Buzzing With Amenities: Downtown Denver Hotel Installs Beehives on the Roof

Two colonies of bees are now enjoying the high life at Grand Hyatt Denver after the hotel installed beehives on the rooftop.

Bees can travel up to six miles from their hive in search of pollen, so the Grand Hyatt put hives at 1750 Welton Street to improve downtown Denver's ecosystem, according to Grand Hyatt general manager Amit Patel.

“In Colorado we’ve got such a beautiful backdrop when you look at the mountains and the greenery and all the parks,” Patel says. “How do we make sure that we're good community stewards of all those things, but also make sure that all of our visitors, guests, our community partners and generations to come get to continue to enjoy the way we've been able to enjoy? It's super important to me.”

Sustainability is important to Patel, but bees are an obsession. As a seasonal allergy sufferer, he felt like he’d tried everything until a friend recommended adding local honey into his daily routine a few years ago. Local honey is known to carry the pollen of where the honey is made, so eating it can help alleviate allergy symptoms.

“We've religiously done it every geographic location we've moved to, and, I swear, it works,” Patel says.

Patel and his family moved to Denver from San Francisco in June 2024, grabbing local Denver honey the March before they moved on a visit to the city. That way, by the time the Patels came to Denver, the family was already guarded from the Mile High City’s allergens, he says.

Along with eating honey, Patel and his family have taken beekeeping classes and used to have a beehive in their backyard in San Francisco. Their Denver neighborhood is too dense to have a hive, and Patel hopes to find a solution — but in the meantime, he was able to bring hives to the Grand Hyatt Denver.

Patel housed bees at the San Francisco Hyatt he managed by partnering with Best Bees, an urban beekeeping company that installs and maintains a network of hives across the nation; the company will manage the Grand Hyatt hives in Denver, too.

Along with caring for the bees, Best Bees studies them. But even though Best Bees will take care of the hives, Patel promises he’ll be out there in his beekeeping suit, as well.

“They'll see me out there playing with the hives once we get all done,” Patel says. “It's pretty fun.”

The rooftop of the hotel, where the hives are located, is not accessible to guests. The hotel had thought of putting the hives in a publicly accessible area, which Patel did in San Francisco, but staff realized there wasn’t a great space to host bees without chances of dangerous contact with people. The Hyatt team considered placing the hives near the hotel’s tennis courts, but didn’t want bees, errant balls and tennis rackets to accidentally mix and cause chaos.

Not only did the Hyatt not want guests to be stung, the main goal is to protect the bees and make them happy.  The rooftop is a little bare right now, so the Hyatt has partnered with local gardening nonprofit Jovial Concepts to bring pots of native plants and flowers to the roof so the bees will have greenery close to home.

Eventually, Patel hopes to curate guest experiences around the bees, like a honey tasting class or tours to the roof to see the hives. At minimum, the Grand Hyatt will incorporate its new honey into the hotel’s food and beverage offerings. Patel teases cocktails and mocktails using the honey along with the possibility of honey-infused marinades for other dishes. The Grand Hyatt is working toward collaborating on a honey-infused beer with Denver Beer Company, also.

The amount of honey generated by the hives will depend on how the bees settle in, however.

“It varies depending on how ambitious the bees are and how comfortable they are,” Patel says. “They’re so active right now already, and I'm feeling confident that they'll be happy.”

The bees arrived on the hotel roof just in time for Earth Day, and the Grand Hyatt is inviting the community to celebrate at a Queen Bee Coronation event on Tuesday, April 22, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Pinnacle Club on the 38th floor of the hotel, 1750 Welton Street. The event is free to attend with live music, an eco-friendly vendor market and a chance to help name the original two queen bees at the Grand Hyatt. RSVP and learn more here.