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Leap Year Hotels / Hotel Deals / Hotel Packages / Manhattan Hotels / Grand Hyatt Hotels / San Antonio Hotels / Hilton Hotels / Boston Hotels / Hotel Spas / Disney Hotels / London Hotels / Hotel Concierges / Valentine's Day Hotels / → All Tags

Pounce On These Leap Year Hotel Deals Now, Before They Leap Away

Yes, it's a Leap Year! An entire day added to the month, an entire extra day for some hotel-lovin'. And the hotels are pretty excited about it too! We've hunted around for the best Leap Year deals from San Antonio to New York to London. Unsurprisingly, several of them overlap with Valentine's Day festivities—but as they say, bargains make the heart grow fonder...

Grand Hyatt New York, fresh from its recent $130 million renovation, is feeling generous. So they're singling out people who are either turning 29 this year or who were born on a leap year. While the 29-year-olds actually make out with something cool (free appetizer or dessert at New York Central, pictured above), leap year babies (anyone born in 2008, 2004, 2000, 1996, etc), as usual, get the short end of the stick. That would be a "free" Dylan's Candy Bar cupcake...-shaped tin (not even an actual cupcake!) from the hotel's 24-hour convenience store, Market.

With a purchase of $9 or more. Seriously. These guys only celebrate their birthday once every four years. Can't we just give them a free cupcake and call it a day? Rates from $309.

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Beijing Hotels / Grand Hyatt Hotels / Hyatt Hotels / → All Tags

Inside The Grand Hyatt Beijing

Where: 1 East Chang An Avenue, Beijing, China, 100738

Our travels recently took us to Beijing and required our Mandarin-challenged selves to put some research into our hotel search. Challenged may be an understatement. We knew one word going over (Nǐ Hǎo or hello) which was only going to get us so far. Therefore our Beijing hotel needed to be English friendly. From the front desk to the bellmen, with only one exception, the Grand Hyatt Beijing fit the bill.

The Hyatt's location is convenient for a first time visitor also. The Oriental Plaza, one of China’s largest commercial complexes, directly connects to the hotel. Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, two must sees on a maiden Beijing voyage, are both within walking distance. Non-Mandarin guests like ourselves looking to explore other parts of the city would be wise to inform the bellman of their destination before entering the cab so that he can relay the info. We forgot once and sat in awkward silence as the cabdriver shouted a lot more the hello at us. On the way back, showing our key card with the hotel address did the trick.

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Hotel Renovations / Grand Hyatt Hotels / San Francisco Hotels / → All Tags

The Grand Hyatt San Francisco Tries to Give New Rooms a Residential Feel

Where: 345 Stockton St. [map], San Francisco, CA, United States, 94108

The Grand Hyatt San Francisco is in the midst of a $70 million renovation, giving its lobby, open-kitchen restaurant and lounge and meeting facilities an upgrade, but the rooms are finished with their makeovers.

All 630 rooms received a facelift, and 21 were converted to hypoallergenic accommodations. The rooms were made to be more residential, but we're especially digging the technology inside them.

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Hotel Openings / Hyatt Hotels / China Hotels / Grand Hyatt Hotels / → All Tags

Grand Hyatt Opens in Shenzhen, a Stone's Throw from Hong Kong

Are you a business traveler that heads to Southern China quite a bit? Or perhaps you're a tourist looking for a daytrip from visiting Hong Kong, and you just happen to have a Chinese visa in your passport. Whichever you are, you won't be able to miss the newest huge hotel on the block: The Grand Hyatt Shenzhen.

Now you may have already heard us talk about our love of the Hyatts in Shanghai, and of course for like every Hong Kong hotel, but a Grand Hyatt in Shenzhen gets our attention. You see, Shenzhen is China's second largest port after Shanghai, and it's super known for its manufacturing industries and financial powerhouses. Any new, giant luxury hotel means more beds for business travelers dumping capital into the economy. And they will be doing so in style...

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Killer View / Melbourne Hotels / Grand Hyatt Hotels / → All Tags

Sip Your Coffee Up Above Melbourne at the Grand Hyatt

Where: 123 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3000

We are suckers for a room with a killer view.  We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.

There is something about sitting up really high with a drink in our hands — whether it be a cocktail or a coffee — that sort of makes you feel like a king or queen, no? Just us? Okay.

Whether or not you get a royal vibe from chillin' in front of a window with a killer view, you can probably agree that this particular seat (snapped by vissi87 and dropped into the HotelChatter Flickr Pool) from the Grand Club Lounge at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne makes you feel good inside. Unless you're scared of heights. Or scared of Melbourne.

Rates here start at A$232 (around $165 USD) and booking a Club room will grant you access to this lounge (the lowest rate we found for a Club King was A$312, or $222 USD) — which you may think is worth it to be able to sit here and sip your coffee. Also, this hotel was just renovated (to the tune of $30 million USD), so the place has a stylish new lobby, a new restaurant and bar, and totally updated amenities.

[Photo: vissi87]