iPhone App
 

Anyone else try the new iPhone app that came out last week for Hyatt? I've been very pleasantly surprised with it for a v1.0 product especially considering the problems I've had on hyatt.com. I've only seen a bug or two so far (mainly with some reservations not matching with hyatt.com) and it seems like a very attractive, nice interface. Great job Hyatt! ^

runs off to download it :D

I'm right behind you.....

I've just downloaded it and so far I'm quite pleased with it! I can't seem to access my stay history though, which would be quite nice.

Downloaded it, signed in and tried to see if it accurately showed my future reservations. Got an "Unexpected system error occurred". Then "We are unable to process your request now. Please try again later."

Seems just as reliable as the regular website.

Hi, Bill from Hyatt E-Commerce here. I'd be very interested in anyone with problems of any sort.

huskergreg, were you able to retrieve your reservations? The only bugs we've seen like the one you reported are when the cell connection fails. We're looking to improve the error messaging in this case.

Also, I'd be interested in thoughts people have for new features. Our intention was to put the key things people most frequently do front and center (search/book, retrieve reservations, mapping, directions, time, weather, saving favorite hotels, checking in/out, canceling when necessary, checking gp balance). Things in the on-deck circle: an android version (underway), remembering your credit card if desired, deeper integration for checking/out.

Hi Bill,

Great job to you and your team on this app - it really is fantastic! It has almost all the data I could have wanted it to have and I really like the graphic interface.

The only problems I've had so far are:

1. For more complex reservations, it doesn't show the entire reservation. Some reservations with multiple nights or multiple rooms only show a portion of the reservation.

2. If you click on "reservations," it shows upcoming stays grouped by hotel, but it only seems to show 6 hotel maximum. So all my other stays at other Hyatt's beyond these first 6 hotels are not viewable via this reservations link. I'd rather have the reservations link go into the full list of reservations like you get when you click on "GoldPassport" then "Reservations" which lists all upcoming stays in order by date.

3. Similarly, favorites only hold 6 favorite hotels and personally I'd like to store a lot more than 6.

4. When I try to make a reservation, sometimes the price that initially shows up when I search for dates changes once I click through to the next page. (This only happened once or twice)

Ideas for future versions:

1. You can cancel reservations, but there is no link to change reservations.

2. It would be nice to see account history too to make sure points/stays have been credited correctly (and if not a button to point out missing points)

3. The offers section is a little weak now - I think this section has a lot of potential. Also it would be great to have a list of offers for my "favorite" hotel list.

4. A general request for both this app and hyatt.com - I would love a "monthly" view to see all the daily rates for a property for a month for stays to help decide when to shedule a trip. Like travelocity offers showing a small calender for the month with the daily rate for each day.

I've been unable to access reservations when connected by Wi-Fi or by AT&T 3G service.

It's on my iPad - I'm unable to access reservations via Wi-Fi also.

I'd heard some whispers of this at the OWMD launch party, so I'm glad to see that it came to fruition ^

Downloading now, but noticed that it's got 5 stars with 11 ratings! Isn't this Hyatt we're talking about? ;)


ETA: I'm not having any issues accessing my reservations via my iPhone 4 (AT&T 3G)

oc2005, Thanks for your comments and helping us make the app better. Below are my responses. Best, Bill

Hi Bill,

Great job to you and your team on this app - it really is fantastic! It has almost all the data I could have wanted it to have and I really like the graphic interface.

The only problems I've had so far are:

1. For more complex reservations, it doesn't show the entire reservation. Some reservations with multiple nights or multiple rooms only show a portion of the reservation.
Hmmm... We'll look into this. I'll PM you and if you'd be willing to share your GP number we'll take a look at your particular issue.

2. If you click on "reservations," it shows upcoming stays grouped by hotel, but it only seems to show 6 hotel maximum. So all my other stays at other Hyatt's beyond these first 6 hotels are not viewable via this reservations link. I'd rather have the reservations link go into the full list of reservations like you get when you click on "GoldPassport" then "Reservations" which lists all upcoming stays in order by date.
It is supposed to show them all. We'll investigate.

3. Similarly, favorites only hold 6 favorite hotels and personally I'd like to store a lot more than 6.
We did this on purpose. Beyond 6, we were concerned that we'd have to offer the ability to reorder and manage beyond just the list. We also thought it something of an edge case that someone would want to have more than 6. This is on the list to address. Would other people on the forum like more than 6?

4. When I try to make a reservation, sometimes the price that initially shows up when I search for dates changes once I click through to the next page. (This only happened once or twice)
This should not happen unless the rate changed. This should be very rare. Can you PM me the market and any details you remember so we can take a look?

Ideas for future versions:

1. You can cancel reservations, but there is no link to change reservations.
Change is harder. It is on the list but I think would be in a second round after we built out the other platforms and address language versions.

2. It would be nice to see account history too to make sure points/stays have been credited correctly (and if not a button to point out missing points)
On the list.

3. The offers section is a little weak now - I think this section has a lot of potential. Also it would be great to have a list of offers for my "favorite" hotel list.
We'll add this to the enhancement list. One thing we're thinking is adding favorites to Hyatt.com itself.


4. A general request for both this app and hyatt.com - I would love a "monthly" view to see all the daily rates for a property for a month for stays to help decide when to shedule a trip. Like travelocity offers showing a small calender for the month with the daily rate for each day.
We're looking at some booking engine enhancements and will take a look at this during that project.

I'm PMing with huskergreg to investigate his problem. For anyone else who encounters a problem retrieving a reservation, and would like to help out, could you PM me the following:

1) Are you able to access other functions like search?
2) Are you accessing the reservation from logging in or retreiving with a conf number?
3) What iphone do you have and what is your iOS version?

Best, Bill

Photo gallery
 

I don't know if you noticed, but when you're looking at the photo gallery, you can rotate your phone into landscape and get big full screen photos.

Looks like I'm experiencing the same issue with only six reservations appearing.. When I first opened the app, I had a list of them, and now they show up as full screen items that I have to swipe side-side to see the next one..

fwiw, here are some pics of the app for those of you without an iPhone.

http://friendlyskies.smugmug.com/pho...-WvxKkwN-L.jpghttp://friendlyskies.smugmug.com/pho...-XVpqbw9-L.pnghttp://friendlyskies.smugmug.com/pho...-8JLqmrg-L.jpghttp://friendlyskies.smugmug.com/pho...-SLKCm8R-L.jpg

Nice! Thank you. :D

I would also like more than 6 favorites.

While checking out my reservations I notice Paris is missing some info compared to the others.

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/6906/photowi.png

Hi Bill

Been using it for the past 3-4 days, and here are some feedback that I'd like to add:

1)The app didn't show my reservation for my Park Hyatt Tokyo 5th November stay.

2) Not all of my hotel reservations are listed in the App (under reservation of home tab) - could be because I have 12 different Hyatt hotels booked.

3) I notice that reservations (under reservation of home tab) are only sorted out by hotel names alphabetically and not by date. This can be confusing because some reservation with closer upcoming dates are not listed while reservations of further away dates are listed.

For example, I have a reservations for next February, March and April which not listed but my reservations for next June, July, and August are listed.

Would appreciate an option that would allow me to view by reservation date which hotels bookings are coming up first. A calendar option showing bi weekly or monthly upcoming stays maybe helpful.

4) Extended stays of more than 30 nights, Hyatt.com sometimes break res into 2 res,

For Example: I have a 1 room 39 night stay would indicate 30 nights (June 1-Aug 1) on the first and 9 nights (Aug 1 - Aug 10) on the subsequent. However, in the app, it captured my res to have 2 rooms for 30 nights (June 1 - Aug 1).

5) Would also appreciate if you could add in rate and number of pax per room.

6) I also notice that the reservation place in the Home tab differs from the Reservation page in the Gold Passport tab. The Gold passport tab shows the complete list while the home tab shows a partial list.

IMHO Hyatt's priority should be to have a working website first. Then they could start working with someones pet projects.

Just downloaded the app, but I cant login:
"Sorry, but were expiriencing technical difficulties and were unable to complete your request"
Doesn't mind if wifi/3g or username/GP number.

GP Diamond from Germany

works fine for me (site and app).

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the responses! Here are some more details on what I meant:

1. For more complex reservations, it doesn't show the entire reservation. Some reservations with multiple nights or multiple rooms only show a portion of the reservation.
Hmmm... We'll look into this. I'll PM you and if you'd be willing to share your GP number we'll take a look at your particular issue.
I looked to see which reservations don't show up properly and it's always rooms that show up as multiple rooms/sub-reservations under one reservation on hyatt.com. The two cases of this in my account are a. a suite upgrade where the hotel uses a 2nd room "suite connector" to indicate a suite has been booked which shows up as a 2 room reservation in the iphone app even though the 2nd room is really just the hotel's way of remembering a suite has been assigned (which isn't a big deal - just a little confusing) and b. reservations where each night within the reservation shows up divided out from one another. I'm not sure why some reservations show this way; the only current reservation I thad like this is using my hyatt credit card diamond suite free nights but I recall seeing this in the past on other stays where a reservation will have several sub reservations within it. In this case, only the details for the first part of the reservation shows up in the iphone app.

2. If you click on "reservations," it shows upcoming stays grouped by hotel, but it only seems to show 6 hotel maximum. So all my other stays at other Hyatt's beyond these first 6 hotels are not viewable via this reservations link. I'd rather have the reservations link go into the full list of reservations like you get when you click on "GoldPassport" then "Reservations" which lists all upcoming stays in order by date.
It is supposed to show them all. We'll investigate.
There seems to be two separate ways to view reservations in the iphone app - a. a graphical view that groups the reservations under hotels, but uses the same format as the favorite hotels which limits you to only see 6 hotels and b. the full list of all reservations. I'd rather just use the full list of reservations for everything (including the "reservations" link on the bottom of the app then be able to click on the individual reservation to get the more graphical view with the details of a specific reservation).

4. When I try to make a reservation, sometimes the price that initially shows up when I search for dates changes once I click through to the next page. (This only happened once or twice)
This should not happen unless the rate changed. This should be very rare. Can you PM me the market and any details you remember so we can take a look?
This was LA/OC market in November - January timeframe and only happened once or twice at most (price showed like $125 then when i clicked through changed to $139 if i recall correctly). I'm thinking the price must have just changed while I was using the app since I haven't been able to recreate it.

Ideas for future versions:

1. You can cancel reservations, but there is no link to change reservations.
Change is harder. It is on the list but I think would be in a second round after we built out the other platforms and address language versions.
You may want to change the description of the app in the app store since it currently says "View, cancel and modify reservations at any time" which I took to mean I could modify it through the app.

I also agree with another posters comment that it would be nice to view more details of the reservation too (price, rate details, room type, bed type, number guests, etc.). This is especially true in the case where I'll make multiple reservations for the same property for the same nights and with the app I can't tell which reservation is which (I may have one reservation using cash, one using points, one using a stay cert, etc. and there is no way to know which reservation is which since it currently only shows hotel name and nights).

On a side note, I've tried the app on an AT&T iphone 3G, an AT&T iphone 4S, and an iPad using wifi and 3G for each and it's worked fine on each with no errors. The only thing I noticed is you lose you favorite hotels switching between devices, which I actually see as a plus since that is a way I can store more than 6 favorites - I'm going to store a different 6 on each device. I have also noticed it's running a little slower pulling up data off the server (reservations, favorite hotels, etc.) than it was at first - probably as more users use it.

Bill from E-Commerce here. The intended limitation for six favorites is also applying to the reservations tab. I'll get with the UX/Dev team on this. Also, the order isn't right when it does select six. We'll fix this in the next release.

A good start
 

Hi,

It's great to see an app from Hyatt.

A few suggestions

1) Better integration with twitter would be good.

2) The way to email Goldpassport is good, but for the email address automatically pre-populate it with the default email address in form.

3) The image for the front page is nice, but for Apps, really just focus on function. I would have just big buttons on there. (I click on the photo of the kid and the dad and it does nothing. It's a bit of a waste and UX isn't great. Remember the age and vision of the average user for this app)

4) The ability to use the Diamond suite upgrades would be great. Also, a way to "pay for an upgrade" (i.e. upsell) via the app would be good

5) Use the App to collect information like the customer satisfaction surveys

6) A way to pre-fill the amenity for the next reservation would be good. (e.g. prefer cookies instead of wine)

All in all, I'm excited about the new app. I hope that Hyatt will communicate to its GP members soon about it. I only found out about it via FT.

Best,
KTP

I did not see that Reward reservations can be made. Is that an oversight, perhaps too complex, or thought to be of limited demand? Thanks.

iPhone App
 

Try RN Dining. It's an app that shows all the qualified AAdvantage restaurants

Excited about Hyatt moving to the mobile integration. What is the status of the Android App? Also are plans to make an IPAD version?

It would be nice not to keep getting this error on the website:

HTTP Status 503 - This application is not currently available

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

type Status report

message This application is not currently available

description The requested service (This application is not currently available) is not currently available.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

JBossWeb/2.0.0.GA_CP

my 2 cents：

Reservations should be sorted by arrival date, and better to provide check out function.

Bill from E-Commerce here. This is something we're looking at for a future version.

Android?!?
 

Android?!? :confused:

Already stated they're working on it.

Interested to see how the check-in/out functions work. Will try at my next stay.

Interested to see what supposed to be displayed on the stay tab.

Would like to see account details, stay details, folio, etc.

Don't need more than 6 favorites.

-David

Update on reservation issues
 

Hi everyone, Bill from E-Commerce with an update.

The tech team has been working to reproduce some of the problems that several of you have encountered with retrieving reservations.

1) The reservation button should be displaying the reservations in chronological order. The fact it isn't doing this always is a bug and we're working on it.

2) The reservations tab is only displaying 6 items. This is a limitation we're looking at removing. The concern is that if you have 10 or 20 reservations (which some of you do), this will cause a long delay in retrieving them. We're looking at options. In the near term, we'll probably return the upcoming nearest 6 reservations (all reservations would still be available from the GP screen).

3) Some reservations don't show up either from the reservations button or when you select reservations from the GP screen
Thanks to those that have provided their GP #s to help troubleshoot. There are only few cases where reservations aren't showing up. One case is due to an odd booking source - we're checking if this even shows up on Hyatt.com. Other cases seem to involve complex records that been manually updated (say to split a suite upgrade into two rooms). We're looking into this case also. Our plan is to make sure the app displays the same thing you would see on Hyatt.com.

4) Sometimes reservations don't show up at all
We've seen the situation where if one has many reservations (13-15 or more), they occasionally don't show up. We believe this is due to a timeout issue in retrieving so many reservations and are looking into this with the plan to increase the timeout.

You flyertalkers are, unfortunatley, a great test bed for complex reservations and very large numbers of reservations. We're working to get the app working for these cases.

Thanks for all the great suggestions and feedback - we're putting them all on enhancement list. I'll get back on the forum when we have another update.

Thank you for your efforts!! :)

great job!

keep it up and let us know.

Thanks Bill - I guess I'm one of those "complex" reservations cases.

Hi Peter. I have your GP # to the team and I know they looked into your specific situation. I'll report back with what they found.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

Bill

Small tweak, but in the reservation process could you change the check-in/out date selection Tina single screen? Something like they have on spg.com, or on the 'on the fly'/ITA app.

Would save some tapping....

Thanks
Stewie

Awesome! that is some customer service right there!

Agree wholeheartedly with this. Take a look at the home screen for the SPG app -- giant, contrasty buttons. It's less elegant, but it's really functional. (And I'm a young whippersnapper, as Hyatt elites go, I suspect.)

The other thing that I'd really like to see is some integration with my *current* stay. At the very least, I'd like to see it show up in the app, so that I can access directions or contact numbers as needed. Things like checkout and folio review would be nice, but could wait a while.