About a month ago I had to be in South Florida for business and stayed for the first time at the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables. It served my needs perfectly on a one-night stay near the Miami airport and near my morning meetings, and I’ll be staying there again in a few weeks.

This wouldn’t be my choice for an airport overnight. It’s not close enough to the airport and there’s no shuttle. But it’s the perfect hotel for me if I need to be in the area of the airport, in and around Coral Gables, the next day. And it’s the perfect hotel for me if I’m coming into Miami late, renting a car, and and have business in South Florida the next day. It’s close enough to the airport, but it’s a hotel you drive to — it’s less than 5 miles and 15 minutes from the airport.

(It’s also just a couple of miles from the Cuban restaurant I’ve been going to for years, Las Culebrinas. Being near a good, known-quantity Cuban place is a compelling enough reason for me..)

I pulled up around 10pm and promptly valeted the car. I was on a room rate of ~ $129. There was no line at the check-in desk and I was helped promptly. The agent acknowledged my Diamond status, let me know I had been upgraded, and explained to me that I could take my morning breakfast in the restaurant or via room service. I like that. (“They had me at complimentary room service breakfast.”)

I was also asked for my choice of amenities and as I nearly always do I picked the points.

When I got up to my room I discovered it was more or less a junior suite, a large room with a separate sitting area and a small balcony.

There was also a food and beverage amenity already in the room, it turns out it was addressed to another guest who had been presumably originally assigned the room and the amenity was attached to their conference attendance rather than status. It looked like it had been sitting out for many hours and I didn’t partake.

Here’s the large oversized room that the check-in agent referred to as a suite.

The bathroom was functional though average.

The balcony, though, was nice:

Room service breakfast was simple, but it was room service breakfast which I will almost always prefer especially when I’m traveling alone. I can eat as I work or get ready, it just uses my time more efficiently and I don’t have to hurriedly get ready for meetings just to go downstairs to sit and wait for service. I wish more hotels would offer Diamond breakfast through room service — it’s not a part of the Gold Passport program, and about a year or so ago there seemed to be a push against hotels making this available (and indeed some hotels like Hyatt Olive 8 ended the practice only to bring it back, and the Andaz Wall Street simply ended it — fortunately my beloved Andaz 5th Avenue continued it though capped the value, and the Andaz San Diego continues and is even more generous).

The hotel is within walking distance of shops and restaurants, so not a typical airport property – it’s close, but further afield.

Probably the only downside — and it was mild, didn’t bother me in the least, but would be an annoyance to sum — is that there was the typical South Florida ‘musty smell’ I’ve encountered in so many properties. I didn’t notice it after I had been on property less than a minute.

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