Hyatt Carmel Highlands, Overlooking Big Sur Coast

The Hyatt Carmel Highlands offers a stunning getaway with breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean and a serene, natural ambiance. The location is ideal for those seeking a peaceful retreat. The rooms are cozy and feature fireplaces that add to the charm of the stay. However, there were a couple of downsides. The property was noisy probably for some maintenance. Additionally, the bathroom in our room felt outdated and in need of renovation to match the otherwise upscale feel of the property. Despite these minor setbacks, the overall experience was enjoyable, thanks to the location and atmosphere.

Never have I wanted to depart a property almost immediately after check-in. I made the error of not reading the Trip Advisor reviews prior to booking and solely went by the Hyatt website. Huge mistake. The property looks nothing like the photos on the Hyatt website. Pubic hair stuck to the walls, mold growing in the AC unit, broken chair legs, dry rot room decking and just generally dilapidated describes our room and the property in general. The room is dank and wreaks of mildew. I'm wearing plastic bags over my socks as I walk back and forth in the 100 square foot room as the carpet is disgusting. As a Globalist who spends 250 nights in hotels annually, don't expect any type of WOH benefit from this property (even though we are staying in the non-timeshare side). Standard suites are available for booking but not offered. The only redeeming quality of this property is the views. The staff simply stopped texting with me when I asked for help. They apologized the room didn't meet "my standards." In what alternate reality would anyone accept mold sprinkled with pubic hair as okay? Most common area amenities are out of service. Pool is out of order indefinitely, parking stinks, Pacific's Edge restaurant food was blah at best - simply no reason to ever return. Horrific internet with no cell functionality. I will add the front entrance looks very nice. It's clear the property spent their maintenance budget on holiday decorations.

Ridiculously overpriced for room with 1970 level construction, poor service, and outdated amenities. WiFi didn’t even work, limited parking, lots of steps, and just old. Yes, nice view but plenty of better options. To be fair, food at restaurant was good and staff tried their best, but clearly the property is in need of significant improvements. In sum, just a bad experience

Excellent hotel. Nice rooms. Ocean views. Issues - - There was construction and one had to walk across the pool to get to ones room which was cumbersome. - Also no shuttle to the airport unlike other Hyatts in the area. - No complementary morning coffee

Decades ago, this hotel used to be a wonderful resort. No longer. I would not recommend the Highlands Inn in Carmel to anyone. It needs to be closed for major renovations and reopened under new management. My family and I stayed here in early October, 2024, and had one of the worst hotel experiences of my life (and I am a frequent traveler). We were returning guests. My husband and I stayed here 16 years ago and had a wonderful experience. My husband's parents stayed at this hotel 30 years ago and also had very fond memories. The hotel currently is nothing like what any of us remember from our past stays - but it is deceptively marketing itself as a luxury hotel and charging premium rates. My overall impression was that the hotel seemed run down and in bad need of repairs and renovation. The rooms were musty and dated. The pool was closed for repairs. A section of the hotel near the pool was covered in tarps and sandbags and I saw a county condemnation sign on the door of one of the rooms saying it was unfit for habitation. Cell phone reception was terrible and WiFi was weak and unreliable. The resort appeared to have cut many services since we stayed there 16 years ago. There is no longer an in room dining option. No gift shop and the hotel spa offers such limited services it is not really an on-site hotel spa and should not be marketed as such. All this hotel still has going for it is the spectacular views. If these were the only issues with our stay I would simply say the hotel is past its prime and not worth the money it is charging. However, we experienced several other much more serious issues during or stay that led to us checking out in the dark of night halfway through our stay and switching hotels. On the first day of our planned four day stay, one of our rooms flooded likely due to some nearby hotel construction work that implicated the sprinkler system. Several inches of water suddenly appeared on the floor of the bathroom area. Although staff came to clean up the room, there was a complete lack of urgency about the situation. Staff informed us they would send someone to clean up the room later that day - never mind that during this time the bathroom was functionally inaccessible due to several inches of water on the floor. Thankfully, none of our possessions were severely damaged, the flooding did not spread to the carpeted area, and we planned to be out of the rooms for most of the day anyway. The next day, the water was cut off to our other room - again, likely due to nearby hotel construction work. We found out when we returned to the rooms after being out all day. We had only an hour and half to shower and get ready for dinner - with no water in the room. The hotel restored it; but again, staff treated the situation like a minor inconvenience saying not to worry that water would be restored "in a half hour or so." The conversation made me think that the hotel knew the water was going to be cut that day and simply never informed us. That same evening, we returned to the hotel late evening after dinner to find all the power had been cut to our entire block of rooms. No lights, no WiFi, no hot water, no heating or air conditioning. This time, the hotel staff waived a piece of paper in our faces saying that it wasn't their fault, PG&E cut the power to parts of the hotel because of nearby road construction and that we were notified. We were emphatically NOT notified that the rooms we had booked were going to be without power for one night of our stay. If we had been notified, we would have made alternate arrangements. Nor did it appear that any of the other guests in nearby rooms had been notified as we were not the only angry guests in the hotel lobby at 10:30 pm with flashlights wondering why there was no power to their room. We found out from the staff at the front desk that the hotel KNEW PG&E planned to cut off power to portions of the hotel a week prior to our stay. Despite this knowledge, they did not call us before arrival, inform us at check in, send a text message or email, or even leave a notice on our door or in our room (like the piece of paper they waived in our face at the front desk) that we would be without power for a night. The attitude of some of the staff appeared to be that the situation was no big deal - it is only a night we were told, the power will be restored in the morning. Aside from the fact that we paid for these rooms and expected power would be included (as well as water), one person in our family uses a CPAP at night requiring a power source, and another is elderly who should not be maneuvering around this resort nor her room in complete darkness. We simply could not stay there without power - which is why if we had known in advance, we would have found another hotel. It was unsafe for us. After a lot of back and forth, slowed down by the fact that the general manager of the resort had opted to stay away that evening and leave his front line staff alone, with little decision making ability to face the anger of guests who did not have power to their rooms (which is inexplicable to me if the hotel had forewarning this would occur - senior level customer service people should have been available on site), the front desk found us rooms at the Hyatt Regency in Monterey for the remainder of our stay in the area. Although the Hyatt in Monterey lacked the spectacular views of the Highlands Inn, it was clean, comfortable, well run, and had both power and water. In short, not only is the Highlands Inn a shadow of its former self, it felt unsafe and we felt defrauded. The resort should not accept reservations for rooms that they KNOW may lack basic necessities like water or electricity during the pendency of a guest's stay. If we would have been informed of the power outage in advance we would have found alternate arrangements in advance. In retrospect, based on the reaction of staff I also think the hotel knew that ongoing construction work on the resort would also cause intermittent water outages. The hotel was happy to take our money and the money of others for the full cost of the rooms knowing that if people knew in advance the potential problems most people would make other arrangements and/or ask for refunds. I believe the hotel made a calculated choice to not make any effort to notify guests of known major problems to preserve as much revenue as possible at the expense of the comfort and welfare of its guests. Even if some of the problems we encountered were not foreseeable, such as the sudden flooding of one of the rooms, a hotel still has a responsibility to its guests to provide safe, clean, functional rooms - or help guests promptly make alternate arrangements. The Highlands Inn completely failed. The state of disrepair of the hotel and the level of service we experienced was unacceptable from any hotel, let alone one that markets and prices itself as a luxury hotel. Our stay ended with our family packing up and leaving in complete darkness at 11pm at night to switch hotels guided only by the lights on our iphones because, to add insult to injury, the in room flashlights provided also stopped working. Be forewarned about staying at this hotel.