Originally Posted by
ElevatorEnthusiast
Who controls the way the dates are set? Hyatt or the individual properties? Do we really believe that properties wouldn't receive additional revenue from higher-amount points bookings - or does it not matter as points revenue to properties is based on occupancy levels (presumably correlating with higher cash prices during higher occupancy periods)? It would be nice to have a better understanding of this system from a definitive source that isn't a blog.
In general across hotel programs (Accor is really the only exception, but that's the most purely revenue rebate program out there: you redeem points for discounts from the revenue rate, period) the points reimbursement correlates to revpar on the particular night (which is more or less equivalent to occupancy times the average rate paid for that night). Basically, Hyatt sees the hotel averaged $X per room that night (counting vacant rooms as zero and ignoring out-of-order rooms) and settles up at something fairly close to that.
The point price is then intended to roughly correlate with what Hyatt expects to pay (probably targeting $0.007 to $0.01 per point overall, given that the minimum reimbursement is probably $20-30/night)) for a typical redemption at that property. It's Hyatt deciding the categories and levels that will best hit the target.