So how does Hyatt's program compare?
 

We really don't have a lot of Hyatt's where I live but there are some and given how poor Starwood's frequent guest promotion is, how I am not overly excited about Hilton, how I will max out Marriott, I want to know a little more about hyatt.

My inital observations is that it takes a ton of points to get a Hyatt award and my travel will all be during Q3 of 2012. I also do not have a lot of Hyatt's to choose from so is it worth me venturing down this road or should I just grin and bear it with Hilton where I already have a base of some points and they are running Double Points (Mon-Thurs) for Q3. (areas traveled are N. Florida and Alabama)

Thoughts and suggestions please? :confused:

hyatt doesn't have a bonus now, so if you are disappointed with hilton's you'll probably much more so with hyatts. ;)

My summation of Hyatts program on a scale of 1 - 10.

Promos in the past: 10
Promos in the last 2 years: 3
Quality of Hotels: 9
Locations of hotels globally: 3
Customer service: 10
Value of redemptions against difficulty in earning points: 8

If they offer hotels in the places you want/need to go and you don't care as much about promos as you do very good customer service with great properties, then Hyatt is for you.

If you want to be able to earn X brand loyalty points in a hotel regardless of where you are travelling to and/or want to earn copious easy promo bonus points all the time....not so much.

I would agree with antonius' assessment. However, depending on your travel patterns you may find Hyatt locations to be better or worse -- e.g., if you travel to Asia often they are better penetrated. But if you go to mid-size town USA often, you may struggle.

I would also add that the consistency in both the hotel quality and amenities and in the benefits given (and staff knowledge of said benefits) is very high. Especially for Hyatt Regency and above.

I think antonius has been generous on quality of the hotels, which IME varies considerably, and I have not found customer service as accommodating in the last couple of years as it was formerly, but otherwise agree with his assessment.