Originally Posted by
FarFetched1219
I've got suite upgrades every recent stay in Europe. Most of them involved a long argument and negotiation with the front desk pointing out the program rules. I've come to expect it as the normal procedure when not applying SNAs.
In one Capital city Marriott, they tried to upsell me to an Executive Room in order to secure an Exec suite upgrade. That ended up working for me as proved they had availability. It was a long tense exchange.
In the same city a Renaissance said they only do one category upgrades...so as an Ambassador I get the same upgrade as a Gold...after escalation I was given a Junior suite.
In short: it's possible to get suite upgrades in Europe, but it's a tense negotiation every time. I'm starting to lose patience.
No arguments against the idea that Hyatt Globalist is, on average, strictly superior to anything Marriott offers.
However, I think many comments about the Hyatt portfolio (especially from a luxury perspective) are highly questionable. For example (name redacted):
Originally Posted by
Kappa
Or you might find a city on occasion (getting fewer each month) where the Hyatt options are subpar or not available relative to Marriott
Not familiar with Europe (but others have commented that Hyatt is weak here). In Asia and especially North America, this statement is pretty… lol…
There are 3 urban Park Hyatts in the US… The above statement could be true for someone staying at Hyatt Places or even Hyatt Regencies/Grand Hyatts but it’s just not true for anyone that cares to stay at nicer hotels (and Park Hyatts clearly peak very early in terms of objective quality). Hyatt is just not a chain that is a good fit for someone that purely wishes to stay at great hotels. It can’t even be the main program for someone like this.
My point is that NO loyalty program is perfect and all have very tangible weaknesses. I would LOVE it if Hyatt had an amazing hotel option in every destination I traveled to. I optimized the credit card spend of our companies around the concept of farming UR points purely for Hyatt. But the truth is, their portfolio is just too weak. Even amongst the few PH options that exist, some of them are just not good (such as the Park Hyatt Zurich which is just a business hotel).
My path to long-term Hyatt status will be through Courtesy Cards that they issue to franchisee investors (assuming they still do so). Even with this, I will not be going out of my way to stay at Hyatts.
Also, I have complained about Marriott deferring to franchisees just as much as anyone. I also strongly believe they will eliminate daily housekeeping at full service properties (with Hyatt to follow eventually too). I just think people are being awfully selective about what they’re discussing.
From the start my philosophy on Marriott has been this: dislike the loyalty program but love the hotels.