nhwiki

[QUOTE=austin_modern;18700347]OP: If it sucks so bad, why do you keep doing mattress runs to retain Diamond? Perhaps your business (and complaints) would be better off at another hotel chain?

So pleasantly put by you - hope you are a little more courteous and thoughtful in person than you are hiding behind your online anonymity; I can’t imagine getting up in the morning and instantly wanting to type something like “if it sucks so bad . . .” – not my kind of existence but to each his own I guess.

Lest you think I’m doing 25 mattress runs, and I don’t think I indicated that I am, I’m not – I simply topped off the year with two discretionary stays to ensure I made diamond. As to my spend, I’m burning through 440K points at the end of December and January for a suite in Kauai, (perhaps that will give you a better idea of my level of commitment to Hyatt) but after that I’m uncertain of my loyalty since my balance for the first time will dip below 100K points. I’ve been a dedicated Hyatt traveler since the mid-90’s, and had my wedding at the PH Tokyo (and my wife and I are both Americans, to be clear), and I remember fondly both the Stanhope and Hyatt Carlton (especially the cool steel pool).

To be fair, I’ve had great treatment at middling properties – the Boston Airport Hyatt is very good to us, as was the Regency in Philadelphia and the Grand in SF, but the properties that want to make me stay loyal to the program (The Andaz’ s in NY and the Grand in Kauai, for example) are making me rethink the extra mile (literally) I go out of my way to stay with Hyatt. I’m not a meeting planner and I don’t stay 100 + nights a year on the road, but I travel enough that it makes sense to concentrate my stays with one chain if I can. As I tried to make clear in my first post, I’m not asking for special treatment, but I am looking for service that reflects my (discretionary) commitment to Hyatt, so when I find a decent rate to go to a high tier property, it would be nice if I weren’t sloughed off like a credit card platinum newbie (which it felt like over the last year at about six properties).
I understand that perhaps the “travelling” economy is a bit better, and I also remember my very soft non-landing a few years back when I remained a diamond (with way fewer stays than the 25, by the way), but I simply get the sense that at the properties we stay at to remain with Hyatt, the ground rules have changed, for instance, leaving better rooms empty simply because they can, rather than recognizing who is at the hotel and that’s that. Right now, they Gold, Platinum, and Diamond (leaving aside CC of course) and I get it that someone who drops a 100K a year is going to get a better room selection than myself, but that’s not what my question is about – it’s about properties seemingly going out of their way not to be special when they can and it doesn’t hurt them to do so. I wasn’t looking for the Buttonwood suite at Wall Street, but I wasn’t looking for a fifth floor regular kind either, and there were plenty of rooms available for my stay. And in Kauai, (and the staff and service there remain fantastic and special) can I get something a little better than a handi room above the restaurant for a couple of nights when they don’t have a suite?

My guess is that I’m like many, many diamonds, folks who travel a lot (compared to most price-line bottom feeders) and we’ve decided to go out of our way to stay committed to one program in return for something a little better, and it just seems like that “something a little better” is now missing. To be clear, this is not a rant about the lack of decent promotions, a situation that is what it is with the credit card points and the whole “going public” new world; rather, I’m trying to figure out if it’s worth my time and money to stick with Hyatt and get something really decent in return or to keep the credit card and pay for the occasional trip to Kauai and then explore other options in most other cities where there are plenty of very nice choices out there. For instance, the PH Maldives is nice, but is it really worth all those Hyatt points and stays when there are much better choices (I’ve been at them too), and frankly, in NYC, one can do much better than the basic room, never mind the attitude and lack of check-in counters at the Andazes.