As part of our round the world trip, we ended up with one night in Hong Kong. We ended up staying at the Hyatt Hong Kong Tsim Sha Tsui, and it ended up being one of the best hotel choices we’ve made!
Using a free Hyatt night
I often have a problem using the free night certificates that come with various credit cards or that you can acquire through other means such as promotions. Most people’s default thinking is to spend it at the fanciest, most high-profile, highest costing hotel possible. But unless you have elite status with that chain (and sometimes that doesn’t even help!, it ends up being just a room. It’s a bit of a logical fallacy, which is why I’ve wondered before if trying to get free hotel nights are even a good idea. With our stay in Hong Kong, I looked at the different options out there. We had a free night Hyatt certificate as well as a couple of Club Carlson e-certificates and a bunch of points in different chains. In the end, I decided to use a Hyatt free night certificate. But even that wasn’t the end of my decision-making – then I had to decide WHICH Hyatt in Hong Kong to use it at! 🙂 There is a Grand Hyatt (EDIT: no Park Hyatt as pointed out in the comments) as well, but in part based on this review from As the Joe Flies, we decided to stay at the Hyatt Hong Kong Tsim Sha Tsui, which is located on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong.
Getting to the Hyatt Hong Kong Tsim Sha Tsui
Hong Kong airport, like airports in many major cities, is quite a bit away from the city center. There is an Airport Express train which runs from the airport to the Tsim Sha Tsui section of Hong Kong. It is HK$90 per person to Kowloon (and HK$100 to Hong Kong Station), and you can buy tickets at the airport (as well as many other places, I’m sure). One interesting thing is that if you are returning the same day, then you can only buy a one-way ticket and you get a free return ticket. That could make it an attractive option if you just have a long day layover in Hong Kong. In our case, even though we were there for less than 24 hours, because it was across 2 different calendar days, we did have to buy a round trip ticket.
The Airport Express train stops at only 1 or 2 stops before it stops at Kowloon Station (where we got off) and then Hong Kong Station. There is also a series of free hotel shuttle buses that go from Kowloon station to most of the hotels in the Tsim Sha Tsui area, including the Hyatt Hong Kong Tsim Sha Tsui.
Tragically, because our Japan Airlines business class flight from Tokyo got there an hour late, by the time we got there, the bus was closed :-(. We took a taxi to the Hyatt Regency Hong Kong Tsim Sha Tsui, which ended up less than USD$10.
Arriving at the Hyatt Regency Hong Kong Tsim Sha Tsui
Due to our late arrival, we didn’t end up getting to the Hyatt Regency Hong Kong Tsim Sha Tsui until about midnight. The hotel is actually part of a shopping mall, and we were directed to the hotel lobby up on the 4th floor. I had emailed the hotel earlier, trying to see if we could get an upgrade and gotten the following response
Greetings from Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui.
Thank you for your email. We do have Club room available, and the rate is 21,000 points per room per night. Kindly be advised that the points in Mrs. Miller’s gold passport is not enough to redeem one night in Club room. Or you can also choose the Club room at HKD1,850+10% plus 3,000 points per room per night.
We are not making any change to your reservation at this stage, the rate given is subject to change and availability. We are looking forward to hearing from you!
Naturally I declined that offer, and when we arrived at the hotel, I again asked about an upgrade, and was pleasantly surprised to be given a suite on a club room. And boy what an upgrade!
Our major upgrade at the Tsim Sha Tsui Hyatt Regency
It was not really clear what kind of an upgrade we were ACTUALLY going to get, though it’s usually a good sign when you’re on the top floor
We opened the door and …. wow!
This is NOT the room I got at the Radisson Blu Dubai Deira Creek
It turned out to be the “Regency Executive Suite” (!).One thing that did amuse me was that even though the maximum occupancy was listed as 3, it had a full dining room table with seating for 6 (partially pictured above) :-). Our family of 8 would have totally fit in here! We didn’t have a “harbor view” but still, the view of the city from our windows was pretty slick.
Hyatt Regency Club at the Hyatt Regency Hong Kong Tsim Sha Tsui
A club room also gives access to the club lounge (except when it doesn’t) and the next morning after we woke up, we headed over to the Hyatt Regency Club. There was an entrance on the 24th floor where we were, but you actually went down a set of stairs to the club on the 23rd floor
There was a variety of breakfast foods, both Asian and Western.
One thing that I didn’t realize until I heard someone else do it was that you could custom order eggs from one of the attendants (they weren’t readily available)
We only had the morning here in Hong Kong, so we ate quickly and headed out for a bit of exloration before heading back to the airport for our flight to Singapore.
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Err…. there is no Park Hyatt in Hong Kong, unless they’re building a new one I’m unaware of
You’re right – I was juggling trying to book hotels in different cities and misspoke – I’ve edited the post
Do you have to take all your luggage to the hotel or there is a way to leave it in the airport?
thanks.
after customs in HK airport, there is a area where you can hold your luggage and they charge you base on the hours/days. You can find rates on HK airport website. Unlike other airports, it’s not a locker service.
Are you sure there is Park Hyatt in Hong Kong? Also, Grand Hyatt is category 6 so you cant use the free night certificate. Please check your info.
You are correct on the Park Hyatt, as Rick also pointed out (I’ve edited the post). As for the certificates, I believe the ones that come with the card as a signup bonus are not category-restricted. You are right that this would not work for the anniversary certificates, which are only available for Category 1-4 hotels
Thanks for the review. I am using a DSU for this hotel over NYE. Can’t wait.
Wow-how dramatically different from my experience! I absolutely 2nd your opinion about the hotel. I stayed on the club level for 3 days last Fall and loved the hotel and the Club (food was really impressive for breakfast and happy hour).
But, my transport story couldn’t differ more from yours. I arrived late at night and dragged my exhausted self and 2 suitcases to the taxi line (twice, as I waited the first time before finding out the cabs don’t take credit cards, then had to go in and get local currency). So the taxi captain explains in Chinese to my driver where my hotel is. He nods like he understands. After over 45 minutes of driving around lost, he dumps me out in downtown Kowloon and points up the street saying “hotel”. I tried to tell him that my hotel was very tall, over 20 stories, and nothing anywhere near us was over 5 stories. Like the idiot I am, I pay him the 90HKD tab AND TIP HIM (old habits die hard, and I’m Southern). I then spent over an hour, soaked in sweat (it was very hot and humid), dragging my suitcases all over the uneven pavement, with no clue where I was or was going, and being constantly accosted by the “copy watch?” and “handbag?” touts. It was, without doubt, the worst couple hours of my entire travelling life.
I hate to ever tell a story that would discourage single women from traveling alone, but I guess the point is that, as horrible as that experience was, I have no regrets about taking that trip. While I ended up not really caring for Hong Kong, I proceeded from there on to singapore and Bali, both of which I loved. (And both of which had much better cab drivers).