iflyjetz

They were essentially forced to. I spent the last year just burning points without paying for hotel rooms so I hadn't been monitoring room rates. However, I'm now based out of SFO and I was in shock at how inexpensive the airport HR was over the holidays. I was able to get rooms multiple nights for $85. Hilton and Marriott couldn't compete; even their budget brands near the airport were a bit more expensive.

I hadn't stayed at the SFO airport HR much in the past, but I did notice (I used a couple of club certs) that the lounge was very crowded, especially when one factors in the low occupancy rate. That's probably due to the Explorist club certs; those likely increase lounge access quite a bit. It was one of the most crowded Hyatt lounges I'd seen, although the San Francisco HR on Embarcadero was very crowded when we stayed there 4th of July weekend a couple of years ago.

Even those changes (credit card nights, night credit for award nights) may not be enough to win back the once loyal 20-40 night/yr customers they lost with the higher stay requirements. I wouldn't be surprised to see Hyatt lower the requirements or go with double night credits (effectively halving qualification requirements) when the hotel business softens a bit. Eventually, they'll have to accept lowering the qualification requirements.