Misadventures at Hyatt Regency LAX: A Tale of Disasters in Los Angeles

Have you ever received such poor treatment in hospitality, that not only do you find alternative sleeping arrangements, you make sure they are confirmed in another city? Well if you are looking for a blog about how great it is to visit LA or the Hyatt Regency LAX

Early on a Thursday morning, I found myself near being unhoused and stuck at the LAX airport. I needed a place to drop my luggage for the day. While I had not intended on spending the night in LA, I reasoned with it being worth it to be luggage free for the day, and possibly spend some quiet time with my husband ahead of his international departure. I pulled out my phone and went to my go to site, Expedia and booked a room at the Hyatt Regency LAX. After confirming the reservation, I attempted to call the property to get more details on catching the shuttle, and checking in early, as it was only 10am. I was only able to get some stupid AI prompt that texted a link where I could track the shuttle. This was useless, and sad how easily this could have been resolved with a simple conversation.

After moving from curb to curb we finally tracked down the shuttle, and loaded up the luggage. Upon arrival to the property, the walk from the shuttle drop off to the front desk was pretty far, but we finally made it. I exhaled at the the thought of sitting in a quiet space to recollect my thoughts about how we would turn this day around. When I was greeted by Zoey. She was giving Zoey Kravitz with passive aggressive attitude. She advised me that check in was at 4pm, but I could check in now for a fee of $75. This would be a 50% markup to the price booked, and I had paid in advance. I looked around, the restaurant was busy, there was no waiting in the lobby. I got a sense that she was testing me to see if I would push back on the fee, but I acknowledged and asked if she would just store the luggage until they had a room available for us. To this she agreed. Disappointed in the result of the conversation, I chose peace.

By this time Big-J, my husband, was ready to eat. On a normal day, he is the kind of man that wakes up to tea and a hot breakfast, and he was more than likely starving. I on the opposite end have coffee and fast until 3pm daily, so I had no appetite. We decided to attempt to catch the city bus, a few blocks down to find some medicinal healing and food. I had been wanting to try out my new camera so I brought my camera backpack along for the trip. As we waiting for the bus I snapped a few pictures, and was just taking my last shot when the bus pulled up.

The bus slowed as it watched me snap the final pic of my husband, then sped up to pass us! WTF is all I could repeat to myself. So I suppose we didn't appear to be the average bus riders who happened to be getting some last minute shots during the wait. Nope, another setback the next one would stop for us, if we just had the patience.

Eventually we boarded the bus and would arrive to our next stop in just a few blocks down the road. We exited the bus and began to walk toward what we thought should be a store. This was actually more like a dilapidated trap house. We crossed the street and called an Uber, and grabbed a quick bite to eat while I did a bit of research on the next stop.

After spending a couple hours out and about filled with spirit, we returned to the Hyatt Regency, it was now afternoon and nearing check in time. Possibly they would allow us to check in now, or provide the opportunity for a refund. They were sadly unable to assist me with either. After the fact, I was able to work with Expedia and the property's management to received a full refund of the pre-paid stay. At this point, I had arrived early via Amtrak, waited two hours to transfer to the airport, spent an hour searching for the hotel shuttle, only to return back to LAX for checkin. This last minute trip attempt at an unplanned vacay was full of suffering by this point and I had to make it stop. I kissed my husband goodbye. He headed to security and I would find a spot to plan my return to Arizona.