Hotel Review: Hyatt Place Columbus/Dublin

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a HUGE Oklahoma Sooner fan. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been to a game, but this year I was able to make my way to one of the most anticipated games of the season! I booked the hotel portion of this trip a while ago, because it was refundable if something happened and I couldn’t go. There were a couple of options, but in the end I decided on the Hyatt Place Columbus/Dublin.

Hotel Review: Hyatt Place Columbus/Dublin

Price:

I have been a believer that Hyatt Places and Hyatt Houses are some of the most underrated Hyatt properties. While people are more wanting Park Hyatt’s and fancier stays, when I  have to use my points, I use them for Hyatt House/Places.

The Hyatt Place Columbus/Dublin is a category 1 Hyatt property. This makes it an absolute steal at 5,000 points per night! I was shocked to see any award availability, but I was happy to find it!

This would not have been a cheap stay had we actually paid for this room. I looked at other dates when there wasn’t a large event going on and noticed the price for this room was double to triple the normal price for the game.

I did redeem 10,000 Hyatt points for this stay, which is a fantastic value seeing the price of the room was way more than it’s normal rate. What makes that redemption even better, breakfast is included. It might not be some fancy Park Hyatt breakfast, but in my experience the Hyatt Place breakfast has been very good.

For you point per cent people out there, this breaks down to about 5.4 cents per point.

I find it a solid redemption just for the fact there was space at a category 1 Hyatt about 8 miles from the stadium to see my Sooner’s play!

Customer Service:

I’m not sure I have ever had a poor customer  service experience at any Hyatt I’ve ever stayed at. This stay was no exception.

While we were checking into our hotel room, we were greeted by a very nice front desk representative. During check in she told us that as an Explorist we were entitled to 2 bottles of water daily. We were given the option to take 2 bottles now, then 2 more bottles the following day, or we could just grab all 4 bottles at once. I opted for the 4 bottles at once, as I probably would have forgotten about them.

At check in, I wanted to grab my key and get to our room that I had forgotten to request late check out. The night before we were to check out, I requested late check out and that was added to my reservation. My request could have been denied, but without skipping a beat, the Hyatt staff was able to accommodate late check out.

Room:

We booked a King bed on a high floor (floor 4) with a sofa bed. The beds at any Hyatt we’ve ever stayed at have always been extremely comfortable.

One issue I noticed was the lack of electrical outlet space by the bed. Both were in use and in order to charge my phone, I had to unplug the clock. Having better placed electrical outlets would be a nice upgrade for the room.

I felt the room layout was very nice. It made the room feel quite spacious considering it was about 300 sq ft.

The sofa was very comfortable to relax on, while enjoying a cup of coffee and flipping through my Twitter feed.

The desk in the room is great if you have work and the coffee machine brewed a nice cup of coffee. The door connected to the next room, which would be great if you were traveling with others and had 2 adjourning rooms.

The sitting area was well placed, although the TV’s placement seemed a bit off. It was in between the bed and the sitting area.

While I understand the idea of having access to it from both rooms, it seemed it could have been better placed

The bathroom area was nothing special. This isn’t a Park Hyatt, so there wasn’t marble floors for your bathroom, but it gets the job done.

We couldn’t put our finger on it, but there was a weird odor coming from the bathroom that was sporadic. That was unpleasant, but we were only in the room for a couple of hours to relax and sleep. Most of our time (as I hope your time) is spent out in the city, so things like that don’t particularly bother me.

If it had been extremely overwhelming I would have said something. This was more of an inconvenience, not something that destroyed my trip. I’ve learned to roll with the punches and realize not every room will be perfect.

Breakfast:

When you stay at a Hyatt Place, your breakfast is included. Sure it might not be some fancy Park Hyatt breakfast, but any breakfast that is included is fine by me! 🙂

There quite a decent amount of options, hot food items including oatmeal, scrambled eggs, potatoes with cheese, and bacon or sausage. There were cold options such as yogurt, cereal, and fruit.

The coffee was “Seattle’s best,” but the first day it was more like hot water with a splash of coffee. It was pretty watered down and I ended up throwing it away

A complaint that I had was the sour left out for people and we found that out the hard way. I definitely didn’t expect that to occur. Other than a mediocre cup of coffee and sour milk, the breakfast was good.

Location:

This hotel was about 20 miles from the Columbus airport, which wasn’t too bad. The hotel website says it is about 8 miles from the Ohio State Football Stadium, which seemed accurate. It was a pretty quick Uber/Lyft ride to downtown Columbus (about $25 for the ride).

Dublin is on the other side Columbus and while it might not seem too far, it was a sizable distance. This was due to the fact there were many people in the area for the Ohio State Football game.

Although I was not happy to see every one of my Uber/Lyft rides being charged surge pricing including an absolutely absurd 450% on my ride back to the hotel from the stadium. That’s a whole different story.

While the point value at 5,000 points per night were great, if you were looking to attend an event in Columbus, either at Ohio State, or in downtown I would probably look for a different hotel. It will save you money/time on Uber/Lyft rides which seemed to add up quite quickly in Columbus.

Overall:

Considering we were going to Columbus to see one of the most anticipated games of the season it was great to see award space at a category 1 hotel just a few miles from the stadium. At 5,000 points per night, it’s really hard to beat.

The staff was friendly and great, as they always are. The food selection for breakfast was solid and delicious (except for the sour milk).

The room was nice, even with a sporadic odor coming from bathroom. The bed was very comfortable and the sofa was a great spot to relax.

The location of the hotel wasn’t terrible, but if I were to go to Columbus again for a football game, I’d probably look for a hotel a little closer to my event. This is mainly due to the fact Uber/Lyft were more expensive here than anywhere else I have been.

Have you found cheap award space for a big event before?

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