Which hotel brand is best, Park Hyatt Vs. Mandarin Oriental? Certain cities and resorts house both a Park Hyatt and a Mandarin Oriental. These include Paris, New York, Milan, London and Tokyo. More cities are included, and the waters become more muddied if you include Hyatt’s stylish Andaz brand.
We have also compared Park Hyatt Vs. Fairmont hotels, Park Hyatt Vs. JW Marriott, Park Hyatt Vs. Ritz-Carlton, Park Hyatt Vs. InterContinental hotels and Mandarin Oriental vs. Four Seasons.
Park Hyatt and Mandarin Oriental tend to be very luxurious hotel brands. Park Hyatt hotels like the Park Hyatt Zurich pictured above often have more communal space, and both offer excellent facilities, grounds, spas, and often pools. Each hotel within the Park Hyatt and Mandarin Oriental brands is unique, so the facilities are property-dependent.
We have outlined the best Park Hyatt hotels and best Mandarin Oriental hotels in case you want to delve further into each hotel brand.
1. Loyalty
Park Hyatt is part of the World of Hyatt loyalty program, and you can earn and redeem points for free nights in either of these programs. If you are staying in a Park Hyatt, you will earn useful loyalty points, which can be collected towards free nights.
Unlike Bonvoy, World of Hyatt, Hilton Honours, and most other loyalty programs around the world, the Mandarin Oriental loyalty program does not offer guests the ability to collect points or credits towards free nights. By joining, you get selected free benefits, which are nowhere near as good as the benefits you get by booking via our luxury travel concierge team.
It’s worth mentioning that these loyalty benefits are nowhere near as good as the benefits you get by booking via our concierge. If you book with our concierge, you will also get all your usual World of Hyatt during your stay.
Our travel agency partnership with Mandarin Oriental and Park Hyatt Hotels means you will also get brilliant free benefits, usually including breakfast for two, prioritized room upgrades (subject to availability), hotel credit, and more if you book with one of our team. Our deals are almost always better than booking directly on the hotel website for both brands.
In Paris, New York, and London, you also get free InterContinental club lounge access when you book an InterContinental hotel via our concierge, regardless of your loyalty status.
2. Style
Park Hyatt offers a very high-end finish. Of all the major branded hotel chains (excluding Four Seasons), we think Park Hyatt hotels offer the most luxurious setting.
Take the Park Hyatt Zurich pictured above that we reviewed last year. This hotel offers swathes of black marble throughout the double-level foyer. There’s a beautiful lobby lounge with a sophisticated clientele, a large fireplace, and art spattered around. The rooms are large, with lovely bathrooms that open to the bedroom, and everything is immaculate.
The Park Hyatt New York is a new property and is based in one of the skinny new skyscrapers overlooking Central Park. It has a great pool, fantastic large rooms, and oversized bathrooms.
We have also reviewed the Park Hyatt Vienna, which is another stunning refurbished Park Hyatt hotel, this time set in a tasteful conversion of the headquarters of an Austrian Hungarian Monarchy Bank, right in the heart of The Golden Quarter.
This conversion retains many features of the 100-year-old Neo-classical building, including marble staircases polished by the leather of countless bank clerks’ scurrying brogues. Like many Park Hyatt hotels, this hotel is completely unique and is well worth a visit.
Our experience of the Mandarin Oriental in Geneva was excellent, where we enjoyed a beautiful rooftop room with a large terrace. While the room was excellent, the hotel lacked communal space beyond the restaurant.
In Tokyo, the Mandarin Oriental has slightly better service and rooms, although the Park Hyatt has better bathrooms.
3. Location
As a general rule, Park Hyatt and Mandarin Oriental hotels are both centrally located in cities. Clearly, the location of the hotel is property-specific. The Park Hyatt Seoul, for example, is located in the business center of the city and not in the tourist center. If you are heading to Seoul, you might also want to consider the Andaz, which we compared with the Park Hyatt Seoul.
In London, a new and fabulous Park Hyatt has opened, but it does not have a very good location and is a tube ride away from the tourist sites, top shopping spots, and the West End. We far prefer the location of the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London, which is in Knightsbridge by Hyde Park corner, the wonderful London Parks, and around the corner from Buckingham Palace. You can walk everywhere from the Mandarin Oriental London. The Park Hyatt requires a tube to get to the main sights, shopping, and the west end.
In Milan, the Park Hyatt is steps away from the Piazza del Duomo in the center of Milan, so it is better located than the Mandarin Oriental, which is a 10-minute walk from the center. It does, however, lack green space in this urban city. For this you should try the Bulgari Milan or Four Seasons Milan.
The location of the Park Hyatt Tokyo is better for nightlife than the Mandarin Oriental as it is a 10-minute walk (or a free shuttle) to Shinjuku, which is where you will find the nightlife. The Mandarin Oriental has an underground station in the building, which makes getting around convenient. It also has a department store and restaurants on the doorstep. It is worth mentioning that Aman Tokyo has an excellent location and is a great luxury choice, too, due to its unique style and proximity to Otemachi station.
In New York, the Park Hyatt is almost next to the Ritz-Carlton by Central Park. We love the location of this Park Hyatt.
4. Size
Park Hyatt hotels and Mandarin Oriental hotels tend to be more boutique than larger brands like Intercontinental, Fairmont, and Marriott hotels.
5. Rooms
Rooms at Park Hyatt hotels tend to be larger and more stylish than those at Mandarin Oriental hotels. Park Hyatt rooms tend to have a more modern design, whereas Mandarin Oriental rooms can be more traditional in decor. The rooms at Park Hyatt, New York, are between 500 and 620 ft². They are large and stunning. We particularly like the views from these rooms.
6. Pool & Gym
Whether there is a pool and gym is very property dependent. In Tokyo, the Park Hyatt has a pool, and the Mandarin Oriental doesn’t.
The Park Hyatt New York also has a gorgeous swimming pool, jacuzzi, and sauna on the 25th floor on the opposite side of the building to Central Park. The Mandarin Oriental in New York also has an excellent pool with bird’ s-eye views of New York and a gym.
In London, both the Park Hyatt and Mandarin Oriental have glorious pools, but the facilities do vary by individual hotel. Park Hyatt St. Kitts Christophe Harbour in the Caribbean has a gorgeous pool and beach. The Park Hyatt Vienna has a deliciously warm swimming pool situated under the barrel ceiling of the old bank vault. The Mandarin Oriental Miami has a waterfront pool surrounded by swaying palms.
There’s no pool at the Park Hyatts in Paris and Zurich and the Mandarin Oriental in Geneva, so each individual property is very different.
7. Ski
The best Hyatt ski hotels are at Park Hyatt hotels, including Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort which is a gorgeous ski hotel.
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group will introduce its first alpine resort in the summer of 2025 in the Italian ski resort of Cortina. The ultra-luxury hospitality company has inked a management deal to rebrand and manage the historic Hotel Cristallo d’Ampezzo, which will undergo substantial renovation. The property is earmarked to reopen as Mandarin Oriental Cristallo, Cortina, ahead of the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics.
The property sits above the most recognized mountain village in the Dolomites, a short walk away from Cortina d’Ampezzo, known as the ‘Queen of the Dolomites,’ which features award-winning restaurants, high-end boutiques, and local arts and crafts.
8. Club Lounge
Very few Park Hyatts have executive club lounges. The Mandarin Oriental hotels in Pudong, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, Guangzhou and Singapore have excellent club lounges.
9. Family Facilities
Park Hyatt and Mandarin Oriental hotels are equally family-friendly. Pick properties that offer pools or are in mountain locations for skiing. Many Mandarin Oriental and Park Hyatt hotels tend to be in cities.
If you want the best brand for family-friendly luxury hotels, it is usually best at Four Seasons or some Belmond properties like the Hotel Cipriani.
10. Price
Park Hyatt hotels and Mandarin Oriental hotels tend to be similarly priced.
Park Hyatt Sydney is usually the most expensive hotel in Sydney, and while you can’t argue with its location, right on the waterfront in the rocks, the prices here can be eyewatering.
For a more reasonable Park Hyatt or Mandarin Oriental stay, read our review of some of the cheapest Park Hyatt hotels and the cheapest Mandarin Oriental hotels.
11. Conclusion
While both Park Hyatt Hotels and Mandarin Oriental are excellent hotels in any city or resort, neither brand is an overall winner. It is best to check the location and style of each individual property before choosing which is best in a particular city.
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