Seagull689

I remember reading somewhere, and I think it’s mostly anecdotal, but using a suite upgrade award basically means getting the standard suite that was booked. However, not using a suite upgrade award (i.e. booking a standard room) could potentially get a better than standard suite. Of course there’s no way to really test this theory, but perhaps the suite upgrade award tied to the reservation limits what the hotel can give out further?

friedablass

It makes no sense that the hotel has the ability to give complimentary upgrades to higher level suites but is more limited/restricted when SUA is used. If anything, it should be the opposite but probably neither one is the case because who is imposing the restrictions? Is it self imposed or what? Most likely the hotel can do whatever they want with regard to upgrades regardless if its complimentary or SUA used, but they simply choose to be stingy most of the time.

josephstern

$300/night for a better suite? That doesn't actually sound too unreasonable to me.

SP03

But some may choose to pay an incremental upgrade fee for those suites.

I understand why you are disappointed but I also understand why the hotel would want to reset expectation that there’s a premium to these suites that the guests shouldn’t expect a complimentary upgrade (even if using SUA). At least they are consistent at applying it.

canyonleo

Where did the OP or I write about an expectation? Neither of us said that. In fact, the OP mentioned the opposite that he/she had no expectation. Disappointed.

SP03

I didn't say anything about your specific expectations. I said I understood why you were disappointed. And that hotel is trying to reset the general expectation of their guests.

canyonleo

OK, re-read and I see what you're saying, my bad : )

wels0n

also the only reason i applied a SUA is there were no standard awards available (had set alerts on seats.aero) so i had to call globalist line and have agent manually apply it to the points booking.

no big deal on the upgrade. i’m not gonna make a scene about it. happy to not pay parking or resort fee and get free breakfast.

it’s a nice, quiet property compared to GW where i was for 4 days prior.

wels0n

i get it. it’s hawaii. desirable rooms / suites are expensive and some people are happy to pay the up charge so why would they give it out for free etc ?

this is my second time staying at andaz. andaz prague put us in their best suite for 6 nights when i had booked the cheapest award. apples vs orange’s but that’s my experience

beachfan

They certainly maximized revenue while Maui was crowded.

is the hotel fully booked? Some globalists, including me, are less likely to return given the hardball tactics on suite upgrades.

jayer

I would have said they stopped upgrading points reservations years ago across most of Hyatt, with a few glorious exceptions. But the exceptions are now very few and far between. Even Grand Hyatt Kauai seems to have gone over to the bleak side after the last management change.

That is not to say in any way I don't get your point or disagree with you. This hotel started out generous and has been dialing back ever since. We're generally Hyatt loyalists but Mrs. Jayer blacklisted this one years ago.

josephstern

This does feel like the way of the Big Company, right? Start out with lots of inducements and promos and giveaways, and build a loyal customer base and gain market share. Then, reduce that incentive investment and begin to reap the rewards.

Same playbook for Amazon, T-Mobile, Uber, etc. . . .

norcalfiend

With the surge in travel and labor shortages, some properties are taking full advantage and reducing benefits for loyalty - I wonder if it will come back to bite them if it subsides albeit people have been warning of this for a almost a decade now and it hasn't turned. There was an article on numerous luxury hotels in Europe (esp. London, Italy, France, etc,), ski destinations, Hawaii and NYC that were charging 2-3x vs pre-COVID and were faced w/ 50-60% occupancy, but given the labor shortage and rates they were getting that actually resulted in them being more profitable hence why rates haven't dropped in those regions.

I'm sure Andaz Maui like PHNY and other very-high demand properties also figures that they can fill up and maximize their profits w/o Globalists hence the penny pinching - given the rates and mix of guests, it's likely accurate which is probably why these locations are still corporate owned. Bad for the customer but until the tide turns not much that can be done outside of disregarding loyalty in those markets and staying where you want.

josephstern

Interesting idea there - twice the price for half the customers is surely more profitable if you can keep it up.

But here's the thing: customers on points at half-empty Hyatts apparently bring very, very little revenue to the hotel. The revenue points-customers bring goes up dramatically when the hotel is basically full. So the Andaz Maui would have to be basically just eating the costs of those of us who stay on points. And that might still be OK with them - especially because their rates are often 3x what I saw pre-Covid. So maybe that revenue just swamps what they lose on those of us who stay on points.

For the record, my last many (8?) stays here have all been on points, and I have been treated very, very well on all of them.

SP03

I suspect both the Andaz Maui and PHNY are almost always full.

You bring up an interesting point about revenue guests generate. You are correct that hotels don't get paid much from Hyatt when they are less than full for points redemption. However, hotels also care about incidental revenue guests bring while staying there. While it's a bit of generalization, guests staying on points at those highly in demand hotels likely spend less on property than those paying cash. Given a choice, they would certainly prefer a higher mix of their guests to be paying cash. This is particularly true at luxury hotels in high demand locations, such a Maui.

Upgrading to the best room when booking a base room, even if it's available cheapens the perceived value of the room. This is basically what happened to domestic first class in the US with elite upgrades. So the balancing act for those hotels is to offer a set of elite benefits that are still valuable and meaningful, but not to a subset of premium, highly desirable rooms where they could potentially extract more cash and incidental revenues.