Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve Puerto Rico — Hotel in Río Grande

My fiancé and I are from Nebraska and visited Puerto Rico for the first time last year and loved it. This time, we went down to tour several resorts we were considering for our destination wedding. We have never stayed at a Hyatt, and we already had reservations at another resort. However Ely Rivera, the Account Director for Social Events we had been communicating with asked us about lodging and I told her we had reservations but would consider changing them if a rate was offered we couldn't refuse. She did exactly that. She spoke with management and they offered us a rate to try the resort we couldn't refuse so we changed our plans. We were both happy we did.

The resort is beautiful and we especially loved the completely open air lobby area which included the open air lobby bar. The main pool is massive with plenty of lounge chairs surrounding it. The resort is away from the city so it is peaceful, quite, and includes a golf course. The view heading back toward the island to go into the city is beautiful as well. You can see the mountains in the background for a stunning view. The view from the far side of the pool also includes amazing views of the mountains.

Although we didn't actually make it to the beach to swim, the resort has created a calm water area for swimming and water sports by pushing out rocks to create a man-made wave break further out so the waves crash offshore rather than right on the beach, reducing the risk of riptides. Additionally, since the resort is away from the city and located on a peninsula, the beach was relatively quite even though all beaches in PR are public.

Our king bed room was beautiful, spacious, and clean. When we arrived to our room we discovered Ely had a charcuterie plate, bottle of Champaign, and gift bag waiting for us, a nice touch and very much appreciated.

During our stay, the lobby bar was never overly crowded and was open until at least 11 every night (our stay was M-F leaving on F). One bartender at the lobby bar, Eladdie, was working every night we went to the bar and her drinks and service were on point each time. She was even kind enough to write down the recipe for the drink my fiancé discovered she loved so we could replicate it back home.

In addition to the lobby bar, we had drinks at the swim up bar in the pool, and received excellent service there as well. They serve food there as well but we ended up trying the food truck by the pool for food instead which had very good tacos. We also tried the Sand Trap bar and the Nori Hibachi. I didn't expect fantastic hibachi on an island in the Caribbean, but it was better than expected.

The resort has two separate security checkpoints to go through in order to get to the resort, and we saw security around the property fairly often, especially at night, so we weren't concerned with safety at all.

As happy with the resort as we were, there were a couple small things which keep me from giving a full 5 stars in all categories. First, as peaceful as the location is away from the city, that meant there was not much around the resort either if you wanted to try some local food off the resort unless you drove 20-30 minutes. It is a small but important factor for us because we enjoy trying different local places for food. Second, the room was very nice but the air conditioning couldn't be set lower than 68 degrees, and the fan kept resorting to auto overnight even though I would change it to always on high before going to bed. The temperature setting would have been fine had the fan stayed on, but when it would turn off overnight the airflow would stop and the humidity would start to climb in the room. The fan probably wouldn't have been an issue either if there had been a ceiling fan in the room like there was in a couple of the suites Ely showed us, but I need constant airflow to be comfortable sleeping.

Overall, a beautiful resort with great service and we would absolutely stay here again. The resort is one of two final properties out of five we toured we are considering for...

We’ve been to this Hyatt twice. We probably will not make a 3rd trip. This place has rapidly declined in a year’s time. Luxury and 5 star are a far cry from this place. False advertisement really. We booked an ocean front suite this trip and the best part was the clean room and short walk to the ocean. That’s it. Everything else made me question the nightly rate of this place. CONS: There was trash everywhere. We spent time before enjoying the beach cleaning up every time we went outside. Both patrons and resort staff are to blame for the trash not making it into the bins. A shame grown adults cannot pick up after themselves. The food is a waste of money. You get better quality of food for a better price off of the resort. I recommend Koko’s or Carabalí rainforest restaurant if you do not wish to travel far from the resort. If you order room service they will charge you $12 on top of your bill to bring it to you in the golf cart. Reservations are required for you to dine in at the resort restaurants. If you plan on staying here book them a week in advance so you’ll actually be able to make a reservation. The front desk will give you drink vouchers. During our trip in April of 2024, we were able to redeem them for whatever we wanted. June of 2025 and now’s there’s restrictions? Nothing is printed anywhere on the voucher stating such restrictions and nothing is explained to you at the lobby during the presentation of these vouchers. As soon as the bartender saw them in my hand, they told me 3 times before I could even make my request, that we can only use them for the rum punch. Weird. I wanted a coke. Like I had received during my last trip. I’m not a big drinker personally. We were trying to enjoy our trip and didn’t make a fuss. Just let it be. Upon checking in they will tell you they offer a golf cart trolley service and to just dial 0. You’ll get picked up after speaking with the operator. Actually, no, you won’t. They never show up. We didn’t mind walking our entire trip, we were disappointed in the offer of services with no follow through. Our last trip they’d see you walking and the staff were so courteous and always offered to pick us up. This trip we were pretty much avoided. They’d turn their heads. Fly by us in completely empty 6 seaters. You could also find staff hiding in the corners of the parking lot on their phone.

An automatic gratuity is added on every tab/purchase. I’m not even sure those employees see those tips as they seemed disgruntled when they saw no additional tip was left. One of our servers did an awesome job, Yanibeth. She was polite, got us all we needed, never seemed disingenuous or annoyed about us being there. The other 2 servers we had at breakfast clearly hated their lives and their jobs. Requesting coffee seemed like I was inconveniencing them. Breakfast options were limited in the fruit department despite PR’s variety of locally farmed fruits. They’ve driven the Coquí away from the resort somehow. Last year we sat outside and enjoyed their songs. This year you could not hear any on the resort. You had to travel off of the resort to hear the Coquí. So very disheartening. Overall very disappointed in this trip this go around. It was for my 30th birthday and we were pretty much treated like a nuisance versus patrons/paying customers. If I knew it was gonna be that dismal I would’ve tried a new resort this year. Hope they get new management, real training, and staff that actually wants to do a good job/provide good service. Our housekeeper outshined everyone. She was phenomenal and took awesome care of us. Sad that she and yanibeth were...

Leaving my original write up below because it was a valid experience but wanted to write an update based on my full experience. This resort is so close to five stars if they could just figure out their food and other service issues, which I’ll get more into in a bit.

But my family had a fabulous time here. The resort is stunning, the kid pool and kid zone playground is great, and the spa is fantastic. I got a deep tissue hot stone massage with Sheyla and I am not exaggerating when I say it was the best massage I’ve ever had (out of hundreds). I’m glad I got it early enough on my trip, I was able to squeeze in another one with her on my last day! I would literally come back to the resort just to get another massage from her! The spa accommodations are also very nice and I enjoyed my time there.

The cabana rentals, although expensive, are worth it if you’re going to spend the day by the pool. We got one every day by the kids pool and it was nice to have a shady landing spot for lunch and in between pool and playground time.

They have activities for kids every day but it was disappointing that they didn’t always follow the schedule. Two things we showed up for didn’t happen (face paint and feeding the fish). My son was so sad to not get his face painted. We had told him about it since it was on the schedule and he was disappointed when it was canceled that day. Luckily we were able to get food for the fish and feed them ourselves which averted another potential disappointment for him.

Most of the staff are very hospitable and we had some really pleasurable interactions.Overall nice customer service experiences (some just average but some great).

The food though. Ugh. So many great things about this resort and the food is not one of them. Luckily we didn’t have a repeat of the terrible experience the first night (see below). But for the price, the food experience is completely underwhelming. They have hardly any options for vegans (which we had a few in our party), which made it very difficult. And they ran out of one of the few vegan options they had (impossible burger) a few days into the trip. And regardless of dietary restrictions, the food options from the food truck and room service are limited. One of the strangest things was the lack of tropical fruit. Being on a tropical island where there is an abundance of tropical fruit, there was almost none to be found at the resort. It was wildly disappointing, especially for the veg folks in our group.

All that said, the resort is beautiful, the spa experience is incredible, and my son had so much fun (and it was easy to watch him) in the kids pool/playground so we plan on going back. But this time we plan on venturing to a local grocery store to stock up on fruit and other food for our stay.

Original review: I was a little worried about the most recent reviews about food and service but was cautiously optimistic that maybe it was just a few disgruntled people and not the norm. Unfortunately, that cautious optimism has turned into deep regret just 5 hrs after we have arrived. I ordered room service (pasta and a hummus wrap) at 6 pm for me and my toddler. It is now 8:35 pm and still no food. I’ve called 2x and spent more than 30 minutes on hold. Supposedly the food is on its way. But on what universe does it take more than 2.5 hrs to make a basic pasta dish and a hummus wrap?! My toddler is now asleep, without dinner. I’m truly worried about how the next 5 days are...