Hyatt Place Orlando I-Drive Convention Center

“Amazing stay at this Hyatt Place”

I cannot recommend this place highly enough! There’s plenty of hotels in Orlando that used to be posh and are now crumbling apart at the seams but this Hyatt Place here is the exact opposite as they’ve done a stellar job with their recent renovation. Now finished, the property looks and feels like … more

I cannot recommend this place highly enough! There’s plenty of hotels in Orlando that used to be posh and are now crumbling apart at the seams but this Hyatt Place here is the exact opposite as they’ve done a stellar job with their recent renovation. Now finished, the property looks and feels like one of the newer Hyatt Places out there and the staff is just so lovely, I could not fail them! My stay went off to a good start when I was offered an early check in free of charge as a Hyatt Globalist member. Arriving just shortly past noon all the way from Dubai, my room was not quite ready but the lovely check in lady assured me that I’d receive the first available. She also acknowledged my Hyatt status and proactively offered me daily housekeeping and 4pm late check out. On that note: Standard housekeeping for non-members is a ridiculous “only every four night” policy which is an industry wide problem here in the US and completely outrageous if you ask me. If the hotel industry is looking for a sure fire way to make people book a cheaper accommodation like Air BnB or similar, taking away these little benefits like daily housekeeping that should differentiate a hotel from those, is the solution to total industry meltdown. But again, this seems to be a problem beyond this individual property so I won’t hold it against them and it just shows once again why I value my Hyatt Globalist status so much! Speaking of- I received my room only about 10 minutes after arriving and it was only on a lower floor which is a bit of a shame but hey, I arrived 3 hours before usual check in so no complaints. Other than that, the staff made me feel truly special and said check in lady made a real effort to greet me by name (and it’s a rather complicated name for an English speaker so she did particularly well!) every single time she saw me which I found just phenomenal! We’re talking Hyatt Place here, most Park Hyatts don’t manage (or bother) to do this! The room was larger than I was expecting with a very generous sofa area, a small but welcome work desk and even a small kitchenette area with fridge, coffee maker and microwave even. I did not need the latter but it will be quite useful for some people I can imagine! Bathroom was okay enough and I was pleased that it was a walk in shower rather one of those awful showers over a bathtub that you get far too often in similar hotels here in the US (in the worst cases equipped with a mildly sticky plastic shower curtain- yikes!). Nothing of this here and you could tell throughout that the renovation was just recent and very thorough: New faux wooden floor boards? Tick. New carpets? Tick. Bathroom sink? Air con? All new. The bed was a bit too soft and plastic-y for my liking but not the worst I’ve ever had and again, I am lowering my expectations as this is just a Hyatt Place. My very favourite thing of the entire property though was the little swimming pool out the back as it had proper, refreshing cold water which is such a rarity here in North America. It was zero heated, just the way I like it and so much better than many much higher classed hotels that have lukewarm swimming pools, sometimes even with milky water in it (Thompson Austin- I am looking at you!). Not here: Crisp and clear and properly refreshing which also had the added benefit that families with their screaming children would only disrupt my quiet time for short bursts at a time. Excellent in my books! ;-) Any real complaints? Breakfast was a bit too early finishing at 9 on weekdays and generally tasteless but at least they swapped around the variety of items- one day it was sausage links that will cover your sodium intake for the entire week in one go, the next day it was bland and soggy Canadian bacon. Sweet option one day was French toast and then the next pancakes. So again, good enough for a place of this category and to my surprise the coffee (given it’s American drip filter, granted) was rather strong and tasty instead of the watery “unlimited” stuff you’d get at your IHOP or similar. Leaves the really weird air conditioning: It was a new unit but one of those old-fashioned box in the room kind of things which blew fairly decent cold air and wasn’t too noisy. But strangely, it was operated via a motion sensor system so whenever you were out and about, it would blow cold air but when you most needed, sleeping, it would stop as soon as you stop moving. And of course, you are also guaranteed to arrive to a steamingly hot room every night when you get home- a nice cold room to come home to after a busy day being yet another of those hotel amenities that I typically value a lot. So yes, this should be fixed somehow as I woke up in sweat several times during my nights here as that thing was simply not going at all until I stepped up and waved my hands at the motion sensor. Quite odd, if you ask me. Finally: Location. Ideal for Universal or Seaworld and the Orlando Icon with all the associated attractions is just a 5 minute walk up the road. Plenty of dinner options, there’s a Denny’s just across the parking lot but then also plenty of non-chain restaurants which I did not try but there was an Italian, steakhouse and a Mexican all in immediate proximity and probably plenty of others as well. The location will be particularly convenient for the new Universal park opening next year which is literally just down the road. Not quite walking distance but one thing I‘ve learnt with Orlando is that you really don’t need a car as Lyfts and Ubers are both easily available and affordable to get around. I used to always rent a car here because well, it’s America, right? But with theme parks price gouging for parking like nothing and cars via app being so accessible, it’s actually not worth it anymore in my opinion. On my last day here, I even went over to Tampa for Bush Gardens and guess what- they offer a very convenient free shuttle bus which happens to leave right up at the Icon which is a 5 minute stroll from the hotel. How easy is that!

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