The Hyatt Place Daytona Beach is one of very few Hyatt properties in Florida on the beach where you can redeem points to get a free room.
We wanted to see our Tennessee Vols football team play the Florida Gators in Gainesville. So that was all the excuse that we needed to spend a few nights at the beach in Florida for free on Hyatt points.
Hyatt Place Daytona Beach Location
Since we were flying Southwest for free on a companion pass and points, Jacksonville was the only realistic airport option near Gainesville. And the only Hyatt on the beach in northeast Florida is the Hyatt Place in Daytona Beach.
After picking up a rental car at Thrifty, we had a nice 2 hour drive along the Atlantic coast from JAX to the Daytona Beach Hyatt Place.
The Hyatt Place Daytona Beach Oceanfront literally is on the ocean front on Hwy A1A. It’s right across the street from a Red Lobster and a few other retail shops.
And if you want to drive on Daytona Beach (yep, you can drive on the beach), it’s smack dab between 2 Daytona Beach access points.
Click here to read my full post about walking and driving on Daytona Beach.
Parking
Parking was a little tight at the Hyatt. There was parking in front of the hotel (on Hwy A1A) and also a parking lot behind the hotel, immediately next to the beach. There’s also overflow parking behind one of the beach shops across Hwy A1A from the Hyatt Place.
One nice thing is that there are empty lots on both sides of the Hyatt Place. This means that the beach is a little less crowded than if you were sandwiched between a couple of high rise condos with an extra thousand beach-go’ers.
On one of the empty lots, the manager told me that Daytona Beach is adding a public access area. But it looks like that’ll only add space for a maximum of 20 cars. That’s way better than a developer putting hundreds of rooms next door.
Hyatt Place Daytona Beach Booking
As a category 3 Hyatt, we only had to redeem 12,000 points for a night in a king bedroom with a full ocean view. I had 2 award certificates for free Category 1-4 nights that covered the first 2 nights.
I was able to do an instant transfer from Chase Ultimate Rewards to my World Of Hyatt account to cover the last night.
The lowest Member rate for this King Oceanfront room was $187 per night. Taxes & fees were about $24 so a night was going for around $210.
Using this formula to calculate point value, I got over 1.5 cents for each of my Hyatt points. Not a bad redemption rate.
Hyatt Place Daytona Beach Check-in & Lobby
Walking into the lobby through the front door, it’s a pretty typical Hyatt Place set up. First, there’s a small sitting area and then a second area with some computers for guest use.
Next was the front desk which was immediately across from the two elevators. To the left was the breakfast area. To the right was a small bar and the small market with sodas and a few pastries. There was an area for dining which was mostly full for breakfast and mostly deserted the rest of the day.
We checked in on a Friday evening.
The front desk staff was very friendly and helpful. I was thanked for my Globalist status and was given some free water tickets. There were no other welcome amenities like the pink champagne welcome toast at the front desk of the Hyatt in Clearwater, FL.
Check in was quick and we rode one of the 2 elevators up to our 9th floor room.
King Oceanfront Room
The room was clean but nothing special. The king bed was comfortable and the staff quickly bought some extra pillows when I asked for them. There were bedside tables with a few outlets handy.
There’s a desk and chair, a flatscreen TV and a mini refrigerator.
The room also had a sectional couch with a pull out bed.
It wasn’t the worst for noise but there wasn’t as much soundproofing as I’d like in a hotel. We could hear everyone in the hall and we occasionally heard our neighbors.
Bathroom
The bathroom seemed to have been updated in 2013 when Hyatt remodeled the entire building.
The bathroom was the first place that we really noticed the age of this building and the lack of maintenance.
While the walk-in shower and the rain shower head’s water pressure was fine, the wall next to the shower had multiple cracks.
Water pressure in the sink was below average. This and a poor choice of faucet fixtures meant that the stream of water was less than an inch away from the edge of the sink. Unless you have tiny hands, you can’t wash your hands without hitting the sink.
But we weren’t here for the room or the bathroom. We wanted to see the beach. And there it was!
Oceanfront View from the Balcony
The view from our 9th floor room was fantastic! There is nothing but beach between the Hyatt and the Atlantic Ocean.
Here’s another view of Daytona Beach from our balcony. You can get an idea of the distances involved as well as see the parking lot and the pool on the ocean side of the Hyatt Place.
While the view was spectacular, the balcony was small and kind of disappointing.
There was only one plastic chair out on the balcony. There really wasn’t room for much of anything else.
And about a third of the balcony was right up against the air conditioner exhaust which was blowing out hot air. That made it uncomfortable on that end of the balcony. So we either enjoyed the oceanview from inside our room or we just went down to the beach.
Hyatt Place Daytona Beach Pool
If you walk out the Hyatt’s back door toward the beach, you first come to a small seating area next to the pool’s outdoor bar.
Pool Bar
I was never clear on the pool bar’s open hours but I think it was roughly normal business hours. Either 9 to 5 or maybe noon to five each day.
For the most part, the bartender outside was nice but completely bored. I only saw two guests at the outside bar over the course of our three night stay.
As I was researching the Hyatt Place in Daytona Beach, I came across Bruce Jordan’s review on YouTube. Thought it was interesting how he suggested that the outside bar was a huge missed opportunity for this hotel.
Near the bar, there was a seating area with 4 tables that had a great view of the beach. We ordered a pizza from Alberto’s Pizza Shop (it was great!) and ate out here one evening.
Wonderful to eat with the beach in the background but this area felt somewhat neglected. We rarely saw anyone enjoying this area.
Pool and Hot Tub
Good sized swimming pool behind the Hyatt Place Daytona Beach. It really live up to the “OceanFront” in the hotel’s name.
You’ll find a hot tub next to the pool if you want to relax in that.
In my pictures, you can see some trash that was there for at least 6 hours, maybe more. I just know the trash was there when we went out early and it was still there 6 hours later when we came in from the beach.
Disappointing.
Pool Accessibility
We were glad to see some accessibility accommodations for guests at the pool area. Near the pool bar steps, there was an elevator which looked like it could handle a wheelchair or scooter.
Both the pool and the hot tub had accessible lifts.
Daytona Beach at the Hyatt Place
The beach was great.
To get my full impression, check out my post about Walking the Beach at Daytona Beach Hyatt Place.
Breakfast at Hyatt Place Daytona Beach
In the mornings, the breakfast area was as busy as any hotel that I’ve been at since 2019.
Keep in mind there is no Globalist breakfast at this Daytona Beach Hyatt. Everybody gets a free breakfast.
I appreciate that the Hyatt Place Daytona Beach had a full, hot breakfast as opposed to grab and go or a limited breakfast.
In addition to standard Hyatt Place breakfast like eggs, bacon, sausage, cereal and fruit, they also had a bagel toaster which we used every morning
Neglected for a Year and Even Now
At the end of my stay, I ended up chatting with the manager. She was great and gave me some insight into the current situation of the hotel.
The hotel was in mothballs for much of the pandemic. It didn’t make much sense to have a Hyatt Place on the beach in Florida open when no one was traveling. But beach hotels and resorts take an extra amount of wear and tear compared to hotels which are not on the beach.
As a side note, my wife & I have been enjoying Renovation Island (aka Island of Bryan) about a family that buys and renovates a deserted resort in the Bahamas. Really gave us an appreciation for what goes into making an oceanfront hotel seem like paradise for us travelers.
The manager was well aware that the building had not had the repairs & maintenance that it needed to recover from being closed for months & months.
That’s understandable. People as well as companies like Hyatt were, obviously, significantly impacted by Covid. Hopefully, Hyatt will soon catch up with the required maintenance and give the hotel some much needed remodeling and updating.
But there was more than just neglect that fell under the category of maintenance & engineering.
The most concrete example was the lack of tidiness around the pool area. Not just trash (as you can see in some of my pictures) but I was really surprised to see this iPhone completely abandoned for a full day.
Seems most likely that no employee was responsible for making sure the pool area was picked up regularly.
I only took pictures of trash around the pool on the last day but it seemed like we noticed similar issues most days.
Hyatt Place Daytona Beach Review: 3 of 5
If you’ve read through my full review, you probably realize that we thought the building feels old & somewhat neglected.
Built in the early 1970s, it was renovated in 2013 as a Hyatt Place with about 145 rooms. It felt like it had not been updated since then.
The Bottom Line: Would I Visit Again?
Yes, I’d be happy to go back to the Hyatt Place Daytona Beach Oceanfront hotel.
While the staff that I saw was always friendly and helpful, there were signs that made me feel like the property was neglected, even after being mothballed for the height of the pandemic.
As long as you’re not expecting a four or five star hotel, your stay can be great. Especially if you want to use Hyatt points to stay on the beach in Florida.
How to Stay for Free at the Daytona Beach Hyatt Place
We got a 3 night stay on Daytona Beach worth $630 at the Hyatt Place Oceanfront for free by redeeming 36,000 Hyatt points (12k points per night).
There are 3 different ways that you can earn at least 36,000 Hyatt points to get a free hotel on the beach in Florida like we did. Join the World of Hyatt loyalty program and earn Hyatt points by:
- Staying at Hyatt
- Getting a Hyatt Credit Card
- Getting a Chase Ultimate Rewards Credit Card
For most people, the best approach is to get one of these credit cards and earn 60,000 points via the signup bonus in about 3 months. fyi, the signup bonuses might be higher or lower but 60k is pretty typical.
First option that will earn you free nights at the Daytona Beach Hyatt in just 3 months? Get the World of Hyatt credit card.
If the signup bonus is 60,000 points on this Hyatt card, you’ll earn enough for FIVE free nights at the Hyatt Place Daytona Beach after you’ve spent $3,000 on the card in 3 months.
For Zuzu & me, it was pretty easy to put at least $1000 of spending on a new credit card like this.
Don’t buy anything that you wouldn’t already purchase. Just put your normal spending on this new card.
Click here to apply for the Hyatt credit card.
Second option to earn free nights at any Hyatt? Get the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card.
If the Chase Sapphire Preferred signup bonus is 60,000 points, you’ll earn FIVE nights at the Hyatt Regency Daytona Beach for free after you’ve spent $4,000 on the card in 3 months.
Click here to apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
Once you earn the Chase points, just transfer them to your World of Hyatt account when you’re ready to book your free stay at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach.
That’s what I did once I found dates that had award availability at the hotel and that we could travel to Daytona Beach!
A Quick Disclaimer
First things first, if you can’t pay off a credit card on-time, every single month, DO NOT get any credit card. The interest and fees will quickly outpace any benefit that you get from this credit card (or from any other credit card).
Second, if you click through my link and get a credit card, I will get a referral bonus. Recommending what we think to be good deals like this is part of how WE GET TO TRAVEL now that we’re empty nesters.
How To Vacation for Free
Want to know more details about how we get to vacation for free? Check out this blog post where we get into all the details:
Leave a Reply