Review: the Hyatt House London Stratford hotel (What is a Hyatt House?)

This is our review of the Hyatt House London Stratford hotel, formerly the Staybridge Suites, inside the Westfield shopping centre.

In August 2022 Rhys reviewed the new Hyatt Regency hotel in Stratford, formerly a Holiday Inn. The Staybridge Suites hotel in the same building was in the process of being turned into a Hyatt House but wasn’t finished at the time.

We promised to go back and we finally made it. HfP paid for its own stay.

The Hyatt Regency side, reviewed last year, is Hyatt’s upscale, full-service hotel brand. This hotel is more upscale than it was when it was a Holiday Inn.

The Hyatt House side, which we are reviewing here, is more mainstream and – looking at the pictures Rhys took last year – seems to be slightly lower spec. The reason to stay here is if you want cooking facilities, which all rooms offer, or a suite at a lower price.

You may also be attracted by free breakfast which (slightly oddly) is chargeable to Hyatt Regency guests, even though it’s the exact same breakfast in the same room.

Another reason to stay here is if you are chasing a free night via Hyatt’s Brand Explorer scheme. This gives you a free night voucher for every five different Hyatt brands you stay at, as this article explains. It is easier to earn the Hyatt Regency sticker elsewhere than the Hyatt House sticker.

Key facilities such as the restaurant, gym, laundry room and bar are shared with the Hyatt Regency. I reused some of the images of the communal areas from our Hyatt Regency review last year.

The Hyatt House London Stratford website is here.

Where is the Hyatt House Stratford?

Getting to the Hyatt House Stratford is a bit confusing because it is – literally – part of Westfield Stratford City shopping centre. I got lost and I’d been here before, back in the Holiday Inn / Staybridge Suites days.

The easiest way to get to the Hyatt House is to head up to the ‘outside’ street that bisects the mall and connects the tube station to Stratford International and the Olympic Park. If you’re coming from the tube, don’t go inside the mall. Instead, take the lifts or the stairs right in front of you as you exit.

You then want to walk all the way down the street, towards Vue and John Lewis, until you reach the place where three streets meet. When you get to Hugo Boss and Armani Exchange, stop.

On the corner, immediately on your left, you should see the entrance. This is VERY easy to miss – I know, because I did.

To check-in, take the elevators up to the third floor, where there is a shared reception for the two hotels.

The location is not as odd as you may think. Due to the investment for the 2012 Olympics, Stratford is ludicrously well connected to Central London. You have the Elizabeth Line, Jubilee Line and Central Line to whisk you into the West End, plus the DLR, overground and other underground lines.

Inside Hyatt House Stratford

The first thing that is immediately obvious as you step out of the lift is that this isn’t a Holiday Inn / Staybridge Suites any more. The hotel has had a top-to-bottom refurbishment that has transformed it from cheap-and-cheerful to a classy, sophisticated property.

Here is the lobby, with the lobby bar behind:

Rooms at Hyatt House Stratford

OK, I messed up. It does happen.

I have top tier Globalist status with World of Hyatt, which means I am entitled to a ‘standard’ suite upgrade if one is available. My plan was to book a cheap standard room on a quiet night (Monday) and get a suite upgrade, which was the room category I actually wanted to review.

It turns out that Hyatt House is excluded from the World of Hyatt Globalist suite upgrade benefit. This came as news to me.

I received other Globalist benefits, including a voucher for a free drink and snack at the bar – valid for 60 whole minutes, between 6pm and 7pm. I was given the guaranteed 4pm Globalist check-out the following day without question.

Here is what I received – a standard ‘King Studio’ room which isn’t very spacious:

It was also a little dark. This was partly because I’d been put on the lowest floor of Hyatt House rooms (floor 9 out of 12) and partly because the windows are just narrow slits. What you see in the image above is as wide as the window gets.

Here’s the view from the window – a couple of the post-Olympics apartment blocks which have been built around the park:

Bathroom

The bathroom is small, to put it mildly, and dull, with no sign of the black marble sink that Rhys had in his suite at the Hyatt Regency last year. There is no tub, only a shower:

Toiletries are by Antipodes:

Kitchen facilities

The reason to stay at a Hyatt House is to get access to in-room kitchen facilities. Whilst my room was small, I still got all this:

I won’t go through every drawer and cupboard, but here’s an example:

There’s a frying pan, toaster, oven gloves, tea towels, washing up bowl, saucepans, kitchen roll and plenty of cutlery. You also get a dishwasher:

If you’re looking for somewhere to stay that has all of this equipment, you’re sorted. If not, it’s just in the way, frankly. There is also a small Nespresso machine on the table.

Gym

There is a gym on the top floor. It’s a decent size given the scale of the hotel, and the running machines give you a good view of the Olympic Stadium:

Laundry room

If you’re planning to stay here for more than a couple of days – as is often the case at a Hyatt House – then you may need to do some washing. Guests of the Hyatt Regency can also access this. It’s on the 11th floor and a little tricky to find as the door is unmarked.

Bar and restaurant at the Hyatt House Stratford

With so many restaurants and bars in Westfield Stratford City the Hyatt House didn’t have to make an effort here but it does. You’ll find both on the third floor, next to the lobby.

Both are stylishly furnished. Here is the bar – there is a lot of additional seating besides what you can see here:

The restaurant, called Elondi, is fairly large and is also used for breakfast:

The restaurant spills onto an outdoor terrace, although it wasn’t open in late November.

Unfortunately, the new tower blocks obscure the view of the Olympic Park from here and there isn’t a view of any sort.

Hyatt House Stratford breakfast

Breakfast is served in Elondi. Interestingly, despite sharing the same buffet, Hyatt House guests get free breakfast whilst Hyatt Regency guests do not.

There is no a la carte menu, although the buffet does the job perfectly well. It’s a classy space – in fact one of the smartest buffet areas I’ve seen for a while. Some thought has been put into how each item is displayed.

I won’t bore you with pictures of fruit, cereal, smoothies, pastries etc, but it was all well done. Hot items included everything for a full English breakfast.

Elondi, as you can see above, is a classy place to sit and eat and it makes for a relaxing way to start the day. My only niggle is that coffee wasn’t brought to your table and you had to use two machines.

Hyatt House Stratford lunch

I wasn’t around for dinner, but was there for lunch the following day. (Rhys had a full dinner last year which he covered in his Hyatt Regency review.)

I sat in the bar and took a salmon bagel (from H Forman’s, the local-but-world-famous salmon smoker), some fries (which hadn’t arrived when I took the photo!), burrata and a glass of English sparkling wine. Despite the ‘bar snack’ approach to it all, it was surprisingly well done and clearly all freshly prepared. Even in the bar, you feel that you are somewhere which is a cut above the average.

Conclusion

This review didn’t quite work out as I was expecting. My plan was to get a Globalist upgrade to a suite so I could see how suitable the rooms would be for a family or for someone who was looking for a room for a week or two. I really should read the Globalist suite upgrade rules next time ….

The ‘studio’ I got didn’t really do it for me. I don’t see the point in putting a kitchen into a room so small. You can’t fit any children into the space, so it is no good for families, and I doubt anyone staying for than a night or two would want a room this size.

If you take one of the larger suites, however, I can see how the concept works. You would get a decent amount of space for not much more than the cost of a standard hotel room – there is even a 2-bedroom suite if you need one. The cheapest suite was only £70 more than the cost of the room (‘studio’) I booked.

Throw in the kitchen, the laundry room, the decent breakfast, access to everything in Westfield (you are literally seconds from a Vue cinema and a huge John Lewis), access to the Olympic Park and access to the amazing transport links at Stratford and I can see why you’d want to stay here.

If you are comparing pricing between the Hyatt Regency (floors 4-8) and Hyatt House (floors 9-12) remember that Hyatt House guests get free breakfast. The Hyatt Regency rooms appear to be done to a higher specification. You pays your money and takes your choice.

World of Hyatt regulars may well take the Hyatt House purely to tick off another brand for the ‘Brand Explorer’ promotion, which I admit is part of the reason I agreed to do this review myself! If you’re a Globalist member, however, you want the Hyatt Regency if you want a suite upgrade.

You can find out more, and book, on the hotel website here.

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