Some hotels would downplay the fact that there’s a factory next door operating 24/7.
Not the Hyatt Regency Lake Washington at Seattle’s Southport in Renton, Washington.
The resort-style hotel sits on the shore of Lake Washington and offers indoor and outdoor dining with views of the lake, dowtown Seattle and the Olympic Mountains.
There’s a spa and a large fitness area, firepits, a seaplane dock and summertime on-the-water activities that include kayaking, paddleboarding, a floating pickleball court and more.
But one of the hotel’s next door neighbors is Boeing’s Renton Factory, which operates around the clock, currently building more than forty 737-Max airplanes a month.
Rather than trying to distract guests from the factory activities, the hotel is leaning in to it’s location with a “Hangar Hideaway” promotion good through December 31, 2026.
The package includes the option for a corner lakefront room with views overlooking the factory ramp (be sure to request it!), an aviation-themed souvenir and admission for up to four people to Seattle’s Museum of Flight, which is about 11 miles away.
The Stuck at the Airport hotel review team recently stayed at the hotel and was delighted to catch these views out the window of newly constructed 737 planes being moved out of the hangar.
Tip: if you want to see this, you’ll need stay up late. For safety, the planes are moved after 10 p.m., during the third shift. We caught two planes being moved out after midnight.
Who would like the “Hangar Hideaway” package?
The aviation-themed souvenir options currently included with this package include balsa wood gliders, airplane building block kits and kid-size captain’s hats. But the hotel told us today that it’s adding a more adult-themed item shortly so there will be a fun suprise gift for kids, avgeeks and anyone interested in airplanes.
To confirm the appeal of the package, we checked with Guy Norris, Senior Editor for Aviation Week. He considers the Boeing factory at Renton “one of the most revered sites in the galaxy of aerospace meccas,” given that the facility has roots reaching back to World War II and is where “so many icons of aviation first saw the light of day.”
He says the Hyatt Regency Lake Washington is the only hotel he knows of where “if you’re an aviation nut like me, you’d gladly pass up mountain or lake views for something derisively called a ‘factory view.’ That’s worth paying extra for!”
