This is not a criticism, just something to be aware of when trying to find your room. You need to be sure to look in the right part of the property and use the set of elevators that will actually get you to your room.

Check-in is on the ground floor of an attractive atrium that runs up the center of a tower full of rooms. It makes perfect sense to assume the elevators located a mere few yards away are the ones that will take you to your room.

But that’s not necessarily so. I happened to be staying in something called the Radius Tower, which was served by another set of elevators that were quite well hidden.

So when I jump on the only elevators in sight, get off on the appropriate floor, I quickly discover my room number doesn’t exist. Kind of catches you off guard, especially at the end of a long travel day when all you want is to climb in bed.

Now I need to mention here, that I’ve checked in using an automated kiosk, never interacting with a real person. By the way I both love and hate these things. I love them when the technology works and I zip through. I hate them when they either don’t work as advertised, or worse, seem to work, but really botch things up beyond anyone’s ability to fix.

So at this point I don’t know if the computer is mistaken, or I am.

Since the odds of finding a clerk who can figure out a computer problem are usually quite high, I’m really hoping there’s something I’ve missed, and my room actually does exist somewhere.   

Ultimately a little sleuthing pays off, uncovering a set of hidden elevators. They’re buried near the end of a corridor that connects the hotel to a shopping mall. This time the 22nd floor did indeed have my room. At least the room numbers were unique, else I surely would’ve greatly annoyed another guest trying to open their door.  

All together, I wasted about 20 minutes getting to my room, and yes that was irritating because it’s so totally unnecessary. Note to Hyatt – put up some decent signage! If we’ve never stayed here, we don’t know what a Radius Tower is, that it’s not accessible from the lobby which is also a tower, or even that the hotel is comprised of multiple buildings.

Interestingly enough, I liked several things about the hotel, starting with my room which was pleasantly novel. First impression was I’d ended up somewhere in Europe, mainly because the room was quite compact with those utilitarian type furnishings designed to optimize use of small spaces.

But traveling alone, needing only a place to crash – I liked it. It was nicely appointed, very comfortable, and I’ve come to have an increased appreciation of smaller, highly functional spaces. However, if not traveling alone, I’d recommend getting larger accommodations.

Again, my room was in this part called the Radius Tower, which I came to see was a tall cylindrical building with each floor having rooms like pie slices, with the center of the pie being the elevator landing areas.

So right away, you’ve got something that looks cool, but makes efficient room layouts a challenge. From the landing it appeared all the rooms would be similar, so I couldn’t tell if larger rooms are available in that tower. Best advice is to ask specifically when booking, else book in another part of the hotel.  

Another thing I liked was this Hyatt is right on the MARTA line, with a station a half block away. This is Atlanta’s light rail system and the train runs right from the airport. So you can pay probably $50 bucks for a cab or $2 for the train. I didn’t wait over 10 minutes for it – either way.

Also, I really appreciated a very helpful concierge, and the kiosk at the concierge desk where you can log on and print out your airline boarding pass for free. Don’t use the business center for this – they want like $10 an hour to use a computer there.

And yes I do like the check-in and check-out kiosks – as long as they work right. These performed great – no complaints. I’d actually tried to check-out using the TV in my room, but it never would work right, so finally gave up and did it with the kiosk on my way out.

All in all, if I just had to be downtown Atlanta again, I’d stay here – I mean hey, I’ve got the place figured out now.

Date of stay: September 2007
Purpose of stay: Business