Grand Hyatt Hefei

We enjoyed our stay in this hotel, and the staff was cooperative, and the mall is adjacent to the hotel. Plenty of restaurants around.

The hotel is fairly new, and the interior is nice. Service is weak for a Grand Hyatt property. Front desk people are polite, but can be slow. If you have any special needs, it will take them a while to process. The agents need to ask permission from their bosses for just about everything not in their text book! Don't expect any recognition for being a World of Hyatt member, nor upgrade. I asked to use a Club access award, and the front desk agent asked me to call the globalist hotline myself. Our biggest problem was with the central heating system. It's set to 22 degrees and couldn't be changed in the rooms. It was way too warm for our comfort, especially since the only comforter in the room is a heavy down comforter.

Edit: Other guests smoke in their rooms, and the AC pumps that smoke into your room. The hotel staff appears to be unable to do anything about it. Your only recourse is to immediate rush to the AC controls and stop the fans whenever this happens. And this doesn't fully stop smoke from coming into your room. Another star off, down to 3/5. Great hotel, up to par with the typical Grand Hyatt. The rooms are a decent size, well equipped, and clean. The AC was operational and effective during our entire stay, which from first hand experience in September cannot be taken for granted in other hotels in Hefei. That was a big plus. The location is nice but a bit inconvenient if you prefer to travel by public transit (particularly subway). The hotel is adjacent to a shopping mall. The nearby Green Axis Park (绿轴公园) is a real treasure to walk through any time of the day. It bustles with people having a good time. Due to the ubiquitous smoking culture in China, unfortunately this hotel, like all hotels in China, has a smoke problem. Our room had only the mildest of smells of cigarette smoke, so mild that we decided it could be ignored. However the "public" restrooms on the lobby floor (not easily accessible to non-guests from the street level, as it's on the 40th floor) always had a distinct, repulsive smell of smoke. I know this because during our stay I usually got up at 03:30 in the morning to work with my team on the US West coast, and in order to not wake my wife I would work from the "public" seating area on the lobby level. It appears the hotel's night shift has smokers among them who somehow can't be bothered to take the elevator down to the street level to get their fix in. Overall this was only a minor annoyance that wouldn't keep me from coming back, however be aware that not even shelling out the extra bucks for the Grand Hyatt prevents you from having to confront cigarette smoke in your hotel. (The location on Google Maps unfortunately is incorrect as of 2023-10-09. It's closer to 31.8001036, 117.2317657, which is about two km away from the current pin. The location given on the Hyatt website is correct, however. I hope the owner can correct this on Google Maps.)