The interior of the hotel felt clean and modern with an impressive view of the Eiffel Tower both from the rooms and from the lounge. With suites large enough to fit a family of four, it remains a great place to bring the family for a trip to Paris.

View other posts in this series:

• Trip Introduction: Springtime in the City of Light
• Review: AA Flagship Lounge LAX
• Review: American Airlines 777-300ER Business Class LAX-LHR
• Review: British Airways Galleries First
• Review: British Airways Galleries South
• Great for Families: A Review of the Hyatt Regency Étoile (this post)
• Exploring Paris With Children
• Thoughts on Disneyland Paris
• Review: Air France Business Class Lounge CDG Terminal 2E Hall K
• Review: Air France 777-300 Business Class CDG-LAX

Booking

For this trip, I needed to find a hotel that offered two rooms at a reasonable price given our party of six. As much as I would have loved to stay at the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome, it’s a bit expensive at 40k points/night/room. On the other hand, the Hyatt Regency Étoile is a Category 4 hotel, with points ranging from 12k-18k/night. Contrary to what people might think, I don’t have an unlimited supply of points.

As a Hyatt Globalist member, I’m able to make a Guest of Honor booking to extend my elite status to another guest room when paying with points. I booked a second room under Jenn’s name so the other room can receive a potential room upgrade and free breakfast (free parking and a late checkout were not needed on this stay).

For my room, I used a Suite Upgrade Award to upgrade my room in advance to a suite. Prior to our arrival, the hotel noted the only entry level suite available for my stay was on the first floor of the hotel. They asked if I would prefer to move to a Family Room instead, which was a set of connecting rooms located on a much higher floor. I accepted the switch (room prices appeared to be comparable between the two options) and thanked the rep for being proactive and offering an alternative.

Thankfully, the hotel was also very helpful with modifying my two reservations less than a day prior to arrival after British Airways canceled our flights. We were able to recover a day’s worth of points for two rooms.

Earning World of Hyatt points

Full disclosure: in this section are refer-a-friend links where I may earn some points for referring. There is no requirement to use the below referral links to apply but note your offer may differ when going directly to the card issuer.

Chase has a couple of cards that earn Ultimate Rewards points that can transfer to Hyatt at a 1:1 rate:

• The Chase Sapphire Preferred card (refer-a-friend link) that offers 75,000 points for spending $5,000 in the first three months.
• There is currently a limited-time offer (refer-a-friend link) on the Chase Ink Business Preferred that gives an excellent 100,000 points for spending $8,000 in the first three months.

The Hyatt personal credit card (not an affiliate link) offers a 30,000 point bonus when spending $3,000 in three months. On top of that, you get 2X earnings during the first six months until you reach $15,000 in spend. At most, this is a 45,000 card for spending $15,000–and most certainly not the 60,000 bonus it claims disingenuously claims. But, on the bright side, if that $15,000 spend happens within the same calendar year, you’ll also get six elite night credits and a Category 1-4 free night certificate.

The small business version of the Hyatt credit card (refer-a-friend link) offers a limited-time 80,000 point bonus when spending $10,000 in three months. The main appeal here is the easier path towards earning elite status (5 elite night credit for every $10,000 in spend per calendar year), but it also gives up to $100 back on Hyatt purchases.

Arrival and First Impressions

Our British Airways flight landed around 8:30pm into CDG. Thankfully there was absolutely no line at immigration and we made it through without any delay. Given we didn’t bring along car seats, we chose the metro to get us to the hotel. Thankfully, the metro is quite easy and only required a single connection and a simple five minute walk.

Given the late hour we arrived, the connected shopping mall was closed, so we walked around to the front. Inside the lobby, we found a friendly agent who checked us in. Upon noticing we had younger children with us, the hotel gave them each a welcome stuffed animal. Alex chose a teddy bear while Char chose a companion bunny. Though we’ve racked up quite a few stuffed toys from a number of hotels, the kids were thrilled and eager to play with them up in the room.

The Room

We left the lobby and went up the elevators to the 30th floor. The family room we booked actually comprised of two rooms (3030 and 3031), while the separate room under Jenn’s name (which we gave to her parents) was on the same floor but had views out the other side (3009). The three rooms were substantially the same but the single room for her parents had the superior view.

Inside, the room felt to be on the smaller side but consistent with European standards. It’s for that reason that having the extra connecting room was much needed when having the kids with us. The decor felt simple but tasteful. The couch is comfortable but it wasn’t used much. There is a desk, small fridge, and safe. The desk is a tad narrow but there is a universal outlet next to it, making it easier to power devices.

The bathroom felt very modern. While the bedroom felt a bit minimalistic and cozy, I didn’t get the same vibe from the bathroom. The shower does have a door (despite it appearing to not exist in my pictures) and while the shower controls require fully stepping into the shower, it’s at least simple enough to hold the shower head to avoid being doused with cold water.

Toiletries were from Pascal Morabito, a brand I am otherwise unfamiliar with but I thought they were pleasant enough. However, it would be nice if hotels could avoid the long, narrow bottle design. It can be challenging to get shampoo and especially conditioner out of the bottle.

The connecting room had the two beds pushed together for the kids. They enjoyed having their own room, something they haven’t experienced since our trip to the Ritz Carlton Maldives.

The views from this room faced no tall buildings, but still this isn’t the side of the building you want to be on.

Jenn’s parents were assigned room 3009. The room is identical to ours (aside from the connecting room), but there were a few differences. First, they gave this room a welcome amenity (juice and a small cake). How nice of them to give an amenity to the guest of honor but not the globalist who bestowed the honor to her. #firstworldproblems

The other notable difference was the view. This room faced the Eiffel Tower and was a real treat to have this view nightly.

The Regency Club

On the 34th floor is the Regency Club, open for breakfast, snacks throughout the day, and an evening service. For breakfast, they open the doors to the connecting restaurant/lounge to create more space. And lest you think you can sneak someone into the lounge, yes, they do ask guests to confirm their room number upon entry. It’s a good thing we taught Jenn’s parents, who know little English, how to talk with the staff when they arrived.

With the adjoining restaurant/lounge open for seating in the morning, there was plenty of space for everyone. I’m a fan of the decor here and felt like I could spend all day here. Again, the treat here are the views, with small tables at each window overlooking the Eiffel Tower. The tables are popular and will fill up if you aren’t here shortly after doors open.

One of the best aspects of playing the miles and points game is being able to share the experience with the whole family. Having such a gorgeous view at breakfast is the best selling point for this hotel.

The food in the lounge is a buffet with a decent spread. The pastries were delicious, with only a slight variation daily. They also have a small selection of gluten-free pastries if you require those.

They do have a good spread of fruits, which the kids loved. The strawberries on offer always seemed to be a radiant red color and always tempted Char. On the other side of the display were yogurts, smoked salmon, and cold cuts. Smoked salmon tends to be my protein of choice at a lounge breakfast and the salmon here tasted fresh.

Near the fruit display was a larger table housing a small salad station, a variety of milks, and a selection of hot items. The heated breakfast items included eggs, tomatoes, proteins (bacon and sausage), mushrooms or vegetables, and a starch like potatoes. Of these options, I actually preferred the warm tomatoes most of all. I find bacon in Europe to be a bit thick and tough and this was no exception.

They do have a decent selection of drinks available in the morning. There are some fresh-squeezed juices, beer (intended for evening service but I suppose it’s five o’clock somewhere), and a coffee station. They also have a hot chocolate machine, but note the chocolate is sweetened. I found the taste pleasant but it was a tad too sweet for Jenn.

We frequented the lounge daily for breakfast. While it had a pleasant atmosphere in the morning, it felt the exact opposite in the evening. We only attempted to visit in the evening once, but the lounge was extremely crowded and staff tried to direct traffic downstairs to the lobby to reduce crowding upstairs. The crowding happened because Windo, which is the restaurant/lounge next door to the Regency Club, was open for evening service and so there were only a handful of small tables available within the lounge. Ultimately, I’m a bit surprised at the size of the lounge. It’s a bit hard to believe they would build such a small lounge for all guests in this hotel (and this is a large hotel). Given how hectic it was in the evening, I wasn’t able to get any pictures of the spread. They did have a couple of warm appetizers, but there is less food on offer in the evening than there was in the morning (the table with pastries on it is instead used for seating). The reason everyone crowded in here was because of the free beer and wine. To be quite honest, I would advise to skip the evening service–or perhaps go and get directed downstairs to the lobby–as it simply wasn’t an impressive experience.

Odds and Ends

As I mentioned in the beginning, the hotel is attached to a shopping mall. It was a more pleasant walk to go through the mall rather than walking on the street to the nearest metro station. But do note that the path through the mall requires the use of stairs. If you’re carrying luggage, it’s best not to take the inside route.

The hotel used to be right next to the airport bus. In fact, all of the signage for the airport bus still exists, including a QR code. Alas, the code leads to a broken link. Confusingly, the bus station still is in use and we frequently saw people with luggage lining up to get on a bus. I thought the information I saw online was perhaps not correct, forcing me to cross the street and figure out what was going on, but no, the airport bus doesn’t exist. If it did run, this would have been extremely useful in getting to the hotel.

Recommendation: Yes

The hotel does have a number of strengths going for it:

• The hotel is inexpensive with points and currently is eligible for Category 1-4 free night awards.
• It’s a great option for impressive views of the Eiffel Tower.
• Having lounge access is a treat for breakfast.
• Using a Hyatt suite award (or points upgrade) will give a room that fits a family of four.

There are a few shortcomings at the hotel, including a subpar evening lounge experience and that the hotel may not be close to all the tourist activities. I’m fine overlooking the problems here since the hotel is near a metro station and having an evening service isn’t a must-have (it’s during dinner time and I would much rather dine in a restaurant anyways). I’ve also heard the hotel occasionally will play games with award nights. I can’t speak to the validity of the claims, but I should note that there was plenty of availability when I booked roughly 11 months in advance.

This isn’t the best Hyatt in the city by far, but for a family-oriented trip, it meets everything I need better than the other Hyatt options.

Where have you stayed at in Paris? What would you recommend?