Rate
I used 16,000 Hyatt points for a total of 2 nights at 8,000 points each for this property. The cash rates were hovering around $155, so I was getting pretty fair value for my points.
Location
The Hyatt Place Des Moines is located in the heart of downtown Des Moines on the west side of the river, just a few minutes walk away from the Des Moines farmers market, the famed Fong's Pizza, and a few other central sights. Where it isn't is in the hip East Village on the other side of the Des Moines river, where you'll find a younger energy of food and shopping, including the State Capital building. This is all splitting hairs though, since all of these areas are easily accessible on foot from the Hyatt.
The only thing I might warn someone of is the relative low profile of the hotel entrance, especially at night. The signage is either tastefully subtle or annoyingly vacant, depending on your interpretation.
Lobby
This was one of the drearier Hyatt Places I've stepped into. I can't say that it's the worst I've seen (ATL Airport Hyatt Place, are you there?). However, considering the location and size of the hotel, I expected more.
You can see that the breakfast area looks bare, as it was for the entire stay.
Room
As Hyatt Explorist, I didn't expect, nor was I offered an upgrade from the standard King bed I booked. What was surprising was the lack of free water upon check in. I know that sometimes you do need to ask, but upon request, I was told that free water was for globalists only. I pressed them lightly on this and they eventually did give us two waters. I'm not sure if they were genuinely unaware or if they were attempting to create their own policy, here.
The best compliment I could give the room was that the bed was clean and comfortable. Pillows were also very comfy. I want to start with this, because the rest of the room goes a bit downhill from there.
The sofa, too, was a relative high point of the room. In fact, the sofa and bed were some of the only things in there that didn't look fairly tired for a Hyatt Place.
The desk area felt very "used" for lack of a better word. Functional? Yes. And the chair was comfortable enough for the 2 hours I needed to work on papers for my job. The coffee and tea tray was totally stocked, but sadly, the coffee maker was completely non-functional. I thought briefly about calling down to the desk, but it was one of those "is it worth it?" moments for me. Too bad. The refrigerator was very functional, though, and while the TV quality was pretty mediocre, I did appreciate the side panel input in case we wanted to plug in an external source. The TV is located beside the bed, which isn't ideal, but fine with me.
Lighting in the bathroom was on the bleak side, so I wasn't able to get very good photos. It seemed to be pretty standard for a Hyatt Place, though. The shower door didn't quite close properly, which was a small bother, but worth a mention.
Service
The weakest point of service (other than the missing Explorist waters) was the breakfast. Breakfast was given at the front desk each morning in a to-go bag. This consisted of a snack bar and fruit, along with some of the worst coffee in my recent memory. Because of Covid measures, I can lower the bar a bit, but this was unusually bad compared to the five or six properties I've visited in the past few months - possibly the worst, even.
Besides that, I had very limited interactions with the staff. When we checked out, a desk agent was nice enough to hold our bags while we went to lunch, and that was appreciated.
Bottom Line
With everything considered (insert timely statement about how things are really tough in the industry right now), I would say that this stay was thoroughly fine in the most mediocre sense of the word. With that said, I don't think I'd stay here again if I was in the area. I'd try to choose a newer property, because this one looked old and sad at times. 8,000 points a night is a very fair price in points. I wouldn't highly recommend the hotel, but I also wouldn't tell you to stay way, either.
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