My review of the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel
By: Jim Wateri
The hotel is very large and has a large amount of rooms. I think Travel Planners uses it it as an overflow downtown hotel. When I made my choices in this year’s Hotel hell lottery , I checked the any available downtown hotel as a backup in case none of my choices were available. So sure enough that is the hotel I got. I stayed there in 2012 because I was able to pre-pay and book in advance back in 2011 and the rate was lower because it was a pre-pay. For 2011 I had pre-paid at the Hilton Bayfront. I noticed back then in 2010 that Hilton did charge my credit card after about a month. But in the case of Manchester Grand Hyatt in 2011 for 2012 , they never charged my credit card until I checked out in 2012. For 2013 I also had backup reservation at Manchester Grand Hyatt at 399 per night, but this rate was only offered for the 7 days of July 16 to July 23. Any other combination of days was 699 per night. For 2014 I have had no luck in getting reservation of any kind there.
The hotel itself is very nice and all the of the rooms have had a recent remodel. The beds are very comfortable, they have the usual items mini frig, big screen TV, hair dryer, free wifi (I think for SDCC only), tea and coffee, ironing board, extra blankets. The rooms also have a small table with two chairs and a desk area. The staff is very friendly.
The location is about two blocks west from the convention center and is right next to the Seaport Village shopping center. You can access the convention from either the front or the rear of the hotel since there is are walkways behind the convention and the hotel with the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina in between them. Since I stayed at both Manchester Grand Hyatt and Hilton Bayfront I know that being on the same side of the street as the convention center has it advantages (close the convention center) and disadvantages farther away from everything else in the Gaslamp district. Keep in mind that there will be extra walking to get to off site events, bars and restaurants.
Also keep in mind that all the rooms are in the two main towers, which are quite tall and you may end up on a very high floor , great for views of downtown San Diego, but not very good for emergency access to the ground floor, you may want to request a lower floor when checking in .
The bottom line is that this place is great and that you have a higher probability of getting rooms here during the Hotel Hell day just because of the sheer number of rooms available ( 1,625) versus other downtown hotels (Omni has 511 rooms, San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina 1,362 , Hilton Bayfront 1,190 rooms). After researching how many rooms there are in the big three hotels on the same side of the street as the convention center, I would suggest picking those as you primary choices since they would up your odds of getting one of those hotels.
I chose nothing but Gaslamp hotels in the last Hotel Hell day and got none of them
