While the vast majority of my hotel stays in recent years have been at Hyatt properties, thanks to the chain’s fantastic loyalty program and partnership with Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program, my stay in Los Angeles at the Andaz West Hollywood was the first time I’d stayed at an Andaz. Andaz is the chain’s alternative luxury brand, known for being more in line with trendy brands like W than more traditional options.

As in Denver the night before, our stay at the Andaz was booked using Hyatt’s Points + Cash option, which allowed me to book the room for 10,000 points + $125. From there, I also applied one of my Diamond Suite Upgrade Certificates, which took us from a standard King Room up to a gigantic Andaz King Suite. At over 800 square feet, this suite is an excellent choice for entertaining guests, which is exactly why I chose it. We were meeting friends from San Francisco for a concert later that evening, and having a nice place to hang out close to the Hollywood Bowl before the show was a key benefit of our stay.

We arrived into Burbank mid-morning and took the short Uber ride over to the Andaz. Our suite wasn’t ready yet – and wouldn’t be for a few hours – but we were able to leave our bags with the bell desk and were told we’d receive a call once the room was ready for us. As is the case at all Andaz properties, no true front desk exists. Instead, hosts are able to handle check-in either from a small bank of computers or via iPad from throughout the lobby area. There’s also an open bar area, featuring coffees, teas, and juices throughout the day, as well as a nightly complimentary wine tasting.

I loved the design of the bar, for a counterintuitive reason: most of its goodies were hiding in refrigerated compartments on the back side of the bar. Putting these options “behind the counter” served to encourage guests to truly serve themselves and feel more at home than a more standard display of items in clear-front refrigerators would offer.

We went to the top floor to investigate the pool area while waiting for our friends to make contact. While relatively small, it’s easy to see how what was a ghost town early on a Sunday morning could be a fun party spot earlier in the weekend. Along with the standard array of lounge chairs, cabanas laced the outside perimeter of the deck, overlooking LA’s sprawling skyline.

After a few hours in Santa Monica, we made the long trek back to West Hollywood, where our suite was ready. It didn’t disappoint. First up after walking into the room was an elevated dining table, which was later put to use when a fruit and cheese platter and bucket of beers were brought up to the room; for once, I chose the Diamond amenity over the points I typically choose as a welcome bonus, and was glad I did!

To the side of the table, a long, comfortable leather couch faced a small desk and entertainment center. The decorations, including some framed vinyl, as well as other art spaced throughout the room, gave a genuine sense of LA to the room, rather than feeling gratuitous.

Perhaps the room’s best feature was the small reading nook at the front of the room, which could be segmented off from the rest of the room with a curtain. With two lounge chairs looking out at the LA skyline, this was a treat both by day and by night.

The suite seemed to essentially be two rooms that had been seamlessly combined into one larger space, and one effect of this was having two full bathrooms, essentially identical in design and featuring fantastic, Lather-branded amenities. The extras were put into regular rotation in my carry-on.

The next morning, breakfast was served in the hotel’s restaurant on the ground level. The restaurant itself was stylish and the food on offer was tasty, but I was a bit disappointed in the breadth of the selection, aside from the nice pastry spread pictured here:

I would absolutely return to the Andaz West Hollywood. I wish we could’ve stayed more than a single night, especially to get better use out of the suite upgrade certificate, which could have been applied just as easily to a much longer stay. As it was, we were still able to fully enjoy the room, stretching checkout almost until 4PM before it was time to leave the Sunset Strip and head along to our flights. While my fiancé would be returning to grad school in Pittsburgh, I’d be heading to Las Vegas to rack up a few more Hyatt stays and enjoy a few days on the other Strip.