- Introduction: Two Trips To The Southern Hemisphere
- Review: Copa Airlines Business Class 737 (MIA-PTY)
- Review: Crowne Plaza Panama Airport
- New Panama Airport Terminal 2: Impressive(ish)
- Review: Copa Club Panama Airport Terminal 2
- Review: Copa Business Class 737-800 (PTY-LIM)
- Review: Sumaq Lounge Lima Airport (LIM)
- Review: Priority Pass Restaurants Lima Airport
- Review: LATAM Business Class 767 (LIM-MIA)
- Review: Hyatt House & Hyatt Place LAX
- Review: Qantas First Lounge Los Angeles (LAX)
- Review: Oneworld Lounge Los Angeles (LAX)
- Review: Alaska Lounge Los Angeles (LAX)
- Review: Amex Centurion Lounge Los Angeles (LAX)
- Gorgeous: LAX Midfield Satellite Concourse
- Review: Fiji Airways Business Class A350 (LAX-NAN)
- Review: Fiji Airways Lounge Nadi Airport (NAN)
- Review: Fiji Airways Business Class A330 (NAN-AKL)
- Review: Park Hyatt Auckland, New Zealand
- Review: Air New Zealand Lounge Auckland (AKL)
- Review: Strata Lounge Auckland (AKL)
- Review: Air New Zealand Business Class 787-9 (AKL-LAX)
During my two trips to the Southern Hemisphere, I had a roughly 36-hour layover in Los Angeles, prior to my Fiji Airways A350 flight to Nadi. I spent much of this time at LAX visiting lounges (which I’ll be reviewing shortly), but I also had the chance to review one (or two, depending on your perspective) of Hyatt’s newest properties near LAX.
Specifically, I stayed at the dual-branded Hyatt House & Hyatt Place LAX. This is a single building that has a total of 401 rooms — that includes a 272-room Hyatt Place, and a 129-room Hyatt House. In reality this is a single hotel with just two different types of rooms.
All things considered I was impressed by this property, and in some ways I prefer it to the Hyatt Regency LAX. However, I wouldn’t stay again, because I have issues supporting the owner and developer of the property (Aaron Schock).
In this post:
Booking the Hyatt House & Hyatt Place LAX
Initially I booked a single night at the Hyatt House. The simple reason I chose to book a Hyatt House is because I had never stayed at the brand before, and I wanted to check that off my list for World of Hyatt’s Brand Explorer promotion.
For the night I was staying, the cash rate was around $200, or I could redeem 12,000 World of Hyatt points, as this is a Category 4 World of Hyatt property. Personally I value World of Hyatt points at 1.5 cents each, so redeeming points would have been a bit better of a deal.
However, I ended up paying cash for the stay, as I’m closing in on lifetime Globalist status, and want to get there ASAP.
I ended up booking a second night at the Hyatt Place. Why? My flight was only at midnight, and I really needed some more sleep. Furthermore, I was curious to compare the rooms at the Hyatt Place, since I found the whole dual-brand concept at this hotel to be different than I was expecting. The rate for my night at the Hyatt Place was around $160 (which would also inch me closer to lifetime Globalist status).
Hyatt House & Hyatt Place LAX location & airport shuttle
The Hyatt House & Hyatt Place LAX are located at 5959 W Century Blvd. I had arrived at Terminal 4 and decided to just walk to the hotel, since the weather was nice. The walk took around 20 minutes — it’s amazing how bad the area around LAX is for pedestrians, as the sidewalks are in awful condition, crossing streets is complicated, etc.
Alternatively, the Hyatt House & Hyatt Place offer a complimentary shuttle service. However, it’s not at all branded for the property, so you need to know what you’re looking for. Specifically, guests at this property can use the Airport Center Parking shuttle.
To make matters even more complicated, these shuttles can have very different appearances, as you’ll see below.
If you’re going from the airport to the hotel, you’ll find the shuttle in the red zone for “hotel & private parking shuttles” on the departures level. Meanwhile when departing the hotel, you’ll want to go to the adjacent parking lot, where there’s a shuttle waiting area. The shuttle doesn’t run on any consistent schedule, but rather operates every 20-30 minutes.
The Hyatt House & Hyatt Place LAX are in a building that was originally built in 1967 by architect Welton Becket, the same person who designed LAX’s iconic Theme Building. I assume this used to be an office building, before it opened as a hotel in 2021.
Hyatt House & Hyatt Place LAX lobby & check-in
The Hyatt House & Hyatt Place have a really fun, stylish, and bright lobby, with plenty of seating, a pool table, and even a small fireplace of sorts.
The lobby also has a grab & go market, where you can purchase snacks, drinks, and other essentials you may need.
I was confused by the hotel concept at first. I had assumed that since this was a dual-branded property, there were basically two hotels housed in the same building. I figured the Hyatt House & Hyatt Place had separate reception areas. Nope, that’s not the case. The hotels have the same reception area, and for all practical purposes this is a single hotel.
The only difference is that there are slightly different room designs depending on whether a room is classified as being part of the Hyatt House or Hyatt Place.
The people working at the front desk were friendly, but didn’t seem to know what they were doing. That wasn’t their fault, as they clearly just weren’t trained. For example:
- When I checked in, the associate only took a $150 credit card authorization, even though my room rate was more than that, and wasn’t pre-paid; she ended up going into the back office, and then came out five minutes later, thanked me for bringing this to her attention, and charged me correctly
- I overheard a Globalist member asking about free parking on an award stay, and the associate wasn’t familiar with that, so had to check in the back office if that was offered
On the plus side, I was proactively given two complimentary bottles of water.
Eventually I had my room key, and headed off to my room, where I was excited to get some rest.
Hyatt House LAX guest room
The property’s elevators are right near reception. This is one of those elevator systems where you select the floor you’re going to on a monitor, and then it tells you which elevator to go to. The hotel has 14 floors, in addition to the penthouse.
The design of this property is seriously impressive. So many limited service properties save money on finishes, while this property had beautiful finishes across this board.
At the Hyatt House I was assigned room 427, on the fourth floor.
The room was great — it had a king size bed, a sofa, a kitchenette, and some high-top seating with both an office chair and a stool.
The kitchenette had a sink, microwave, dishwasher, stove, and all kinds of tableware.
There was also an in-room coffee machine.
The bathroom featured a sink, a toilet, and a walk-in shower, with toiletries from KenetMD.
My room didn’t have much in the way of views, unfortunately.
Hyatt Place LAX guest room
The following day I checked into room 607 at the Hyatt Place (yes, on the sixth floor of the same building). This had to be the nicest furnished Hyatt Place room I’ve ever stayed in. Usually Hyatt Place properties have such bland and minimalist design, while in this case the room felt like what you’d expect at a full service, upscale hotel.
The room had a king size bed, a sofa, a desk with a chair, and a similar bathroom to the other room.
The room also had some (obstructed) views of the airport, so obviously I preferred this view.
Hyatt House & Hyatt Place LAX gym
The Hyatt House & Hyatt Place LAX have a large gym on the basement level. While the gym had a large selection of cardio and weight equipment, I found much of it to be in bad condition, and to not function correctly. I guess some maintenance is already needed in the gym, even though this property isn’t even a year old.
Hyatt House & Hyatt Place LAX pool
The Hyatt House & Hyatt Place have a pool and hot tub on the penthouse level. This is certainly something that many will enjoy, especially those traveling to or from colder climates.
Hyatt House & Hyatt Place LAX shoresLAX restaurant
The Hyatt House & Hyatt Place have shoresLAX as the signature restaurant, which is also located on the rooftop level. Interestingly when I Google this place now, it shows as temporarily closed, and mention of it has also been removed from the Hyatt website. I’m not sure what exactly has happened there in recent weeks.
I decided to have dinner here during my stay, and like the rest of the property, this is much better than I would have expected at a limited service property. The restaurant’s indoor space has a nice design, and the restaurant also has a great outdoor terrace with amazing views of planes on approach.
I enjoyed sitting outside and watching planes landing on the northern runways.
Below you can find the food and drink menu, as well as the happy hour menu.
To drink, I ordered a dirty martini, which was excellent.
Then to eat, I ordered the chopped salad without bacon, and I added salmon. This was a very good meal.
Hopefully the restaurant reopens again soon. I imagine the economics are tricky, since you’re probably not going to get too many locals dining at the Hyatt House & Hyatt Place, meaning you’re mostly reliant on guests who have a quick overnight at the airport.
Hyatt House & Hyatt Place LAX breakfast & lobby bar
Both the Hyatt House & Hyatt Place LAX offer complimentary breakfast to guests, daily from 6:30AM until 10AM. I was at the airport during this time reviewing lounges, so I wasn’t able to check out the breakfast spread. However, the breakfast room is on the lobby level, and I imagine it was your typical Hyatt Place breakfast.
The breakfast room has both indoor and outdoor seating.
There’s also a bar area on the lobby level, which serves lunch.
Bottom line
The Hyatt House & Hyatt Place LAX impressed me. This has to be one of the nicest limited service Hyatt properties I’ve seen in terms of the design of public spaces and rooms, as well as in terms of the rooftop restaurant. There were definitely some areas for improvement, though, including the service and the shuttle.
This was also my first stay at a dual-brand hotel, and it’s not at all what I was expecting. Even though the Hyatt House & Hyatt Place are marketed as separate hotels, they’re really just one property. There are two different room types, but everything else is shared between the hotels.
For Hyatt loyalists, this is a solid alternative to the Hyatt Regency, as you shouldn’t really feel like you’re “downgrading.”
If you’ve stayed at the Hyatt House & Hyatt Place LAX, what was your experience like? What LAX property should I check out next time?
Does anyone know if Aaron Schock is still the owner (as of October 2023)?
Looking forward to the future disclaimers about the owners when flying EK first!
Lucky, you might as well boycott Hyatt completely if you’re going to bring politics into this.
"However, I wouldn’t stay again, because I have issues supporting the owner and developer of the property (Aaron Schock)."
But no qualms about supporting the governments of the UAE, Qatar, etc?
Ok then.
You're allowed to hold different entities to different standards, in regards to how they are related to you or how much your actions can even influence them.
If you want to mount a real defense of Aaron Schock here, instead of a false dilemma fallacy, go ahead.
That used to be Tishman Airport Center II. Tishmam Airport Center I is now H Hotel a Curio and Homewood. Both were office buildings. I worked in I long time ago on graveyard shift and sometimes had to go to II to get the guard to radio the guy in I to let me in (pre-cell phones). Great plane watching when it wasn't foggy.
"If you’re going from the airport to the hotel, you’ll find the shuttle in the red zone for “hotel & private parking shuttles” on the departures level."
Ben-isn't the shuttle pick up at the airport on the lower/downstairs ARRIVALS level, like your picture indicates? The departures level is upstairs/outside.
I'm guessing as the picture is representative of the walk. Arrivals-LL would have been far shadier. Hotel shuttles are on the Departures-UL.
I had my senior prom here in 1978. (Before Aaron Schock was even born...)
Ben,
Thank you as always for your review. I actually was booked into this hotel twice but trips were canceled. Two of the facilities now under my purview at work could be seen from your Hyatt Place window (just out of sight in your picture)... one is to the right/west of that parking structure and the other is on the left side of your view back by that large hangar (that's the UA hangar)....
Ben,
Thank you as always for your review. I actually was booked into this hotel twice but trips were canceled. Two of the facilities now under my purview at work could be seen from your Hyatt Place window (just out of sight in your picture)... one is to the right/west of that parking structure and the other is on the left side of your view back by that large hangar (that's the UA hangar). Obviously this would be a very convenient location and could be done by walking. I usually get put in the Hilton down the street or the Sheraton which I truly abhor.
Nice to see an airport hotel at LAX that is truly refreshed. The others there are tired... and those "renovated" are just lipstick on a pig with too much original structure... because everyone loves having to straddle the toilet to close the bathroom door. I dislike LA - my personal feelings (as a quote once said, "It's Detroit but with palm trees") - and I think serving too much time isolated to Century in generally depressing hotels has much to do with it.
I'm curious how you knew who the owner is? I've stayed at so many hotels and never known. I'm honestly curious because I'd rather not stay at his hotels either.
Thanks for the heads up about the owner. (and for those of you complaining, a quick Google or Wikipedia will indicate the issues).
A simple Wikipedia search explains everything you'd need to know about Aaron Schock and why guys like Ben (and myself and countless others) have beef with him.
I suppose it's nice to know that fashionability and tasteful design choices are among the many stereotypes embodied by Mr. Schock.
The man can spend $100,000 of taxpayer money to decorate his office, good to know that he can decorate a hotel.
Ben,
Welcome to parenthood, where having a refrigerator and some space in room is super clutch! I've found that most Hyatt Houses are newer and have enough room to set up a travel crib where you can actually walk around the room. It's the little things that matter when traveling with a kiddo.
Havent read the article yet, just wanted to chime in and say thats an awesome brunswick medalist pool table from the 1950s in the lobby. sweet table!
You're "closing in on lifetime Globalist status" and had never stayed at a Hyatt House? That's sort of amazing.
This is an example of Hyatt's limited portfolio. This should probably be a full-service hotel. Except Hyatt doesn't really have a brand that would fit since there is a nearby Hyatt Regency.
Looking at the public spaces, amenities, restaurant and rooms, this is nicer than the Hyatt Regency Houston Intercontinental Airport, Hyatt Regency Rochester, Hyatt Regency Sarasota, Hyatt Regency Pittsburgh International Airport, and Hyatt Regency Toronto. It actually reminds me of the Hyatt Place Allentown/Lehigh...
This is an example of Hyatt's limited portfolio. This should probably be a full-service hotel. Except Hyatt doesn't really have a brand that would fit since there is a nearby Hyatt Regency.
Looking at the public spaces, amenities, restaurant and rooms, this is nicer than the Hyatt Regency Houston Intercontinental Airport, Hyatt Regency Rochester, Hyatt Regency Sarasota, Hyatt Regency Pittsburgh International Airport, and Hyatt Regency Toronto. It actually reminds me of the Hyatt Place Allentown/Lehigh Valley, which is also a dual-branded Hyatt Place-Hyatt House property and has, as Gary Leff says, one of the nicests restaurant at a limited-service hotel anywhere.
But the whole dual-branded thing confuses me. Especially when they are competing brands and one hotel is more expensive than the other hotel even though they are, for all practical purposes, one hotel with the same amenities and services.
For example, Hyatt House is opening up a property in Lansing, Michigan that is shared with an AC, which is a Marriott brand. I can't believe Marriott and Hyatt are allowing Concord Hospitality to operate a dual-branded property with brands from two competing hotel portfolios.
It could have been just a Hyatt, or a Grand Hyatt. In Seattle we have those 3 brands within 3-4 blocks. But, I think they have the same owner.
Is Hyatt developing any new Hyatt or Grand Hyatts? It seems like they're only doing Park Hyatt, Hyatt House and Hyatt Place these days plus the resorts.
How can you attack the owner and then not explain why?
I understand why you put the disclaimer on the post, by I agree with this – if you're not expecting readers to be involved in the beef, then personally I'd not mention it at all, at least unless you're able to link to your future post explaining why.
You have a dramatic definition of "attack".
The post has since been updated without attacking the owner.
In short the guy is / was a closet case who stole taxpayer dollars
From WikiPedia
Schock resigned from Congress in March 2015 amid a scandal involving his use of public and campaign funds. A subsequent congressional ethics investigation "revealed that he used taxpayer money to fund lavish trips and events".[3] In November 2016, a federal grand jury indicted him in connection with the scandal. After he pled not guilty, prosecutors reached a...
In short the guy is / was a closet case who stole taxpayer dollars
From WikiPedia
Schock resigned from Congress in March 2015 amid a scandal involving his use of public and campaign funds. A subsequent congressional ethics investigation "revealed that he used taxpayer money to fund lavish trips and events".[3] In November 2016, a federal grand jury indicted him in connection with the scandal. After he pled not guilty, prosecutors reached a deferred prosecution agreement with him in March 2019 whereby all charges against him were dropped in return for a period of good behavior and payment of $100,000 in restitution.[4] As part of the deal, Schock's campaign committee, Schock for Congress, also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of failing to properly report expenses.[4]
Despite having a voting record of consistently opposing LGBTQ rights,[5] Schock came out as gay in March 2020 and expressed regret for some of his previous policy decisions.[6]
Those of us who are out and proud of who we are tend to dislike people who want us in camps - Quisling / HomoCon / Ass