Hotel Review: Hyatt Residence Club Sedona, Piñon Pointe, Sedona, AZ

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Sedona. The images that name conjures in your mind are unmistakable. Majestic red rock formations framed by a perfect blue sky. There’s nowhere else in the United States quite like it. Combine that with the beauty of the surrounding Oak Creek Canyon and you have an area that millions of tourists flock to see every year.

We’ve been to Sedona before and this would just be a quick, two-night stop for us before going to the Grand Canyon. We wanted to stay in the part of town that we knew, the downtown area by RT 89A. I checked the hotel where we stayed last time, the Amara Resort and Spa, but the price was way more than what we wanted to pay. In fact, all the hotels on that road were out of our price range. There were many hotels outside of town with more reasonable rates but I looked to see if any hotel was available with hotel points. The only one I could find was the Hyatt Piñon Pointe.

Hyatt Residence Club Sedona, Piñon Pointe
1 N AZ-89 ALT
Sedona, AZ 86336

This was our first time staying at a Hyatt Residence Club. I knew it was a timeshare but knew little else about it. When booking with points, an award redemption will put you into a Standard room, which is a studio. Here’s a description:

Perfect for a getaway weekend to red rock country, our studio units are the size of a traditional hotel room.  Studios are 350 square feet, and will have a queen sized Hyatt Grand Bed with a small sofa sleeper.  Each studio is equipped with a kitchenette that includes a countertop-high fridge, microwave, full sized coffee maker, toaster, dishes and flatware.  Studios sleep two adults or two adults and one child comfortably. The balcony or patio attached will have no view.

Since I have no status with Hyatt, this was the room I booked and exactly the room I received. Please note that this Hyatt Residence Club does not honor perks for upper-tier World of Hyatt members. I have read online that you may get a room upgrade depending on how full they are but I wouldn’t count on it.

Some of the World of Hyatt membership benefits are not available at Hyatt Residence Club properties. This includes complimentary upgrades, late checkouts, complimentary bottled water, waived Resort or Facility fees and more.

PRICE

The hotel is a Category 4 property and costs 15,000 points/night. That was a bargain compared to the cash price of this hotel and other places in the area. I transferred 30,000 points from Chase Ultimate Rewards to my Hyatt account and booked a room. Because I was paying with points, I was not required to pay the $22.78 a night resort fee.

PICTURES

The Hyatt Residence Club Sedona, Piñon Pointe was built in 2003 and has 109 total suites.  The suites are spread throughout the property.

We were assigned room 2011A, which is located in a building on the far end of the property, near the grill and fire pit.

Our unit was the studio part of a two-bedroom lockout suite. The entry to the one-bedroom part of the room was right next to our door.

The room was nice and well-appointed but had an unusual layout. We entered into the kitchenette with the connecting door to the rest of the suite directly next to the front door. The room was very long and rather narrow, with the seating area and bed all in a row. (click to enlarge picture)

The bathroom was off the left; the door was located between the bed and the sofa.

To the right of the bed there was a sliding door that led to the balcony (or deck, since we were on the first floor). As promised in the room description, we had no view besides the parking lot and I could not see spending any time sitting there.

I was OK with this because our room was located by the grill and fire pit and from there, the view was spectacular.

The views from almost everywhere (except our window) were breathtaking. This hotel has an amazing location. The buildings are all built into the mountain so they have wonderful views but also manage to blend into the scenery. (click on photos to enlarge)

The pool area, including hot tub, were very nice and not crowded as the high temperatures were in the 60s while we were visiting.

The lobby was small but clean and nicely decorated.

FINAL THOUGHTS

We really liked our stay here. The room was nice, even if the layout was a bit strange. The location to tour Sedona is fantastic, as you can walk from the hotel to the downtown area in less than 5 minutes. The Shops at Piñon Pointe also feature wonderful views from the seating areas and we spent one evening sipping on Starbucks and watching the sunset.

We did have some issues with the stay. Two of them were about our room. Why, if this is a timeshare, was there nowhere for you to sit down and eat in the room? If Sharon was sitting on the couch working on the computer, there wasn’t any place for me to sit and eat breakfast. The only places would have been next to her on the couch (food and laptops don’t mix) or one of the chairs next to the television cabinet. A small table would have been wonderful but there was really no place in the room to put it.

The next issue was noise. For the first night of our stay, the connecting room was empty but then some guests checked in on our second night. The doors in the building tended to SLAM loudly each time. These guests apparently had to bring many bags to the room because all we heard for an hour was SLAM, SLAM, SLAM. We also could hear them making breakfast the next morning and it sounded delicious. Soundproofing was not something they spent money on when building these rooms.

The last issue we had was a lack of parking spots by our building. Both nights when we returned after dinner, there were no spots at all on our side of the resort. We had to park around the other side of the road and walk up and down the hill each time to get to our car. Not fun.

I’d still recommend staying at this resort with Hyatt points, depending on the cash prices in Sedona during your stay. Since every hotel downtown was asking over $300 a night, paying just 15,000 Hyatt points was a good redemption in my book.

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary