Hyatt was very late offering a co-branded credit card, but now that they have the supply of unredeemed points will increase much faster than it did previously, and the result will be the same as it has been at other chains. The only way to balance the supply of award nights with growing demand is to increase redemption costs.
For the high end upmarket properties, most definitely. But the low end Hyatt House and Hyatt Place there are still a lot of very useful 8K and 5K properties that other chains want much much more for same caliber of properties. These properties are not in obscure locations either. Quite often you see comparable Marriott properties nearby cost 20K and up while the Hyatt properties are 8K, as an example.
Some of the 8K properties actually came down to 5K this year, fwiw.
With avg 30 to 40 nights hotel stay in a year, 100% out of own pocket, we keep close tap on how each program behaves. While there are a few Hyatt properties we use have become too expensive in pts on this year's chart, the rest stay the same and some go down. I am quite pleased by this year's change.
Hilton probably has the biggest earning power in terms of its cards and ways to earn points - they seem to have stay promotions year round - and that is the prime reason why the redemption cost also goes up the fastest. Hyatt points on the other hand, is hard to earn thru its own card / stay, but thankfully UR is relatively easy to earn. That is a very important factor to keep UR competitive.