Well, count me surprised on this one! Normally, hotels either make their opening date as scheduled (which does not happen all the time) or it gets pushed out. It is more of a rare occurrence to have the new hotel open early! Yet, that is just what the new Grand Hyatt Athens has done, they have opened their doors a full 10 days before scheduled.
The Grand Hyatt Athens is Open
A room at the Grand Hyatt Athens
In all fairness, since this was a hotel previously, it was not as big of an ordeal as building a new hotel from the ground up. Plus, if some of the suites are not available yet, they just don’t have to make them available. But, for anyone that wanted to stay here, it is nice to know that it has already opened. I had just figured it would open when they said, but I saw this morning at TravelBloggerBuzz that they indeed opened ahead of schedule.
As before, rates are actually pretty decent for a hotel like this in Athens, especially for summer months. There is some concern over its location as it is not as centrally located as similar tier hotels in the SPG program but for some people, that may not matter as much.
A Special “Opening Offer”
If you act fast, you can actually lock in a rate that is better than the World of Hyatt Member Advanced rate – and it will come with a buffet breakfast as well. This is good news for those Hyatt members who do not have Globalist status and still would like to take advantage of breakfast while on vacation.
Here are the terms of this “Opening Offer”:
- Must be prepaid and cannot be changed or cancelled
- Comes with buffet breakfast
- Appears to be good for stays up through September 16
Now, since it is a prepaid rate, it says it must be reserved by August 11. In reality, from the terms, we don’t know how long this “opening offer” will last but I believe it was just launched when they opened so I wouldn’t be surprised to see it linger until their “real” opening of August 18.
Using Points
Of course, if you would rather just use points, it is a Category 3 so that means 12,000 points for a free night, or 6,000 points + $75 for a Points+Cash night, or a free Category 1 – 4 night.
