Hyatt Regency Savannah — Hotel in Savannah

Edit: removed a section where I complained I reserved a king and got a double bed room. This was my mistake; I checked my receipt and I did indeed get a double room, and I apologize for this. Also, I was upgraded to a view of the river and the rooms were admittedly nice. I’ve added a star to my review in light of my mistake and the fact that most of my complaints are probably due to it being St Patrick’s day, and I was pretty incensed at the time of writing, but that said, the rest of my review stands. The manager did reach out to me and very kindly apologized if there was a misconception on the room among other things, and I felt pretty bad in hindsight.

To start off with, when we asked about parking we were told that we were (quoting here) SOL if we did not use the valet. This is the same valet that: 1. Costs $50 overnight, and; 2. Was joking around about not being able to drive the cars of the guests, and; 3. Left the key locker holding the keys to guest cars wide open and unattended. I did not use the valet out of genuine worry of having my rental either damaged by the valet or stolen by a passerby, despite the front desk’s insistence. In the morning, when I pulled in to check out, I was told by the valet I must give my keys to them even if I was only loading for checkout, and even though that was not required at check in. I opted to pay $25 to park across the street and walk. The jovial attitude of the valet would’ve been fine (it was a holiday after all) if they had done their diligence and at least guarded the keys properly.

The worst part was being fastened with a MANDATORY WRISTBAND for the ENTIRE stay— we were told we were not allowed to remove it for sleep, showering, or anything, under threat of a $25 charge. We were told that this was for security, but nobody checked for our wristbands during the duration of our stay (we walked in and out from the street to our room multiple times), so I am unsure why we had to keep it on even while SLEEPING when it served literally no purpose. The only people who checked for the wristbands were guards posted in front of the first floor elevator. We simply walked up the stairs to the second floor elevators which were completely unguarded and bypassed the wristband check completely since it was packed (in the morning I learned I apparently wasn’t supposed to do that, but signage directly stated “please use stairs or escalator for second floor access.”). And speaking of the elevators, we needed our keycard to be able to use them at all, so I’m not sure why the wristbands were necessary. Felt like a cash grab instead of an actual security concern, and checking ID’s or reservations upon entry would have been much better. I get it’s Saint Patrick’s day, but they literally didn’t even check, and the front desk specifically said it needed to be on for our entire stay which was just odd. Leaving it on until we come back for the last time that night made sense, even if it was a bit odd.

A few other points:

I was informed upon arrival that there was a $25 fee for additional guests beyond myself and one other (despite the room I had being able to sleep 4). I only had myself and one other so it didn’t affect me, but we pay for the room, not how many people are in it, and this fee was not disclosed.

Lastly, when we got back to the room after dinner we noticed that we were entitled to a complimentary cocktail, only to walk down and find the bar (which was advertised to be open until 2 on this specific day) was already closed over an hour early.

All in all, after thinking about it for a day, it seems more like a service issue than anything. The wristband policy would’ve been much more understandable if the front desk staff explained it correctly and the valets should definitely instill confidence regarding their handling of vehicles and keys.

Perhaps they were just stressed because of Saint patrick’s day, and I was as well. I wouldn’t stay here again on a holiday since it seems the staff have a hard time handling it, but I’m willing to try it again...

Our experience at the Hyatt Regency Savannah was truly only okay.

Our room wasn’t ready an hour after the designated check-in time, which was a really disappointing way to start the stay. I had the impression that the cleaning staff must have been incredibly overworked and understaffed to not be able to turn the rooms over before the official check-in time. From there, we waited in the lobby for the front desk agent to bring us our keys when the room was ready (because she said she would do that) but then we also watched the same front desk agent leave the desk, go up the elevator and never return so that was a confusing bummer. Once we realized we’d been abandoned, we got into another check-in line and had to repeat the whole process.

Eventually we made it to our room, which seemed nice enough until the second day of our stay when we realized one of the corners of the room was soaking wet. There was some kind of leak in the wall (you could literally hear the water rushing at times—it sounded like a waterfall) that pooled into the room. Some of our belongings did get a little wet but thankfully not damaged. The hotel did send a maintenance person up to vacuum up the water, but obviously nothing was done about the leak itself because it just soaked back the next day. And you know, it happens, sometimes infrastructure fails and things leak, but if the Hyatt Regency wasn’t going to fix it they should have at least offered to put us in another room. The shop-vac does suck up about 95% of the water in one session, but it’s also really loud and puts a damper on the quiet night you were hoping to have to enjoy your hotel room. We ended up just putting a towel down and trying to avoid the wet part of the carpet.

It’s also worth mentioning that our room phone didn’t work, and the internet didn’t seem great either. We couldn’t get Netflix, YouTube, or any of the TV’s HD or movie channels to load.

We had one of the balcony rooms, which obviously had great views of the river, but I’d advise others to be wary of selecting these (more expensive!) rooms if they are hoping for quiet mornings. Street noise can’t be helped, but the balcony rooms at the Hyatt Regency are on the same floor as the big convention areas (and they start early in the morning) so it’s really loud in the mornings. You actually have to walk through convention booths to get to the hallway where the balcony rooms are.

This hotel has lots of great reviews, so clearly there are lots of people that have a great time here. I could totally see how someone could come through here and have a great experience if they get lucky and encounter helpful staff and end up with a dry room, but our experience was pretty mixed. Some folks on staff were completely lovely to us, and others were clearly just waiting for us to stop talking so they could get back to whatever they were doing. Again, I’m guessing a lot of these folks are really overworked and we just caught people at a bad time, but still.

Ultimately, if you’re a seasoned traveler and know how to negotiate when things go wrong to get a better experience, you’ll probably have a better time here. Personally, I found it pretty stressful to have to constantly check-in with the front desk when things went wrong. It’s not that folks were outright rude (and again, some of the front desk agents were really apologetic and kind) but having to do that whole song-and-dance in the first place was frustrating. We picked this hotel because we trusted the Hyatt name, but honestly by the end of it we just felt kind of stupid for not choosing somewhere else. When a vacation like this is a rare treat, you want to feel good about the money you’ve spent. You want to feel like your hotel is proactively taking good care of you, and that when things go wrong, the onus isn’t on you as the customer to suggest what to do to make things right.

There are so many other hotels in Savannah that we could have picked, so I guess we’ll try one of those next time and I’d recommend others to...

World of Hyatt member here, I already gave feedback through the Hyatt automated text system and no response nor compensation was offered. Therefore after giving Hyatt a chance to rectify the situation privately, hopefully their response team will care more now that my feedback is public. I have stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Savannah the last four years and have continually seen a decline in their level of service and care for their customers culminating in my most recent stay.

The issues started when first pulling up to the valet drop off. I was instructed by the valet attendants to unload all the way at the end beyond the portico. I followed instructions and parked at the end, and got out of my car. No help from valet. Unloaded all my luggage myself, no valets came over. I stand around for 10 minutes, still no help. Other cars pulled up after me and valets were quick to help them. I lock my car and take my keys with me, check in (which I will get to later) and ask about valet, the clerk tells me “they’re just busy” and to go back outside. I go stand by my car another 5 minutes, finally a valet came towards me but to my dismay walked right by me without helping. I ran after him to flag him down to finally hand my keys over for the required valet at Hyatt. While I understand that they may have been busy, they clearly had the staff to prioritize other drop offs after me. For $50 per night (up from $40 last year) for the REQUIRED valet (no self parking option) they can figure out how to adequately staff and manage the valet situation at “busy” times. In addition to this initial poor service, when I received my car the afternoon of the second day of my stay I was disgusted to find the remnants of a fast food meal carelessly discarded in the backseat of my car! An entire Chickfila meal wrapper, napkins, and greasy sandwich bag I know were not there when I checked in. This speaks to an unacceptable level of unprofessionalism, untrustworthiness and disregard for guests property by valet staff and the property by extension. Often, when I went to retrieve my car from the motor pool, I found valet staff laughing and giggling in the key room and not manning the motor pool desk, when they did finally noticed me they still chose to prioritize finishing their side conversations before sluggishly coming to assist. At no point did any of the valets actually help me with my baggage. In fact, even when returning my car to me, I found that, without fail, the seat was never returned to my default position leading to more delays because I had to readjust my seat and mirrors back; something that is minimum level of care for most valets. All in all this is not service that warrants $50 per night for required valet parking. EDIT: the owner has reached out to comp the parking fee following this review.

Next was the check in process; although the front clerk thanked me for being a World of Hyatt member, that is where the pleasantries stopped. I was told I would receive a free cocktail for being a world of Hyatt member but she never actually gave me the drink and instead loudly shouted for the next customer before I was finished talking to her. In addition to the unfriendly welcome, when I got to my room I realized my room assignment was incorrect. I booked a room with a riverfront view, and was disappointed to be given an interior room instead. When prompted to report on my check in process through my World of Hyatt status upon arrival to the room, I immediately replied that I had been given the wrong room to which Hyatt offered no response or compensation. Also to my disgust, I found a dark powdery substance filling voids of the duvet on the bed. I’m not sure if this was mold or simply years of the filling breaking down, either way it was disgusting.

The only positive experience I had with my stay was the rapid elevators, but even this was not enough to convince me of another stay. I will not be staying here next year and will be giving this feedback to my company’s booking...