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Which hotel brand is best, IHG Vs. Hyatt? IHG includes the luxury hotel brands Regent, InterContinental, Six Senses, Kimpton, Vignette, and Indigo hotels. Hyatt’s luxury hotels include Park Hyatt and Andaz, Hyatt Regency, and Grand Hyatt. We review which is best below.
It’s worth mentioning at this point that you can book both these brands via our luxury travel concierge to get extra free benefits such as complimentary breakfast, hotel credit, room upgrades, and your usual IHG or World of Hyatt rewards.
In many major cities worldwide, including Hong Kong, Bangkok, London, Singapore, Macau, Dubai, Paris, New York, and Los Angeles, and tourist destinations like Hawaii, Florida, and the Caribbean, there are numerous IHG and Hyatt Hotels. We review which is best below.
1. Loyalty
IHG has at least two reward schemes: IHG One Rewards is free to join and gives you access to exclusive member rates. It is relevant to all IHG brands, including Regent and Kimpton. You can earn points for reward nights, get free Wi-Fi, and have a better chance of getting late checkout. Plus, you get perks like bonus points, reward night discounts, welcome amenities, and milestone rewards.
IHG also has an InterContinental Ambassador, which is relevant only to InterContinental hotels and is a loyalty program that delivers benefits exclusively at InterContinental Hotels & Resorts properties worldwide. The benefits of InterContinental Ambassador membership are: guaranteed one category room upgrade, guaranteed extended 4:00 pm checkout, complimentary weekend night, Platinum Elite status in IGH One Rewards and the corresponding benefits, restaurant, and bar credit of USD20 for every stay, complimentary mineral water, complimentary internet, dedicated check-in area, a single room rate for double occupancy and for mainland China only, complimentary breakfast for one each night you stay.
The cost of InterContinental Ambassador membership is USD 200 every 12 months. IHG One Rewards members can also purchase membership for 40,000 points.
The complimentary weekend night is valid on the second night of a minimum two-night paid weekend stay on the Ambassador Complimentary Weekend Night Rate at any InterContinental Hotels & Resorts property worldwide, excluding InterContinental Alliance Resorts.
Hyatt is part of the World of Hyatt loyalty program, and you can earn and redeem points for free nights in this program. Park Hyatt hotels are the highest Hyatt brand, but there are no Park Hyatt hotels in Hawaii. Park Hyatts mainly sit in cities, meaning there are a limited number of high-end vacation destinations where you would want to burn your Hyatt points. We have outlined the best Hyatt hotels on Hawaii, and they are great, but only one ticks the 5-star ultra-luxury box, and that’s the Andaz Hawaii which we would highly reccomend.
Whether you stay at an IHG or a Hyatt, you will earn useful loyalty points, which can be collected towards free nights. Both loyalty schemes are similarly good.
The IHG and Hyatt loyalty benefits are usually nowhere near as good as the benefits you get by booking via our luxury travel concierge. Our travel agency partnership with IHG and Hyatt hotels means you will get brilliant free benefits at all luxury IHG and Hyatt brands, usually including breakfast for two, prioritized room upgrades (subject to availability), hotel credit, and more if you book with our concierge. Our deals are almost always better than booking directly on the hotel website for both brands.
If you book with our team, you will get all your usual IHG and World of Hyatt points during your stay. In Paris, New York, and London, you get free club lounge access when you book an InterContinental hotel via our team. Your loyalty tier is irrelevant to this perk.
2. Style
Regent brands sit at the top of the IHG brand, hand in hand with Park Hyatt hotels, and are ultra-luxurious and ultra-stylish. The Regent in Cannes is easily the best luxury hotel in the South of France if you want to stay within the IHG and Hyatt brands.
We have compared The Carlton Cannes, A Regent Hotel Vs Martinez by Hyatt in Cannes in case you are choosing between this IHG and Hyatt hotel.
We have reviewed the London InterContinental Park Lane, an IHG hotel about a 15-minute walk from the Hyatt Regency Churchill Hotel. The InterContinental is surrounded by London’s parks and is positioned at Hyde Park Corner, moments from Buckingham Palace. The Hyatt is set slightly behind Selfridges store off Oxford Street, and although it has a nice view out onto a little tree-filled square, the location isn’t a patch on the location of the InterContinental.
This InterContinental has a lovely foyer downstairs with Theo Randall’s delicious Italian restaurant, a central bar area, and an additional restaurant. The Mayfair rooms here have been recently refurbished and have a slightly Asian feel, with a modern cherry blossom-type design behind the beds. The highlight is their fabulous club lounge, which is the best club lounge in London for views.
The InterContinental not only has a better location (opposite the Four Seasons in London), but the club lounge at the InterContinental is far superior, with views over London’s parks and a sophisticated feel with vast wide ceilings. Whereas the club lounge at the Hyatt looks out over rooftops, the lounge can feel overly busy, and the foot is set out in a small buffet area, where you may have to get your elbows out to grab some fish before it all goes.
This InterContinental has one of the best club lounges in London. A second InterContinental in London is well located for river views and the O2 arena but is badly located for just about everything else, so it is not the best choice. There is also an Andaz in London City attached to Liverpool Street Station, but again, this location is not great for tourist sites. You need to hop on the tube to get to most places in London.
It has a decent club lounge but is set in an old tower block with slow and usually full lifts. We didn’t like this hotel, as we’re not keen on old tower blocks. I’m always reminded of the old movie Towering Inferno, which puts me off, although the views from the Hilton are arguably the best of these three hotels due to its height. In London, most hotels are positioned in less high and sometimes historic buildings.
The InterContinental New York Barclay sits above the Park Hyatt New York for the club lounge, but the Park Hyatt wins in almost every other aspect. This Park Hyatt is set in the sky overlooking Central Park. It has large rooms with huge windows offering fantastic views. It has a pool and is brilliantly located, although it lacks the communal spaces of the InterContinental hotels in New York.
The InterContinental Barclay is a particularly great pick if you book a stay here via our luxury travel concierge, as you will get free club lounge access at this InterContinental hotel and its club lounge is fabulous, and contemporary with a particularly good breakfast and afternoon tea.
The other InterContinental in New York is InterContinental New York Times Square, which is another great property, but we don’t offer free club lounge access here.
There are numerous Hyatt hotels in Paris. We love the Park Hyatt Paris, which is around the corner from InterContinental Paris Le Grand. Both the Park Hyatt and the InterContinental are situated in beautiful, ornately designed buildings. I particularly like the Parisien rooftop views from the top-floor rooms at the InterContinental Le Grand, but for luxury, pick the Park Hyatt with its creamy stonework, which carries on throughout the communal areas.
The bar and restaurant at the Park Hyatt are incredibly stylish venues with thick Roman-style pillars. The bar looks out onto the stunning central courtyard. The courtyard and all the communal areas continue with a creamy finish, enabling you to enjoy a quiet coffee in an immaculate setting surrounded by greenery while their live piano player tinkles in the background.
This Park Hyatt is stunning; the rooms are large, and even the peaceful courtyard view rooms offer a peaceful and desirable ambiance from which you can enjoy distant piano playing.
The InterContinental Paris is also a great hotel, but it doesn’t have the boutique feel of the Park Hyatt, and the communal areas, although stunning, do not have the luxury boutique feel of those at the Park Hyatt.
InterContinental Paris Le Grand is your luxury IHG choice in Paris, and again, if you book a stay here via our luxury travel concierge, you will get free club lounge access at this InterContinental hotel. This hotel is gorgeous and recently refurbished, and its club lounge is a great place to hang out.
There are also several Kimptons in Paris and London, which should be considered if you are looking for a stylish hotel and are not bothered by a slightly smaller room size. Kimpton St Honoré Paris is an excellent boutique hotel in Paris that feels very special and unique compared to the more generic and corporate Hyatt hotels.
We also reviewed the excellent Kimpton Fitzroy in London, which we love for its funky British decor and great atmosphere. Like all Kimptons, the rooms aren’t large here, but the communal areas are really fun, and the level of luxury is similar to the Hiltons. This is a great IHG choice.
3. Location
As a general rule, luxury IHG and Hyatt Hotels are both centrally located in cities. Most of the IHG hotels in New York are located in the concrete jungle, a walk from Central Park, unlike the Park Hyatt hotel, which is located on the edge of Central Park with gorgeously green park views. The Ritz-Carltons also win our hearts in New York.
The Park Hyatt Sydney is the best-located hotel in Sydney, but it has an eyewatering price tag.
The Park Hyatt Seoul is a much more luxurious hotel than the InterContinental Seoul but is located in the city’s business center, not 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.
The Park Hyatt in London is located on the wrong side of the River Thames and requires a walk to the attractions. The InterContinental Park Lane is in a much better location.
4. Size
Rooms at Park Hyatt hotels tend to be larger than those at InterContinental hotels. Taking London as an example, the base rooms at the InterContinental London on Park Lane are fairly small. At the newly opened Park Hyatt London, the rooms are more generous.
Another interesting Park Hyatt can be found in New York. This new property is based in one of the skinny new skyscrapers overlooking Central Park.
There is very little communal space at this Park Hyatt, with a very small bar and restaurant, unlike the InterContinental, The St. Regis, or the Waldorf Astoria, which have much larger communal spaces. The InterContinental Barclay offers a tremendous communal club lounge, too. However, the rooms at the Park Hyatt are large and fabulous, compensating for the lack of communal space.
5. Rooms
Park Hyatt, New York’s rooms are between 500 and 620 ft². They are large and stunning. Park Hyatt branded hotels all offer oversized bathrooms, much like Four Seasons hotels.
The difference in room size between the InterContinental New York Barclay, an IHG Hotel in New York, is startling. Classic Rooms at the InterContinental start at 250 ft².
If room size is important to you in any city, Park Hyatt hotels almost always have larger rooms and bathrooms.
Kimptons, which fall under the IHG brand, tend to have very small rooms, but they are fun and stylish in decor and usually cheaper than InterContinentals and Park Hyatts in the same city.
6. Pool
Very few city IHG hotels have pools. The Park Hyatts often have pools such as the Park Huaat New York, which has a good one set high in the sky, and the Park Hyatt Vienna, which has one set in a Bank Vault. In Paris, neither the InterContinental nor the Park Hyatt has a pool.
The InterContinental does not have a pool in London, the Park Hyatt does, the Hyatt Regency The Churchill does and neither does the Kimpton (Kimptons rarely do) or the Andaz. Overall Hyatt hotels are more likely to have a pool than IHG hotels.
7. Ski
The best Hyatt ski hotels are at Park Hyatt hotels, including Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort which is a gorgeous ski hotel.
InterContinental Hotel Group has ski hotels, but they are not part of the InterContinental brand. These include Six Senses Residences Courchevel, Hotel Indigo Silverthorne, Kimpton Taconic Hotel, and several inexpensive hotels around Lake Tahoe.
8. Club Lounge
InterContinental hotels have brilliant club lounges, too. The two InterContinental club lounges in London are fantastic (one at the O2 and one on Park Lane). The fact that our luxury travel concierge agents can get you free club lounge access at many InterContinental hotels might sway your choice towards the IHG brand.
Hyatt hotels also have some brilliant club lounges, but they are not usually quite up to the level of those at InterContinental hotels, and Park Hyatt and Andaz hotels don’t usually have any club lounges at all.
9. Family Facilities
Neither Park Hyatt nor InterContinental are desperately family-friendly. If you want the best brand for family-friendly luxury hotels, it is usually Four Seasons hotels or some Belmond properties like the Hotel Cipriani.
10. Price
Price is brand and region-dependent. Asian hotels are often cheaper than their Western counterparts, although Hong Kong and Singapore tend to buck this trend. Since COVID-19, InterContinental hotels have repositioned themselves slightly because of less business travel, making them well-priced luxury leisure hotels in most destinations. We have outlined some of the cheapest InterContinental hotels.
Park Hyatt hotels tend to be some of the most expensive hotels in a city, but with a Park Hyatt, you tend to get what you pay for with large rooms, a higher level of luxury, and often very unique surroundings.
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 stay, check out our review of some of the cheapest Park Hyatt hotels.
Kimpton hotels are less expensive than Regent, InterContinental, and Park Hyatt hotels primarily due to their smaller room size.
11. Conclusion
While both IHG and Hyatt hotels are great hotel choices in a city or a resort, the differences between the brands within these umbrella groups mean that you should research before you pick your hotel. We prefer the more boutique hotels within each brand, like the Kimpton and Park Hyatt hotels. You should enjoy a wonderful stay if you can stretch to a Regent, InterContinental, or Park Hyatt hotel.
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