I don't know if I can answer your question. But I've stayed at both, and they're both different types of hotel. Maybe I can help you make a decision by describing my experiences with both.
Hyatt Orange:
- Caters to the business traveller more. Though lots of families there also. It has more of a casual formal feel to it. Shows in the reserved demeanor of the staff.
- Costs more $$$ per night with little or no extras (meaning no free parking, Internet use fee, etc.). We paid $99/night but added up all the parking charges (~$15) and the breakfast charges (~$45) -- made it to be about $160/night.
- Breakfast is not free unless you booked a nightly rate or package that includes it. But if that's the case, you probably are paying more. BTW, the hotel restaurant is very expensive for breakfast. A good excuse though to head over to Mimi's for breakfast!
- Has a Starbucks and Pizza Hut in the lobby.
- Standard rooms have a fridge but don't have a microwave. If you have a suite (i.e. their kidsuites), you do get a microwave.
- Offers a laundry service. No coin laundry.
- Rooms clean and tidy, but starting to look a bit worn.
- Good workout facility.
- Offers a free shuttle to the parks.
Hampton Inn Garden Grove:
- Very family oriented. Shows in the friendly, outgoing staff.
- Free parking.
- In the evenings, they serve fresh baked choco chip cookies. Non-alcoholic hot/cold drinks are always available in the breakfast area.
- In the mornings, they serve a free breakfast of hot and cold items. Not a particularly good hot breakfast but you do get some good basic items (i.e. toast, cereals, fruit, yogourt, coffee, teas, milk, juices).
- On Fri/Sat/Sun evenings, they have kids movie/snack nights. One night they had pizza, another they had popcorn and cookies.
- Microwaves and fridges in all rooms.
- Recently renovated rooms (I think late 2007, early 2008) with new looking furniture.
- Coin laundry available.
- Extremely small workout facility.
- Reasonable nightly rates (we paid $100) and felt we weren't being nickeled and dimed. More bang for the buck.
- The ART stop is in front of the Embassy Suite next door. Pay to use.
Overall, we loved both hotels and were comfortable in both. We would go back to both those hotels depending on their current rates and what our budget is. However for our upcoming March trip, both hotels were either more expensive or not available for all of our dates, so we aren't staying in them. We're going to the Hilton Garden Inn Garden Grove (shares a parking lot with the Embassy Suites South and Hampton Inn) as we got a cool bed and breakfast rate of $105/night.
Ever since our Hampton Inn experience of having the breakfast included, we now realize that is such a big time saver in the mornings.
Have fun planning your vacation!