I like Hyatt and I had unused Suite Upgrade Awards which would expire soon. I don’t have any other travel plans coming up where I could use them so I decided to stay at the Hyatt Regency LAX International Airport. This review got updated after I revisited the hotel in February 2017 where the remodeling was finished in all areas except for the Regency Club. The Club was still not finished.

The Hotel has quite some history. It belonged to Hyatt before and after that, it became a Radisson and The Concourse Hotel. Hyatt reacquired the property and is turning it currently in a Hyatt Regency.

However, I didn’t find out anything of that until my arrival at the hotel. According to the website, it looked like a full functioning and remodeled hotel. Well, it is remodeled or lets put it that way, it is currently remodeled. A brief notice on the website would be nice that I would step into a heavy construction zone.

Only two of the four elevators were in service and during the first week, one of them even got shut down for a day at a time because of issues. The one time it had an electric burn and the elevator lights inside wouldn’t work. I still jumped on the elevator to get up to my room. The line at the elevator is pretty long. Even the guests would use the stairs to get to the second floor, the staircase was closed off and located inside the construction area. The second floor is housing ballrooms and the business center.

The Restaurant, Lounge, Bar, and Breakfast Area are all located inside another conference room on the other side of the hotel. This is just a temporary solution until the renovation is completed by the beginning of 2017. However, now you have to go outside the hotel to the valet parking area and walk the sidewalk down to the entrance to get to the restaurant.

The newly remodeled lobby invites you to hang out and relax here. All elevators are now working and the restaurant got moved to the lobby area. Easy access now to it right off the elevator. There is even a charging hub for your devices in the lobby. While you recharge in the lobby, your devices do as well.

Unfortunately, the Regency Club is still not open because of a water damage they had during the remodeling process. It is supposed to open in March. I might have to stay that long and if so I will for sure check it out. The club lounges are one of my favorite feature of being a top-tier Hyatt member.

But let’s begin with the Check-In

I arrived with the airport shuttle which is a joint venture between the hotel and the next door Quik-Park parking garage. At the airport, you have to find the curb with a sign for courtesy vans and wait for the shuttle.

The ride was very short because I was one of the last terminals getting picked up. To my luck, the shuttle was still empty and only a few passengers hopped aboard at my stop.

The shuttle bus driver made two stops one inside the parking garage for people picking up their car and continued on to the entrance of the hotel. However not every driver does that. Some only stop in the parking garage and you have to walk to the hotel. It’s a very short walk but still, some people, like me, have a lot of luggage.

I had only one guy in front of me and then I got to check-in. The agent found my reservation quickly and checked me in. When I started to prepare the rooms he was confused that I had a suite (I used my Suite Upgrade Awards) and was staying longer than one night with an upgrade. I booked the room/suite for 7 nights, the maximum a Suite Upgrade Award can be used for. He told me that this is unheard of that you can use the upgrade for more than one night and that he needed to talk to his manager. I was confused. I only had used this suite upgrade awards once before and it was a 3-night stay and had no issues. After a few minutes, he came back and apologized. He told me that his manager actually sold the suite under this conditions. Well yeah, he did, because I reserved it. Anyway, this was the only issue during check-in. I grabbed my bags and headed toward the elevators.

As I got off the elevator on the ninth floor, I noticed that one-half of the elevator area was not illuminated right. I could see that on the other side the lights were broken. Nobody of the hotel staff noticed that in over 2 weeks I stayed there. It was for sure already broken long before my arrival. I checked at other levels and they all had the lighting working fine. Not that it was a big deal or that you couldn’t see. But for a high-class hotel like the Regency, staff should notice that and report it to maintenance.

King Suite / Regency Suite

My room was on the 9th floor and facing north. Besides the view of the nearby parking garage which is the place where you will park your care if you do self-parking. I didn’t have much of a view. I could see the airport and watch planes coming in on the right runway.

Even tho the hotel was the closest one to the airport, the plane noise was not an issue. You barely notice them and it was no issue during nights either.

There was a divider in the room which separated the sleeping area from the living room kinda. On the living area side is a work desk and 55″ flatscreen TV on the other side another 55″ flatscreen TV and a dresser. Next to the entrance door was a small kitchen with a small sink but a huge refrigerator with glass door. Unfortunately no microwave.

The bathroom was accessible from the bedroom and space in between doubled as a closet with ways to hang your clothes and another dresser. The bathroom is huge and has a big mirror and shower area. They have a rain shower and a European-style removable shower handle. There is a sliding door with doubles as a full-size mirror between the bathroom and the closet.

The bed was very comfortable and I had no issues sleeping on it. In the beginning, I had troubles with the outlets and lights, because I didn’t see the little smart switch next to the room door. When you enter the room you have to put your room key in there to activate the power outlets. Almost called housekeeping about broken power outlets but then saw this spot and put my card in.

I used room service for dinner twice and delivery was quick and the staff friendly. However, they charge you quite a bit to bring it to the room. You can call them again after you are done and they will pick up your tablet and dishes.

To use the dry cleaning service you do as usual and fill out your form and put your clothes with the filled out form in a bag. After that, call the front desk and they will send someone up. At least that’s what they told me, twice. I waited both times for 30 minutes and then called again the front desk to have someone pick up my dry cleaning. It always worked the second time but never right away and I can’t assume they want you to wait more than 30 minutes before someone shows up to pick your stuff up.

Public Areas

As mentioned earlier. The hotel is under heavy construction. More than half of the lobby area is sealed off for construction and you can’t use it. I had to extend the stay another week and during the last week of my stay here, they had a Christmas tree put up in the lobby corner. Construction is now all done and the lobby space is huge and invites you to check out the bar, market or the restaurant. There are many spots now to sit down and relax. The lobby has a table with water dispensers in different flavors if you are in need of a quick refreshment.

I used the self-parking option the hotel offers. It’s $30/day and you have in and out privileges at the QuikPark parking structure behind the hotel. It seems the hotel has only parking passes for up to 5 days. For my first week, I got a 4-day and a 3-day pass. Right, when the first ticket expires and the next one should be valid, it’s not. I was able to come in with the old ticket but the next morning it wouldn’t take either one of the tickets. You have to get another ticket from the service point inside the garage.

The hotel has a large outdoor pool but this one was closed for maintenance too. There was nobody really working on it during the 2 weeks but it was closed. The pool is now open as well. This is great to soak up some sun no matter if you just got here or you are leaving Los Angeles. According to the hotel’s website, it’s the biggest pool in the area.

Next to the lobby is the gift shop. You will notice it if you arrive by shuttle. If you arrive at the valet parking side, you probably won’t notice the gift shop. It’s kinda hidden and you are not able to see it. The gift shop has a lot of stuff. Everything from clothing to drinks food, toiletries, and even luggage. As of right now, you can’t do room charge here, you have to pay with card or cash. The hotel is working on incorporating the gift shop. Points fan know why! You get then extra points for this purchases as well on your Hyatt Gold Passport account.

The fitness center is on the top floor, press “PH” inside the elevator. From there you have a great view of the airport and airfields. You can see the LAX Pylons illuminated at night. The fitness center is very well equipped and I am sure it’s good enough for a thorough workout.

Outside of the hotel and next to the pool is another area where you can sit down and relax. Here the engines of the planes taking off and landing at LAX. This area seems to be not very frequented by guests and is a good spot to get some me-time.

Dining