I can tell you with 100% certainty that this won't work. I reserved my room in September 2011, stayed in April 2012 and lost Platinum status in February 2012. I got a letter from Gorka under my door telling me that they looked into it and I was no longer Platinum after asking the front desk when I checked in. But, as said before, my travel partner was Platinum , so they extended the benefit to me. (What could they have done?) Our first night was on my points and the other two nights were on his Credit Card welcome gifts.

Is this new? Stayed in Park Deluxe in December and there was no Nespresso in room.

Vendome in Sept...possible?
 

I’m trying to plan a trip to Paris for my wife and I (25th anniversary) in mid September . I want to use miles /points for the air and hotel stays. Nothing has been booked yet and it may not even happen if I can’t get the award air to match up with the award hotels.

Would like to stay at the PHV on an award stay for 3 nights, including Sept 19th. I currently have no Hyatt points, but plan to transfer 66K Ultimate Rewards points to cover the stay. Since I have zero points I can’t accurately check award availability. I understand that if a base entry room (Park Queen or twin) is available, I can book it with points at 22K per night? Based upon searching the Hyatt site, I’m not seeing any base entry availability for 3 nights in a row. Park King rooms are available. Can I upgrade to a king on award points? Can I assume that if I see king rooms, that I can get them by paying more points? How many points would a king be per night?

In the event that the Vendome doesn’t pan out, I’m thinking that maybe the Madeleine might be an option? Can someone tell me what the base entry room is at the Madeleine? Then perhaps I can check availability at that location.
I also have a large quantity of Hilton points, 67K SPG points and 129K Marriott points.

Any other suggestions?
Thanks for the help/advice

Yes - the "base entry room" for the Vendome is either the Park Queen or Park Twin. Hyatt doesn't have a mechanism in place to charge more in points for higher category rooms (so you can't book a Park Deluxe King with points).

For Madeleine, the base entry rooms are (I assume) Queen Room & Twin Room.

You say that you have plenty of Chase UR points - so another option for you would be to call and see if a Suite Award is available for your nights (the Park Suite "costs" 33,000 points / night with a 3 night minimum). I really do not know whether or not availability is "better" for the suite awards or for the base entry room.

I would suggest that you grab whatever night(s) is available right now and try to fill in the remaining nights later.

If you are willing to part with the UR points, transferring over the 33k/night to hold a suite, and then downgrading to a Park Queen, is the best option. That way you have a room locked down at the Vendome. Of course the downside is that if a Park Queen later opens up, you have a bunch of points (33k, to be exact) "stranded" in the Hyatt program. As I'm sure you know, you can transfer UR to Hyatt but not vice versa.

Here is a more risky option; I don't know how/if this will work, because I'm not a Hyatt expert. Maybe someone else can opine

If you want to save points, and avoid having a stash of Hyatt points you may never use (I don't know how much you travel or stay at Hyatts) you can book the 'base entry' room at the Madeline on cash, not points, assuming it's available. Then you call the Vendome every day to see if a Park Queen opens up. As soon as it does, you transfer 66k UR points and lock down the Park Queen at the Vendome on points, and cancel the cash booking at the Madeline. The availability changes a lot so I think in the next couple of months you should find a Park Queen. (I had booked a Park Twin about 2-3 months out and a Park Queen opened up a few weeks before my stay.)

Here is the tricky part, and I don't know if it will work: as the date of your trip approaches, if nothing has opened up at the Vendome, cancel the cash booking at the Madeline and rebook with points. Because you had booked the base entry room at the Madeline on cash, as soon as you cancel, theoretically it should be available again, meaning you could book it with points. The risk is that you don't know how Hyatt manages its inventory and for whatever reason it may not come back into the system immediately. If this works -- and some Hyatt expert can chime in -- your worst case scenario should be a room at the Madeline on points, with no surplus left over in the Hyatt program.

I think I've heard that canceling a base-level room doesn't guarantee that it will automatically go back into the pool.

Their inventory system is not transparent. I can tell you that for my stay next month, I originally booked a room on points, and then wanted to transfer it to credit card nights, and they said I couldn't do it. They implied that as soon as I cancelled the points nights, it might go back into inventory and be snapped up by someone on the waiting list.

I agree that inventory varies widely, and that it's a pain that you can't even see inventory unless you have enough points in your account.

My original plan was to book PHV, and if I couldn't do that, book a 4-star hotel on Priceline. 4-star hotels go for about $175 or so. I value points at 1.25 cents, so for me, 22K points for PHV was $275 a night, vs. $175 for a 4-star was about my personal breakeven. I know some people would value the difference more highly.

I do sense that suite availability is better. I'm not sure how many of the base rooms they have, and the suites are pretty pricey. In the end, I wound up booking a suite for four nights, because it's a big deal to us to have a king bed. So we have a King Suite for 4 nights (on points) and a Park Queen for two night (credit card).

Before booking this way, I explored all the options for upgrading from Park Queen to Park King Deluxe. No go. Even if you could upgrade for the cash price difference - the price difference is about $200 I think, which is less than the value of 11K Hyatt points.

We're going on our (delayed) honeymoon, you're going for 25th anniversary (I hope Mrs. Redtop and I make it that far!). My advice would be, rather than futz around, just book the suite. Unless you really need the extra 33K points for the airline tickets.

[QUOTE=tal1412;18957655]I’m trying to plan a trip to Paris for my wife and I (25th anniversary) in mid September . I want to use miles /points for the air and hotel stays. Nothing has been booked yet and it may not even happen if I can’t get the award air to match up with the award hotels.

if u have status at other hotels can try to get a diamond match -u say have a large nbr Hilton pts if have gold hilton -- can get the Hyatt match

I had a one-night stay here using gold passport points - I'm not going to write a detailed review as there is already so much information on this property, but just a few points:

• Upon check-in we were upgraded to a Park Executive Suite. The room was around 800 square feet and was one of the nicest hotel rooms I have ever been in; the toilet lid in the master bathroom was motion sensitive, so when you entered the bathroom the lid automatically went up - pretty neat. The room was very comfortable and I wish that I could have stayed there longer. 4PM checkout was granted without any issue.
• The Diamond amenity was a half-bottle of red wine; plenty of bottles of water were also available in the room.
• The staff was top-notch at this property and the service was perfect - I would love to go back and would highly recommend the property.

[QUOTE=SPLP007;18961949]Not sure what this would accomplish. Diamonds don't see different inventory, do they?

So it appears at least 2 Diamond members have stayed since the issue came about what was offered as the "Full American Breakfast". When I was there 3 weeks ago it included eggs or an omelet. A non-Diamond member who stayed a week later was given a "Full American Breakfast" and it did not include eggs. So can we have an update from the Diamond members who stayed there in the past week or so as to what they received. Hopefully this will put the issue to rest.

Agree with recent posts that this is one of the very top hotels in Paris and in the Hyatt system.

We received everything on the buffet including cooked-to-order eggs. We could have gotten sides with the eggs but chose not to.

Thank you, Mike. I did call and try what you suggested but the person I spoke with said they weren't able to do that. I wish we could use points for the base room and pay for an upgrade. That would be a great option.

On a different note, it took a few months and several calls but availability for a five consecutive stay did become available for the base level rooms.

1. Does anyone remember particular rooms (or suites) that had good views

and/or

2. Does anyone have opinions on the noise level if you have a room facing Place Vendome?

The real question is when will they invent a toilet that automatically puts the seat down when a woman walks into the bathroom, and so quickly and silently that she doesn't know the man left it up? For that I'd pay 44K points/night!

Central Reservations may not be able to do this but you might have better luck contacting the hotel directly and asking. You could contact the Concierge at [email protected], tell them your situation and ask them to check it our with the manager. The staff there is amazingly responsive and that's the approach I would take. Good luck.