I had a one-night stay here about 3 weeks ago. It was my first time at the property. Valet service was very attentive. I was greeted as soon as I pulled up, offered help with my bags. The door was held open for me, and I was directed to the front desk. Check-in was very straight-forward. I was given a brief description of the property. When I inquired about a suite, the agent checking me in said he had some nice rooms available. He told me he could call the Diamond desk and redeem one of my certificates for suite upgrade. In the end, I decided against it, but the desk was very accommodating to my inquiries. My room was on one of the top floors, a club floor. The room itself was nicely appointed. Flat screen television, comfortable soft seating. The bathroom was oversized for a standard room. The room had a refrigerator as well, although I don't know if that's standard. There are two restaurants at the hotel, Cassis and Onyx. Cassis was closed, so I went to hang out at Onyx. Onyx is essentially a lobby bar with a very enjoyable setting. The windows look out over a garden. There are a bunch of soft seating areas that are secluded from the main bar area. They're very comfortable, and sufficiently private for business meetings or a casual dinner. Onyx has a decent wine list, but where it really took off for me was with some of the menu choices. It's a varied menu, with such Atlanta staples as fried green tomatoes. They have some flatbread pizzas that were pretty darn good. But, the highlight was short rib ravioli. I've never had a short rib ravioli before. It was awesome. Bar none, probably the single best item I've ever had in a hotel lobby bar. In the morning, the club lounge was right down the hallway from my room. The lounge is smaller than some of the other Hyatts I've stayed at. They way overcompensate for the lack of size by having a full hot breakfast buffet out in the hallway. Definitely the best lounge breakfast I've had at pretty much any chain hotel in the domestic US. As this was a one-night stay, I did not use the exercise facility or pool. Overall, I would rank this Grand Hyatt experience as my best one so far. That's only somewhere between half a dozen and a dozen. And, I suspect some of the positive experience here is based on the fact that the Buckhead market has a number of upscale properties, so competition for high end rooms may be more prevalent. All in all, I would highly recommend the property.
Thanks for the review, I remember this property opening as the Nikko - it was re-flagged as a Hyatt not long after. Does the hotel retain the Asian-inspired design motif it had at its opening?
I should have commented on that. I didn't realize this was the Nikko, but the Asian garden off the main lobby makes much more sense now. The rooms have the distinctive Grand Hyatt feel, but there appear to be a few remnants of the Asian inspiration now that you've made that connection for me.
Are you sure that pic is of the GH ATL - it looks like the HR ATL to me (never stayed at the GH ATL though).
The photo is definitely from the lobby of the Regency. Anyways, I recently stayed here and was truly impressed. I arrived late in the evening and the hotel was sold out. Given a KING room on the 16th floor and it turned out the bed was to soft for my liking. So I called down asked for a bed board to be deliviered and it never arrived. After I went to bed my phone rings telling me they would like to install the board. This is about 2 hours after my original request way past midnight. I decline since I dont want to get dressed again. When I went to check out the next morning and asked how my stay was I just said: So so. On my way to the airport the phone rings and the FD clerk calls to apologize for the inconvience and tells me they are crediting 10,000 points to my account. Sometime in the afternoon I also got an email from the FO Manager stating the same thing as I was told earlier. I never complained about it and didn't consider it to be that big of a deal. That's what I call proactive customer service and what Hyatt is all about.
Another offer for the Grand Hyatt Atlanta Buckhead this time from sniqueaway.com. King/double room is going for as low as $99/night, and Club king/double for $135/night.
I stayed there a year or so ago and was a little underwhelmed by the room--in fact it was a suite. I burned one of my suite upgrades as they were about to expire. It was a while ago but I remember this strong sense of 'this needs to be renovated'. It was on the weekend and a very good value.
The regular suites are extremely underwhelming, but I will say I did like the Governor's Suite with living room, dining area, kitchen, and full size bedroom with 1.5 baths.
