Gigantic Dogs and Runway Sunsets at Hyatt Regency SFO

On our recent trip to California, my kids and I stayed three nights at the Hyatt Regency SFO. This hotel was completely renovated last year and costs 12,000 World of Hyatt points per night.

I chose this hotel over other Hyatt locations in San Francisco because of its lower price (both cash and points) and because I could get access to the club lounge with my Explorist upgrade certificate.

Is it a good hotel for touring San Francisco? It depends.

Lobby

The hotel has modern décor and a large atrium in the center. Such a change from before the remodel, when the lobby was pink! (See this post on View From the Wing for old photos).

The hotel’s restaurant, 3SIXTY Bistro, sits in the middle of the atrium.

There is also a convenient market with quick bites to go.

Room

We had a room with two queen beds. Our room faced the inside of the hotel with a window that overlooked the atrium. The beds were very comfortable, as is usually the case with Hyatt.

The room also had a long desk and chair.

Obligatory bathroom photo:

Pool and Gym

Hyatt Regency SFO has a saltwater pool and hot tub that we enjoyed every night. The hotel has a bin full of noodles and balls for guests to enjoy. After a long day of schlepping around San Francisco, the water felt great!

A large gym overlooked the pool. I didn’t use it, but it appeared to have a lot of new equipment.

There is also a second gym just for Regency Club members which I did not check out.

Regency Club Lounge

Undoubtedly, this was my favorite part about the Hyatt Regency SFO. The lounge was awesome!

First of all, it had an outside wraparound deck where you could see planes taking off and landing at SFO airport. We could also see downtown San Francisco in the distance.

We arrived in the late morning and checked out the snacks first. My kids ate cookies, granola bars, nuts and fruit.

On our first afternoon, we wore ourselves out in the city. We came back to our hotel starving. I told the kids we would be checking out the food in the club lounge first before making any decisions about dinner. My kids were whining that they were hungry for steak. I assured them that the lounge would not have steak, but they would not starve.

It turns out that the lounge DID have steak that night. What?!?! My kids were ecstatic. In addition to the usual bread, cheese and vegetables, the lounge had a decent main entrée every evening. Then at 8:00, we would go back for dessert, which usually included three pies or cakes. Yum!

The breakfast spread was equally impressive, with an assortment of cereal, breads, fruit, cheese and two hot dishes. We ended up eating all of our breakfasts and dinners in the lounge, which saved us a bunch of money.

But besides the stellar food, we just couldn’t get enough of the view. Watching the planes coming and going was mesmerizing.

Oh, and the sunsets…..

Gigantic Dogs

During our first day at the hotel, we saw a woman with a gigantic furry dog sitting on some steps in the lobby. Of course my kids asked if they could pet her dog, and she said yes. She said her dog is a Giant Alaskan Malamute. The photo doesn’t even do this dog justice. It’s huge! And fluffy!

The next day, we saw the same giant dog in the Regency Club lounge. Surprise! And a little weird, to be honest. He was laying right in front of the door greeting people.

When we left the lounge to head back down the elevator to our room, another guest started filling us in on the dog. He said the owner has lived in this hotel for 11 years and has owned several of those Giant Alaskan Malamutes. Also, there were other people in the lounge who just live at the hotel on a full-time basis.

I don’t know why, but I just found all this information very interesting. I have a hard time imagining living in a hotel full-time, let alone with a giant dog. Wouldn’t they get tired of the food in the lounge eventually? Maybe they have a really awesome room.

The Commute to San Francisco

Hyatt Regency SFO is definitely convenient to people who have a late or early flight to or from SFO airport. The hotel shares a shuttle with the nearby Marriott, and the shuttle runs continuously. It picks up at every terminal every 10-15 minutes like clockwork. We used it three times from the airport, and we never had to wait more than 10 minutes.

However, my kids and I were using the hotel as a home base to visit touristy stuff in San Francisco. And we weren’t the only ones taking advantage of the hotel’s cheaper cost to do this.

So our commute was like this: Wait outside the hotel for the shuttle (10 minutes max). Ride on the shuttle to the airport (10-15 minutes). Get off at the international terminal and walk to the information desk to buy discounted children’s tickets for the BART (kid tickets were not for sale at any BART stations, including the one in the airport). Wait for the BART train and ride it into the city (45 minutes). Get off at Embarcadero and wait for the streetcar to ride into the Fisherman’s Wharf/Pier 39 area.

Going back to our hotel, we always had trouble getting on a streetcar to get back to the BART station. The cars are small, and the crowds are large. We had to let several streetcars pass us by before we could squish on.

As you can see, our commute to all the action was at least an hour and 15 minutes each way. It was totally doable, but it became cumbersome.

On our last day, when we visited the California Academy of Sciences, I hit the easy button and just took and Uber there and back.

Is Hyatt Regency SFO Right for You?

If you just need a hotel close to the airport, Hyatt Regency SFO is a great choice. If you plan to tour San Francisco and you don’t mind adding on the extra shuttle, train and streetcar, Hyatt Regency SFO provides a good value.

However, if you have small kids and don’t want the hassle of commuting to the heart of things, I recommend staying in a different hotel in downtown San Francisco.

Accumulating Points to Stay at Hyatt Regency SFO

Chase has a Hyatt credit card (non-affiliate link) that has a bonus of 40,000 points after spending $2000 in the first three months. If you add an authorized user, you can get another bonus 5000 points. The annual fee of $75 is not waived.

You can also transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt. See this post on the Chase Sapphire Preferred, which would give you up to 59,000 points with no annual fee the first year. This card is in our affiliate network and we receive a commission if you apply through our site.

Have you stayed at Hyatt Regency SFO? Did you run into the dog?

Click here to view various credit cards and available sign-up bonuses

 

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