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Hyatt Centric Beale Street Memphis is a new Hyatt property in downtown Memphis, Tennessee. I checked it out when I visited Memphis this year on the way to check out the Renaissance Nashville Hotel and Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center Nashville.
Hyatt Centric Beale Street Memphis is located within walking distance of Memphis’s famous Beale Street. I stayed there on the second day that they grand opened the hotel, so the experience that I had was not something that is quite like what I’m used to with other Hyatt properties. See my experience and review it below.
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My Crazy Grand Opening Experience
Hyatt Centric Beale Street Memphis is a brand new hotel. I was staying on the second day that they barely just opened. They were still trying to figure things out and the front desk agent was not trained well enough to recognize Globalist benefits etc.
This is just a little hiccup I had at the Hyatt Centric Beale Street Memphis. If you do not want to read about my experience, please feel free to skip this section.
Throughout our stay at the Hyatt Centric Beale Street Memphis, I got a little bit frustrating but I was trying to keep calm as I realized that I was staying there on the second day that they just opened. Therefore, they were just trying to get their “stuff” together. But here are the things that did not go as smoothly as other Hyatt properties that I have stayed in the past.
Before our arrival, the front desk manager proactively sent me a welcome email. So I asked for available room upgrades possible for Globalist. He said they would upgrade me to a River View room. I looked up my reservation on the Hyatt app, it did say river view. On the day of check-in though, I looked up my reservation again and this time the river view became just the standard room. I emailed and asked about it, the manager replied back and said they wanted to accommodate me with the best river view room when I arrive at check-in.
Upon checking in, the receptionist did acknowledge my Globalist status but she had no idea about any upgrade at all. I was patient and explained to her that I was told via email that my room was supposed to be upgraded to a King River View. The receptionist looked perplexed and told me that she could get me checked in now and I could go up to take a look at the room. If I did not like it, I could go back down and asked for a new room. I kindly declined that offer as I did not want to go back and forth on this. So she proceeded to ask the manager to help and he came over. He did something on the computer and assigned me a room. He did not say anything to me but I guessed I was taken care of then. I thanked the receptionist and told her how much I love Hyatt’s customer service. When I arrived in the room, my view was a big construction roof and yes there’s a river view but I had to lean over to really enjoy the view. It’s more of a “partial river view” as opposed to a riverfront view. Anyways, I simply settled in that room as I did not want to be too difficult. I completely understood that they were trying to get their act together for the grand opening.
For valet parking, I got charged twice and no one could explain what happened. At checkout, they tried to take off both charges because I used Hyatt Free Night Award and therefore parking is complimentary for Globalist. Well, a couple days later, my credit card got charged for the valet parking still. A couple phone calls did resolve it. It appears that besides the manager, no one could figure out anything there! It was just a mistake that someone else’s valet bill got charged to my room for whatever reasons.
At the breakfast table, I asked the waiter about the item if it includes meat because I did not see any mention of meat. The waiter was sure enough to specifically said that “yes there’s meat. It’s sausage!” When he was so specific like that, I went ahead and ordered. Sure enough, when it came out, there’s no meat! *sigh* I told the waiter about it and he offered me complimentary sausage on the side. But at that point, I did not want any compensation so I kindly declined the offer. I simply told him to let him know about that dish and not to repeat the mistake again to other guests, that’s all. I still tipped him good 😉 This comes down to one of my pet peeves, if you don’t know the answer, it’s okay to say so and go check, but giving false information is not good.
Every time I asked something about Globalist perks at the front desk, the lady always had to refer to the manager. Again, it’s a new property and people are still being trained to familiar with the World of Hyatt program and all.
I am not holding Hyatt Centric Beale Street Memphis accountable for my crazy and frustrating experience at the property. I also never left any public reviews either except on my blog here. I totally understand that they were just trying to get their act together due to it being a brand new property and I happened to stay there on the second day that they opened. But I sure hope other Hyatt Globalists have a better experience when the property is fully up and running.
Location
The location of the Hyatt Centric Beale Street Memphis is superb! It is only a couple blocks from Memphis’s famous Beale Street for restaurants, shops, and entertainment. So if you party hard at night on Beale Street, you can just walk to the hotel at night. It felt pretty safe to walk to and from the hotel to Beale Street. The riverfront park is also within walking distance of the property. The location overall is convenient for tourism.
Booking
Hyatt Centric Beale Street Memphis is a Category 4 Hyatt property. Therefore, I used the Hyatt Free Night Award for this stay. While the night is free, I still earned 1,000 bonus Hyatt points due to Hyatt’s new property stays promotion, plus whatever promotions that Hyatt had at the time and elite night credit.
Room Upgrade
Being a Hyatt Globalist, you are getting a complimentary upgrade to a Standard Suite or a preferred room type. Unfortunately, when I was there during their grand opening, the suites were not quite ready just yet according to the manager, so he told me via email that they were giving me a free upgrade to one of their river view rooms instead. The room was not as nice as I was anticipating. It’s small and something about it just does not have that feeling of a nice full-service hotel room that I have experienced with the Hyatt brand. The bathroom is also small with a walk-in shower.
Moreover, there are motion lights under the bed. To be honest, we did not like that. Those lights are annoying because when you try to go to the bathroom at night, they light up. I personally do not like anything that shines when I am trying to sleep at night. There’s no way to turn that light off. I called the front desk and they informed me there’s no way to turn those motion lights off, unfortunately.
As a Globalist, I thought I was given a nice upgraded room of a River View King room despite my crazy experience with the whole upgrade that I mentioned in my write-up above. The window in the room is small and the view that I had was overlooking another building with a big construction roof. It was not pretty!
The river view was there but I had to lean over to really get the view through that small window. I did notice that they have some rooms that offer full riverfront views but I wasn’t sure if those are the suite rooms or the rooms were just not ready yet for guests at the time. But if our room is the type of “river view” upgrade room for Globalists, I do not consider that worth any upgrade by any means.
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| Lean Over to Get A Partial River View |
Our room also looked right down to the pool area that looks really nice. But the weather was a little bit cool and cloudy that day, so we did not get a chance to really swim in the pool.
Complimentary Breakfast
Breakfast is complimentary for Hyatt Globalists. You get $25 per person and up to one additional guest staying in the same room to eat at an onsite restaurant. The breakfast menu appears to be mediocre to us. Truthfully if they did not give us breakfast credits for that, we would not eat there because the food is expensive, especially the juices are way over-priced. A side of two thin slices of bacon costs $4.50 and a small glass of pineapple juice costs $7. See the third photo below.
Valet Parking
Hyatt Centric Beale Street Memphis only offers valet parking and it’s not cheap. However, if you are a Hyatt Globalist elite member, parking is complimentary when you use World of Hyatt points or the Hyatt Free Night Award to redeem for a free stay.
The valet guy was nice and friendly. You drop off the car right in front of the property and when you are ready to get your car, you simply text the valet and they’ll bring the car to you. The service was pretty quick when we were there.
It’s worth mentioning also that the property is surrounded by quite a few parking lots and garages. So if you do not want to pay for their expensive valet parking, you can check out those nearby parking garages.
Other Globalist Benefits
- 30% bonus points
- Daily bottled water
- Late check-out 4 PM
