Hyatt Place at Anaheim Resort Review
Hyatt Place at Anaheim Resort/Convention Center is a hotel near Disneyland that’s about a 15-minute walk to the parks. This review features room photos, opinions on amenities, and our experience staying at the Hyatt Place Anaheim. We also cover how the Hyatt Place’s location makes it a surprisingly attractive option for Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, with a hack for a “free” shuttle.
If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you might be thinking, “wait, didn’t I just read this review last week?” No, that was a review of the Hyatt House at Anaheim Resort/Convention Center. This is Hyatt Place. BIG DIFFERENCE. Well, actually…small difference. Even on Hyatt’s hierarchy of different hotel types, these hotel types are right next to one another. Which sort of makes you wonder…why did Hyatt choose to build two hotels that are nearly the same a couple of blocks from one another?
Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe they couldn’t acquire the land for one mega hotel? Maybe it’s some elaborate marketing trick, as they know 50% of consumers favor “places” whereas 50% favor “houses.” I’m sure a rep from Hyatt would claim it’s because they target different audiences, but based on our observations (and common sense) both of these hotels are targeting Disneyland guests and Anaheim Convention Center attendees.
The Hyatt Place is in the Anaheim Convention Center ‘neighborhood’ more than anything, but its distance has one advantage: it is directly across the street from the Toy Story Parking lot. This lot offers a free shuttle to the parks. You’re looking at a <5 minute walk to the shuttle, then a free drive to the parks. This is a nice short-cut for a hotel that definitely provides some added appeal. Alternatively, you can just walk all the way, and it’ll take about 15 minutes.
If you read our Hyatt House Anaheim review, this room probably looks really familiar. Same idea here with the king bed and sectional couch.
Here, the finishings and details are nicer. The glass separating the couch from the bed is an especially nice touch.
The Hyatt Place Anaheim rooms feature mini-fridges, but microwave (unlike Hyatt House), which is probably one of the biggest differences between this and the Hyatt down the street.
Another big difference, and an inexplicable one, was that we found the beds not nearly as comfortable at Hyatt Place Anaheim. Our bed was quite firm–more so than any Hyatt in the United States at which we’ve stayed in recent memory.
In terms of other basic details, WiFi is free, there’s an in-room coffee maker, and parking is $18/night. Price-wise, this is actually almost identical to Hyatt House, with rates in the $130-220/night range, with higher rates here being convention nights and Disneyland’s busier tourist dates.
Pretty straightforward bathroom. Nicer than the Anaheim norm, but nothing you’ll be raving about on postcards/Facebook.
Walk-in shower is always a plus.
The Hyatt Place Anaheim also has a grab and go market, and other basic amenities…
…Like a fitness center…
…And a pool. This pool is fine by Anaheim standards, but I don’t think it’s as nice as Hyatt House’s.
Here’s the continental breakfast area…at night. Like the Hyatt House, the breakfast at Hyatt Place Anaheim is not very good. There are a couple of okay items, and the fruit and cold items are obviously fine, but I guess I expected more of Hyatt?
Overall, the Hyatt Place Anaheim is a nice hotel that makes the top 10 on our Disneyland Hotels Reviews & Rankings post. That’s quite respectable, but the problem is, I can’t think of a single thing about it, aside from the finishing quality of the rooms, that surpasses the Hyatt House. These two hotels are really comparable to one another, but House almost always has the edge–even in nightly rate (most of the time). With most other Anaheim hotels there are tradeoffs that make them conditional recommendations, as they are always somehow distinct from competitors. Not the case with Hyatt Place Anaheim. This hotel’s closest competitor is another Hyatt that beats it in just about every regard. Given that, it’s pretty easy to say: just stay there instead.
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YOUR THOUGHTS…
Have you stayed at Hyatt Place Anaheim? Did you like it? Do you think it has any amenities or features we didn’t emphasize sufficiently? What did you think of the rooms? Is this a hotel you’d consider? Please share your thoughts or questions in the comments section below!
the staff at this hotel was wonderful nothing could have made it better thank you
I stayed at the Hyatt place this past February and found it to be quite adequate. Although not a luxury property, it suited our needs quite well and was an inexpensive lodging option, trusting in the Hyatt name, I was not disappointed. I have been very intrigued by the look of the Hyatt House but have found its rates to be consistently higher by at least $50-$75.
Does anyone have any booking tips I don’t know that make it cheaper?
If you’re curious as to why chains have so many subtly different brands so near each other, it’s because most properties are franchises. If you’re a new hotel builder, thinking of affiliating with a chain, (supposedly) you’d be much more tempted if you were the first brand in that chain in that market/city. In practice, I suspect the effect is somewhat weaker, but I’ve heard it explained that way quite a few times before and it’s why Marriott has decided not to consolidate any of Starwood’s former brands following their merger.
Question – on extremely low crowd level days (well, I can dream!), does the Toy Story lot even operate? I’d assume they’d cram everyone into the M&F Parking Structure.
That makes sense, but I know franchising agreements (generally speaking, not referencing this in particular) often have a lot of territorial/protectionist language so the franchisor can’t flood the geographic region with the same/similar offerings.
I wonder if, in this case, the franchisees agreed to the arrangement ahead of time (these would’ve been in the planning stages at close to the same time) or if the franchisee for both is the same. I could see either scenario, as the Anaheim hotel market is booming.
We make a conscious effort to park in M&F, so I can’t say for sure, but I remember Toy Story being open even on a slow day last January. I think it’s always open.
Also, weren’t you taking your “business” elsewhere after that Food & Wine ‘food’ joke? 😉
Hopefully the sarcasm was sufficiently evident in that post – seems as good a place as any to thank you for the detailed Epcot F&W reviews – you must have saved me at least $50 in bad experiments and without it I would never have tried the Greenhouse Gurus’ crab gaspacho. I think the only thing I disagreed with you on was Brazil’s cheese bread which seemed on par with what is served at top Argentinian steakhouses in London – by which I mean pretty good!
I booked to visit DL next week and was considering giving this Hyatt a go – I think I’ll go for it. I was quite excited by DCA F&W, but have been put off by the price points – also I kind of don’t have any money after a week in Epcot F&W 😉