I notice a lot of disdain here from guests towards the hotel itself as if it is the individual hotels choice when in reality the blame falls on the guest.

If you book the stay within 48hrs of the check-in date you *will* be forced to go to the front desk. No matter what. This is a Hyatt wide anti-fraud policy there is no getting around unless you call the front desk and ask them to check you in.

If you do not have a valid credit card on file or there is a payment issue when trying to check in you *will* be forced to go to the front desk. Again, not the hotels fault.

Now there are cases when it may be considered the individual hotels fault: If they have special documentation requirements for check-in (mainly for overseas properties), if you've queued your check-in and been pre-assigned a room that is not ready for an extended period of time due to housekeeping or maintenance issues (when you queue a mobile check-in it pre-assigns you a vacant dirty room within the category booked (unless there's already a vacant inspected room ready then you'll obviously get that), usually in order of how long its been vacant as the system is guessing which rooms will be cleaned first.)

As a slight aside - if you have special requests or want to be upgraded you're better off either: including notes in your reservation/calling in the morning and waiting to do mobile check-in. When you do mobile check-in first thing in the morning like I said it pre-assigns you a room within your category (Hyatt is starting to introduce other options for alternate rooms in the app when checking in on your phone so this info may soon be useless, YMMV) and puts a "Do not move" tag on your reservation. Ergo, most hotel staff will not bother upgrading or moving your room - especially if you've completed the check-in all the way and disappear from the hotels Arrivals list. If you have a request and the hotel assigns your room then when you do mobile check-in it will keep that same room.