We’re living in hotels full-time at the moment. We’ve mostly been intentionally basing ourselves out of very empty hotels, but recently we had to return to Miami, so we decided to stay at the Hyatt Centric Miami Brickell, which I’ll be reviewing in this post.
Booking the Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami
We ultimately decided on the Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami because it ticked all the boxes:
- It was reasonably priced
- It would give us quite a bit of “living space” by confirming an upgrade using a suite upgrade award
- Staying at a Hyatt would get me closer to lifetime Globalist status
- We didn’t want to be in Miami Beach, so that made Brickell the best option
We decided to book a paid stay here, as there was a paid rate of ~$180 per night, with a third night free, so we paid just $120 per night (on average) for our stay here. That was an excellent price.
While this hotel could have also been booked through Hyatt Privé for extra perks, that eligible rate was significantly higher, so just booking the cheapest available rate was the best option.
Redeeming points at the Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami
For context, the Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami is a Category 5 World of Hyatt property, meaning that a free night here costs 20,000 World of Hyatt points. I value World of Hyatt points at 1.5 cents each, so redeeming points here would be the equivalent of paying ~$300 per night, by my valuation. In this case paying cash for the stay was the better value by far.
Even if you’re not a Hyatt loyalist, earning World of Hyatt points can be pretty easy. In addition to being able to earn World of Hyatt points with the World of Hyatt Credit Card, you can also transfer over points from Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami location
The Hyatt Centric is located in Brickell, which is basically Miami’s business area — there are tons of high rise apartment buildings, offices, and great restaurants. Brickell has always felt a bit to me like Panama City (Panama, not Florida). Personally I like being in this area, except Brickell has awful traffic — I could never imagine living there.
The Hyatt Centric has a central location, and there are even places you can walk (Miami otherwise isn’t a very walkable city). The Hyatt Centric is immediately below Panorama Tower, which is one of the biggest apartment buildings in the city — the hotel and Panorama Tower even share a pool (more on that below).
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami exterior
Suffice to say that Brickell isn’t the ideal place to stay if you want to go to Miami Beach.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami check-in & lobby
The Hyatt Centric Brickell has a rather small ground-level lobby. There are a few check-in podiums, and then a minimal amount of seating along the windows, as well as a PPE vending machine.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami lobby
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami lobby
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami lobby
The check-in experience was quick and friendly — we were informed of the coronavirus protocols at the hotel (which many guests ignored, and there was no enforcement of that), as well as about the facilities.
We quickly took one of the elevators to the 15th floor, where our room was located (the hotel has a total of 19 floors).
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami hallway
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami junior suite
I had used a suite upgrade award to confirm an upgrade to a suite at the time of booking. The Hyatt Centric’s only suite category is a junior suite, and in our case we were assigned an ADA accessible one, room 1513.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami floorplan
The suites are advertised as being 566 square feet, so they’re significantly bigger than a standard room, but also not huge. Our room featured an entryway with the bathroom to the right, and then the rest of the room straight ahead.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami junior suite entryway
Once in the room a king size bed was on the left — the mattress itself was comfortable, while the pillows weren’t very substantial.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami junior suite king bed
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami junior suite king bed
In the middle of the room was a stand with a TV on it, and then on the other side of that was the living area, which included a desk with a chair, an “L” shaped couch, and another chair. I was happy to have a proper table to be able to work from.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami junior suite living area
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami junior suite living area
There was a closet behind the desk, which had a mini-fridge and a Keurig coffee machine.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami in-room coffee
The room had a small balcony with two chairs and a table. There was even a great sunrise view straight ahead.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami junior suite balcony
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami junior suite view
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami junior suite view
The bathroom was back towards the entrance, and given that this was an ADA suite, I imagine it was a bit different than in other suites. In the bathroom there was a toilet on one end of the room, a single sink in the middle, and then a shower/tub combo on the other end of the room.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami junior suite bathroom
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami junior suite shower
Toiletries were from BeeKind, which seems to be the brand of choice for Hyatt Centric. I found the toiletries to be perfectly fine, but also nothing special.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami toiletries
Water pressure from both the sink and shower were really low, which I’ve found to be a common theme at Hyatt Centrics (I’m not sure if that’s a coincidence, or just some brand standard). While I can appreciate not wanting to waste water, there’s a fine line between that and very bad water pressure, which just wastes time, since it takes longer to shower.
All things considered the room was great for us — it was nice to have some space and to have a balcony. While the room was ultimately quite bland and nothing to get excited about, you can’t beat the value we were getting.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami Caña Restaurant
Caña Restaurant is the Hyatt Centric’s only restaurant and bar. It’s located on the second floor, and is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The main dining part of the restaurant is inside the entrance and to the left, then there’s a bar in the middle, and then there’s a lounge area to the right.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Caña Restaurant
Hyatt Centric Brickell Caña Restaurant
Hyatt Centric Brickell Caña Restaurant
Hyatt Centric Brickell Caña Restaurant
Hyatt Centric Brickell Caña Restaurant
There was also some limited outdoor seating, with a handful of tables seating a couple of people each.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Caña Restaurant
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami Globalist breakfast
On account of my Globalist status we received complimentary breakfast. We could order whatever we wanted off the menu, and $28 per person would be taken off (so $56 total between the both of us).
The breakfast menu read as follows:
I typically ordered soy iced lattes to drink, which were excellent.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami breakfast
The food as such was good as well, though also got rather repetitive, given our extended stay. Over time we sampled the greek yogurt, avocado toast, breakfast burrito, and omelet.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami breakfast
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami breakfast
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami breakfast
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami breakfast
Service at breakfast was generally friendly though also not particularly attentive some days. That’s fair enough, as this isn’t a Park Hyatt, after all.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami gym
The Hyatt Centric has a 24/7 gym on the fourth floor. The gym was tiny for a 200+ room hotel, if you ask me. In addition to it having no natural light, it had just five cardio machines, and then very limited weights.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami gym
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami gym
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami gym
I used the gym every day, and fortunately it was typically empty (if I saw someone else there, I’d just come back later).
I found it interesting that there were no cardio machines marked off for distancing. In other words, in theory you could have four people using cardio machines just inches apart. I get that Florida is fully open, but I would have assumed Hyatt would have stricter regulations.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami pool
The Hyatt Centric has a rooftop pool on the 19th floor, which is shared with Panorama Tower. I’m not much of a pool person, so I only came early one morning to grab some pictures, though I’d imagine this probably gets pretty wild on weekends, given the big apartment building that the pool is shared with.
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami pool
Hyatt Centric Brickell Miami pool
Panorama Tower Miami from the pool
The crowd at this hotel… I’m speechless
Here’s the deal — we’re living in hotels, and we’ve primarily been seeking out places that we know are empty, so that we can feel comfortable using a hotel as our home base. It goes without saying that Miami was an exception.
Why were we in Miami? Well, it’s our home, and we wanted to knock out some appointments (doctor, dentist, seeing our new home, etc.), given how long we had been gone for.
The people watching at the hotel was roughly what you’d expect. I can’t even put it into words…
I will note that I’d estimate that probably 25% of people in public spaces at the Hyatt just weren’t wearing masks at all. Of the 75% that were wearing masks, I’d say roughly half were using masks as chinstraps.
There was no enforcement of the mask policy on the part of the hotel, and frankly I don’t even hold that against them. It’s Miami during coronavirus, and it’s exactly what you’d expect.
So rather than being annoyed about it or trying to turn into the mask police, I just adjusted my behavior accordingly to avoid these people. Nonetheless it’s a good reminder that just because a company has a policy doesn’t mean it will actually be enforced.
Bottom line
The Hyatt Centric Brickell is a pretty no-frills and bland hotel, and I’d say it met my expectations. We got an awesome rate here (an average of around $120 per night), so using a suite upgrade, earning points, and getting free breakfast, is pretty tough to beat.
I certainly wouldn’t ever come here to vacation (personally I’d never come to Miami to vacation, period, but I’m also from there, so…), but for our purposes it did the trick. For those trying to decide between hotels, the Hyatt Centric has the benefit of having a solid pool, though it doesn’t have a very good gym, and also only has a single restaurant (though fortunately there are lots of other great restaurants in the area).
The crowd though… well, wow. If this is what it’s like in Brickell, I can only imagine what it’s like in South Beach.
If you’ve stayed at the Hyatt Centric Brickell, what was your experience like?
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