Welcome back to rsts11travel. Today we have a story of a hotel redemption that came to 3.6x the TPG valuation for the points in question, and the story of a hotel about due for redemption.

We’re members of a car club for a particular American car platform (the GM Kappa platform, as seen in Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky convertible roadsters), and we had a run a couple of hours from home earlier this month. It wasn’t so far as to warrant an overnight before the run, but with it being in the fringes of wine country, we decided to stay overnight after the run.

Our favorite hotel in Santa Rosa, the Fountaingrove Inn, burned down in the Sonoma County fires in fall of 2017 and has not been rebuilt, so we went looking for points redemptions. As we recall, the Lodge at Sonoma Renaissance Resort and Spa didn’t have points availability, so we went with the Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country near downtown Santa Rosa.

We chose the $75 cash plus 6,000 World of Hyatt Points option, intending to use a travel eraser card to cover the room copay and taxes/fees and breakfast. Turns out this was an unexpectedly excellent value on its own, as the room was renting for $449 and up on Saturday nights. That means $374 of hypothetical room value covered by only 6,000 points, or about 6.2 cents per point. Compare that to TPG’s August valuation of 1.8 cents per point, and it’s pretty impressive.

To be fair, we’d never spend $449 for a quick overnight stay, but considering that we made up the points and more during a work trip to Las Vegas the week before, thanks to the MGM Resorts partnership with Hyatt Hotels, it was still a good deal.

Alas, the hotel, while good, was not up to Hyatt Regency expectations. 

The Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country is conveniently located on Railroad Ave in downtown Santa Rosa, blocks from downtown and a LOT of dining and shopping options. It’s a three story hotel with a central courtyard, a modest conference facility, paid self-parking ($10 when charged to the room, possibly a recent change according to some web reviews of the property).

It’s in the process of converting, apparently, from a Hyatt Regency to a regular Hyatt property (“Vineyard Creek” is seen on some of the materials in the hotel, but the corporate branding is still Regency). The restaurant has been closed for a while and has two months of construction left, so the dining options are room service, the small lobby bar, and a breakfast buffet set up daily in one of the convention rooms.

As mentioned, there are lots of great options for dining off property, but if you’re just looking to stay on site for the night, it’s somewhat suboptimal. We considered Guy Fieri’s Tex Wasabi’s, Russian River Brewing, and Toad in the Hole Pub, before deciding on Perch + Plow on the old courthouse square about half a mile from the hotel.

The room itself was spacious and comfortable, but felt more like an Aloft class hotel, or maybe a W, as opposed to a flagship property. It also fell short in the lighting category, with no switched lighting beyond the bathroom and entryway, and the corner between the bed and the bath (on the right above) being very dark in the evening even with the lights on. Our room was shower only, no tub, but unlike many of the hotels we stayed in recently, it did have a coffeemaker (with the disposable plastic filter trays and powdered “creamer”) and mini-fridge (no mini-bar, but that’s okay with us).

We didn’t get photos of this, but the power source arrangement was unique. The desk, the tv stand, and both sides of the bed headboard had an AC outlet and two USB charging ports, which made it easy to charge up all of our devices overnight. We’re used to one or two inconvenient outlets, or a lamp with one outlet in it, so this was a very modern offering that was unexpected.

For the property as a whole, aside from the restaurant being closed, things were acceptable. The staff were very friendly and helpful, even when we left our card keys in the room (and couldn’t get out of parking or back up to the third floor without them). The breakfast buffet, which is effectively a pop-up restaurant with omelet station, was pretty good as well (although it wasn’t free–$25.73 each with tax and tip). The $10/car parking charge was annoying, and unexpected for California wine country hotels, but we’ve paid far more for parking elsewhere before.

Mobile checkout worked quickly and seamlessly from the Hyatt mobile app, which also unexpectedly showed a current tally of room charges when we checked while checked-in. That saved us having to turn the TV on to look at the folio before checking out. We’re hoping the other major brands bring that functionality to their mobile apps as well, if it’s not already hidden away.

So wrap up the story for us

We were not blown away by the Hyatt Regency Sonoma Wine Country hotel, but for the redemption value and location, we were not disappointed. If availability leaned that way, or if we wanted to walk to Guy Fieri’s place, we’d be happy to return, hopefully with the restaurant in operation.

Odds are, though, our preference would be a return to the Renaissance in Sonoma, although it will eat 40-60k points per night (or 22-27.5k plus $165-225 depending on season).

Where have you stayed in Sonoma County for a good redemption value or even just a good wine country experience? Share in the comments, or join us on Facebook.