Last updated on November 20th, 2017 at 04:58 am
I spent the last week in San Francisco with Mrs. Jeffsetter with two objectives in mind for our time in the city:
- Attend a conference being put on by Google at the Intercontinental hotel (review of hotel to come in the future) – and more importantly
- To learn as much as we could about the city and find an apartment for our impending move to San Francisco
That’s right, we will be moving from Minnesota to San Francisco this summer and I couldn’t be more excited for the change! While I alluded to moving away from Minnesota to avoid Delta back in February, it was really a job opportunity for Mrs. Jeffsetter that was drawing us to the bay area.
That job opportunity has now become official, and much of our recent time has been focused on the logistics of moving to the west coast. Getting a house ready to put on the market and looking for a place to live in a desirable city has left little time for travel blogging. Now that we have a place to live in SF, it’s back to our regularly scheduled blogging.
A Week of Hotels in San Francisco is Expensive
In order to make sure we had ample time for apartment shopping, we decided to spend 8 nights in San Francisco. 4 of these nights would be at the Intercontinental hotel using a conference rate, but we still had 4 more nights to book. Since the nights were not consecutive, we wanted to minimize the number of hotel switches needed during the week. We decided to splurge on the first three nights and stay at the Four Seasons San Francisco, a beautiful hotel on all levels.
For our last night in the city we did not want to pay any money, so I looked into the best way to get a free night. It just so happened that my annual bonus for being a Chase Hyatt Visa cardholder was set to expire in September, which lead me to the Hyatt website to see what options were available.
While the Chase Hyatt Visa Card has a great signup bonus of 2 free nights at any Hyatt hotel after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months of holding the card and $0 fee in the first year, it also has a solid retention bonus for those decide to keep the card into year 2. In exchange for paying the $75 annual fee in year 2, you get a free night at any Hyatt category 1-4 property on your cardmember anniversary. Plus you get platinum status with Hyatt as long as you hold the card (at the very least this entitles you to free Internet with each stay). I find those benefits to be worthwhile when it comes time for the card to renew.
Finding Hyatt Free Night Category 1-4 Properties in San Francisco
Using Award Mapper, we can see that there are three Hyatt properties in San Francisco, and two of those are category 4 or lower. Award mapper continues to be an invaluable tool for me whenever I need to book hotels based on map proximity and just want to see the details I need (award category and points required).
One of the options was the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, which is located pretty much directly on the Embarcadero waterfront. This is a desirable location if you want to see the water when waking up or be near the business district.
Our other option was the Grand Hyatt San Francisco Union Square. This was actually closer to the Intercontinental, but not near the water.
Since we had a strong desire to be near the waterfront and the ratings for both hotels were pretty much the same, we chose to stay at the Hyatt Regency. While I didn’t maximize the value we received from our free night certificate (we got $25 less value if you simply look at the nightly rate), it seemed to better fit our needs. Plus, free is free.
Once we decided on a hotel, the redemption process was super easy. You simply log into your Hyatt account, select the free night certificate that’s in your account, and choose the available property online. It was so easy that I forgot to take screenshots.
By retaining the credit card for a second year we were able to save $176 on a hotel room night. Since we needed a place to stay in San Francisco that night, it was a great use of the free night certificate. It also allowed us to splurge on the Four Seasons on the front half of our trip.
How was the Hyatt Regency San Francisco?
It sucked. The Hyatt Regency was one of the worst hotels I’ve stayed in for quite a while. Learn why Mrs. Jeffsetter called it “the worst hotel for the money in America” in a future review. For now, I just wanted to share with you the process of getting value from Hyatt’s annual renewal gift.
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Congrats on the move Jeff! SF is one of my favorite cities! You will absolutely love it!
You might have mixed those up. The Grand Hyatt is a cat 5 property whereas the Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf is the other cat 4 property.
Good call. No idea why I made a screen shot of the grand hyatt back when I booked it then.
Huh. Well I’ve never stayed at the Regency, but have very much enjoyed stays at the Grand. However, we have eaten at the Regency at Christmas time and enjoyed the lobby, which is amazing. The restaurant not so much of course, but hey, you’re in this amazing lobby… Wouldn’t have expected you to hate the hotel though.
The Grand Hyatt does have gorgeous water views, you’ve just got to be in the know of what to book. Hyatt Regency is just ugly.
I’m staying at the regency over 4th of July and used also used my anny cert along with a endless possibilitys cert. Also as Rick mentioned Grand Hyatt is a cat 5 which you wouldn’t be able to use the anny cert for.
Hyatt Regency Embarcadero is my favorite hotel of the three Hyatts in San Francisco. Interested to see what was so bad about your stay. Hyatt Regency is also architecturally significant as a John Portman design with atrium. Portman brought atriums to hotel design and Hyatt was the hotel chain that supported his designs.
John Portman also designed the JW Marriott San Francisco and the entire Embarcadero complex with Le Meridien at the opposite end of the Embarcadero from Hyatt Regency was originally Park Hyatt.
It didn’t feel clean, no signage in the hotel ground level which confused wife and visitors, construction out front (out of control), musty smelling rooms, general dated feeling. Rooms were poorly designed. May have been a prostitute working the lobby bar. Lobby bar closed at 11:30 PM on a Friday night.
That’s funny. I go to SF at least 12 times a year for work, and the Intercon, Grand Hyatt and the Four Seasons are the three hotels I generally consider. Love the Intercon, but like the Grand Hyatt because I need the nights to requalify for Hyatt Diamond. The Four Seasons (and actually the Ritz Carlton), can sometimes be the cheapest option. If there’s something at the Moscone Center, don’t even look at the Intercon, and if it’s near a holiday the Grand Hyatt’s proximity to Union Square makes it expensive and crowded. On quite a few occasions, the Four Seasons or the Ritz has been the cheapest option (of those three or four).
Yeah, four seasons was reasonable compared to others (not cheapest , but good value for extra service levels).
Nice post – the last paragraph was funny. I was scratching my head most of the post wondering why you would ever pick the Regency over the Grand Hyatt and then realized you were picking between the Regency and the Fisherman’s Wharf property. I would’ve picked the Regency too, although I have read lots of not so great reviews about that property. I’ve stayed at the Grand Hyatt many times, and if it was in the mix for your decision, it should have been the clear winner. If you’re on vacation, the location is fantastic, with lots of activity, excitement, shopping, and restaurants nearby. The rooms and lobby were all recently renovated and are all gorgeous. The lounge is large, beautifully appointed, and has solid food offerings. In my opinion it is one of the best Grand Hyatts in the U.S. – clearly on a different level from the other SF Hyatt properties.
I felt pretty dumb after I realized the error in the post about category 4 properties. Would have loved to stay at the Grand Hyatt!
Grand Hyatt is a Cat 5.
Interesting post! I was wondering why you hated the Regency so much and just read your answer in one of the comments. I just booked 4 nights there for 224$/night at http://san-francisco.hotelscheap.org/Hyatt-Regency-San-Francisco-106067 where it had good reviews and wish I read your review sooner. Well, I guess since we’ll only sleep there and plan on spending most of our time exploring the city it won’t be that bad… Jealous you get to move to SF btw :)
I’m sure we just caught it on an off night :). You should be spending time outside of the hotel room anyway, right? It’s gorgeous there!
We are pretty excited for the move, other than the rent of course. Should be fun!