Grand Hyatt Indian Wells Resort & Villas — Hotel in Indian Wells

I nearly didn't write this review because I rarely say anything unless it's positive, but my experience of this hotel and of Hyatt was so bad I've made an exception. ||||Firstly, this property is beautiful, well kept and the amenities fantastic - optically, this hotel is superb. We had one excellent meal in the Carmocha restaurant however after receiving the bill, that was the only meal I was going to pay for in the hotel, bar one buffet breakfast which was one of the worst we've had anywhere, even worse when you consider the cost of it (but at least the hotel Director removed the cost of this after I raised as part of another issue). The reviews prior to staying were OK but so vary widely - generally I tend to take these with a pinch of salt but this time I should have paid more attention as I can certainly concur with the more negative ones.||||So, why a poor rating and never staying at Hyatt again?||||1. Service ||||2. Nickel and dime policy, with an underhand 4% surcharge policy thats not always communicated and clearly designed to mask increases already high prices||||3. Breakfast||||4. Hyatt policy and lack of communication on this||||Service||Specially, service around the pool. On our first day, I asked at the towel station how much the day beds were, to be told we can have one for free given the resort was almost empty. I wasn't looking for it for free, so that was a nice surprise. We set up and settled down, however about an hour later an attendant came along to tell me we'd been misinformed and the bed would cost $179. A brief debate then ensured where I suggested that, as the hotel was empty and he acknowledged we'd been misinformed, perhaps I stay on the bed until such point it is sold. The attendant just walked off, but it left a real sourness to the experience - if you knew I had been misinformed, why not just let it go for the day? ||||Following this, I went to enquire how the bike rentals work and, whilst my question was answered, I felt like I was disturbing your employee at the towel station from whatever activity she was doing (despite the hotel being near-empty) as she answered my questions with short, often one word answers and made zero eye contact. Full disclosure, I did raise these points locally when I received an email asking me how the stay was going and was given a free day bed for a second day...but frankly, I'd have preferred to have just been treated politely and with some friendliness.||||2. Surcharge Policy||There is a 4% surcharge on all bills - absolutely ridiculous and an obvious way Hyatt tries to get more revenue without increasing the already high headline prices (note: this hotel is VERY expensive for F&B). What makes this worse is the hotel don't disclose this surcharge everywhere - it's categorically not mentioned on your Carmocha menu, and staff do not advise of this until you see it on the bill. As a result, on 3 of our 4 nights, we just ate elsewhere (which was a shame as that one meal was very good). Hyatt, this is a disgusting policy and you should add the costs of running your business to the prices in a transparent way, like most other establishments do. ||||3. Buffet Breakfast||If you're going to charge upwards of $60pp inc taxes and service for a breakfast, then it had better be a good one. This is a poor buffet breakfast in terms of choice and quality, in comparison to almost any 4+ star hotel we've stayed at elsewhere. But worse, you offer two choices - the full buffet, or the petite one at a lower price without hot food. It's listed right there on your menu (you can see this online!), and when we saw the food we just opted for the petite version...yet your server refused to acknowledge you even do a petite version whilst showing me the menu that had it written in black and white. I raised this afterwards and your Director removed the cost from my bill, but for goodness sake train your employees....or don't offer options you're not willing to honour!||||4. Hyatt Policy||I now know Hyatt is a cashless organisation. Apparently it says this on your website. I travelled from the UK with hard cash dollars to spend. I checked in with my credit card guarantee as I do in every hotel, with the intention of paying cash to at checkout, as I typically tend to do when I've taken cash and not spent it elsewhere. Oh, but not at Hyatt...you would not take my cash to settle the bill (4% of which made up of your cheeky hidden surcharges). ||||All I was told is it's policy and it's stated on your website, however I didn't book on your website - I booked on Expedia, and there is no mention anywhere on Expedia, or my booking confirmation of this. Was this mentioned at check-in? No. Was there any signage of this policy, anywhere? No. How is someone to know you won't accept cash? Would I have done something different had I known? Hell yes, I'd have spent my cash easily elsewhere beforehand, but I didn't because I saved the cash to settle my final hotel bill as there was no indication you didn't take the US's legal currency.||||I actually felt sorry for your reception team dealing with this situation, including your very professional Director who simply could do nothing for me, and leaving me with no option but (to spend my cash) go to retail store, buy a pre-paid debit card and pay that way. The whole checkout process took 2.5 hours!||||That about does it but Hyatt, your often miserable team members I came across and your awful and poorly (if at all) communicated policies spoiled our four days in an otherwise lovely property in a lovely Palm Desert area. I will make a point of never staying in a Hyatt (or group)...

I will go one by one on the list -

5/5 Valet - The valet attendants were EXCELLENT! If I could base my entire stay off of these gentleman I would. They honestly make you believe that your stay will be just as upbeat and friendly as they are when they greet you.

1/5 Front Desk (check-in) - Our attendant was cordial, but she charged me for the incidentals and the entire length of the stay on the same card, however, our trip was paid for as a gift and they had the CC Authorization form to cover room, tax, parking and resort fees. So I was out over $1,000 on my first day. Obviously, I'm on vacation and I have money for the entirety of the trip, but that's a big chunk of $ to lose out on on our first day. The manager explained nothing as he came over to place the refund. I'm a very understanding person, a simple, Hey we did this in error, but I've scheduled a refund and you should see this back in your account in 3-5 day, nothing, just came over, did his thing and complained about the heat.

1st Visit to Oasis Bar by the 18+ Pool 5/5 - The bartender who served us was Dave and he was GREAT!

18+ Pool 2/5 - Having the option to be at the pool without kids was really nice, but I was shocked that not a single person came around to our chairs to ask if we needed any drinks or food. I've stayed at the JW Marriot in Palm Desert and their service by the pool was really top notch and I was hoping for the same, especially since this location is charging over $400/night. So needless to say, we had to walk over to the exceedingly crowded bars to order food and drinks.

2nd & 3rd Visit to Oasis Bar 0/10 - The bar is tiny and I can only conclude that the lack of poolside service was causing the congestion but the service by the bartenders was subpar and that explains why we only visited the bar 3 times from our entire Fri-Sun stay.

Agua Serena Spa 5/5 - My niece and I booked facials and the entire experience was lovely and relaxing. I wish I could have stayed there instead of the resort. Shout out to Nicole the front desk attendant, she was polite and very personable. Also our estheticians Tsege and Amparo!

Citrus Market 8/13 Visit Hostess 0/5, Food 3/5, Server 5/5 - The hostess was awful. The highlight of the morning was not the food but our server Cassandra T. although I did ask for a specific condiment which they clearly didn't have on hand, and the first response was that she would go look for some in the large walk-in but she never followed up, a simple, I'm sorry but we don't have it would go a long way, but it almost seemed like she was not comfortable telling me that. She was still pleasant and very accommodating otherwise.

Citrus Market 8/14 Visit Hostess 0/5, Food 1/5, Server 1/5 - Same rude hostess, the food went downhill, the waffles were burnt and as hard as rocks! The server Alejandra V wasn't rude but she wasn't friendly either, she told us no rush but as we're talking still working on our plate she brought the check and offered us coffee to go, which seemed like she was just trying to clear her area as fast as she could.

Agave Sunset 5/5 - Service (sorry I can't find my receipt to get our servers name) but he was excellent, the drinks were great and so was the food.

Rooms 2/5 - The room was fine, it was on the first floor with pool access, which makes no sense since we can't lock the patio doors from the outside, so we still had to go around the building to the pool. The rooms are older and you can see cracks and re-painting to cover it up.

Service 0/5 - The Spa is on the outside of the resort so we had to walk along a long hallway to make it outside, we weren't sure if we were on the right path so we saw a resort employee walking toward us, we stopped him to ask where the spa was and he said "Oh, I don't know" Wow...just Wow!

Overall 1/5 - 1 for Valet and Spa they were the highlight. I will not return and I will urge our travel agent not to recommend for stays. I'm so...

1 star reviews are not given lightly but the Hyatt here in gorgeous Indian Wells is a 4.5 star resort among other 4 star resorts so the bar is like for like.

The purpose of the trip was a conference, the Hyatt appears to be equipped to handle large gatherings like a wedding or convention. They must see a lot of diverse & various folks from across the world?

Somethings could’ve been ignored but combined for the purposes of the review, I will highlight.

It is 2023 and we are in California, how does their executive chef or catering team, not know vegan food? It is very easy to cook the same way forever and never challenge yourself to learn anything new or creative. What a shame. Hyatt should strongly invest in another executive chef and or training for them and their staff on what is Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten Free, and other common food allergies. It was clear to me they did not have a clue what vegan was. It was insulting to say the least.

Plated lunch: I was the very last person to get their plated lunch & honestly, I’m pretty sure it was NOT vegan as the orzo rice looked very creamy and identical to the chicken dishes. Likely cooked with Chicken broth and or parmesan cheese. After that was dessert, carrot cake. The tables were served their carrot cake and I was served nothing. My table obviously felt so uncomfortable with me sitting there with no food at all, and it was awkward for me too. Dessert was obviously not coming. After pestering, I got a bowl of berries. Which we had for breakfast.

Dinner buffet: I am told I get a separate dish? I don’t understand why they couldn’t figure out how to have vegan in the buffet? Just have some sautéed veggies for the taco bar. Some peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, & for dessert some fruit pies with no butter. Marriott and other resorts have been able to accommodate Vegans the last 7 years but this high-end resort can’t? So my plated entrée for the dinner buffet, I kid you not, a plate of roasted corn w/ slivers of Brussel sprouts & almonds. Other complaint is their coffee is awful. Please offer other alternative roasts or beans. They were terribly strong, dark, and bold, a light or medium roast would be much appreciated. I must add that at our conference the AC was unnecessarily cold. I was pounding the coffee to stay warm.

At our buffets and group dinners, the staff was a bit abrupt. We’re talking at the table, “more water?!” It is empty so yes please. They fill the cups & drip water all over every time. I would’ve overlooked this but since I am writing it, might as well give the feedback. Lastly, on the group buffet, a colleague sat down and their chair broke and he fell to the ground. Awful! The chairs were plastic & indeed not high quality. Thankfully, he was not injured but how embarrassing. Just another detail overlooked by their catering team.

Room: the bed had a large dip on the side of the bed closest to the TV. Recommendation is to perhaps rotate the mattress after each stay? Help balance that out. The bathroom(s) also could use more lights or better lighting, it was too dim. In the category of room, I will discuss the Bluetooth digital key that most resorts offer. Hyatt offers it via their app. I do recommend downloading the app. However when it decides to no work, they can’t reset the digital key for you remotely, they told me to come all the way down to the lobby and get a plastic key card. I don’t know why my digital key stopped working one afternoon but it did.

Amenities: I did not use the spa or pool but I used the gym. The gym is too small for the size of the resort. Every day it was too crowded. They need an outdoor running trail.

Overall, I’d say this Hyatt has areas of improvement. Comparing to other resorts like for like, they are not a 5 star resort. Perhaps a 3 star but due to the catering issues, I cannot justify that. I hope this feedback is...