Hyatt Regency Da Nang Resort Review (Using Amex’s The Hotel Collection)

Rating: 4/5 (great service & food, good price-to-value, but property is showing its age)

Price Paid: $196 per night for 2 x nights (used my Amex Platinum $200 hotel credit to bring this down to effectively $96 per night)

Introduction

After running around Hanoi like a (jetlagged) madman for 24 hours trying to see everything, I was ready to chill out on the beach for two days in Da Nang. Why here specifically? I hate to admit this, but the Amex travel portal decided my travel plans – Da Nang had really great pricing on hotels in general, and I saw this hotel under the Hotel Collection for sub $200 per night, so I booked it to try out Amex’s The Hotel Collection for the first time.

That’s right, I spent hundreds of thousands of points and thousands of dollars to get to the other side of the planet, so I could save $200 with my Amex hotel credit and get treated well at a nice resort. That’s the brilliance of the Amex marketing machine (read: my stupidity). I’m half joking – I actually did want to check out Da Nang and nearby Hoi An, so this also had a element of convenience to it. Also, this was a generally nice resort I would stay at, even sans credit.

Here’s what you’ll find in this post:

1. Introduction
2. Pricing & How to book
3. Perks with Amex The Hotel Collection
4. Check In Experience
5. Room Tour
6. Property Tour
7. Food & Restaurants on The Property
8. Conclusion

Pricing & How to book

This hotel is dirt cheap by Hyatt Resort standards, but is actually on the somewhat expensive side for the local Da Nang hotel market (which is among the most affordable in the world).

Rooms here generally start at $130 per night on a normal weekday, and go up from there depending on time of year / room:

If you want to use Hyatt points for this property (you shouldn’t), the property currently notches as a Category 4 property. This means a standard award night will cost 12,000 Hyatt points per night, which is a generally very poor use of Hyatt points given they can be redeemed for much more value. I would only book with cash if staying at this property, given how cheap (relatively) rooms go for.

I booked my stay via the Amex travel portal, where this property is part of The Hotel Collection (more on the perks that come with this later).

Rooms priced out roughly equivalent to the “standard” rates, which were above the member rates above. It’s important to compare when using any travel portal to direct bookings with the hotel – I’ve found the differences for many mid-range hotels are small, but if large it’s generally best to just book direct with the property.

Perks with Amex The Hotel Collection

This hotel is currently part of Amex’s The Hotel Collection. If booking at least a 2 night stay through Amex, you receive the following perks:

• 12pm check-in
• Room upgrade at check – in
• $100 credit towards charges at the property
• Late check-out, when available

These perks are basically a watered-down version of Amex FHR program.

To be honest, I had pretty low expectations of THC before checking in, unsure if I’d have to let the check in staff know the perks that come along with my reservation. However, I was blown away by how well this property handled everything related to Amex perks.

Check In Experience

I took a Grab straight from Da Nang Airport. Or to be specific, Grab wasn’t working for some reason at the airport, so a local driver approached me pointing to Grab’s price on his phone and promised to match it. This is textbook how to get scammed as a tourist, but I figured what the hell. The drive took just 15 minutes and surprisingly, he held his end of the bargain and charged me just 150k Vietnamese Dong (roughly $6 USD).

The property is located right on the beach, a few miles south of the main city center of Da Nang.

The lobby in check in area is very nice (and massive):

As soon as I arrived, service was over-the-top nice. At check in, the front desk immediately recognized my booking through Amex THC and redirected me to the Hyatt club to finalize check-in, where they did a quick check of my Amex platinum (make sure to bring it) and gave me a welcome drink (apple juice) and walked me through the benefits I’d receive. They also upgraded me to a ocean view room, which was nice (although not sure if this is the “default” option for THC bookings for a marginally nicer room).

Then, they had this guy drive me to my room (the resort is fairly large) in a golf cart, which was very nice (and kind of embarrassing).

Finally, as part of the check – in experience, they had a bottle of wine and some sweet desert waiting for me in my room, which was a very nice touch:

Room Tour

The resort structure is interesting, in that there’s a mix of low level and taller buildings that comprise all the guest rooms at the resort. My room was in “Residence A”, which is this building:

My room was on the 7th floor:

Entering the room, I was shocked at how massive it was. The room was structured basically as a full on apartment, with a living room / kitchen and separate bedroom and bathroom.

The room overall is massive (honestly felt too big for just me), but one thing that is noticeable is some wear and tear on parts of the property. The hotel was built in 2011 (but renovated in ’23 / ’24), but there’s definitely signs of its age:

The view from the room is gorgeous, however.

I also had a view of Da Nang when leaving the room on the other side, which wasn’t as scenic.

Property Tour

The resort property itself is fairly massive, and actually required me to pay attention to the map they gave me. I got lost trying to navigate several times, but eventually got the hang of it:

The most important area where you’ll probably end up spending the most time is around the main pool and beach, which is gorgeous:

The ocean is too rough (and polluted) to swim here safely unfortunately, but the hotel does a good job of offering hammocks / lounge chairs on the beach as well:

The hotel staff does a good job of cleaning the beach directly in front of the property. However, as soon as you step beyond the hotel’s stretch of beach, it’s completely covered in trash – an unfortunate sight that highlights Vietnam’s endemic pollution problem.

Right in front of the hotel though, the beach is prestine:

When booking a room, I’d try to be as close to the main pool as possible. The walk from the larger towers can be a little bit far, to be honest (first world problems, but hey).

In terms of other property amenities, there’s a kid’s area / pool, tennis court, spa, and gym. The gym has a free sauna and cold pool, which I really enjoyed.

There was even a private pool for Regency Club members. I was technically not allowed into here since my room / lack of Hyatt status did not qualify me, but pro tip: you can sneak in here via the gym’s sauna entrance. Not that I would ever do that.

Food & Restaurants on The Property

There’s three main restaurants on the property:

Xanh House: Vietnamese food (Westernized)

Osteria al Mare: Italian cuisine (and in the morning, serves the main breakfast buffet)

Vive Oceane: French + Vietnamese food in a beach club setting

I did not see the point in flying to Vietnam only to have French or Italian food (no shade though if that’s your thing), so I only ate at Xanh House and Osteria al Mare (for the breakfast buffet).

There’s also some smaller food venues and bars around the property – my favorite was the grab and go place called Baguette (yes, authentic Vietnamese I know). They had really, really good coconut coffees. Probably not great for the waistline but I did start most my days in Vietnam with a coconut coffee.

Here’s some of the food I had at Xanh house, which was always really good. I could apply the $100 credit via Amex THC to this, so all my meals ended up being “free” during my stay. The food at the hotel was way more expensive that “local” options, but still ended up being $15-$20 per meal which is pretty cheap vs. resort food pretty much anywhere else in the world.

I had the breakfast buffet one morning where I ate way, way too much. Note to self: don’t go for a beach run after eating three plates of Bulgogi for breakfast again. It will end poorly.

Conclusion

Overall, I highly recommend staying at the Hyatt Da Nang resort if looking for a chill place to relax in Da Nang for a few days. You can still access Da Nang to explore via a quick grab ride or even swing down to Hoi An. However, it’s not in a central location in the city, so keep that in mind if wanting more things to do outside the resort.

Also, I was generally pleasantly surprised with my first experience with Amex THC, which i guess gives me another reason to renew my Amex platinum next year. Next stop: switching hotels to stay at the Voco Ma Belle as my launch pad for exploring more of Da Nang and also Hoi An (which is actually further from Hoi An than the Hyatt, I realized afterwards).