Hyatt reached out to let me know that two hotels would move up in redemption category at 9:00 p.m. Central this evening, meaning that redemptions will cost more points.
I love that Hyatt is proactively sharing changes even when those changes affect just two properties. I don’t love that Hyatt is sharing that information only with me and not with all members, and that they’re sharing it the same day the change is going to go into effect.
It seems they’re working to build credibility given the negative sentiment around World of Hyatt, especially compared to the love members felt prior to last year’s changes. That’s great, and may be why the recent category changes have been so minor, only 9 hotels moving in category announced prior to today despite record room rates and occupancy along with some positive tweaks to the program.
Here are the two hotels moving up in category:
| Hotel | Current | New | ||
| Hyatt Place Knoxville/ Downtown | 1 | 2 | ||
| Hyatt House Washington DC/ The Wharf | 2 | 3 |
‘The Wharf’, credit: Hyatt
Here’s Hyatt’s award chart:
You can see that moving from category 1 to 2 means a 3000 point per night increase while moving from category 2 to 3 means a 4000 point per night increase. Those are large in percentage terms although I can’t say I’ve ever considered a stay at Hyatt Place Knoxville/ Downtown and while the Hyatt House in DC comes up regularly in my searches Hyatt has many properties in the area and that’s never geographically where I’m likely to need to be — though there are plenty of nearby agency offices that folks will need to be near.
Without fanfare! 😉
Did they let you know that the free breakfast in Hyatt Place (maybe others) is now controlled by corporate and that it is a tremendous downgrade from past breakfasts?
The best way to pay back Hyatt for their utter crap Hyatt Place breakfast is to go to The Hilton Garden Inn or other brand where it resembles something that is actual food and worth eating.
The lack of a welcome amenity of any kind
is another reason to not stay with another brand/ Pathetic a bottle of water for 60 nights
hello Marriott Starwood you have that one right
But the number one reason to not stay Hyatt is that they allow hotels to game the system with standard award rooms,downgrade suites to lower category rooms for globalists and do nothing about hotels like Andaz Maui who violate all trust with corporate and the membership base and limit rooms and the ability to utilize anything the program promises reasonably year round
Year after year management turns a blind eye in the name of profits and greed
how did i not know that there was a hyatt place there?!
Good location and not surprised it’s going cat2. expect cat3 in a year or two.