Pleasantly Surprised

Crap! The photo was cropped weird when I posted. I'll work on it.

This past Sunday Craig and I went up to Fremont, CA, for another IVF Doc appt. We had to be there early Monday Morning so we decided to drive up Sunday evening and stay the night. Since we had one appt in Fremont at 8am and another in Santa Clara (20 min away) at 11:30 I wanted to book the hotel closer to the 8 AM appt, in Fremont. I pride myself in finding the best all-around-deals with regards to price, value, location...etc. It usually takes a lot of time searching on various internet sites, but its always worth the extra effort. I would NEVER pay more unless it was absolutely worth it- and, yes, sometimes it is. If any of you either travels a lot, or is simply interested to hear about a great value, especially in today's crappy economy, listen here! After searching on google maps'- "nearby hotels" and not being too overly impressed by anything that I found, I found a link to a site called "California Hotels." The site introduced me to "Hyatt Place," of which I will now forever be a devoted fan. The building was new, probably in the last 5 years, and looked impressive as we drove up. Craig even said "Wow, we're staying in a Hyatt?" His comment meant that he assumed I was being a hotel snob, and booked the nicest place I could find. "On the contrary," I said, "this was the cheapest non-sketchy place around- cheaper than Holiday Inn Express, Best Western, Fairfield, La Quinta, etc- and cheaper by 30 bucks and more. I had to point out that it was a Hyatt "Place" not "Regency." Like Marriott's Courtyard to its..., well, Marriot. -Only this was way nicer than any Courtyard I've ever stayed in, and about 50 bucks cheaper. They even had self check-in machines- like at the airport. They print out your room keys and everything. We didn't like the assigned room (Im not a fan of 1st floor rooms) so the girl working there chgd or room to top floor in about 2 minutes.
The guestrooms are all suite-style, with an area with a large COMFORTABLE couch and over sized ottoman(*see above photo). They even had a large throw for cozy movie-watching. One of the most impressive features was the huge 42" flat screen* with HD- Ive never had HD in a hotel. And the free wi-fi connects directly to the screen if you want.
To make this already too long of a story short, we were seriously delighted by our Hyatt Place experience. They even have a 24 hour food service, not room service, although they can bring it to your room. Its not a restaurant either. You use a touch screen in their downstairs cafe area (where the cont breakf is served) to order from a menu of apps, salads, sammies, and desserts, and they prepare it for you. Reasonably priced, too:) The only thing I can really do is provide a link and you can check it out. Our total bill, INCLUDING the room price, taxes and fees, our $11.99 purchase of the movie Slumdog Millionaire, 2 bottled drinks, and a big cinnamon roll, was $107. Again, I've paid much more and received much less, so this made me very happy. I will be a supporter whenever and wherever possible. Happy Hotel-ing!

http://www.hyatt.com/hyatt/place/about/