Hyatt Regency Princeton — Hotel in West Windsor

I has taken me quite some time to finally write this review. After letting 6 months pass, I still to this day remember this as one of the worst hotel experiences I have ever had.||I booked this hotel for my wedding. I reserved the presidential suite, reserved a large block of guest rooms for several days, reserved event spaces, and paid for catered event meals. My spouse and I literally brought in tens of thousands of dollars to this venue. And yet, we were treated terribly. Booking this venue was the only regret we have about our wedding. These are just a few of the issues we experienced:||-The day before the wedding, we were hosting a rehearsal dinner at the hotel. I was in such a great mood and so excited. I went to the front desk to ask if they had an easel to put up a sign. The woman at the front desk was incredibly rude and immediately changed the mood of the night. She said to me “I’ll need to talk to the sales team.” I said ok and waited off to the side. She looked at me again and snapped “It will be a while.” I don’t think anyone would believe how unnecessarily rude this interaction was if my mother hadn’t witnessed it as well. I also inquired if they could correct an error the hotel made on the electronic notification boards. She replied “they will get to it.” I was able to talk to someone else about fixing the boards and they were able to change it, but it was still the wrong information. Our guests were being directly to the wrong room and wrong start time. ||-We specifically asked if we could reserve the adjoining room next to the presidential suite we booked. We thought this was a small ask considering we were spending thousands of dollars on our room alone, not including the tens of thousands of additional dollars the hotel was getting. We were told this wouldn’t be a problem. We had this agreement in writing. That room was given away despite the hotel’s promise. ||-The night before my wedding, there were other guests (not part of our wedding) that were drunk and screaming in the middle atrium. Many of us, myself including, didn’t get much sleep. The security guard kept going down to talk to the group, but at 1am, they were still there yelling. ||-One of our guests was arriving from an international location and travel was delayed. The hotel canceled our guest’s reservation and gave away our guest’s room. They never even tried speaking to us about this. They told us there was nothing they could do and they would not have another room for him to stay. We had to speak to management multiple times and finally an open room suddenly appeared. ||-We confirmed the event spaces several times and we reserved the rooms almost 2 years in advance. Despite this, the hotel changed the event spaces at the last minute without even asking us about this. We had printed material for our guests and could no longer use any of it. ||-The final thing I will say is minor, but shows how little the hotel cares. We didn’t receive any welcome gift. No wine or champagne. No snack. Not even a “congratulations” written on a piece of paper. Only the bare minimum was provided, and sometimes not even that. We spent a significant amount of money at this hotel and we were always kind and polite. We didn’t even receive so much as a congratulations. I have received nicer welcomes at lower end hotels on non-event stays. ||The hotel itself really is beautiful, but the staff at this hotel were among the worst I have ever experienced. The were rude, inept, and often didn’t fix their own mistakes. I strongly recommend avoiding any events booked at this hotel. ||(As a final note, I would like to state that aside from the awful experience at this hotel, EVERY OTHER aspect of our wedding was wonderful and I would like to give a shoutout for the amazing service all the other vendors provided! (I would highly recommend Hamilton Manor as wedding venue, Arrive in Style for transportation, Bloomers for flowers, Pure Entertainment group for DJ and video/photos, and True Beauty Marks and Groomed for...

I has taken me quite some time to finally write this review. After letting 6 months pass, I still to this day remember this as one of the worst hotel experiences I have ever had.

I booked this hotel for my wedding. I reserved the presidential suite, reserved a large block of guest rooms for several days, reserved event spaces, and paid for catered event meals. My spouse and I literally brought in tens of thousands of dollars to this venue. And yet, we were treated terribly. Booking this venue was the only regret we have about our wedding. These are just a few of the issues we experienced:

-The day before the wedding, we were hosting a rehearsal dinner at the hotel. I was in such a great mood and so excited. I went to the front desk to ask if they had an easel to put up a sign. The woman at the front desk was incredibly rude and immediately changed the mood of the night. She said to me “I’ll need to talk to the sales team.” I said ok and waited off to the side. She looked at me again and snapped “It will be a while.” I don’t think anyone would believe how unnecessarily rude this interaction was if my mother hadn’t witnessed it as well. I also inquired if they could correct an error the hotel made on the electronic notification boards. She replied “they will get to it.” I was able to talk to someone else about fixing the boards and they were able to change it, but it was still the wrong information. Our guests were being directly to the wrong room and wrong start time.

-We specifically asked if we could reserve the adjoining room next to the presidential suite we booked. We thought this was a small ask considering we were spending thousands of dollars on our room alone, not including the tens of thousands of additional dollars the hotel was getting. We were told this wouldn’t be a problem. We had this agreement in writing. That room was given away despite the hotel’s promise.

-The night before my wedding, there were other guests (not part of our wedding) that were drunk and screaming in the middle atrium. Many of us, myself including, didn’t get much sleep. The security guard kept going down to talk to the group, but at 1am, they were still there yelling.

-One of our guests was arriving from an international location and travel was delayed. The hotel canceled our guest’s reservation and gave away our guest’s room. They never even tried speaking to us about this. They told us there was nothing they could do and they would not have another room for him to stay. We had to speak to management multiple times and finally an open room suddenly appeared.

-We confirmed the event spaces several times and we reserved the rooms almost 2 years in advance. Despite this, the hotel changed the event spaces at the last minute without even asking us about this. We had printed material for our guests and could no longer use any of it.

-The final thing I will say is minor, but shows how little the hotel cares. We didn’t receive any welcome gift. No wine or champagne. No snack. Not even a “congratulations” written on a piece of paper. Only the bare minimum was provided, and sometimes not even that. We spent a significant amount of money at this hotel and we were always kind and polite. We didn’t even receive so much as a congratulations. I have received nicer welcomes at lower end hotels on non-event stays.

The hotel itself really is beautiful, but the staff at this hotel were among the worst I have ever experienced. The were rude, inept, and often didn’t fix their own mistakes. I strongly recommend avoiding any events booked at this hotel.

(As a final note, I would like to state that aside from the awful experience at this hotel, EVERY OTHER aspect of our wedding was wonderful and I would like to give a shoutout for the amazing service all the other vendors provided! (I would highly recommend Hamilton Manor as wedding venue, Arrive in Style for transportation, Bloomers for flowers, Pure Entertainment group for DJ and video/photos, and True Beauty Marks and Groomed for...

I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Princeton for 4 nights at the end of May / beginning of June 2024. I do really like this hotel but for my most recent stay I would give it 3 stars, mainly due to the rooms showing their age. I also stayed here for 4 nights in 2023 and 6 nights in 2022 and for those prior stays I would give the Hyatt 4 stars.

The staff is really helpful and friendly. The location is also great if you plan to visit things in the Princeton area (downtown or the university). There are many shortcuts and side streets, and it is easy to get lost or to drive in loops while navigating around Carnegie Center Drive and the surrounding business park.

The interior of the hotel looks very luxurious with eye-catching interior architecture. The hotel does seem to be a popular venue for events. In 2022 and 2023, there was a prom one evening and a wedding another evening while I was staying there. In 2024 there were no events while I was there but the front desk said there had been a prom and a wedding the weekend before.

Downstairs there is an Italian restaurant, the Laurea, which is delicious but pricey. I think in 2022 I had the Laurea Burger and in 2024 I had the Fettuccini Bolognaise, both of which were good, but I think the best part was probably the bread which was extremely tasty and flavorful. For the mocktails, I was not a fan of the Basil Lemon Fizz, but the Raspberry Shrub and After Orange were good. The waitstaff was also helpful and friendly. However, keep in mind that the water choices were bottled or sparkling, and there was a charge for the table. And for my party of 8, a 20% service charge was already included (a few of my dinner companions nearly missed that and almost included a duplicate tip).

The rooms are modern and spacious. The bed is comfy and they include 5 pillows of varying shapes and softness, which gives you options to decide on which pillow you like the best. There were 2 free bottles of water in my room when I checked in and during my stay they added an additional bottle as well. The rooms were pretty quiet and I was not significantly disturbed by noise from other rooms or the hallway.

The biggest annoyance is that the chair sits very low and is not adjustable, making it hard to be at the appropriate height for the desk. What I ended up doing (and which I did in prior years) is sit on 2 of the extra pillows to get extra height. The rooms looked great in 2022 and 2023 but in 2024, they are beginning to show their age. There were random but minor stains on the wallpaper, the bathroom is starting to appear worn, and the wooden desk also looked worn.

While some of my colleagues were able to get late check out (for 1 PM or 2 PM) by the time I asked for late check out they told me they could not accommodate any more late check outs.

Overall, I think the rooms need a slight renovation to boost the hotel rating back up to the 4 stars...