Check in at reception was a breeze. Our booking displayed a "double bed" and when we requested a King sized bed, we were allocated one without any trouble - and with a Marina View!!

Valets were excellent! Couldn't fault their service. They took us to our room in their buggy with our luggage and gave us directions of the various hotel buildings.

Lucky it wasn't raining during our stay (although it had been pouring over the previous week) as it was a bit of a walk to the room via a meandering path between gardens and palm trees, but it doesn't have any overhead cover.

Our room was OK and had a little balcony which you could walk out onto however the room decor was a bit dated and quite plain.

The hotel is rather spread out with various complexes. It was an easy walk (3mins) to the shops and nearby restaurants. The pool was large and inviting. The gardens were well maintained and looked pretty at night.

It's about 20mins away from the "Australian Outback Spectacular Show" which we highly recommend to see.

On checkout the receptionist (Rosa) was very caring and apologetic when we advised that the TV reception had been rather erratic which didn't make viewing very enjoyable and the shower door was hard to close (as it scraped along the tiles). When we mentioned that no newspaper was delivered, she quickly retrieved one for us.

In summary, we couldn't fault the service, but the room could do with an update. We've ticked this one off our list of "places to visit" and probably won't return.

We stayed at Hyatt Sanctuary Cove for 5 days prior to Christmas 2011.

There were 3 of us, including my wife and 12 yo son, and we stayed in a Queenslander suite. Initial impressions were fantastic. As you enter the Hope Island area, things start to look upmarket (because they are!), and as we reached the front of the hotel, we were immediately greeted by a porter who offered to take our bags while I parked the car.

We were then transported by electric buggy to our room. The resort is quite large, but a 20 second ride to our room is slight overkill! A nice touch though. The porter even offered to take us by buggy back to the main lobby - just ring us and we'll come and pick you up, he said! A great service for the morbidly obese maybe, but we preferred to walk :-) If you're heading into Sanctuary Cove village, you could take a buggy, but it's only a 5 minute walk. It's good to know the service is there if you need it, but we didn’t really use it. I imagine it would be useful if it was raining.

First impressions of the room (or suite) were great. As you can see from the photos, there's a main lounge area, with a rollaway bed for our son, a 26 inch tv and desk. The main bedroom was beautifully presented and also had a TV - a great touch, I thought. The room looked out into the forest area, with views to the lagoon pool. Nice - and quiet. We didn't hear a peep from anyone during our stay.

The pool area is quite spectacular. There's a small pool for those who prefer it - it's also closer to the bar/poolside restaurant, but the lagoon pool is something to behold. Every morning, staff would be out early raking the sand to make it look perfect (kids would often dig and build sandcastles during the day). The pool is obviously huge, but not that deep - 2 metres at most, so it's not suitable for diving. It’s lovely and refreshing though, with a spectacular backdrop (Again, check out the photos). There's also a spa, however we didn't use it.

We had Regency Club access during our stay, which is something you should consider. During the day, you can stop by for a refreshing soft drink and some snacks, and at night alcohol and canapés are served. This is all included in the tariff, so it was good to be able to kick back and enjoy the hospitality of Danny the host each night!

Our room rate also included a full buffet breakfast, and full it definitely is! You can have more or less anything you desire, and hot food such as eggs and pancakes are prepared on demand; they're not lying soggy and lukewarm in a servery. There's also plenty of fresh fruit, yogurt and freshly brewed tea and coffee. Have a big breakfast here, and you won't need to eat until dinner!

For such a sprawling resort, it seems odd that they didn't incorporate a gym and maybe a couple of tennis courts. In any case, the hotel has an arrangement with the local country club, so it's just a matter of asking the concierge and in no time you'll be whisked off in the courtesy shuttle bus. Tennis is also free, but if you don't have your own racquet and balls, there's a $5.00 charge per person. The country club will phone the hotel to pick you up when you've finished your workout, but we walked back a couple of times - it's about a 15-20 minute walk, and a good warm-down.

The checkout process was also very smooth and hassle free, just how it should be. I know this review is starting to sound like a sales pitch for the hotel, but it really is fantastic. Sure, some parts of the resort are looking a bit tired, the room decor is more "2000" than "2012", but it was still impeccably clean. A plus for us was that it was away from the hustle and bustle of the Gold Coast, perfect for relaxing, and close to the major theme parks if that’s your thing (which it obviously was for a 12 year old!)

We moved on to Sydney and Melbourne after our stay at Sanctuary Cove, and the 5 star hotels (no names mentioned!) we stayed in there could not compare with our Hyatt experience, despite being more expensive and with smaller rooms.
I will definitely be going back to the Hyatt Sanctuary Cove.

Good
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Nice looking resort style hotel.
Good size room.
Clean sheets.
Comfortable bed.
LCD TV with plenty of channels.
Really nice artificial salt-water beach and lagoon.
Easy access to golf course.
Very friendly and efficient staff.
Quick check-in and check-out.
A bit out of the way.

Bad
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Breakfast was average.
I had to ask for soy milk every morning, they didn't put it out with regular and skim milk.
One morning they told me they were out of soy-milk.
Cleanliness not up to scratch for a Hyatt.
Saw cockroaches in my room
They didn't wipe down my room after the last person - I saw lots of glass/water stains on tables in my room.

I was on a businees trip and didn't pay so I was quite happy, but I bet it was a pricey room and so it wasn't quite up to the mark internationally. But that's something I find in every Australian hotel I've been to....

We are recently back from a three night getaway at the Hyatt Regency Sanctuary Cove. Like many of the other reviewers we were truly impressed by the great and faultless service from all staff at the hotel. The lagoon pool looked great but unfortunately due to some summer rain we only had one swim in it. The buffet breakfast had a great range and Fireplace restaurant served us some of the best food we have had in some time.

The regency club was great, although not as extravagant as other Hyatt clubs. Still, this is where the service was really fantastic and genuine. The club host 'Danny' who was there each nice wen't beyond 'being nice' and was actually interested in what we did each day, he is truly 5 star service. If Hyatt staff read this, please make sure Danny gets recognised!

Also a standout were the staff at the bell desk, as there was a bit of rain, it was never too much trouble to run us around the resort or up to the gym or down to the marina, they were more than happy to do it and offered several times, so we knew it wasn't just a token offer.

As you can gather the standout is the service. It exceeds probably every other property I've stayed at in Australia.

To be balanced, a few areas they could improve on: Rooms - they could do with a refurb, but I'm sure the hotel would know this, Wifi - should be free these days, and finally wet weather option, the concierge told us they had no board games, this would be a fairly cheap investment that would potentially keep people in their rooms ordering room service while playing games.

But we really enjoyed ourselves here, it was great to be away from the normal GC trash, but if you are likely to get bored, would recommend renting a car so that you can go places, particularly if its raining.

We weren't hitting the theme parks on this trip but the location is great for that also, much closer than the surfers/broadbeach hotels.