When did I say I lock myself in with prepaid, cheap rates? I just said that the nature of my travel requires planning well ahead through each quarter and I book hotels accordingly to assure my preferred properties, be they ICH, Hyatt or Starwoods. At the moment, Hyatt puts itself out of the running since it has yet to announce what we expect to become effective September 15th, i.e. NEXT WEEK! I can adjust some of these stays if Hyatt does finally come through with an attractive promo -- FFNs or double stay credits -- but my first priority is to ensure I have a room at a preferred hotel for these trips.

At the moment I do have three Hyatt stays booked, but that could be more in a couple of cities once the 4th Q promo is made known and is attractive enough to my needs.