This summer, I wrote a post about how the Hyatt Capital Gate in Abu Dhabi was going to be converted into the first Andaz in the Middle East. At the time, Hyatt said they would reopen as such in late 2018. Well, true to that word, they are now open and there is some good news for award seekers!
The Andaz Capital Gate, the First Andaz in the Middle East, is Now Open
Link: Andaz Capital Gate
With the rebranding, they kept the 189 rooms but they still don’t mention how many of those are suites. It continues to occupy the 18-33rd floors of the Capital Gate building in Abu Dhabi, an intricate building.
Prices for the next couple of months are decent, around $100 or so, and go up to $880 for the Presidential Suite in that same timeframe. For such a suite in a country like the UAE, that is not that bad of a price (but not one I will be paying!).
The good news is that the Andaz Capital Gate is still a Category 3 property. This means that you can still redeem your Category 1 – 4 certificates for a free night there, or you can redeem 12,000 points for a free night stay. If you want to go with Points+Cash, remember that the new rules on this are that it will cost 6,000 points and half the price of the standard rate.
I had stayed in the Hyatt Capital Gate several times before and look forward to trying out the property as an Andaz. While I would not have originally though of the Andaz brand in Abu Dhabi, I have to say that this property already conveyed some of the Andaz-elements of local flair into it. So, it should be a nice place to stay!
Featured image is the standard, King guest room at the Andaz Capital Gate, Abu Dhabi
So what’s the difference? I’ve stayed here before as an HR. So now there’s no lounge and it’s supposed to be trendier?
you actually brought up a really good point here => http://s2.q4cdn.com/278413729/files/doc_financials/2018/q3/FINAL-Q3-2018-Earnings-Release.pdf
you can see on page 9 of the PDF, other than the tiny Unbound Collection, the 2nd smallest brand of Hyatt Corp is literally – “HYATT” straight up.
Andaz seems to perceived as a lot more premium of a brand than Hyatt-straight-up, and their RevPAR and ADR really reflects that.
If anything, maybe Hyatt could consolidate a little – downflag the subpar Hyatts to Regency, and upflag the better ones to Andaz ?