Thompson Dallas, by Hyatt — Hotel in Dallas

We are local to Dallas, in fact my wife and I live less than 2 miles from this hotel and wanted to do a staycation for the Labor Day weekend, we booked a room for 3 nights stay, we usually stay at the Joule or Adolphus Hotel several blocks away or put our family up in those hotels when they come to town to visit but we wanted to try the Thompson Hotel this time, beautiful rooftop pool, restaurants in the same building Not Part of the hotel and long holiday weekend so why not.

The Good: Beautiful lobby and well appointed nicely decorated rooms, front desk was very friendly and same for Bellhops and helpful. The rooftop pool was very nice, we spent a whole day in the pool until it rained but very nice to relax, it was quite and hotel guest or residents only! All in all the hotel is very nice but it is lacking in a few areas. The only place on the 9th floor to eat is not very inviting and you almost don't know its even there for grabbing breakfast or lunch, not very appealing, we found ourselves walking to the Adolphus hotel all three mornings to have breakfast and coffee where they have several places to eat and much more inviting.

The Bad- So the rooms are ver modern and look fantastic, the biggest issue I had to hear all weekend was from my wife trying to shave in the shower, Ladies just know the showers are a bit tight to stand in especially while your trying to shave, there is NO shower door with AC draft enters making it cold plus you spend more time trying to mop up the water from the shower overspray, other than that the shower looks great.

The main issue which isn't entirely the hotels fault but lends to the 3 star review is the LOCATION and the corner the Thompson is located. When you walk out the main hotel entrance and make a left turn there is a really good Mexican Tacorea Salsa Limon, the issue is walking there only two blocks from the hotel there is an abundant of homeless people you have to walk by, urine smells on the sidewalk, next to the restaurant is a CVS where we witnessed first hand a homeless guy throw a brick into the front door and threaten the clerk inside, the clerk chased the man onto the sidewalk next to us with a baseball bat and it got out of control until police arrived. Next to the CVS, you guessed it is a YMCA where many of these homeless people stay and of congregate, this is NOT you suburban YMCA for kids totally the opposite with heavy police presence in the area which is Good! So if you walk to the right of the hotel entrance the other direction towards Elm Street the corner the Thompson is located to walk in that direction you will see many many more homeless people standing or laying around the sidewalks again with urine smells as you walk by them and get heckled for money or they just yell at you, they hang out in the doorways of the CVS with is across from the hotel and the 7 Eleven, you cant really go into either if you wanted to, my wife was like forget it. You really have to walk past all this at all hours of the day and night if you want to walk anywhere, not nice or pleasant and you don't feel safe. We stayed on the 18th floor which faces Elm Street again where there are many homeless people below, you hear them yelling at each other all evening, Yes you can hear this from 1-4 am loud and clear on the 18th floor not to mention cars racing down this street with loud exhaust and loud music all night and morning long, making it very hard to sleep.

In summary, we really wanted to love this hotel, its beautiful and clean inside but the outside elements really take much away from the hotel, we felt we had to leave the building for our meals, to many homeless to navigate, strong urine odors outside, good police presence clearly visible but also discerning knowing this area could be volitile, my wife didn't want to walk outside after dark, to much noise from cars, loud music off ELM Street. We feel much of this is avoided by staying in hotels off Main Street...

This was our first time staying at the Thompson Dallas. I would rate it a 5-star stay: excellent staff, a clean and quiet room, and beautiful surroundings. Some details were lacking but were not deal breakers for myself or my partner.

Things to know about the hotel: in addition to the spa and restaurants, there is a barbershop (Tondeo Hair Lounge), a floral design studio (Botanical Mix), and a Lucchese boot store in the hotel. The hotel appears to offer shoe shine and dry cleaning service, and they have a house car to transport guests to nearby destinations.

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

Arrival/valet: the valet area in front of the hotel can get crowded and hectic due to limited space in front of the building (along with downtown traffic and having a DART track right next to the hotel). However, valet flagged us down and directed us to a less-crowded area to drop off the vehicle. They also got someone to assist us with our luggage.

Front desk staff were helpful and offered us bottled water at check-in. The bellman helped us with our luggage and asked us if we had any plans. We mentioned that we were going to a nearby steakhouse for dinner, and he told us that we could ask concierge about getting the house car to drop us off. After checking with concierge, I was told that although they are not able to book/reserve the house car ahead of time, we could come down to the front desk a little early and they could let the driver know. This is what we did, and the driver was nearby so we did not have to wait very long to be picked up.

The room was beautiful and clean. At the time of booking, I requested a "quiet" room and booked one of the more "basic" King rooms. I ended up upgrading us to the Premium King room and was worried that by switching, the room wouldn't be quiet. However, it was still wonderful! We were on the 14th floor with skyline views and very little noise. I have seen other posts were people mention club music, street racing noise, etc. but I did not hear much aside from what I assume was the DART train.

There were multiple lamps/lighting options to help set the ambiance as desired. There was a full-length mirror. I did not see a luggage rack anywhere. The TV was actually in front of the bed, which is a good thing because we like to lie in bed and watch TV. I have seen pictures of other room options where the TV appears to be to the side of the bed.

The room came with a bathrobe and slippers (just one robe and one pair--I guess you have to call concierge to get a second set?). I loved wearing the robe and feeling luxurious. The mini-bar area was well-stocked; however, it was not a true mini fridge and was more like a drink cooler. Due to it being so stocked, a person might have trouble fitting real food into it. I managed to fit a couple of energy drinks in ours.

The bathroom: also clean, with large bottles of shower amenities (shampoo, conditioner, body wash). The scent is apparently custom-made for the hotel chain and I really enjoyed it--it smelled like luxury. Our room had both a rainfall showerhead and a "regular" detachable showerhead. Toilet paper left a lot to be desired, however, and the lighting in the bathroom was somewhat dim.

A breakfast room-service menu was left in our room. We left it out around 9 p.m. and breakfast was delivered to us the next morning. I ordered a cereal/granola dish but no spoon was provided. Eggs were delicious and a great portion size. According to the hotel's TV guide it appears that they have an afternoon/evening menu and an overnight menu for room service as well.

I worked out in the fitness center during our stay as well. Although it isn't the largest, it was plenty of space for the amount of people who were there on Saturday afternoon. They have a few treadmills, stair steppers, rowers, cycles, free weights, and weight machines.

All in all, it was an...

Service fee!! Service fee!! Service fee!! If you’ve stayed in Thompson hotels before, there’s no questioning the luxuriousness of the accommodations, however this hotel was truly disappointing with service fees among other things. This was an engagement celebration for my fiancé and I and I must say I had more fun in less well known Hyatt Brands. Drinks, food and everything is already expensive, when you add the mandatory “service fees” and the staff expecting additional tips, that was a big red flag to me. For context, travel and staying in nice hotels is me and my fiancé’s jam. As a result, we are World of Hyatt Explorist members, and ONLY stay at Hyatt properties unless not available at the destination. However, since this was the first time to Dallas and a “celebration weekend”, I decided to use the Fine Hotel Collection from Amex Platinum and booked Thompson Dallas. This supposedly included $200 FHR credit and $100 hotel credit. When we arrived we were told that since we booked through Amex, we can only pay with Amex Plantinum, when I personally have a Chase World of Hyatt credit card that I typically use to get my points at the properties. We were supposedly “upgraded” on arrival but the room seemed regular in my opinion. The FHR collection also included breakfast for 2 ppl each day (but found out it’s limited to $75 per person) which based on the cost of the menu items was very easy to go over, so much so we paid extra each day. Oh and yes a 30% service fee was also included in that $75, and not including tip. Each day we also had a hotel fee for $30 per day, a city tax and some other tax day…each amounting to about $40 extra onto the already $410 per night price tag. Finally, we initially booked a 2 night but stayed an additional night due to a wicked hang over the next day (lol), so I decided to use my WOH points to book another night. The front desk person was like “oh I have to charge you another $54” because the room you have was “upgraded”. I was like “upgraded”? I told her I was a WoH Explorist status. She said we have “a two tier upgrade and status only gives a one tier upgrade”. I was like ok, then move me to a regular room. After she gave it some thought, she realized that would mean cleaning two rooms, so she eventually said we’ll keep you in the same room as a “one time courtesy”.

Overall, I loved the gym. Food was good. Pool was nice. The downside was that each day it seems like there were lots of outsiders at the pool and in the hot tub so we weren’t able to have it for ourselves. But I guess they have to make their money some way.

Anyway, we prob won’t stay that this hotel ever again. Having stayed at Thompson’s in Atlanta, Playa Del Carmen and NYC, in comparison this one needs a lot of work. For a Hyatt property, they need to treat the loyalists a little better in my opinion, and I should be able to decide which credit card I want to use to pay for additional fees. There wasn’t even a separate WoH check-in line. Also drop the service fee crap which was well over $150 extra. Full transparency!! Especially at this...