Hyatt House Fishkill Review-Formerly Hotel Sierra

For those that don’t follow Hyatt closely, Hyatt announced an acquisition about 9 months ago that included 17 limited-service/extended stay properties that were previously labeled Hotel Sierra.

I’m not a big fan of limited-service properties, which you can’t tell since my last two posts were about those types of properties.  I am a fan of Hyatt, and I  think they did a decent job with the Summerfield Suites brand.  Hotel Sierra and Summerfield both got rebranded as Hyatt House, and there are more changes/upgrades coming to the brand over the coming months.

I have family in upstate NY, and while this property is a bit further away than I would like, it’s a welcome addition for me to the Hyatt chain.

It’s never been 100% clear to me that Hyatt Diamond members can or cannot use their confirmed suite upgrades for properties like this.  I’ve been successful in the past, so I contacted the property directly to see if they could help me out (my Private Line Agent was out of the office).  I had booked a standard room, but the property was more than happy to upgrade me to a 2-bedroom suite.  First, some pictures:

This post will mostly be a comparison between the Hotel Sierra product and Summerfield Suites since they haven’t integrated the two yet.  The living room was nice.  I appreciated that there was something of a truer desk for business stays.  The kitchen equipment was definitely a notch down from Summerfield, but I don’t generally use anything other than the fridge.

The beds and soft goods were better than what I would have thought.  I was actually pretty pleased with these in comparison to Summerfield.  The mattress was good quality, the sheets and pillows comfortable, on par with the current Summerfield product.

The bathrooms were a bit more off target from my normal expectations.  The counter tops are marble, but the shower area is a bit dark.  The shower stall is plastic.  Summerfield, IMO, did a really good job with the bathrooms, incorporating a lot of glass to create a very open, modern feel.  The Sierra bathroom looks and feels much more like a typical extended stay property.

I’ve never eaten breakfast at a Summerfield Suites before, so I can’t draw a direct comparison.  The buffet was an improvement over the standard limited service product.  I’m really more of a full breakfast kind of guy, so this still isn’t my type of thing.  They had scrambled eggs, french toast, sausage and home fries for hot food.  Cereal, breakfast breads and some fruit as well, along with an omelet station.  I was a bit underwhelmed with the offerings even if they are better than competitors in this space.  I’ll look forward to seeing the upgrades.

The Summerfield brand also comes with a pretty extensive market.  I’d say the normal Summerfields have a couple hundred different items for sale, including a pretty big variety of refrigerated and frozen items, as well as beer and wine.  This Sierra probably had 40 or 50 total items for sale, a significantly smaller variety.  A bit of a disappointment here, as I can usually grab a bunch of stuff when I check-in.  Convenience and extra points are a great combination.

The hotel had a stack of Wall Street Journals when we checked in on Friday, but they don’t get the Journal on the weekend.  A bit disappointing.  As a business traveler, I really look forward to knowing all the Hyatts carry the Journal as opposed to just USA Today.

Overall, I would probably return.  If they honor upgrades for Diamonds, then there’s a solid value proposition for families, as I’d have to buy two rooms otherwise.  Internet is free and very speedy.  It also gives me points and stay credit at my primary chain which is never a bad thing.  While not a perfect fit for me, I still think this is the leader in limited service.