Review: the Hyatt Regency hotel, Dusseldorf

This is my review of the Hyatt Regency hotel in Dusseldorf.

I had to spend a night in Dusseldorf last week.  My ‘go to’ hotel is the InterContinental Dusseldorf which is on Konigsallee, the Bond Street of Dusseldorf.  My wife likes it for personal stays due to the location and, in my banking days, it was just around the corner from our German office.

I thought it was time to try something new.  Having been impressed with how Hamburg is regenerating its old harbour area, I was tempted by the Hyatt Regency which is only a couple of years old and promised modern design and water views.

I booked using HotelTonight where I had some referral credit to spend.  I could have used Hyatt Gold Passport points (12,000 for a standard room or 17,000 for club lounge access) but I value my Hyatt points too much to use them when there is a good alternative.  The room price would have justified using points as it met my ‘£10 per 1,000’ valuation head on.

An innovative room design

You probably think you’ve seen everything in terms of hotel room layout.  No!  Take a look at this.

I need to explain this because it is not fully clear.  When you open your room door, you are IMMEDIATELY in the bathroom.  There is no little hallway, nowhere by the door for your shoes.  The room door can be seen on the left in the photo above.

Immediately in front of you when you come into the room is the sink.  If you turn right, you walk around into the area where the bed is.  The bed faces the window and the TV is in front of the window.

To be annoying, the hotel does not give out wi-fi codes – it is shown on your TV on a specific page.  This is a pain in itself, more so for me because it turned out my remote control was dead.

To the right is the shower and the bath.  The shower is ‘open’ to the bath (ie if you shower, the water splashes into the bath).  The bath is ‘open’ to the bedroom as you can just see to the right in the photo above.

I was there on my own so the open bathroom was not an issue.  I can imagine how some people who are sharing a room would not be happy with this.

You get a good view if you are on the harbour side of the property:

The club lounge

I asked at check in about an upgrade to the club lounge and they quoted €60.  This included an upgrade to a harbour facing room on a high floor.  (I was on floor 8, street side, and ended up on floor 17).  As I wasn’t going out in the evening I took it.

(If you are booking using Gold Passport points, it is arguably better value to just spend 12,000 on the basic room and then pay €60 in cash for the upgrade to Club rather than use another 5,000 ‘hard to replace’ Hyatt points.)

The lounge is a decent size given the scale of the hotel.  Food is served from 6pm to 8pm but, apart from soup, this is mainly salads and cold desserts.  It was all very good but the variety was limited and I would have liked a hot option.  There was no shortage of drink available during this time.

The lounge has no private areas and no business facilities.  As well as the long table in the photo there are a series of tables by the windows.

Breakfast was similar – more than satisfactory but mainly cold items (there were boiled eggs too).  Including the room upgrade, and factoring in the lack of alternative breakfast venues within a short walk, €60 was fair.  I don’t know if that would have the same price for two people.

The local area

This is where the Hyatt falls down for tourists.  Unlike Hamburg, the harbour area in Dusseldorf is a long walk from the main shopping area.  It took me around 45 minutes.  You can get a taxi, of course, which will cover the ground in a few minutes, but it isn’t quite the same thing.  There is a subway station nearby but it is still too far to easily walk with luggage – you could easily fail to find the hotel as well because of the way the harbour is laid out.

There is a lot going on around the Hyatt for design lovers.  These apartments – by Frank Gehry and covered with stainless steel plates – were very close.  You have the standard waterfront industrial mix of media and design businesses and the cafes and restaurants they bring with them.

Conclusion

You probably know by now if the Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf would be for you or not.  If you think the apartment block above is somewhere you’d want to live, it is your sort of place – you will find the hotel worth a visit.

For a first-time casual visitor to Dusseldorf, especially if you are on a weekend break, I would recommend something more central like the InterContinental Dusseldorf and save the Hyatt for a future trip.

If the Hyatt is out of your budget, Melia has a branch of its budget design chain INNSiDE almost next door, and there is a Radisson Blu across the harbour footbridge from the Hyatt.

You can find out more about the Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf, and book, on this page of the Hyatt website.

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