Featuring: My Review and Experience at Hyatt Regency The Wynfrey Hotel

Written By:Felecia Causey

Photos Provided By: Felecia Causey

 We could not have been happier to stay at the Hyatt Regency. The WYNFREY hotel is at Birmingham's Riverchase Galleria. We picked this place to stay because it was close to my son's soccer camp, and we had been there before. I was hoping for a similar experience to our pleasant prior visit. Regretfully, I made the error of using Members Deal for the hotel reservation, and I will never use them again—but that's a story for another blog. 

 After a long lunch break at the camp, we proceeded to the hotel to inquire about an early check-in. The lobby was awful when we arrived. I believed they were giving away free hotel keys because of how ridiculously crowded the early check-in area was. 

It was okay; we just wanted to avoid being late returning to camp, so we departed. The crowd had somewhat calmed down by the time we returned, but it was still very crowded downstairs. To be honest, I still think their lobby is among the most gorgeous, but my love for this hotel quickly faded like a dying rose due to the hassle of check-in, all the fees, and the terrible customer service. 

The woman working the front desk informed me that she would check to see if any more rooms were available after my bookings when I arrived. I told her I had made hotel reservations, but she didn't ask for my name. She was already being unfriendly and challenging. She may have been overloaded with the numerous sororities and other groups that checked in that day; I'm not sure. The rising fees for self-parking and valet parking from the previous visit completely annoyed me. After obtaining our keys, we proceeded to the parking lot. Even with a sedan, it was terrible to get down to self-park, so please choose valet if you are not an experienced driver. 

 Even though this was "hotel parking," the area beneath didn't look particularly secure. There were individuals standing underneath it. Anyone can easily access the hotel parking lot. It didn't sit well with me.

The $22 paid self -parking deck.

Our room was on the eleventh floor. Even though the hotel had said that our room was nonsmoking, we could smell cigarette smoke as soon as we arrived on our floor.

About 85% of the room was cleaned. There were spots on the comforters, and the room was dusty. To be honest, I also found it annoying that they had assigned us a hotel room that was attached to another room. I think other groups would have appreciated it more. 

(The bathroom was really clean)

The rooms' conjoined door

I will state that there was no relaxation because of how crowded the hotel was. Every time the doors were slammed, the room shook violently. 

Our previous stay's beds were excellent. I used to brag about them a lot. This time, the mattresses were old. The following morning, we all felt as if we had been severely beaten. It was imperative that we leave early after an awful night's sleep and awful bedding.

The beds that beat us in our sleep.

Check-out was alright, but the departure wasn't swift enough. 

Would I recommend staying here, and will I be returning? That's most likely a big NO.

With the argument about whether to stay at a hotel or an Airbnb, please be sure to read my upcoming blog post, which will discuss the pros and cons of both and offer real experiences from a number of people.