Hotel Review: Hyatt Residence Club Sedona, Pinon Pointe

This is a tale of three canyons.  Chances are you haven’t heard of at least one and maybe two.

Here’s what I plan to cover, mostly in order:

• Planning The Trip
• Hyatt Pinon Pointe
• Dining in Sedona
• Grand Canyon Railway
• A Brief Stop At The Grand Canyon, How To Spend 3 Hours
• Antelope Canyon
• Glen Canyon Dam
• Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort And Spa
• Bear Canyon Ranch

Sedona is such a beautiful area. The first time I visited was over 20 years ago. When I realized there was a Hyatt property in Sedona, I jumped on it.

Sedona is only about a 2-hour drive from South Rim of the Grand Canyon. That makes it a reasonable side trip. For us, it was a good stopping point on our way from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon Railway.

The Hyatt Residence Club Sedona, Pinon Pointe is not a standard Hyatt property. This is Hyatt’s version of a timeshare. Because of that, not all room types are available for award redemptions. Additionally, Globalist suite upgrades won’t help you here.  However, the property will honor complimentary elite upgrades upon arrival.

When we travel as a family we like to have a bit more space than a typical hotel room. We don’t live in one room and share one bathroom at home, so why do it on the road?  Well, mostly because two hotel rooms can get expensive. And, connecting rooms are always harder to guarantee than I really think they should be.

This is where I’ve come to enjoy the customer service I receive from Hyatt.  I’m assigned a Private Line Agent (they’re transitioning now to be Ambassadors) who can help with our reservations.  She was a big help.  We ended up booking one room on a cash rate and one on points.  The cash rate was for a room type I couldn’t get using points (a 1-bedroom).  Once that was all set, she worked with the property to guarantee us connecting rooms.  A perfect start to our trip!

Guest Rooms-Studio

The first thing you need to know about Hyatt Residence Club Sedona is stairs.  Lots of stairs.  While I believe there are a few rooms that can be accessed without climbing a flight of stairs, that’s clearly the exception.  We had 2 long flights of stairs down to a landing and then 1 flight up to get to our room.  Not the end of the world, but it should make you think about whether you want help moving your bags.

The studio rooms at HRC Sedona are very similar to a large standard hotel room.  There was a kitchenette along with a king-sized bed, full bathroom, couch and sizable balcony.  If you’re traveling with kids, there’s a cool little detail about the pull-out sofas.

Call me odd, but I started checking pull-out sofas for blog reviews quite some time ago.  At first, it was just about whether the hotel bothered to make the bed.  Now, it’s about figuring out how bad the mattress is.

Allow me a quick aside to help tell this story.  Almost 10 years ago I remember learning about a special mattress Disney was having built for their pull-out sofas at their Disney World properties.  Instead of a wimpy fold-up mattress, they were sporting something that was developed within hinges in the mattress.  Hard to describe, but it sleeps like a regular mattress and folds up differently (almost like 3 separate cushions).

Fast forward to HRC Sedona and it was the first time I had seen one of these mattresses somewhere other than Disney  Suffice it to say I’m betting you could get a pretty decent night’s sleep on the sofa.

The view from the balconies is pretty darn awesome.  Heck, all the views in Sedona are.  Some of the interior units have views of other buildings.  But, you can still see plenty of the surrounding area.

Guest Rooms-1 Bedroom

The 1 bedroom units come with a lot of space and plenty of amenities.  Upon entering our 1 bedroom, we found a full kitchen with full-sized appliances.  The closet adjacent to the kitchen had a washer/dryer combo.  The kitchen counter doubles as a breakfast bar with a couple of stools.

The living room and dining room are combined as one with a coach, some soft seating and a dining table with 4 chairs.  There’s also a gas fireplace.  Just off the living room is a sizable balcony with plenty more seating.

The king bedroom had a sunken whirlpool tub as well as another balcony.  The room was quite spacious.  The bathroom was spacious as well with a large walk-in shower and double-sink.

Amenities

There’s a central complex on the hotel grounds that houses the pool and a recreation building.  The pool area didn’t seem full during our stay, though it was brutally hot during our visit.  Along with a hot tub there were also two pools right beside each other.  The smaller of the two was perfect for very young kids.

The recreation area consisted of outdoor ping-pong tables, a sizable gym, a large kid’s club and an indoor social area.  The indoor lounge felt almost like a small lodge.  It had games, books a pool table and other indoor activities.  Just outside were a handful of barbecue grills that hotel guests could use during their stay.  For lounging around at night there were a couple of fire pits as well.

I knew this was a residence club/timeshare kind of property, so these sorts of amenities probably shouldn’t have surprised me.  It’s safe to say you could definitely use the Hyatt Residence Club Sedona as a home base for trips around the region.

The Final Two Pennies

HRC Sedona has been on my radar for a while now.  I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.  I had visited Sedona 20 years earlier and loved the area.  This property turned out to be a perfect fit for our road trip.  If you’re interested in visiting Sedona, the hotel is easy walking distance to downtown and some great restaurants (more on that soon).

Hyatt Residence Club Sedona, Pinon Pointe is a Category 4 hotel in the World of Hyatt program.  Award redemptions for a studio unit are 15,000 points per night.  Given the room rates at times in Sedona, there’s plenty of value to be had in award redemptions at certain times of the year.

There are only a handful of chain properties in the are, so points redemption options are thin.  Hyatt Residence Club Sedona more than holds its weight.  As I mentioned earlier, it’s a Residence Club property.  That means elite members won’t see their full suite of benefits.  As long as you know that going in, I think you’ll find this a delightful property.

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