Quick Trip: January 2022

Towards the end of 2021 I had a lot of free night certificates from both Hyatt and Marriott. While the Marriott ones got extended to mid-2022, the Hyatt ones were set to expire on or before the end of February 2022. Since we had already qualified for our Hyatt and Marriott status for 2022, it made little sense to use the nights unless we had a specific use for them until the new year where the nights would count towards status in 2022.

Since the Hyatt free nights certificates were expiring in January and February, once the calendar rolled over to 2022 there was some urgency to use them or lose them. For his birthday, Tomatico wanted to visit his squash coach and friends from the gym in Massachusetts we went to before the moved. The two of us would spend the weekend at the gym catching up with friends, playing some squash, and enjoying the other gym features. We coordinated with some friends for some guest passes to they gym. This would be a great opportunity to use some of the certificates to stay overnight in a nearby hotel.

Accommodations

While we had several Marriott certificates, we wanted to use Hyatt certificates for several reasons. First, they were expiring more immediately. Second, since my wife would not be traveling with us, she would not get the elite night credit and we would not be able to enjoy any of her elite benefits, like free breakfast.

Initially we were going to stay one night. We’d drive up early in the morning to the gym, spend that night at the hotel, and go to the gym again the following day before heading back home. I searched for hotels near the gym and found three Hyatt options that made sense. I picked the closest one which was a Hyatt House in Waltham, MA. We’d get free breakfast like everyone else and with luck a slightly larger room. The only room we could book with the certificate had a king bed we could share if we needed, but I expected there was a good chance we would be upgraded to a room with two beds.

I considered staying at a Hyatt Regency in Cambridge, MA instead as we could use the certificates there, but the rooms looked smaller and it was a little further away from the gym which was our primary destination.

After thinking through all the driving we’d be doing in such a short time, I decided to book a second night so we could drive up the night before our first day at the gym. It would make for a more relaxing trip. I had the certificate available and booked the second night with it the morning before driving up.

The cash rates for the hotel were about $150/night so we were definitely getting a good value for the certificates. This is a particularly good value since free night certificates can’t be upgraded. We were simply looking for a place to sleep so we weren’t looking for a confirmed upgrade like we often do on family trips to higher end properties.

Trip Summary

We started driving after Tomatico’s squash match on Friday night. It was going to be a late arrival at the hotel, but at least there wasn’t any traffic. It was definitely cold out as it was one of the first really cold weekends of the winter.

When checking in around 10:30pm, we were informed that we had been upgraded to a larger room with two double beds as I had hoped. We were also told we could keep the same room for the second night even though it was on a different reservation from booking both nights separately. The agent also notified us that we wouldn’t have to checkout and then check back in the next morning as can sometimes happen with split reservations like this.

Our room was okay. It smelled like old trash as we walked in, but the bedroom was in a separate room with a door and the smell wasn’t as bad there. We were too tired to try to deal with it so we just went to bed.

The heat blew air directly onto our heads all night which wasn’t terribly comfortable. At about 7:00am Tomatico got up and noticed how freezing cold it was in the room. The heat had stopped working and it was 50 degrees in the room. We found whatever blankets and sweatshirts we could find to try to get warm enough to sleep another hour with limited success. When I got in the shower to try to warm up the water was only lukewarm at best. Not a great start to the day…

We notified the front desk on our way down to breakfast and they said they would send someone up to look at it. We had a decent breakfast considering COVID protocols and limited staffing. Tomatico said the eggs were well above average and he got seconds. There was a limited choice of cereal, yogurts, breads and most everything else, but at least the quality of what they had was reasonable. Oddly, there weren’t any plates to put our toast on, so we had to improvise with bowls.

After breakfast we headed up to our room again to grab our stuff and head to the gym for the day. We looked forward to playing squash and shooting hoops on the basketball courts. Getting into the car we noticed the temperature was a frigid 5 degrees Fahrenheit. Luckily the car started, though it was more reluctant that I had hoped.

The following 6 hours in the gym was what Tomatico considered an awesome birthday present! He got to see most of his old squash friends and participate in a squash clinic with is old coach. He even got to play against some of the adults who were impressed by how much he had improved since the summer. We were both tired by the end of the day and ready for the big meal we felt we had earned. We headed to the food court in a nearby mall with Tomatico’s favorite Latin restaurant in the area. He was quite happy!

On our way back to the hotel, despited the frigid temperatures (up to 10 degrees!) we decided to get some ice cream! At least we didn’t have to worry about it melting and surprisingly(?) there wasn’t a line. I don’t consider ice cream a warm weather food like most people and we definitely miss all the great ice cream options in the Boston area since our move. It was fantastic!

When we arrived back at the hotel, unfortunately the fire alarm was going off. Ugh. We couldn’t get back to our room so we decided to drive around for about an hour while the fire department cleared the alarm. The elevator was out of order so we had to walk up to our third floor room. We found the heat was off and it was still freezing cold. Things just weren’t going our way. Within a minute of entering the room the phone rang and it was the front desk. They informed us they were unable to repair the heat and that they had another room for us on the first floor. We gathered our luggage and went down to get the keys to the new room.

The new room had a slightly different layout but most importantly had heat. The fan for the heat caused a loud whistling sound but at least it was constant and easier to block out. We were too tired/frustrated to try to deal with it. We both took showers (thankfully with lots of hot water) and went to bed, doing out best to ignore the sound.

In the morning we got up and had another decent breakfast. They had run out of bread for toast and one of the two types of cereal from the previous day, but instead had added fruit cups and bacon at the hot station. We let the front desk know about the whistling sound from the heat at checkout before we headed to the gym for day two of our adventure.

Tomatico got to play a bunch more squash and basketball before heading out mid-afternoon to drive home. Before we got on the road we stopped at a local grocery store so he could get his favorite meatball sandwich and we also stopped to get ice cream at another nearby shop we used to frequent. Ice cream is year round in New England!

Conclusions

Tomatico loved the weekend which was the most important part. He loved having so much to do at the gym and playing squash with his old coach and friends. He would do that every day if he could. It’s one of the things we miss the most after our move.

From a travel planning perspective it was not a very interesting trip as we drove and used a hotel just for a place to sleep, or at least try to sleep.

It was great to be able to use the free night certificates. Free nights are always welcome, but the certificates from Hyatt also come with some limitations that make them hard to use for many of our vacations. They have a limited value (up to category 4 hotels) and when we travel we often try to stay in nicer hotels in higher categories. Additionally, these certificates do not allow us to use points or certificates to upgrade to a suite. This is definitely a first world problem! Using the certificate for a hotel we’re using only for a place to sleep (and maybe get breakfast) is a great way to get value for these. While the paid rates were pretty low, they still saved us almost $150 per night.

In hindsight I would definitely choose another hotel even if it was further away from the gym. I would have chose the full service Hyatt Regency in Cambridge which is overall a nicer hotel. With my status we would have gotten free breakfast at the restaurant which would likely have been better than the limited buffet we got a the Hyatt House. We would have also gotten free parking (which we also got at the Hyatt House) since we were staying on an award night and had a good chance at getting an upgraded room. The upgrade would have been a plus and not necessary since we were only sleeping in the room. Next time!

The stay at the Hyatt house had a lot of problems as I described. We didn’t get good nights of sleep either night due to the broken heater the first night and the loud, whistling fan the second night. It could have been worse and it was more bad luck than anything specifically wrong that the hotel was doing. I had hoped the hotel would show some more concern for the issues I ran into as they never reached out when I detailed more clearly the issues we ran into, but I have had far worse stays at other hotels. I just wished we had a better stay.

Overall we had a great father/son trip. While it’s unconventional to go on a trip just to spend the weekend at the gym in another state, we had a blast reminiscing and exploring our old stomping grounds. Well worth it!