Originally Posted by
creativeguess1
I did inquire about upgrading me (Globalist) to a 1BR suite, and they wanted an upcharge of $150 per day. I've heard many Globalist get upgraded to this room for free in the past, and not sure why it wasn't offered to me (I did not go during high occupancy season, and when I checked the hyatt.com website, there were 1bd suites available during all days we were there).
To me, and Hyatt doesn't care about my thoughts on this, you either give the 1 bedroom to the Globalist or you don't. They should never offer a upgrade at a cost. Not sure why, but the FD and this hotel gives very little thought or preferential treatment to Globalist's. I have been here probably 12 times since it re opened after the damage. The first 4 trips were AMAZING, then next 4 were fine and the last 4 were below average. We are heading there in a week, decided to do 1 night Ziva and try the Thompson Hotel for 3 nights. The rooms at the Ziva are fine, but upgrades seem to be like pulling teeth, no mater when you go. Last time I was there, it was almost an argument with the FD agent. upgrades were anywhere from $175 to $1500 a night. "Sir, some people are paying $3000 a night for that room". Okay, well good for them? You mean the one that is empty? Can't make this stuff up!
These hotels are franchises owned and operated by Playa Resorts (a separate, publicly traded company). In my experience Playa doesn't train FD staff on WOH policies to anywhere near the degree of other Hyatt franchises, and franchises in general (in my experience) are always harder to deal with than corporate-run locations (so called "managed" properties). However, also in my experience, when you are dealing with someone well-trained at the Ziva Cancun, they do upgrade to very nice suites (and are empowered to do so). My guess is that whomever you have dealt with just had very limited training/knowledge of WOH benefits and if you spoke with a manager you'd get a different result. At least that's been my experience with other Playa properties.... they are not really used to seeing a ton of Globalists and are used to charging for upgrades....