MSPeconomist

HINT TO HYATT: When I'm trying to book a room at one of YOUR hotels on YOUR WEBSITE, I do not want to be redirected to some third party hotel (consolidator?) website, especially one that pops up without even listing a Hyatt hotel on the page with my location and my dates. I don't care if Hyatt is getting commissions from bookings elsewhere on this apparent third party website (there's a Hyatt logo at the top but no Hyatts listed), I do not want to make a reservation this way and I do not want to (and will not) stay in any of their listed hotels. If you insist, I'll book at spg.com or even marriott.com, both of which will be happy to make my reservation at one of their hotels.

This morning I was attempting to make several reservations at particular Hyatt hotels where I knew I wanted to stay. It was extremely frustrating to be redirected repeatedly to some (fly-by-night?) third party (consolidator?) website. This happened sometimes when I clicked search after entering my location and date. Other times hyatt.com seemed to send me to roomkey.com when I was exploring particular rate plans or trying to select a particular room at some Hyatt property I had already chosen.

Note that I don't care what benefits, if any, Hyatt might give me from such bookings. I do not want to make my hotel reservations this way. If I were to try to use third party sites, I would decide for myself which one to use rather that go with the one where Hyatt sends me.

Other than the hypothesis that Hyatt is getting a bigger commission from roomkey.com bookings than their own hotels are paying for hyatt.com reservations, it's hard to see how it could be a sensible business model for Hyatt's website to send (elite) customers over to the competition. This seems crazy, even above and beyond keeping a website that makes it difficult for customers to purchase your product (make reservations at Hyatt hotels).

Rant off.

crystak

I remember complaining about this about 3 years ago, but nothing has changed since... It does seem counterintuitive, but Hyatt were apparently co-founders of Roomkey and they have some sort of arrangement with all the hotels displayed (perhaps even get a % commission regardless if you book with them or through Roomkey at a non-Hyatt? - this is just my guess)

dw

I'm having the same issue, though it is limited to my iPad. When browsing any of the individual property sites, anything I click on (including when trying to make a reservation) will open up a new Roomkey tab; meanwhile I get a blank screen on the browser window that I was using for Hyatt.com.

So basically, I cannot use Hyatt.com on my iPad's browser. This is something that just popped up a week or so ago.

derby44

I agree this has been a sore spot with me for a long time. Perhaps there are ways to get around this. At my age with minimal computer training/ expertise I can only wish that I could offer a suggestion/solution to this issue/problem--hopefully someone in this forum can help --I sure would appreciate the help. Thanks and best of luck to all.

RTW1

If you open any link in a new tab you won't get the roomkey redirect. Something went wrong with the script..... And it's an obnoxious redirect anyway, something no decent company should do.

MSPeconomist

How do you make sure to open a new tab on an ipad? AFAIK that's determined by the design of the website where you're starting, with some links leading to a new tab and others opening the new page in the current tab (causing you to lose the page where you started).

jtaft

Putting in an 'always block' rule in ....... Plus (a browser plugin) seems to do the trick for me. Select 'filter preferences', then hit 'add filter' and put in the string

||roomkey.com

then check the 'enable' box.

price123

Agree this is annoying but Hilton also do it. RoomKey must pay really well...

RTW1

Instead of tapping a link, if you hold your finger on it a menu will pop-up giving you the option to open the link in a new tab. That seems to avoid the dreaded Roomkey script.

Room Key is a joint venture founded by Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, and Wyndham Worldwide or their respective affiliates.

Putting your commercial interests over customer experience of your site is not really the smart thing to do in my opinion.

OsakaWino

As I was checking different dates at the same hotel on Hyatt.com the other day, the RoomKey window would pop up in the background each time. When I was finished and close the Hyatt.com window, I had about a dozen RoomKey windows left open. Incredibly annoying

Cheetah_SA

Totally agree.

I HATE those Roomkey pop-unders and will never book anything through them. Every time it happens I lose a bit of respect for the hotel group causing it.

Bigshaker

Agree this is so frustrating! I complained to Hyatt CS earlier in the week and have them investigating. Received a reply and ticket#..sent them step by step and screen shots.
Since last Friday it happens EVERY time on my IPad (all I use). I can't book any properties easily unless I know the specific property and don't want to rate or room shop.
If you search a city (Ipad) and then try to select a hotel from the list look at different room types, dining options or check availability it redirects you to Roomkey.
Hyatt or Room Key (partially owned by Hyatt) has changed something recently to make this problem worse and they need to undo whatever it was they changed.
RTW1's workaround does work!!!! (didn't know you could do that..lol) hold down on the link until you get a new popup menu that says open in new tab.
This so wasn't broken this badly before last week. Hyatt's web people (acct missing reservations, this redirect) really need to get better. On that topic, they should fix cash and points ability to research and book online while they are at it...that features has only be available online at SPG for about 10 yrs :-(

skunker

This is the part that pisses me off. Most of the major hoteliers in the US colluding to create an annoying "service" that shows other hotels in the area I am searching. And, that pop under doesn't just come one time. Every freaking time I click on a hotel I get one. Hyatt.com is by far the worst of ones I use (Marriott and Hilton are the only others).

Hyatt, KNOCK IT OFF!!! If you want me to take my money to another hotel chain find a less annoying way to do it.

nmoe

You guys may want to consider getting ....... Plus. I use it on Chrome and don't see any popups. Just trying to help.

sethb

For Hilton, I get a popunder each time, in a new window; but at least I don't get dozens of them while navigating around Hilton's site (and I'll often look for the lowest rate for 5 nights, paying for 3 and using points for 2, so I do a lot of searches).

One might think that they'd gather enough data to know that certain people never book through that link so they'd stop bothering us.