Last updated on January 28th, 2018 at 07:03 am
If it’s alright with you, I’m just going to finish off my backlog of Twin Cities hotels today and be done with it. While I lived in San Francisco for a year and currently live out of a suitcase, my roots are very much still planted in Minnesota. When I come back into town to teach or speak, I usually stay with my family. On a few occasions, though, I will get a hotel. In June of this year I stayed at the Millennium Hotel, St. Paul Hotel and the Marriott Minneapolis City Center. In May, I had an extended stay at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis. This is my review of that property.
The Hyatt Regency Minneapolis has been around for a long time, and I have been to this hotel several times in the past. The first time I was a child and the Jeffsetter family did a staycation in the hotel. I remember it being just about the coolest thing in the world when we stayed there.
Around 2007, a friend had their wedding reception at the hotel. I remember staying the night at the hotel and thinking that it was in desperate need of an upgrade. It just seemed out of date and dumpy.
In 2012 I found myself in the hotel again, receiving an award from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. At the time, I remember thinking about how nice the hotel had become, and finally got the upgrade that was overdue.
In May of 2015, I found myself staying at the Hyatt Regency again while teaching in Minneapolis. I booked a stay for 10 nights in the hotel, and decided to make it my homebase for my time in the Twin Cities. The rate for a long stay was much more reasonable than just staying a few nights at a time. My hope was to qualify for a Hyatt Diamond challenge during this stay + another, but that ended up not being necessary in the end (I was able to acquire Diamond status before this trip).
The Hotel
You could easily be fooled by the exterior of the Hyatt Regency and think that it is a sign of the era it was built. It is not exactly aesthetically pleasing, but at least the carpark area looks fairly modern.
I wish I had a better photo of the exterior of the hotel, but at least in the photo above you can get the idea. You can also see in this picture that an Anime conference was taking place in Minneapolis during my stay, which proved to be an “interesting” time during my visit. When I say interesting, I mean very annoying and uncomfortable.
The Room
I was upgraded to a club room, and I was situated on the club floor during my stay. My room was about 10 doors down from the club lounge, but I somehow can’t seem to find any pictures of the club itself, even though I ate breakfast there every day!
The main addition to the club room was more space and this couch. The views of Minneapolis were nice as well.
As a Diamond Member, I was given an amenity of food and wine. The food was delicious. Apple chips covered in chocolate and Peanuts in chocolate. The wine was what you would expect for a freebie. Nothing special, and I actually don’t think I managed to even drink the entire bottle, even with 10 nights in the hotel. Not that I’ve become too big of a wine snob, but my days of drinking wine “because it is there” are pretty much gone. Now if I drink wine it has to be worth the effort.
Ok, I have become a wine snob.
The Bathroom
I did not really bring my photography A-game in this hotel, I guess, because I only have a this one photo of the bathroom, and it’s really just me in the mirror.
With an absence of pictures, I will just describe the contents. There was a sink! A shower and toilet too! It was just like most hotel bathrooms you will visit!
That’s about it!
The Views
My favorite part of this hotel were the amazing views of Downtown Minneapolis that it provided from my 12th floor room. Here we have Minneapolis at night. On the left hand side, you can see Target Field lit up for a baseball game that night. The Twins probably won, because they are awesome. You can also see the Target Center and Loews hotel to the right of Target Field. You may recall those from the Marriott City Center review.
The view at night was beautiful. I have used this photo in presentations and other descriptions of Minneapolis, and it will probably be my go-to Minneapolis picture for years to come.
Side note: We put together a Minneapolis Skyline jigsaw puzzle in our San Francisco apartment earlier this year while homesick. That professional puzzle was a nice view of Minneapolis. I think that this photo would make a better jigsaw puzzle. Is this the beginning of a jigsaw puzzle empire? Are we doing this?
The daytime views are quite nice as well. Here is the same angle, but in daytime.
And here is a slightly different angle with more skyline. As you can tell it was drab that May day in Minneapolis. I foolishly thought it would be fairly warm in May in Minneapolis. It was not, and I ended up coming down with a serious cold by walking around without a jacket.
Now I remember why I moved away in the first place.
Things to do around the Hyatt Regency
Several mornings I went for a run around Minneapolis. The hotel is connected to the Loring Greenway, which provided a nice route on the west part of downtown Minneapolis (Loring Park).
My run took me to the Walker Art Center, where I viewed the most famous art installation in Minnesota in person for the first time.
Funny how you do certain things as a tourist. I never went here in 33 years as a resident, but the Hyatt Regency took me there!
I also entertained myself throughout the course of my trip by visiting friends. My favorite part was an impromptu visit to a Dragonforce concert. Dragonforce is one of my favorite guilty pleasure bands and they happened to be playing during my visit. My friend Kraig and I went to the concert, and I was still dressed in my work clothes. Needless to say, I didn’t fit in aesthetically, but I rocked just the same.
Dragonforce is the best.
The Anime Convention
I gotta say, the weirdest subplot of the entire thing was this Anime convention that was happening nearby. Over the weekend of my stay EVERYONE in the building was in costume. While I am not one to make fun of people for their choice of self expression, I can say this: It sucked to stay here as a regular guest.
Imagine a sleepover with 500 teenagers, and that is what I was dealing with at the Hyatt Regency during this convention. Being on the top floor of the hotel, I had to stop about 8 times before reaching the room. Elevator waits took forever and smelled of poor hygiene and teenage hormones.
Needless to say, I stayed with my parents the rest of the weekend until the event was over.
The Sentence
I will stay at the Hyatt Regency again. It’s not like there is an anime convention every week.
Working against the hotel, though, is that it is pretty expensive, yet not located near the action of Downtown Minneapolis. It is a 5-7 block walk to get anywhere. The Millennium Minneapolis is a better value hotel right across the street.
Yet, this hotel is 3 blocks from where I teach, so I would stay here again for that reason. I will stay here again if the rates are reasonable, but the hotel seems to be charging $250/night for the rest of the year. No hotel in Minneapolis is worth that much, especially the Hyatt Regency.
Overall this is a solid hotel experience. The treatment for Hyatt Diamond members is modest (bottle of wine and club access), but better than hotels where I have no status.
Or maybe I will just stay with my parents to save money!
