peter42

Call the hotel to add your diamond number and inform them about your arrival time.

And yes Hyatt provides Diamond amenities on 3rd party rates.

Firewind

@:-) This turns over a new rock for me after all these years. Thank you. A great workaround for getting credit. Is there more corroborative experience out there (thank you also, Often1)? Mentally bookmarked.

CloudCoder

As it ends up, all is well. The website (skoosh) had a ridiculously low rate for a night when the hotel only had Guaranteed Available Rate. A few days after I booked the deal, skoosh emailed the confirmation number in the hotel's system. I checked with the hotel's front desk and it's all set. This was a new one for me: a room is offered at ultra-cheap pricing when the hotel itself shows sold out.

GUWonder

I've seen many situations where hyatt.com has the properies showing no rooms available and yet Priceline NYOP/Hotwire type "opaque" bookings worked to get cheap rooms at the "sold out" Hyatt properties. I've never had a problem on such bookings. And the at-property Hyatt Diamond benefits applied.

Kacee

Yes, it's not that uncommon at all. The property sells inventory to re-sellers (Expedia, et al.) based on their inventory management projections. Then the property sells out all the remaining inventory. Yet the re-sellers still have inventory left to sell.

Note I did have a problem once with an Expedia booking at the Hilton Hawaiian Village on these facts. Property was sold out, but Expedia was offering Ali'i Tower room for under $300/night (a good deal during high season). I grabbed it. Then Expedia failed to transmit my booking to the property. HHV got me a room eventually, but it was a close call.

MSPeconomist

OP should avoid arriving late on a day he knows the property will be sold out unless he wants to be walked.

777 global mile hound

I booked a room last month through a 3rd party site travel planners?
when Hyatt Palm Sorings was sold out for a tennis tournament that was in town
Booked the very last room
Except the hotel refused to honor it days before arrival
Oddly it was a pay at hotel not prepaid!
And I'm a guest for over 25 years there!
I could have made a stink but every year you have to choose your battles so I agreed to pay the hotel 30 % more than agreed rate
Because the hotel has been generally very good to me in the past I let it slide
Apparently the 3rd party should have never booked the room as it was suppose to be blacked out for the actual date
Crazy! I rarely ever use a third party but even the Diamond guarantee was useless when I tried months in advance

CloudCoder

Strangely I stayed at that same hotel (if you're talking about Grand Champions resort) a few years back. They were sold out and ended up putting us in a very nice suite.

To update others on this thread, I contacted the third party and asked them for the Hotel Confirmation Number. I showed that number to the hotel and we're all set. The hotel is technically "sold out" but I do have a valid reservation. It will be the third night of a three-night stay so I'm not worried about getting walked.

Moral of the story: if the hotel only has Guaranteed Available rates, sometimes it pays to shop the third-party sites. I use a hotelscombined.com. The search is mostly painless and often effective.

LIH Prem

roflmao

-David