By Dawn Gilbertson

SAN FRANCISCO -- The welcome ad from Lyft popped onto my phone minutes after my flight landed. "If you need a ride home, to your hotel or anywhere else, tap to see ride options."

For once, I didn't need a ride anywhere. My hotel was in the airport, a glorious luxury my expense account and vacation budget rarely afford. And for good reason: The Grand Hyatt SFO was charging nearly $500 for a one-night weekday stay in late May.

Luxury hotels inside airports, not to be confused with those clusters of budget-friendly chain hotels a free shuttle ride away, are having a moment. Affluent vacationers and business travelers are splurging before or after a flight in the same way they are paying up for cushier plane seats with more perks.

Hoteliers say they are selling convenience, service and amenities you won't find in that airport SpringHill Suites or Hampton Inn -- bathrobes, craft cocktails and fine dining. And guests are buying.

The 351-room Grand Hyatt SFO, which opened in late 2019, posted its highest monthly occupancy rate (84%) and average daily rate ($362) last fall. It finished the year with significantly better metrics than the overall San Francisco hotel market, according to reports by the airport commission. The hotel and airport are owned by the city.

At the Westin Denver International Airport, also a city-owned hotel, the average daily rate last year rose to $337.39, up 5.3% from 2023 and 15% from 2022, according to the city. Officials say rates have held up through the first five months of this year despite economic uncertainty.

At Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the 20-year-old Grand Hyatt DFW in July will begin a $34 million makeover that includes new rooms, room renovations and a restaurant and fitness center overhaul.

What you get

Who is paying resort-like prices for an airport hotel and what's on offer?

I decamped to the Grand Hyatt SFO and Westin Denver for one night each on two work trips to find out. The Wall Street Journal paid for the stays, but I left notes in my expense reports to explain that I wasn't suddenly living large and would return to the Hyatt Place life tout suite.

It's hard not to feel smug strolling off your plane and waltzing to your hotel room. At Denver International airport, I deplaned at 1:42 p.m. and was checking in at the Westin before 2:10 p.m. That included a bathroom visit, long walk and three tram stops.

My room in the west tower was ready. The price, including taxes, was $462. The Hyatt House Denver Airport was $148 that night, Spark by Hilton $116.

I was a sucker for Westin's Heavenly Bed, shower and bathrobe. But the real scene stealer was the Westin's lively restaurant and bar. As anyone traveling solo for business knows, airport hotel bars and restaurants can be barren, boring places -- when they're open. The Westin's lobby bar was hopping. I sat next to a local couple who were off to Italy the next morning and decided to start their vacation in style.

At the hotel's Grill & Vine restaurant, entrees include $60 filet mignon and $44 braised short rib.

One diner was a Tucson, Ariz., retiree flying to Istanbul the next day for a river cruise with her sister. Another was a vice president of sales from Texas staying there because his convention hotel was sold out.

The district sales manager from Pennsylvania sitting next to me at the restaurant bar worried his company might balk at the hotel's price. But his flight home departed at 6 a.m., so he took his chances. (It approved the expense.)

The Westin has a large pool that was empty during my visit, so I turned it into a remote office for a few hours.

Plane spotting

Getting to the Grand Hyatt SFO was also a relative breeze, although renovations in the United terminal snarled the trip back. The hotel has its own stop on the airport's 24-hour AirTrain. The front desk is an escalator or elevator ride away and the first thing you see on the way in is a vibrant stained-glass exhibition.

I was upgraded to a runway view room because of my (lowest level) Hyatt status. All the touches were fab: binoculars and a jet tutorial for plane spotting, a foam roller for getting out all those travel kinks, a bathrobe, Nespresso machine, tea kettle and Balmain toiletries.

I had lunch in the Quail & Crane restaurant (where the menu includes a $40 lobster roll), drinks at the packed Twin Crafts Bar and dinner at the sushi bar. I peeked into the hotel's club lounge, where I met Jim and Wendy Kung from Los Angeles. Their daughter, who has Hyatt's top Globalist status, was treating them to a two-night stay at the hotel that included lounge access.

They were blown away when they checked in because they have stayed at a different Hyatt airport hotel on previous road trips to see relatives.

"This is completely different than the other one," Jim Kung says.

Diane Scott, senior vice president of asset management for a real-estate investment company, booked her second pricey stay at the Grand Hyatt because she had a 6:15 a.m. flight home to Michigan. Her company paid the tab. But Scott says the price wasn't any different from the rate at her downtown hotel earlier in the business trip, though that was nowhere near as nice.

"This is a bargain," she says.

Casper van Eldik Thieme, general manager of the Grand Hyatt, says the hotel's location, triple-pane windows, blackout curtains, sprawling fitness center and food-and-drink lineup check "all the boxes" to lure repeat travelers.

"You say, this is how I want to travel," he says.

This is most definitely how I want to travel, but it's just not in the cards on most trips.

Write to Dawn Gilbertson at dawn.gilbertson@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 03, 2025 21:00 ET (01:00 GMT)

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