Hyatt is probably my favourite hotel chain, which contains my favourite hotel, the Park Hyatt Canberra. (Which I refer to as "The Gatsby" for its 1920s style. It has its centenary this year, opening when Parliament moved from Melbourne to Canberra.) I also like the ones in Melbourne, though the ones in Sydney have prices which are too eye wateringly high to stay at. I did have a literally life changing lunch at Park Hyatt Sydney's restaurant though.

Second would once have been Best Western Premier, though that's more of a booking and marketing cooperative rather than a chain, and one which has been losing member hotels prodigiously over the last decade.

I stayed at a Hilton in Melbourne once and enjoyed it (actually twice; we were there to take a hot air balloon flight and the first one was cancelled), but they sold the one that I stayed at and I haven't found any in the right price and, more importantly, location range since then. Accor brands I will stay at if I must. The hotels are usually decent enough, though Accor's pushy marketing practices and "loyalty" program which is literally even worse than Qantas Frequent Flyer (and that's saying something) leave a sour taste in my mouth and if there's an alternative, I will take it.

When it was time to book a hotel for my stay in Perth for the calcio match between AS Roma and AC Milano, I first looked at the Crown Casino Group's hotels which are within a relatively short stroll. Then I looked at the prices, muttered "You've GOT to be kidding me", and decided that I could walk a bit further rather than having my wallet extracted through my nose. "Any Hyatts in the area?", I wondered. Yes indeed. The Hyatt Regency in East Perth. Not an economy stay, but a reasonable price for a 4 star hotel. The rest writes itself.

I'm not sure that this was a corporate Hyatt though. The hotel and rooms were spotless, no issue there. The bed was comfortable enough, the bathroom was large and well laid out though hot water could be hit and miss and pressure was mostly miss. The TV merely offered a stack of terrestrial channels and radio stations; no subscription services or video on demand. There was no hotel directory... until the second day when housekeeping placed a QR code sign on the bedside dresser. Room service was fast and efficient, and the food quality was mid-range. The breakfast buffet was... well, it wasn't the Gatsby. The selection was there (mostly, but I felt the absence of Bircher muesli which I love to have at hotels), but the food itself was bland and largely flavourless, the sausages tepid and chewy. I ended up eating out or grabbing something light from the IGA supermarket in the building behind for the rest of the trip.

But overall, I'd go there again; after all, it's the only Hyatt in town! Except I won't. My suspicion that this specific Hyatt was not in fact owned by the Hyatt chain, but rather managed by them was confirmed because within a month of my departure (1 July 2024), this came out:

International hotel brand Hyatt Regency and the owner of its Perth home have agreed to part ways, leaving a rebranding and change of management of the sprawling brick complex in East Perth.

Tuan Sing Holdings announced on Monday that the Adelaide Terrace hotel would cease to be managed by Chicago-based Hyatt from September 1.

Sigh. So the Best Western Premier that we stayed at back in 2013 is gone, and now the Hyatt that I stayed at in 2024 is gone.

Oh well.

Still, with the number of hotels in Perth, I'm sure I won't need to sleep under a bridge next time I'm there. Actually... I did see a rather nice Double Tree by Hilton down near Elizabeth Quay, and my long dormant Hilton Honors account still exists, sooo...Mmm. A little on the pricey side, though.