CloudCoder

I'm getting a bit tired of the Room Availability Games.

For an upcoming two-night stay at a Hyatt Place:

If you book two nights on one reservation:
- Corp rate is available and you can choose from almost any room in the hotel
- Award booking is available and you have a choice of several different rooms

I want to book one paid night and one award night.

If you try to book just ONE night at a time:
- Corp rate is not available on night 1. Corp rate is available on night 2 but only for a fancy room which costs quite a bit more
- Award is available on night 1 but only for a crummy room. Award is NOT available on night 2.

I'm tempted to book the corp rate for both nights and ALSO book a two-night award stay. Then call HGP and cancel one of the nights from each rez, leaving the reservation that I wanted all along (and which is available but only if you book two nights at a time).

uncommonsensical

i never really got how so many are so high on HGP vs SPG, for instance. bloggers universally fawn over Hyatt. smh. hyatt was the small footprint program that was harder to accumulate stays for many, but was supposed to be 'a cut above'. maybe once, not now.

my 2 free nights with the hyatt card went unused- combination of availability games at the hotel i was after once, then being unable to travel due to an emergency. HGP refused to even extend the time for 30 days. completely inflexible.

the # of times i have called and had their system down, was given incorrect information, had an award charged the wrong # of points (C&P reservation), etc are too many to count. I don't think i've ever had comparable with SPG.

seems any high end hyatt now during a peak season has renamed rooms or added something BS to reservations to play semantics games to avoid making award nights available.

i have an email from PH Sydney where they admitted that ALL room types were available for booking, but that none were being made available for an award stay (this was an email exchange that had started BEFORE the dates were even on the calendar and bookable). she ADMITTED IT! call to HGP to tell them this- they don't care, 'each property can....' ugh!

this is the slippery slope HGP is encouraging. started with things like PH over new year and other high demand periods and, other hyatt properties seeing these shenanigans, they're emboldened to emulate the naming game and other work-arounds to deny HGP members from redeeming points. any complaints about it to HGP are like talking to a wall.

SPG does not play these games with availability (they do, like hyatt, play games at a lot of hotels with upgrades). Hilton makes it easy to find availability and, with everyone raising award rates, the huge devalue 3 years ago isn't nearly as bad anymore. that, and as diamond, i don't need 'suite upgrades'- i get a suite nearly every stay (granted, most are outside the US/Europe)- usually without even asking.

playing games with award availability is becoming the identifying characteristic of HGP.

esquesk

TL: DR, but you're basically complaining about not being able to book rooms.

I've never been unable to book an award room when regular rooms were available. If nothing shows for award redemption and they're classified as view, high floor, etc., I just call HGP diamond line and they reach out to the property for me and make an exception. Seems like you aren't trying hard enough. As a SPG plat, I've had the exact same situations occur with SPG as well.

Regarding your rant about them not making an exception for you to use your 2 free nights.... you had a full year. You knew the expiration date and didn't use them. That's on you.

uncommonsensical

you didn't read my post very well. when every room type is available and you can't book an award, or they rename the rooms, or they make them available as part of a "parking package' (at a LOWER rate) just to erase award availability... that's the problem being encountered by me, others in this thread, other forums and many others who don't bother to post about it online.

i find it odd that, as a diamond, you have no issue with the fact that you have to jump thru hoops to get award nights you are entitled to. should a diamond, or anyone, really have to go online, see no award rooms when there should be, call diamond, wait on hold while they call the property and then come back and *maybe* do you the favour of 'making an exception' for you?!? you must have a lot of free time and also have arranged in your mind that this is ok.

more to the point of this thread, even when many of us jump thru said hoops, we're still shot down for bs reasons. entire seasons are unavailable for award stays. the Olive 8 in Seattle has ZERO award nights thru 8.31. yet the deluxe rooms are available nearly every night. so, what did they do... they offer the deluxe rooms for $10 LESS than the daily rate, call it a "Parking Package" and viola, no deluxe rooms for awards. HGP is losing a lot of credibility allowing this nonsense. are you seriously defending this?!?

as for SPG, they're transparent. their online booking engine tells you that if a standard rate is showing bookable, but not available for award, to call and book- it's not subject to doing you a favour and making an exception. and SPG would NEVER pull a stunt like the Olive 8 (and many other Hyatt).

esquesk

True, I posted as much when I stated that TL: DR. If you would structure your sentences and paragraphs in a manner which was easier to read, maybe I would have given it more effort. The way you presented your case is read like a rant.

This is what I'm talking about. You're sensationalizing your problem and ranting about it instead of doing something about it. I've had to do this maybe twice and it took me 3-5 minutes each time. Certainly less time than you took to write your post. I value my free time but I also appreciate that sometimes, if you want something, you have to put in some minor effort to get it.

I just checked on HGP, Olive 8 has award availability for 3 out of the 4 weekends in July. So you're obviously just plain wrong here.



I will admit that hotels do play games with availability and having to call is worse than not having to call. However, I can tell you that I've had the exact same issues with SPG. As a SPG plat, I've had to call in and wait on hold while they call a hotel to see if they can book me into an award room when it's not available online. It's a part of the game and it only costs me 3 minutes and I get what I want.

HGP has its warts but I'm much happier as a HGP Diamond than I am as a SPG Plat or was as a HHoners Diamond.

moulder3

This is what I'm accustomed to doing as well, but the point of my creating this thread is that the nuisance of having to call to book a points room (because it can't be done online) is now no longer even an option. Hyatt is *now* flat-out telling us 'too bad' if the standard room isn't listed under a certain rate plan.

The change is that Hyatt GP is now siding with their hotels that are effectively cheating their system over their (supposedly high-value) Diamond members when standard rooms are available, by claiming the rooms must be listed in the Hyatt Daily Rate category. So now all a hotel has to do is move the few standard rooms Hyatt requires them to have in inventory out of the Hyatt Daily Rate category during high demand and no one can book a room on points, even though they have standard rooms available. Some hotels are apparently doing this all the time now.

esquesk

I agree, some hotels definitely play games with availability. However, I've found that a simple call to HGP to reach out to the property on your behalf, or a simple e-mail to a reservations manager can solve this issue without much heartache.

It also happens so infrequently (to me) that it's not too big of a deal to me - especially since I've had equal or worse experiences in the other programs. On the other hand, if this were to become the norm - outside of the few isolated hotels currently playing these games - I would be much more bothered.

In terms of actual usage for readers of the forum, would it be possible or even worthwhile to create a wiki of properties that tend to have this limited availability?

HGP probably wouldn't like us putting those properties on blast, but if their availability games are that egregious, people should know and be able to avoid the properties if they choose. This IMO, not complaining, would be the best way to push for the change we'd like to see.

izzik

So, you're saying that we should avoid redeeming our points at these hotels to get them to offer standard room awards? I don't see how that's going to convince anyone, unless having a low redemption % is a bad thing for hotel mgmt.

esquesk

More for informational purposes.

For example, if I had the knowledge that one hotel games the system in terms of award availability, I would be less likely to give them my revenue stays.

Further, it would also be helpful for people who would like to make award bookings in the future. For example, based on the earlier posts, I know that if I want to go to SXSW next year and book an award night at HR Austin, I should probably do so months in advance.

moulder3

I'm happy to create a wiki for two reasons:

1. I hope it will shame the hotels currently cheating the system while giving us incentive to move our revenue stays away from these hotels

2. I hope this ultimately gets enough attention to force Hyatt GP to get its act together and change their stupid policy so that any available standard room can be booked on points, regardless of being listed under Hyatt Daily Rate rate code. Stop letting the hotels that are cheating your system no longer benefit from doing so!

peteropny

Agreed on your points - I'm sure Hyatt isn't happy to see this list. If enough reports of a particular property playing these "games", they can pressure them to stop.

In the past, HR Maui played these games routinely, however, the last few years there hasn't been any reports of these games. So habits can change.

hailstorm

The Park Hyatt Tokyo regularly "games" things during high demand periods by making the entry level rooms available only through third party bookings like Expedia. Not sure that any amount of "shaming" will change that.

MikeFromTokyo

I understand the hotels' decision to circumvent the rules. Keep in mind that for top properties redemption rates at Hyatt are considerably lower than they are for comparable SPG properties.

Hyatt perhaps never should have promised no capacity controls, but my guess is that overall that policy has improved award availability even if hotels occasionally game the system.

In order to truly have no limitations on award availability, hotels would need greater compensation from GP, which would inevitibly force up redemption rates.

hailstorm

Personally, I accept Hyatt's right to do things like have base rooms available only under rates other than the Hyatt Daily Rate. At least they are abiding by the rules that they made.

What I don't accept are the few occasions I have seen where award nights were not made available even when base rooms were available at the Hyatt Daily Rate. HGP keeps claiming technical issues when I call them out on it, but to me it seems that this happens too often at the same places for it to be an accident.

MikeFromTokyo

I agree. In those cases, have you been able to get central reservations to force an award reservation for you after you have pointed out the discrepancy?