

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