Hyatt Regency Irvine 2009 Review Part 2: Rooms and Conclusion

Here is Part 2 of the review of my Hyatt Regency Irvine visit. Part 1 was mainly about the public areas that you would see around the hotel. I would suggest for you to read Part 1 so that you can feel a sense of continuity throughout this post.

In the afternoon we received our rooms and so up we went on the elevators, where we noticed they were ULTRA slow. 4 elevators for a 14 story hotel was decent, but slow elevators were not, especially when the Hyatt was holding a conference with more than 200 people attending. Wait times for an elevator were at average from 3-5 minutes for one elevator, and with the attendees crowding at the elevator halls, it was bad not only for the attendees but for the other customers trying to come out from the elevators. Traffic congestion, for sure!

Like other Hyatts, this Hyatt had some windows nearby the elevators which you could look outside at.

Walking down the hallways it was bright with clean lines and slight decorations from the trees and lights.

And then I arrived at my room, room 506, which I ended up sharing with three other people. As you would expect, I could not get good pictures with so many people in the room. But I did take some pictures when my roommates were not in the room.

The entry was quite simple. To the left was the entry to the bathroom as well as a wooden closet painted in white to put clothes in. To the right was one full length mirror. Plenty of room, not very congested entry. Easy, free flowing movement.

(I set up this photo...)

The room was medicore in size- probably around 400 or so square feet. Not much space to really move around due to the fact it was a double bed room, but the space between the bathroom and main door was large due to a closet. Above you can see the beds. I was not able to take any wider photos of the room showing everything as I was not the first one into the room, and afterwards the room was messy. I don't think you want to see any photos that really do not show the room as is? Nor did I sleep on them, but they were the usual Hyatt Grand bed which is cushy but also firm.

Why did I not sleep on a bed? Because I made my own. Besides, I did not want to sleep with people I barely knew then at the time. Here is what you do. The first two portions are the sofa and the leg rest. The foot area comes from the work table chair which I'll show you next. Place them together, and fill the gaps so that your back doesn't feel weird. Then, add the blankets and pillows and towels as necessary (found in the closet/bathroom) and you are done! Simple! I've done this in many places, but those looked much prettier than this one :).

As for the nightstand, it housed a lamp, telephone, a iHome for playing music, coffee and tea, and magazines. There was also a writing pad with the same pen that was available at Hyatt Regency Arlington and Hyatt Regency Boston, which is actually a favorite hotel pen of mine. It may be plastic-y but it is a nicely shaped pen and everytime I visit a Hyatt now I'll try to get one of these pens since they are just so nice.

If you could not see it, here is a more detailed photo of the tea and coffee. Like at all the Hyatts in America I have been too (Machester Grand Hyatt San Diego, Grand Hyatt Seattle, Hyatt Regency Arlington, and Hyatt Regency Boston), here they had a selection of coffee and tea to choose from with packets of creamer, sugar, stirrers, and the like along with Hyatt branded paper cups. However, this time, it was TAZO tea instead of the usual Twinnings that we have seen before. Hyatt's been changing brands and modernizing so this may just a permanent change!

Here are the magazines. Yes, I should have adjusted the photos for you for the pleasure of looking at these photos but I was too lazy to learn my Sony W90 (and thus, why should have I even upgraded to a DSLR? Bad! Do not be like me!), I never learned to adjust white balance and such. Yes, although you actually can, it's buried in a menu, and with uncomfortable buttons that move slowly, why even bother? Doesn't mean I should have not adjusted it though. Now I know, but now the W90 is not under my possession anymore.

The TV Amoire housed plenty of things, including:

A Hamilton CV1 one cup coffeemaker as seen in other Hyatts across the US and a CRT Panasonic TV. Old, but usable!

The bottom portion house several cabinets, a safe which I never used, and the minibar which I did not open.

As for other things in the room, here was the work table in the room. It had a internet cable, the telephone, advertisements, a lamp, and the hotel directory. Oval shaped and made out of wood and glass, it suited the room quite well.

Light mountainous paintings were atop the work table. Simple, but it matched the colors of the room quite nicely.

As for other parts of the rooms, here were the blinds. I would have taken a picture of the sofa with it but the room was messy...

Speaking of the bathroom, it was tiny- just like the Hyatt Regency in Boston. The same design scheme too! Hyatts play copycat with each other. It was so tiny that it would not be comfortable to move around to the shower with the door open- basically, if you just wanted to get something out of the shower, you would have to open and close the door to get to the item. Plus, the door lock not working- not good for a group of people that are not family.

The sink area was a copycat of Hyatt Regency Boston with the exception of a lack of the perfume sticks the Boston location had put in to our room back when we were there. Simple, but workable.

The shower was a shower and tub combo with a curved shower curtain. The showerhead was a Moen showerhead which had different functions- water pressure was sufficient. Inside there was a single bottle of shampoo which was probably not one on purpose as there was a set of toiletries already:

Placed nicely on a towel too! How nice.

Speaking of toiletries, they were Portico Spa toiletries as expected. Not expected was the fact they were White Ginger, not Lavender and Citrus that we saw in all the other Hyatts in the US with the exception of Seattle's Grand Hyatt which used White Ginger. There were two bars of soap, a bottle of shampoo, a bottle of conditioner (used???), and a tube of Aquafresh toothpaste which was free, made for Hyatt. I was not expecting the toothpaste! Most hotels in the U.S. just give soap and shower caps. Rarely do they give out accessories like toothpaste or shaving cream.

If you have stayed at Hyatt the past two years, you will probably notice here that the bottles for the shampoo/conditioner have changed from being elliptical to cylindrical. The good thing is, they were larger! Good.

And if you needed ice, you could go out to the ice machine located on each floor for ice. We took some and used plenty.

After a long day, we went to sleep after watching The Day the Earth Stood Still (new version). After being woken by my set alarm, I looked out and the window was like this:

You might ask, what is this? It is actually water. Condensation. This happened during my stay at the Mirage as well, and if you can't see clearly, the water is INSIDE the room and not outside. Interesting? Yes. I never see this at home, but I have seen it in hotels with windows that can open. This Hyatt does have windows that can open.

And I never noticed until the next morning how the view was like in our room. Never looked out during the day and people were in the room during the afternoon. Taco Bell's building is one of these skyscrapers! Below is the pool. And you can see the Sony W90 in action. :)


Conclusion

So how was the Hyatt Regency Irvine? I would say it would be fine for a business traveler working. The rooms are not really high tech with Wi-Fi or such, but it works as a comfortable and clean place to stay with nice decorations around. Our room was a bit worn in spots with the lock and some fabric starting to break apart in the headerboard of the beds, but otherwise it was okay. The Hyatt was not very extravagant or luxurious, but it worked as a conference hotel or a comfortable base to go visit the OC in.

Pretty much the negatives are: Lack of light in some areas, sluggish elevators which can hamper conference events and people staying there, rooms are a bit dated.

As for positives, the hotel was: clean, comfortable, and had pleasant public spaces with the exception of the lighting. I would stay there again if I needed to have a place to stay in the OC. However, if I wanted a relaxing getaway or a luxurious stay I would pick a more expensive hotel.


Hyatt Regency Irvine
17900 Jamboree Road
Irvine, California, USA 92614
Tel: +1 949 975 1234

The next portion of the review is on a complimentary breakfast buffet that the hotel had prepared for us.

Other posts in this series:
Hyatt Regency Irvine 2009 Review Part 1: Check-In and Public Spaces
Souplantation- Irvine
Hyatt Regency Irvine 2009 Review Part 2: Rooms and Conclusion
California Pizza Kitchen- Irvine
Hyatt Regency Irvine 2009 Review Part 3: Breakfast