We booked a Club Deluxe King because it was my birtday. The room was spacious with a great bathroom. At check in I mentioned my birthday but no special attention was given to that.
We got a room with an inside garden view but the room itself was great. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant were it was very busy with a lot of children (the hotel doesn't look like the perfect hotel for children...). The food was ok but not special.
We had breakfast at the clublounge. Food and service were great. So great place to stay but don't expect any personal attantion when you celebrate something.

The rooms at the Hyatt are spacious and well furnished, with a great attention to detail in terms of amenities. There a comfortable king size bed and a large marble bathroom in each room.

For a five-star hotel (yes it is the only one in Canberra) the service could improve. The front desk is okay but anyone else walking around looks all at sea.

The breakfast and lunch buffet are fantastic, although a little overpriced even by hotel standards.

Given the lack of other options in Canberra it's a great place to stay, but don't expect the same quality as a hotel of comparable price in Sydney or Melbourne. Prestige breeds contempt.

My husband and I stayed here on our wedding night in February 2008. We stayed here as it was the only 5 star accommodation in Canberra, and we wanted something special for such a special occasion. Plus, we knew the rooms had lovely big marble bathrooms with large double spas rather than corner spas, which appealed.

I've got to say, we were not impressed. It took the staff ages to find our booking despite it being arranged months in advance, and even though we received an email confirmation the week before. Plus, my husband made a booking for an airport transfer through the main desk, which they lost on no fewer than 3 occasions.

My husband had arranged for chocolates and champange to be placed in the room when we arrived as it was our wedding night, and reminded the staff of this when he checked in earlier that day. The staff said all would be in order when we arrived after our wedding. But the Hyatt let us down - it wasn't there.

On top of the booking being in doubt, the airport transfer needing to be arranged 3 times and the staff not supplying the extras we had paid for, we were disappointed that despite a lobby full of staff and porters, not one staff member approached us to help with our luggage. Having a heap of bags with us for our overseas holiday, plus our wedding outfits in garment bags, my mother and I really struggled getting all our stuff out of the room, through the hotel, out of the lobby and into the carpark, while staff ignored us.

So much for 5 star service. I know that individually none of these things are unforgiveable, but all together, on our wedding, and from what is supposedly the best hotel in Australia's capital, I was really unimpressed.

If its a special occasion, look elsewhere - even with lots of reminders, they just didn't get it right for us.

My husband and I spent a Thurs & Fri night staying at the Hyatt in Canberra in mid-Feb as a quick get-away from work / kids etc.
The service at the hotel was top-class; we couldn't possibly find a single fault. The staff were outstandingly friendly, polite, helpful and even had a bit of a sense of humour (they actually seemed as though they were enjoying their jobs!!! WOW!!)! The rooms were quite average, but I'll do the good bits first!

It's very easy to find the hotel - only about 10 minutes from the airport - and there is ample, free, safe parking around the side of the hotel. It is very conveniently located to parliament house etc., but I would suggest a hire car as we found it well worthwhile for getting around. If you avoid peak hour traffic, you would hardly think you're in a city, the roads are so quiet!

We booked via wotif.com @ $275/night for a park view room including buffet breakfast at the Promenade Cafe, which I consider reasonably good value. If you paid $400+/night for a room only, you'd probably be disappointed.

When you enter the hotel, the lobby and guest areas (bars, cafe's etc.) are very impressive and soooo classy (ahhh, just what I like!!).

The rooms themselves though are nothing special considering that they are supposed to be 5 star (definately not!!). I say rooms (plural) because after the first night we complained and were promptly moved to another room (only took a few minutes and the staff were most apologetic and quick to act - with what seemed to be a genuine smile). The prob. with the first room was that the bathroom next door must have backed directly onto our room and sounded like a freight train when the taps were turned on, no exaggeration whatsoever, it was terrible! So, if you want to sleep in, no chance at all in the room we were in (I think room 104). The second room was much better (#30), but I don't think that we had any neighbours!

Both rooms had standard type tv's (not that it would matter in 104, because you couldn't actualy watch tv from the bed if you wanted to anyway (unless you wanted a crook neck!)) and in #30 the curtains didn't block out the sunlight very well, so whilst we weren't woken to the sound of water going through pipes, the lovely sunshine woke us up about 6am, much earlier than the kids usually do (which was one of the points of getting away together - a sleep in would have been nice!)!

Looking objectively at the rooms, they both had peeling, sub-standard paint and for some weird reason there was actually hair on the roof of the bathroom, along with a bit of mould in the grouting and gyprock!! Also, next to the lovely big (actually enormous) bath, you could see a glass rim mark from a previous guest who must have enjoyed a champas in the bath...
Carpets were stained and a little worn.
None of these are major issues - I'm picky but not to the point of obsession - but if these little things were attended to it would really pick up the standard of the rooms and bring them up to the standard that they claim to be.

The rooms are quite spacious, bathrooms huge and the beds better-than-average for comfort, with several types of pillows (good to know!), nice crisp cotton linen and lovely large, fluffy towels and robes. Mini bar very well-stocked.

The toiletries were great; much better quality than any other 5 star hotel I've stayed in.

The breaky at the Promenade Cafe' was really nice, eggs cooked to order (once again, very friendly, happy staff), and everything very fresh and perfectly presented.
We're generally not 'buffet' people, but liked the breaky so much that we had the seafood buffet dinner there one night also (seafood is only on Fri & Sat nights, and best to book). There were so many staff serving, the second we finished a plate it was taken and glasses allways filled. $56/head, very good value as everything was perfect, certainly not your normal cheap and nasty type of buffet!!

Wanted to have afternoon tea in the tea lounge, but that was booked out a week in advance - apparently very nice. Tried to book in Axis restaurant for dinner, but they didn't return any messages, so I'm not sure what's going on there.

Overall, yes, I would stay at the Hyatt again because of the service & location and because I'm not sure that you would get any better rooms in Canberra anyway.

Worth a mention is the Boathouse by the Lake Restaurant - we had a fantastic meal there (bit pricey though, my steak was $52) and the food and service was amazing. For example, when we arrived, there was someone waiting to open the front door for us, and then there was about 1 waiter to every 2 tables. When the waiter heard that we didn't have a map, he went and photocopied some pages from his for us, and then spent quite a lot of time explaining what to do & where etc - most appreciated!