I have stayed at the Hyatt Dulles many times over the years. It is close to IAD, cheap at weekends and has nice rooms. My strongest memory was that I was there when the Columbine School Shooting occurred and watched it unfold in horror.

The rooms are larger than normal with a separate sitting and sleeping area, separated by the TV.

With my misconnect at IAD I was the pickup location (2H) about  5 minutes before the shuttle came. The bus is a mixture of hotel guests and airport workers who use the free parking nearby and hop on the shuttle to/from work. No one seems to mind and as long as all the hotel guests get on then it’s not an issue in my book.

I arrived at the Front Desk via the new entrance – totally confused – and the nice agent explained that it had been two years since the remodel. The old entrance has become part of their new conference centre – which seemed to be doing a roaring trade the next morning.

The agent explained how to log in to the internet, where to get my free Diamond breakfast, and oh ‘We’ve upgraded you to a suite tonight’ My seven favourite words and some of you may recall from my stay at the Andaz in New York.

They had allocated me the Horizon Suite on the 15th Floor.

The room is divided in to three separate areas – the Living Room, with dining table for 10 and a seating area; the Bedroom, with work desk; and the bathroom which has a large shower/wet area and no tub.

Living Room

The living room is huge with lots of seating – at the large dining table and around the TV.

Bathroom

Large shower area with toilet separate, though a frosted glass screen, from the wash stand.

Working Area in bedroom with bed in distance

Breakfast

The buffet in the restaurant in the lobby started at 0630 (a little later for an airport hotel I thought). The servers were helpful and attentive. The food was hot and fresh – usual – eggs, bacon, sausage, waffles and an omelet/egg station. This was free was a Diamond Gold Passport member -and reminded me of the value of this status when the bill came for $20 incl taxes.

Shuttle

The shuttle leaves the hotel at xx:15 and xx:45 and again was a mixture of employees and passengers but as they used the large shuttle it was not full. The shuttle stops twice at the airport and I was quickly in the queue for the TSA. More posted in the ‘Second day with United’ thread.

Overall

For a last minute booking, at a good location and a property I knew I was more than happy with the stay. The suite upgrade made me feel much happier after an awful day with United.