Booking a $6400 Five Night Stay at the Park Hyatt Vienna
I am sometimes a bit shocked by the price of some of the rooms we manage to stay in. I love travel for the destination and experience, but I certainly don’t mind a luxurious hotel stay either. On our upcoming visit to Vienna, we are staying at the new just opened Park Hyatt Vienna. The hotel is set in 100-year-old building that once housed the Austrian Hungarian Monarchy Bank and will be set among’s Vienna’s new pedestrian-only new shopping district.
The location is perfect for exploring and the rooms look amazing. We will be having four people stay there most nights so, of course, we do need some extra space. But that’s no problem as we got all five nights in a suite! The completely shocking part is how much our suite actually costs – 945 euros translates to $1280 a night. Our five night stay actually retails for $6400 for the full five nights. Granted, I don’t know how many people are actually paying for these suites, but I assume someone must be. So how did we get it?
We booked our five nights with a combination of credit card free night certificates, Points and Cash awards and Diamond suite upgrades.
- We booked three nights (two from my parents, one from me) with the free night certificates that came with the Chase Hyatt credit card that we got last August. At that time, the sign-up bonus was two free nights in a suite for Diamond members and we were all in the middle of our Hyatt Diamond Challenge.
- The last two nights we booked using a Points and Cash award from Svetlana’s account for 12,500 Gold Passport points + $150 a night. We are paying the $150 portion by redeeming Citi ThankYou points for Hyatt gift checks. With her Diamond trial, she received four Diamond suite upgrade certificates. These can be used on any point earning stay, including Points and Cash stays. Although the Points and Cash award books you into a standard room, we used one certificate and moved into the suite for the two nights!
If we chose to use all points instead of Points and Cash, the hotel would have cost 25,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points a night. We decided the Points and Cash rate was better as (1) We value 12,500 Gold Passport points more than $150 (or 15,000 Citi ThankYou points) and (2) Points and Cash rates can be upgraded with Diamond suite upgrade certificates while all points cannot be.
The hotel actually cost 300 euros a night for our dates or $400. Although we could have redeemed all Citi ThankYou points for that, we decided that paying 12,500 Hyatt Gold Passport points was a good deal to save $250 in value.
In any case, we are all super excited to check out Vienna and enjoy the suites at the Park Hyatt. And with Svetlana’s Diamond status, we are going to be enjoying the other benefits as well – I certainly can’t wait to try the complimentary Diamond breakfast. I know the one at the Park Hyatt Milan made each morning a perfect start to the day!
Check out some more posts about Hyatt and the Diamond Challenge:
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Upcoming Hyatt Diamond Benefits at Park Hyatt Aviara
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Hyatt Diamond Challenge Suite Upgrade Certificates and When They Expire
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Finally Going for the Hyatt Diamond Challenge
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My Winter Trip to Asia and Hawaii: The Grand Hyatt Kauai
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Hyatt Gold Passport Points and Cash Rate and Its Advantages
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Miles to Milan: My Stay at Park Hyatt Milan for 22,000 Points a Night
This looks amazing. Great job. Can you confirm, before or after your stay, that the gift certificates are acceptable. Was just curious if int’l properties accept them the same as domestic properties.
You can typically check which properties accept the Hyatt gift checks on this list: https://www.certificates.hyatt.com/ParticipationLocations.aspx
Vienna is not yet on the list as it’s a new property and it hasn’t been updated yet, but I previously called and checked to make sure and they do accept them.
This looks amazing. So glad you were able to get the suite! My wife and I have our trip booked for Christmas and used our four chase free nights to book a room there. The guy with Hyatt reservations booked us into a suite, which is awesome because we are not diamond, although we might go for the challenge before we go so we can get breakfast. Let me know how it is! Also, do you get any other benefits while there, like lounge access?
Also you mentioned you will have four people staying in the room, how is that possible? I thought everything was double occupancy?
Lastly, just want to say thanks, it was your mentioning of the hotel a while back, along with the Hyatt card that led to this upcoming stay for us!
Joel, i’d check the breakfast rates first before doing the challenge. ;) enjoy Vienna! I’m jealous of you and the Miles professor (in a good way.)
Hey Joey, thanks for the heads up. Do you not think challenge is not worth it?
Except for PH Hamburg, only Hyatts with the word “Grand” or “Regency” have a real lounge. Places like Hyatt 48 Lex have a “lounge” with a couple of nibbles, but not your classic lounges that Diamond members are accustom to.
Vienna will be an excellent destination for Christmas as I heard the Christmas markets are excellent! And Europe in winter is beautiful.
I’ll definitely report back on the breakfast, including the prices. I believe you can only book double occupancy online, but I called and put our names on the reservation so, hopefully, I won’t have any problems. I’ll report back on how that goes, of course.
Nice!!! Vienna is one of my favorite cities and I’m lucky enough to have a friend living there who I can stay with.
Enjoy the coffeehouses, sachertortes, classical music everywhere, and general Austrian hospitality. I look forward reading your suite review! I don’t know if you’re a smoker but I’ve found Vienna to be one of the smokiest cities in Europe.
Did the hotel specifically tell you it’s OK to have 4 adults in a room, since all their suites, even Presidential, has max capacity for 3? Fire codes seem to be a big deal in Europe and they enforce this in Europe much more than US. Park Hyatt Vendome took great issue with my family of 4 (with 4 and 5 year old, rather than adults) in even a 1st and 2nd level suite. I’d like to know since I have a stay with the family at PH Vienna in July 2015.
I typically travel with 3 or 4 people and haven’t run into issues, even in Europe, except occasionally with breakfast being offered only for two. The one exception was in Thailand when we had three people and were asked to pay an extra guest charge, not that we were exceeding room capacity. I don’t typically ask ahead of time as I find that extra guest charges are frequently overlooked, but I have four names on the reservation. I’ll see how it goes and report after my trip as I’ll be there in a few weeks.
So how did they handle the 4 in the reservation? I called and was told only 3 allowed, even with young kids in a suite. This is pretty standard in Europe, but I would love to know specifically for this hotel.
I just had 4 people with me and no one objected. This may not be any indication of general experience, however.
You done well, Professor!
There is a new Park Hyatt opening in midtown Manhattan this summer. I looked at their rates. A regular STANDARD room runs 1000-1200 a night plus tax. Figure about 20% for tax. That is a standard room. Upgraded rooms can be 1700 (suite) up to 3000+ a night.
I have been twice to Vienna in the past yr. Been there a few weeks ago for Lifeball and I went right by the Hyatt on A Segway tour. Pretty good location. I do like staying on the Ringstrasse, but Hyatt is still good. I miss the pretzels, cake, coffee, and the Wienerscnitzel. And the Vienna hot dog. WOW. I stayed at Le Meridien and Hotel Imperial as a Starwood Diamond. Got great upgraded rooms. I had to have a chat with manager at Le Meridien though because they tried to jam me up and not give me the suite.