As a result of some irregular and patchy award availability, we ended up having an overnight in South Korea. We needed something simple and close to the airport. As a result, we ended up with the Hyatt Regency Incheon as a place to sleep for the night. You never know what you’ll receive at an airport hotel, but we were pleasantly surprised to discover a conveniently located full service Hyatt Regency hotel.

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Review: Hyatt Regency Incheon, Seoul, South Korea

While we stayed at the property in its days as a Hyatt Regency, this property has been re-branded since our stay to a Grand Hyatt and is operating as the Grand Hyatt Incheon. This will be a shorter review since we were only at the airport for twelve hours with the primary purpose of sleeping.

“The Hyatt Regency Incheon offered a full service hotel that was a great value on Hyatt Gold Passport points, just steps away from Incheon Airport.”

After getting off our Asiana Business Class Tokyo Narita – Seoul Incheon flight, our twelve hour overnight connection in Incheon meant that we needed a hotel for the night. Instead of opting for a hotel in town, we made things simple and went for an airport hotel: The Hyatt Regency Incheon. I had connected through Incheon South Korea as a gateway to Asia four times up to this point but had never set foot inside the country.

How we Booked:

We easily found the complimentary shuttle for the Hyatt Regency Incheon Airport hotel. The shuttle departs every twenty minutes at :07, :27, :47 past the hour.

We booked directly on the Hyatt Website. Initially, I had secured us in on a paid rate at 250,000 KRW ($260 USD) for a King Room. As we got closer to the stay, I ended using Hyatt Gold Passport points for the room. The hotel was operating as a Hyatt Gold Passport Category 3, where free rooms were valued at 8,000 points. Today, as a Grand Hyatt under the World of Hyatt Program, the hotel offers free rooms at 12,000 World of Hyatt points.

I find that it’s a pretty common trend in hotel loyalty programs to offer discounted redemption rates at airport hotel properties since no one is generally interested in redeeming their points there for holidays, and the average daily rates are quite high as the majority of clientele are business travellers that put upwards pressure on the rates. As a result, I can usually find some points advantages at these properites.

Given that Hyatt Gold Passport are worth approximately 1.7 cents each, approximately 8,000 points represented a cash value of $136 USD. Since I don’t normally collect a stack of Hyatt Gold Passport Points, I ended up changing the cash reservations to a points rate about 14 days prior to the stay. As a result, I probably came out about $114 USD ahead, but mostly I cleared off some Hyatt Gold Passport points that I wouldn’t have typically had the opportunity to use.

Transferring from Incheon to The Hyatt Regency Incheon:

The hotel is conveniently located almost directly at the airport. While not attached to the airport itself, it’s about as close as can be, although it is a little to far to walk.

We easily found the complimentary shuttle for the Hyatt Regency Incheon Airport hotel. At the time of our visit, the shuttle departed every twenty minutes at XX:07, XX:27, XX:47 past the hour

The hotel is immediately off the Incheon airport property in a yet to be fully completed airside industrial park. Although close, it does not appear to be walk-able given the configuration of roads and freeway barriers. The hotel can be accessed by the “Airport Railroad”- an elevated light rail train system that links the airport with other areas around Incheon. We didn’t test it out on our visit but the elevated track was in place and the stations were indeed there. 

Arriving to the Hyatt Regency Incheon:

As with many newer Hyatts, we were welcomed with an impressive pleasant looking lobby with a friendly and efficient check in. We were assigned Room #863, a King Room. There were six staff working the front desk at around 11 PM when we arrived. The quick check in process was welcomed as there’s nothing worse than arriving after a journey and having to wait in a long line. 

The hotel featured a Karaoke and casino, plus a bar and a lounge off to the side of the lobby. There was also a soothing bamboo décor, lobby art, and a full serve restaurant. Unlike some airport hotels that have absolutely nothing at them (or going for them), the hotel offered almost everything that you’d expect from a full service property.

The Room: A King Room

The King Room #863 was nicely furnished, if not somewhat dark on arrival. This was as bright as it would get. The room featured the usual beige and earth tones theme.

The room featured a desk for two, in addition to a single lounge chair for one.

A welcome fruit amenity was also made available, in addition to casino branded chocolates and a personalized note from the manager.

The King room had a plain, utilitarian bathroom. It did the trick.

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We had a quick 6 hour sleep here prior to our next flight the next morning. The room and hallways were quite during the hours for 12 AM – 5 AM, which was a relief. 

A Room with a View:

The next morning, we had a nice view of the morning landing runway. We also had view of the morning calisthenics from the construction side for the project immediately next door at the 7 AM roll call. The exercises were a bit unusual from a North American business perspective, but probably common in some Asian countries.

Around the Hotel:

There isn’t much around the hotel given it’s airport location next to a large airport. Indeed, the area appeared pretty dead during our time there. This probably wouldn’t be my first choice for a place if you were looking for South Korean entertainment or a central location to everything.

In Summary: The Hyatt Regency Incheon

As we left the Hyatt Regency Incheon, the door staff pro-actively called me by name by looking at my luggage tags, asking if the service was up to standard. I thought this was a nice personal touch that you don’t get very often at other hotels. 

Overall, the Hyatt Regency Incheon is a nice hotel in the middle of nowhere. There is absolutely nothing around the area and aside from the usual food and beverage outlets in the hotel. There appears to be minimal entertainment around here. In true airport pricing, the room was valued at a steep $260 USD. We used Hyatt Passport Points to redeem at 8,000 points per night, which we found to be a much better value. Despite the disadvantages of the location, we’d easily stay here again if we needed to if we ever had an overnight at Incheon airport again.

Editors Note: The hotel is presently operating as The Grand Hyatt Incheon.

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