Our staycation at this nice, new, expensive hotel in a great location will be remembered for the disappointing service and the bad experience as we were trying to leave the Grand Hyatt Nashville.
Grand Hyatt Nashville Review tl;dr
Impressive new hotel halfway between downtown Nashville and Music Row. Slightly dirty room. Food & beverage service had 2 disappointments. Valet pickup was frustratingly long and a little disturbing.
Despite a few challenges on our visit, we rank the Grand Hyatt Nashville as:
- Best Hyatt in Nashville for Luxury Travelers (tied with Thompson)
- Best Hyatt in Nashville for Weddings & Romantic Trips (tied with Thompson)
- Best Hyatt for Globalists (tied with Thompson Nashville)
As locals, we’ve stayed at every full service Hyatt property in Nashville. Read our detailed comparison of the Best Hyatts in Nashville here.
Booking the Grand Hyatt Nashville
We used points to book this 1 night staycation in Nashville.
Price and Value of Award Booking with Points
The King Bed room cash rate was $410 for the Saturday night that we stayed. The award rate was only 20,000 points which meant that each point was worth just over 2 cents each. That’s better than the 1.7 cents average value that Miles To Memories says you should get for Hyatt points.
I moved 20,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points from my Chase Sapphire Reserve© card to my World of Hyatt account to book this room.
Grand Hyatt Nashville Location
Just inside Nashville’s I-40 inner loop, the Grand Hyatt Nashville has an ideal location for a visit to Nashville. It’s just blocks away from most of the major attractions. You’ll have a straight shot due east on Broadway to most of where you want to go such as:
- Ryman Auditorium
- Fifth & Broad, Nashville’s new open air tourist mall
- The National Museum of African American Music
- Bridgestone Arena, home of the Nashville Predators and many concerts
- Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and all the bright lights of Lower Broad
- Second Avenue South, the original bar area which is right across the river from Titans Stadium
Head west on Broadway away from downtown and you’ll soon come to the Vanderbilt University (aka West End) area. You’ll also be really close to the heart of the country music industry (and gave Music City her name): Music Row.
If you want to have a great trip to Nashville, you can’t ask for a much better location than the Grand Hyatt in downtown Nashville.
On a personal note, it’s only 2 blocks from Hume Fogg Academic High School where our youngest graduated in 2021. He’s not a “Notable Alumni” on their Wikipedia page yet, but he’s only 18 
Address
Nearest Airport
The Nashville International Airport is 9 miles due East of the Grand Hyatt. If you’re coming or going at off hours with little to no traffic, you can expect a 15 minute drive to or from the airport.
Just be aware that traffic congestion is very common in Nashville so that 9 mile drive can easily take 30-45 minutes at peak times.
We have plenty of ride shares in Nashville so do yourself a favor. Grab some of the best food at the Nashville airport and then grab an Uber of Lyft to get to the Grand Hyatt.
Checking In at the Grand Hyatt Nashville
After dropping off the car with the valet, we stepped inside a beautiful open lobby. There were a few more people than I had expected at this point in the pandemic but I didn’t feel uncomfortable.
To the left of the check-in area, there was a World of Hyatt line.
I was “only” a Discoverist at the time of this staycation but they thanked me for my loyalty. I received the expected upgrade to an upper floor room with a downtown view. This made my point value more like 2.5 cents.
The front desk staff was friendly and competent.
Grand Hyatt Nashville King Bedroom with Downtown View
In our room, the 1st thing we noticed was the fantastic floor to ceiling view of downtown Nashville.
Unfortunately, the 2nd thing we noticed was that the floor was not clean. We decided it wasn’t dirty enough for us to delay our move-in by calling housekeeping. So we dismissed that issue and got back to enjoying the view.
As you would expect in a brand new, expensive hotel, all the furniture and linens were good quality and in good shape. The bed and pillows were very comfortable.
We did wish that the couch didn’t block so much of the view. We actually moved the couch to the other side of the room so that we could enjoy the view of downtown from the bed.
The bathroom was almost as good as the view. Dual sinks, an extra large backlit mirror and a large walk-in shower (with dual heads) were all greatly appreciated. Especially since we had recently finished a bathroom remodel at home.
Grand Hyatt Lobby Bar
We made a dinner reservation and had about an hour to kill so we stopped by the lobby bar. Everything about the lobby, including this bar, was new and beautiful.
The lobby bar wasn’t busy at all. It seemed to be at about 40% capacity.
Unfortunately, we never got table service.
The server made multiple trips to the rest of the bar area and simply never came over to our side of the bar. She never looked our way for me to catch her attention. I gave up waiting after about 10-15 minutes and went to the bar.
For reference, we sat about 4 feet to the right of the people in this lobby bar picture. There was no sign or line on the floor that said “No Table Service Past Here.”
I’m sure about that. I looked.
The only time she came to our table in our 45 minute stay was when, while placing my order at the bar, I asked her to clean our table which was wet from whoever had been there before us. She took care of that efficiently and never came back to our table.
She did not seem overwhelmed. In fact, it really looked like she was having a nice day. She just ignored our side of the lobby bar.
Anyway, not a big deal. Just a noticeable disappointment.
LouNa Rooftop Bar & Restaurant
Unfortunately, our lack of service in the lobby bar was followed immediately by a lack of service in the LouNa rooftop bar.
LouNa has a check-in podium at the elevator bank in the lobby. The hostess confirmed our reservation and then led us to an express elevator where we rode up with another couple.
As you might expect from a rooftop bar, you’ll get spectacular views of Nashville at LouNa. We were seated immediately at our reservation time.
Unfortunately, it was over 15 minutes before any staff acknowledged us.
Once a server did come to our table, she seemed mortified about their lack of attention to us. She then provided very good service and a free appetizer.
There’s not a full dinner menu but we enjoyed tasty appetizers and drinks.
So our very nice, very expensive experience in LouNa was only marred by the initial lack of service.
Neither the lack of service at the lobby bar nor the delay once seated in LouNa were, by themselves, very significant. But having them back to back just magnified the disappointment that they caused.
The rest of the evening was very comfortable, as should be expected of a hotel like the Grand Hyatt Nashville.
But in the morning, we were ready to leave and they had one more unpleasant surprise for us.
How Many Valets Does it Take to Find My Car?
When I was ready to leave my room for check-out, I scanned my valet ticket’s QR code which sent a text to have my car ready. I received a slightly disturbing reply:
Unfortunately, we had difficulties finding your ticket number XXXX, please present your valet ticket to the valet stand for further investigation.”
Investigate finding my ticket & car? Oh dear.
So I made a trip down to the valet stand to INVESTIGATE instead of being on the road.
The valet manager quickly explained that his system was down & he hustled off to get my car.
That’s fine.
So I headed back up to our room to get our bags. Ten minutes later, I came back down to the valet with my wife & our bags.
An extra trip up/down and an extra 10 minutes since I tried to request my car didn’t seem like a big deal.
A valet asked if we’ve been helped & I said yes, we talked to your manager about 10 minutes ago & he was getting our car.
More guests show up, give tickets to valets, wait for their cars, and leave.
I speak with valet #3. He says he’ll check on my car.
It’s not overcrowded and it doesn’t seem like they’re understaffed out here.
I speak with Valet #4. Still no car for me.
Ugh! After speaking with a total of 5 valet staff and 26 minutes of waiting, we finally got our car. I have no idea why other guests were getting their cars in 5-10 minutes and we did not.
So we leave this very nice, very new, very expensive hotel with a bad taste in our mouth over the poor service.
Ralph the Bellman was Great
I do want to add that one bright point at the Hyatt was Ralph, the bellman. We didn’t use him for anything but encountered him 3 different times while he was helping others. Every time, we were impressed with his helpfulness and friendliness.
Maybe Ralph can teach something to our lobby bar (non-)server, the LouNa bar staff and the valet manager.
Grand Hyatt Nashville Review: 3 of 5
Overall, this stay did not meet my expectations. There were several positives but it was disappointing to spend so many points and ~$200 for a leisure stay that we’ll remember the “unfortunate” bad parts as much as the good.
The Bottom Line: Would I Visit Again?
With so many other options for hotels and bars in Nashville, I doubt that I’ll be back.
Read More About Nashville
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