Review: Hyatt Carmel Highlands (Stay Away)

Oh, the Hyatt Carmel Highlands. Come for the views, stay for the… well, maybe don’t stay.

Why we stayed at the Hyatt Carmel Highlands

I recently spent five nights in California with my mom — we spent the first night at the incredible Grand Hyatt SFO, then we spent three nights at the Alila Ventana Big Sur, and then we spent one more night at the Hyatt Carmel Highlands. I’ll review our stay at the Alila Ventana next, so that I save the best for last.

More from OMAAT Buy World Of Hyatt Points For 20% Off (2.08 Cents Each): Worth It? Read more

So, why did we decide to stay at the Hyatt Carmel Highlands?

• I figured since my mom and I were were flying all the way from Florida, we might as well spend five days on the ground, and the Alila Ventana only had award availability for three nights
• Carmel is such a cute town, and this hotel is only a short drive away
• Since we were flying out of SFO, this would make our travel day a bit easier on the way back, and would mean we wouldn’t have to leave the Alila Ventana Big Sur super early
• My friend Matthew from Live and Let’s Fly raves about this property, and calls it his favorite Hyatt property in California

When you add up all of those reasons, I figured this was the perfect place to spend a night!

Booking the Hyatt Carmel Highlands

The Hyatt Carmel Highlands is a Category 7 World of Hyatt property, meaning that a free night redemption here costs 30,000 World of Hyatt points per night. I had a Category 1-7 free night certificate from requalifying for Globalist status, so this seemed like the perfect property for using this.

Let me once again emphasize that Category 7 is the top category for Hyatt properties, meaning this property costs the same number of points as the Park Hyatt Paris and the Alila Ventana Big Sur. While I realize stuff is often priced based on the location, I (stupidly?) assumed this hotel wouldn’t be actively unappealing.

For what it’s worth, the paid rate at this hotel would have been right around $500 per night.

Is this a hotel or a timeshare property?

You might be confused about what exactly this property is based on looking at Hyatt’s website. Here’s the name of this property, which is a mouthful:

Hyatt Carmel Highlands, Overlooking Big Sur Coast & Highlands Inn, A Hyatt Residence Club

Essentially the property is split between being a Hyatt Residence Club (in other words, a timeshare), and being a hotel. The hotel portion of the property has just under 50 rooms.

By the way, some interesting context on the history here — the hotel portion of this property used to be a Park Hyatt, before just being rebranded as a plain old Hyatt.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands location

The Hyatt Carmel Highlands is located just off Highway 1. You’re just a few miles north of some of the most gorgeous coastline you’ll see anywhere in North America, and you’re just a few miles south of Carmel-by-the-Sea, which is one of the most charming towns in California, in my opinion.

The view not far from the Hyatt Carmel highlands

So the location is fantastic, and geographically this is a great place to visit in conjunction with a stay at the Alila Ventana Big Sur, since this property is about a 45 minute drive away.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands check-in & lobby

We arrived at the Hyatt Carmel Highlands at around 1PM, but our room wasn’t quite ready yet. Nonetheless I completed the check-in process before we headed into town, so that I’d just have to pick up the keys later.

Here’s a map of the property, for some context:

As you can see, there are over a dozen different buildings with rooms, and then the main lodge is right near the entrance, and it’s also where you check-in.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands main lodge

The check-in process was friendly enough. The front desk associate informed me that there were no upgrades available, and that the hotel was offering virtually no services. Since Globalist members receive complimentary breakfast, I was told that I’d receive some bonus points. For what it’s worth:

• The hotel was still selling at least two standard suites (the most that will show through the Hyatt app) at the time of check-in, but I didn’t fight back too much
• My stay still hasn’t posted well over a week later, and neither have my bonus points for not being offered breakfast

Here’s the sheet I was given highlighting everything that wasn’t available:

The lobby was dead, because nothing there was open. So I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, since there’s nothing else to talk about.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands lobby

Hyatt Carmel Highlands lobby

Hyatt Carmel Highlands lobby

Hyatt Carmel Highlands lobby

The views were definitely the redeeming quality…

Hyatt Carmel Highlands lobby

I could peek into the restaurant which was closed — it had incredible views and I’m sure it would be lovely when the hotel is usually open, but that wasn’t the case.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands restaurant (closed)

By the way, the hotel seemed quite disorganized. I got a text saying our room was ready, at which point I picked up my key. We then went to our room, and about an hour later I received a text stating that my “villa” was ready (rather than my “room”), so I figured that maybe they had found a room to upgrade us to. Nope, it was an error.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands ocean view king room

We were assigned room 526. As mentioned above, the hotel has several buildings. We were advised to go park in the lot at the top of the property, and then had to find our room. The signage wasn’t great, and there was no offer to guide us to our room.

So we drove up the path, and then found the parking lot to the left.

Road at Hyatt Carmel Highlands

Eventually we found some parking — seriously, this is a Category 7 Hyatt property?!

Hyatt Carmel Highlands exterior building

I found the property in general to just be so much in need of some love. The whole property felt like it needed a fresh coat of paint and/or good power washing.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands property

Hyatt Carmel Highlands exterior hallway

Hyatt Carmel Highlands room exterior

The room was a reasonable size, with a king bed, a table with two chairs, a wall-mounted TV, and a fireplace.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands ocean view king room

Hyatt Carmel Highlands ocean view king room

Hyatt Carmel Highlands ocean view king room

Hyatt Carmel Highlands ocean view king room seating & TV

Hyatt Carmel Highlands ocean view king room fireplace

Near the entrance was a Keurig coffee machine and two bottles of water, which were literally the only on-property food or beverage options available. Then there was also a mini-fridge.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands in-room coffee machine

Hyatt Carmel Highlands in-room mini-fridge

While the pictures of rooms here looked bland online, they looked even blander in person, from the AC unit, to several of the walls being blank, to the lack of curtains (but rather just blinds).

Hyatt Carmel Highlands room blinds

The bathroom area was probably the worst part of the room — again, let me remind you this is a Category 7 World of Hyatt property, in case I haven’t done that often enough. 😉

The sink was simply in the room near a frosted window, so had no privacy from the rest of the room.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands ocean view king room bathroom

Hyatt Carmel Highlands ocean view king room bathroom

Hyatt Carmel Highlands ocean view king room bathroom window

Then the bathroom and shower/tub combo were in a separate room.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands ocean view room bathroom

Hyatt Carmel Highlands ocean view room shower

Toiletries were from Pharmacopia.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands in-room toiletries

Much like outside the room, the lack of basic maintenance was just plain disappointing.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands room in bad shape

There was also a closet near the bathroom, which had a vacuum in it. That’s the first time I’ve seen that. I guess it does reflect the self-service model the hotel otherwise uses.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands king room closet

Hyatt Carmel Highlands king room closet

Now, in fairness, the hotel had one amazing feature, which is the view. This hotel has simply incredible views over the Pacific Ocean, and that’s oh-so-special. We had a private balcony with two chairs.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands ocean view room balcony

Hyatt Carmel Highlands ocean view room balcony view

Hyatt Carmel Highlands ocean view room balcony view

Hyatt Carmel Highlands ocean view room balcony view

Hyatt Carmel Highlands pool

This property is fairly large between the hotel and timeshare portion, yet the entire hotel only has one pool, which isn’t even particularly large. I’m not a pool person anyway, so that didn’t bother me much, but don’t get too excited if you are a pool person.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands pool

Hyatt Carmel Highlands pool

Hyatt Carmel Highlands pool

Hyatt Carmel Highlands gym

The hotel amenity that impressed me most (well, assuming we’re not considering the view an amenity) was the gym, which actually had good equipment and was a decent size.

Hyatt Carmel Highlands gym

Hyatt Carmel Highlands gym

Hyatt Carmel Highlands gym

I wouldn’t return to this hotel

In closing I want to acknowledge a couple of points that people may bring up.

First of all, I totally get that with this hotel you’re paying largely for the view. That makes sense, because location and view largely dictate the price of hotels. Here’s the thing — I wasn’t expecting this to be as nice as a Park Hyatt, but I was expecting the hotel to at least be in decent condition.

The most disappointing thing was the complete lack of maintenance of this property, which I wouldn’t find to be reasonable even at a three star hotel. And then there’s the reality that the hotel could make the rooms significantly nicer with just a small investment in terms of art and some of the finishes.

I’ll forgive a lot for a great view, and no matter what the view here will be the show-stopper, though parts of this hotel felt to me like a three star property at best (and that’s probably being generous).

Next, there’s the complete lack of services at this hotel. I get that there’s a pandemic, and that the hotel industry is struggling. But it’s my understanding that the hotel was almost at capacity.

How do you in good conscience sell a room for $500 per night with literally no services? I respect if the economics of opening the restaurant fully don’t work, but:

• Couldn’t they at least have a limited room service menu, at least over certain hours, that can be ordered from? It shouldn’t cost that much to have a skeleton staff to offer this
• There was just generally a complete lack of effort; fine, if you don’t want to offer any sort of room service, whatever, but they don’t even sell packaged snacks

On top of that, the hotel suspended bike rentals. Seriously, no bikes due to coronavirus? Talk about a safe outdoor activity that people can enjoy. How can the hotel justify that? Is wiping them down between uses too much effort, or…?

Bottom line

The Hyatt Carmel Highlands has breathtaking views. But that’s literally it. The hotel is otherwise badly in need of a renovation (or at least some basic maintenance). I’d consider going to the hotel’s restaurant at some point down the road for the great views, but I wouldn’t otherwise consider staying here again, unless something changed significantly.

As I wrote yesterday, I’m usually a Hyatt cheerleader, and I don’t remember the last time I was disappointed by a Hyatt, because the brand is good at managing expectations. This was a major exception.

Next time I might give the Carmel Valley Ranch a try (admittedly this has a totally different setting, and doesn’t have ocean views).

Is there something I’m missing about this hotel? Would you consider staying at the Hyatt Carmel Highlands?