Rooms for wedding, help booking
 

Hello, i just got my united club card which makes me platinum level on hyatt.

I need to book atleast 5 rooms x 2-3 nights for may 2013.

I have tons of chase ultimate reward points which i plan to use.

Should i book now? (then i can cancel if some promo's come up?) or wait till early 2013 when promo's come out? Iv seen some recent promos but they all require stays before end of this year.

Also, would each room get the platinum perks?

thanks guys

The risk in transferring the UR points now is that then you're locked into Hyatt. If there are other properties from other chains you might be tempted to book instead by a good promo from them, wait a bit. Depending upon the number of rooms and the price point there may be value in you directly contacting the hotel to see if you can negotiate a block rate or other discount, especially if you end up needing more than 5 rooms. If you are considering using the hotel facilities for some wedding-related function in addition to the rooms you should be able to earn HGP points for that spend too but you won't (to the best of my knowledge) be able to use HGP points for such facilities.

Personally I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a promotion of any significance from Hyatt. Likely there will be something but it is unlikely to materially affect rates and you could almost certainly rework an existing reservation to qualify should a promotion of interest occur.

Your platinum benefits would only accrue to your room and not to the others.

ok so it looks like i will be booking the rooms via cash as i got a rate of $100 or 8,000 points a night........i need 27 rooms total over 3 nights! what is my best route? can i get discounted hyatt gift cards or cert?

thanks

Does the $100 per room per night rate that you seem to have negotiated include points and nights/stay credit? As an event organizer, can you get extra points or even night/stay credits? This should be in the contract.

thanks for the reply, i will double check to make sure it does include points/nights/stay credits.

Can you explain what you mean by this?
as an event organizer can you get extra points or even night/stay credits?
This should be in the contract? so besides getting credits for all the rooms paid for, i should be able to get extra points/stay credits?

If you've organized anything in the hotel's function rooms, the contract might or might not allow you to earn points on the charges, for example for F&B and room rental.

When I mentioned points/nights/stay credits, I was assuming that guests would pay for their own rooms and be credited accordingly by Hyatt. You normally cannot earn points on a large number of rooms, nor would you get nights/stay credits for rooms other than the one you occupy and pay. Read the Hyatt T&C to check these limits.

Will all of the rooms be on a master bill? That would further prevent earning points/nights/stay credits.

thanks for the reply, we only planned on using the hotel for the rooms, nothing else. we will be having the functions and everything else at another location.

haven't gotten the full terms just that the offer would be $99 per room for upto 4 ppl per room and including breakfast.

i thought about putting all the rooms be on a master bill but like you said that prevent earning points/nights/stay credits.......

that being said, if you were in my position what would be the best way to go about earning the most points/nights/stay credits

thanks again for ur help!

At $99/night I would definitely not pay with 8,000 points/night. That's not a good redemption value compared to many other properties. I guess if you had a ton of points and weren't planning on using the points elsewhere, maybe, but I think the best way to "earn" points on this is just to keep the ones you have and use them when you can get a better redemption value. Book the maximum # of rooms under your name that you can get credit for (3 I think with Hyatt) and use a Hyatt CC to pay for as many charges as you can. If you were using any of the hotels facilities for events, you can negotiate points for those things, but since you aren't I don't know of a better way to get more points.

I've attended a few weddings at Hyatts, and when I had to pay the bill I received points and a stay credit both times. I would imagine this would be no different sicne $99 doesn't seem like that amazing of a deal for that category of hotel. Usually it's the super cheap negotiated rates, that won't include points, etc.

This sounds like the OP has simply set up a room block for wedding guests. Be sure to be clear if the OP will pay guests' room and tax only charges or everything, including potentially expensive room service and alcohol, laundry and dry cleaning, shop purchases that can be billed to the room, spa services, etc. The bills could be quite a shock if you don't put restrictions in the contract.

ok.....so its either 208,000 points for 26 total rooms or paying about $2900 tax included.

they are Ulitmate reward points which most have been earned during bonuses like 3 points per dollar.

i usually use the points for travel on united......should i use them or save them?