Hyatt Place Times Square Review
By: G.R.
Published: 8/23/2025
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Hyatt Place Times Square Review
TLDR; Solid value stay: clean, spacious rooms with free breakfast and a prime NYC location near Penn Station. Great for convenience and price, but expect crowds, long elevator waits, and limited staffing.
After my three day trip to Paris, I decided to stop in NYC before heading back to Boston. I stayed in the Hyatt Place Times Square right by Penn Station. This is the first time I have stayed at a Hyatt Place in a while and I’ll say I really enjoyed my stay here.
The Cost
When I was looking at hotels, I looked exclusively at Hyatts as I was staying with a friend who has Hyatt Globalist status. With his Globalist perks, I enjoy late checkout (4 pm latest usually), free breakfast at places that had an otherwise additional cost and free parking at hotels with a parking fee.
When deciding to book between points vs. cash, I decided to go with cash as I was running low on points. The Hyatt Place Times Square was considerably cheaper than all other options and was in a good location near Penn Station. I paid $218 for a room with a king bed along with a sofa bed.
This is also a Category 5 Hyatt, meaning each room starts off at 17,000 points per night and can go up to 23,000 points. Unfortunately, you can’t use a Category 4 certificate here, which is really unfortunate since there are no other Manhattan based hotels where you can use these valuable certificates.
The Location
Being 10 minutes from Penn Station, the Hyatt Place Times Square was ideal for me. I was coming back from Paris arriving in JFK late at night and wanted to sleep ASAP. I also wanted to wake up in an area where I could go out and do fun activities in the morning (which is why I didn’t choose a hotel near the JFK airport). I took the Airtrain to Jamaica from JFK and then the Long Island Railroad train (LIRR) which took about 30 minutes to get to Penn Station. The walk from Penn Station to the Hyatt was easy and safe as I was around a busy area with lots of lit up areas.
Being 10 minutes from Penn Station was elite as I could get anywhere in NYC from there.
The Room
I was pleasantly surprised by the room as Hyatt Place is one of the lower Hyatt brand tiers. Speaks to the Hyatt quality. The room was spacious with a king bed and a sofa bed alongside it. There was plenty of space to leave my suitcase along with my friend and my girlfriend’s luggage. Everything was extremely clean as well.
The Amenities
Free breakfast was included and there was a gym, however I did not get a chance to use it. The free breakfast was your classic average hotel breakfast with powdered eggs, pancakes, bacon etc. I was just happy to have free breakfast (nothing special). The Wi-Fi in my room was very average and slow at times. There was also laundry on site that I didn't use, but that wasn’t free to use either.
The Service/Experience
The major downside I found with the Hyatt Place Times Square was how busy it was. When we went down for breakfast at around 8:30 am, we waited 15 minutes for the elevator so we decided to walk down 22 floors from our room. When we checked in the night before, there wasn’t enough staff to man the door so we got lucky that someone let us into the hotel (you needed a key card to enter late at night). There was also a decent line to check in with only one person at the desk.
Furthermore, when I called the front desk to ask for some more tea, it was near impossible to get someone to answer. I will say however every time I interacted with a live person they were always pleasant and friendly. When I was leaving the hotel and asked for some waters, the woman at the front desk was kind and let us take water bottles from the fridge.
Final Remarks
Overall, I enjoyed my stay at Hyatt Place Times Square. Good price, clean and spacious room and free breakfast. Very solid. The location was excellent as well with access to Penn Station and plenty of restaurants and activities. If you are looking for a more luxurious experience, I would recommend going for a hotel like the Hyatt Regency Times Square or the Hyatt Grand Central New York.