SCEflyer

After two reads, I get the essence of the OP's points, but it they will never happen.

nhwiki

Agreed. And as for the greatest suggestions, I might humbly disagree. For the average FT'er, I think having award stays count towards annual qualification would be a bigger deal. We're already close with P&C, so it's not that much of a stretch. I struggle to come up with enough nights, so spending points becomes an issue. Nice problem to have, I know, but still . . .

hailstorm

Summary:

1. Give me more.
2. Give me more.

Firewind

OP: Nice work. ^

I would add that Hilton does this, too. At least they did up to four or five years ago. I took a project group to one - some eight rooms - three weeks. As we were moving out, the front desk person said, "Do you know that you're down for points and miles?" ! ...and she changed it on the spot. It wasn't the reason that I set us up there, but it was a big reason why I took my team back, over and over again. And why I earned Diamond the first time with them.*

There is always the "you gotta understand the company's plight" point of view on FlyerTalk. I believe you've looked after it well.


* And no, my company didn't think I was ripping them off, either. Nor did my team.

59Impala

Honoring multiple rooms will only increase the nights required to achieve a status in my opinion.

E1A

Your summary should have been:
I did not bother to read it or did not comprehend it so I do not know what OP is talking about so I'll just leave a snide comment here

Every *other* request here is customer centric and the cost/benefit is in consumer favour and not in company's.

This one is in favour of company whilst it benefits some customers too. Big difference, something that seems lost on a few people. That makes it different from any other request.

I would like award night credit just as much as anyone else but I din't start a thread for that. Why would Hyatt credit us Award nights? what do they gain out of it? Nothing. It is not a direct revenue generator and not crediting is not a revenue leaker. In fact it will put a dent in the number of paid nights people do (they will use award nights to make up the status difference). That is money out of Hyatt's pockets.

If people are booking competitors for groups, then that is a problem. Making the change benefits Hyatt by bringing IN revenue, not sure what other change requests give them direct bookings.

E1A

Why do you think so though?
Just asking because the competitors that have made the change have kept the benefits and thresholds same.
Internally, they are concerned with revenue and the revenue is the same whether I book all 50 in one night or on separate nights.
Usually weddings and family vacations happen at venues more upscale than what a regular corporate traveller stays at, this usually increases the spend profile of that customer

I have experience consulting with loyalty programs (not Hyatt) so I guess I have a very different perspective on this.

Have a look at these statements, each of them might sound counter intuitive but each is true within industry and shows how it usually works:

1. Doubling/Tripling/Quadrupling of members doesn't dilute benefits. (Starwood is about 2-3x, Hilton is 5-10x, both run comparable programs in terms of benefits).

2. If you spun off loyalty program company and made it a subsidiary, it would usually be independently profitable, most are. Despite them doling out points every which way (credit cards, guests, F&B, spa, incidentals)

3. A hotel, provided its in high occupancy, would rather have an award customer booking than a corporate/group/OTA/discount customer (since the loyalty company would pay the hotel rack rates or elevated BAR during high occupancy, the corporate/group/prepaid/offer customer would be paying less)

writerguyfl

Sorry, but in my experience, that is not true. In a properly managed hotel, the revenue management software wouldn't have sold discounted rates on a high-occupancy night.

As a former Revenue Manager, if given the choice between a guest traveling on business and an award redemption, I'd want the business-traveler every time. 1) Business-travelers are more likely to spend money on food & beverage. 2) Business-travelers are more likely to return to the hotel and possibly stay on a night that isn't in high demand.

FlyingDoctorwu

Just read this thread. I didn't know SPG offerred credit for multiple rooms/night. I might have to change my next two family vacations (4 nightsx3 rooms at a Park Hyatt). That actually would put SPG plat within reach (almost....)....

FDW

E1A

This. And this customer won't be exploiting any loophole. He will give spg the same amount of money in a more compressed timeframe than if he did not overlap bookings.

You may not sell them once you realise you will have high occupancy but you could have a lot of discounted existing bookings, you cant change those. However how much you redeem from program for award bookings changes if you experience high occupancy even for those award bookings that came in earlier.

But even in your scenario where the hotel is already 95% full and you are talking about the next customer, you STILL want an award customer.

Customer A: Diamond or even regular on award booking. Loyalty program pays you the elevated rate of 2x since you were in high occupancy

Customer B: Corporate contract traveller with LRA (so you cant block the sale of room) at nearly half of base rate 0.65x

2>0.65

B cannot realistically spend three times room rate in F&B, especially when breakfast is usually included in corporate rate (but isn't for a non status award stay ever)

I've been both A and B at the same property so the figures weren't entirely hypothetical. Often I booked consecutive nights as A and B (so that the stay counts because otherwise award stays don't count)

Manager remarked to me that they made three times on my points stay (and I ordered breakfast and spent more on F&B coz it was early part of last year and I was mid status and on award stays had no club access which provided me with F&B on corporate rate)

Since then I always ask managers that have known me for long and they said yes this isn't unusual. High occupancy levels = very high margins on award bookings

Here is another famous blogger example of a Hyatt charging GP more than twice base rate when the corporate rate with LRA would obviously be less than base.

http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....ris-on-points/

Award customers are absolutely the best to have when in high occupancy especially because you can charge even for the ones that were booked before you expected high occupancy. In that sense, corporate with LRA would be the worst to have since they cant be denied the discounted rate and the opportunity cost could be several times the rate the business customer pays

Ideally a hotel would want to always be full of award customers and only them. Most people would think this would mean hotel would be losing a lot of money but the exact opposite is true. They'd make much more than if they were full with "regular" customers, corporate customers or tour groups

writerguyfl

And I've been the person responsible for maximizing revenue for several different hotels. I'm not going to bother to explain further because you seem vehemently invested in proving that everything you write is true.

What I will say is that your multiple-room stay credit argument is flawed because you haven't correctly identified the stakeholders. There are three, not two: guests, Hyatt Corporate, and the franchised hotel. What is good for Hyatt Corporate is not necessarily good for the individual hotels.

hailstorm

Well that certainly wouldn't have been accurate.

If forced to elaborate further, I would say that the OP has far less data at his or her disposal than Mr. Jeff Zidell, and is thus far less qualified to speak of what is best for Hyatt, so his or her claim of doing so is merely a disingenuous guise towards pushing his or her own agenda.

venste

Multiple rooms on the same stay should count as multiple nights. Get it right Hyatt.