I haven’t been around on the blog much, and when that happens, it means there are other things demanding a lot of my time. And amongst all that was going on, I really needed a quick break, so I decided to head to the Park Hyatt Hyderabad for a quick overnight trip last weekend, to check out the property as well as visit a city with great food.

Given my schedule, I figured the best thing for me to do would be to arrive early in the morning and depart next afternoon giving me at least a full day in Hyderabad. As a Hyatt frequent guest, I really wanted to select a Hyatt property only, and I had heard lots of good things about the PH Hyderabad which is about 3 years old, even from other Hyatt crews across India.

When my trip was absolutely certain to happen, I moved my rate to a promotional prepaid rate, which was about 30% cheaper than the BAR for the day. Also, I applied the India promotion, which allowed me to get a 2500 Hyatt Gold Passport points for staying at a Hyatt India hotel before March 31, 2015. The hotel confirmed to me that the only way to get inside a suite, was to apply a Diamond Suite Upgrade, even if the suites lied unoccupied. And I did apply one of my DSU from the last year, before they were going to expire on February 28, 2015 anyways.

Now to the stay. I arrived on a redeye to Hyderabad, at about 5:15 am in the city. I was in touch with the hotel, and they were going to offer a complimentary one-way transfer to me, so I chose to take them up on the offer on arrival. Interestingly, while I’d expect hotel crew to meet you outside the hotel, in this case, there was staff from the PH Hyderabad who met me inside the arrival area. We did not have any luggage, but the point of meeting inside is that they could have helped guests bring the luggage out.

After exit, we had to wait a few moments for the car to arrive, because it was driving in from 45 minutes away at the hotel. Our flight arrived early, so maybe we had ourselves to blame for the early arrival. A BMW 7 Series pulled up, while all I was expecting was a base category pickup vehicle (a Toyota Innova).

The airport is quite a drive away from the city, and this was a good enough time to make conversation with the chauffeur, who was well-informed about the city. He offered us water once inside the car, and our airport dispatcher informed us about the wifi facility on the drive to the hotel, which I did make good use of on the way to the hotel.

The hotel is located in the upscale Banjara Hills residential area, and you could initially miss it if you were not looking for the signage.

We pulled up at the hotel, and the warm and friendly crew of the hotel greeted us at the entrance. We were walked to the check-in desk, where they had already processed an early check-in for us and had our suite ready. The check-in staff walked us to the room on the 6th floor, and we were told we were further upgraded from a Park Suite King (base suite) to a Park Executive Suite. From what I can tell, the difference is just breakfast, which is something anyways comped for Diamond members.

Here are a few pictures of the lobby, including the sculpture which ornates the lobby and cannot be missed. The lobby also hosts the Living Room (the lobby lounge) and the Dining Room (the lobby restaurant), also the place where breakfast was served next morning. Do note that we arrived on the day of Ugadi, the new year day, and there was this celebratory floral decoration as well.

Like you would note, the hotel is set in beige and black tones, giving it a very modern hues. They have also worked a lot on natural lighting inside the hotel.

Coming up to our room, we arrived on the 6th floor, and there were quirky posters as adornments on the walls.

The suite itself was a big one, with a large living room, a large bedroom, a massive shower room and two half bathrooms as well. Good enough for me, I thought.

The entrance of the room opened into the living room, which had a very large lounging couch, along with a working table on the side. The working table could itself double up as a dining table given the two seats placed on both sides. Apart from the television, there was a pretty good entertainment set up with a DVD player as well as a home theatre installed in the living room.

There was a Nespresso machine placed in the room, along with a water heating kettle. The focus on being upscale was clearly visible, because the hotel provided a choice of teas along with a tea pot to brew them in. Nothing that I have seen before in another hotel. The minibar was loaded with the usual stuff.

The bedroom was as big as the living room, with a king size bed, and a very long lounging couch along the wall.

Following it up, I popped into the shower. And I was floored. The shower captures a corner of the suite, and you have a soak tub with a view of the city if you so please. There is also a large rainforest shower, and a hand shower.

There were his and her wash basins, along with a lot of amenities from Miller Harris. Can’t say I was very impressed with these, I am used to receiving the Forrest Essentials toiletries around Hyatt hotels in India, and indeed as per this recent review, they help the visitors in standard rooms to those.

The shower was set in along with a walk-in wardrobe, and there were also half bathrooms, one next to the shower and one at the entrance.

There were fruits placed in the living room.

We did go off to catch some sleep since we hadn’t slept well all evening, and missed going to breakfast on day one. Once we were ready, we headed out for lunch. Since it was a festive day, I really wanted to dig into local food, and that is indeed what we did.

We arrived back at the hotel after lunch, and found housekeeping performed on the room already. We were away from the hotel again in the evening, and when we arrived, housekeeping had performed turndown service as well. We also saw a bottle of wine placed in the room with the compliments of the hotel.

The macarons, umm, were a miss. I am so used to good macarons having chased them around in various parts of the world. This one did not cut it, and in fact did not look like a macaron to me in the first place.

Also, I found a note from the Front Office Manager placed in the room, however late in the evening. One standard practice for the Park Hyatt brand standard is to welcome elite guests. Some hotels have GMs meet guests at the arrival, some others have welcome letters sent to the room. There was no letter, nothing, from the hotel management informing us of the line-up for the day and on-property facilities we could use. Until I tweeted.

@parkhyatthyd surprised there was no welcome letter placed from FOM or GM to welcome guests and I’ve been here 12 hours.

— Ajay Awtaney (@LiveFromALounge) March 21, 2015

We went about through the rest of the day, arrived late in the night after gorging on some of the foods of the city, and went straight to bed. Not before trying to watch The Godfather for another time, which was lent from the hotel’s video library for guests.

In the morning, we had a trip to the hotel’s all-day restaurant The Dining Room for breakfast. There was continental breakfast laid out for everyone, and you could order the hot items off the menu and the hotel would freshly prepare them for you.

We ordered some items off the hot menu. I went with a Parantha, while Shipra went with a Dosa. Between the both of us, we also tried their Eggs Benedict, which were not impressive at all.

We were around for a bit longer after breakfast, and checked out around noon. Of course, I’d loved to have stayed longer, but maybe that will happen another time.

One thing that ticked me off a bit was the continuous need they felt to monetise a few things that are a given as free at other hotels. I needed a random print out, so I headed to the business centre located in the residences side of the hotel. They informed me of INR 30 as the cost of one print (USD 0.5). No consideration for being a guest, or a frequent guest with the Hyatt chain given.

We chatted with the Guest Services manager while we waited for our car to arrive, and headed to the airport in good time for the flight.

Overall a pleasurable stay, but some areas for improvement. Of course, it will still be a choice for me to come back the next time I am in town.

Have you stayed at the Park Hyatt Hyderabad? How was your experience at this hotel?

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