Cancel policy during that week after Christmas borders on draconian. 2 night penalty.

I was able to book any amount of nights on points- check again, BUT those points are gone if you cancel and no changes allowed. Rules below:

Rate Rules

Gold Passport Award
Terms and Conditions

Cancellation of this reservation is subject to the hotel cancellation policy.
Non Refundable/Full Prepayment/No Changes

Doubtful.... award booking have the normal cancellation policy, but for peak times like Xmas that can be substantially different than what is normal.... 90 days has been stated here.
And also no-shows for awards can carry a PAID night(s) penalty. Don't simply assume because you paid with points that the cancellation policy will also be those points.

You need to do some work here and maybe contact the hotel when you know that you might need to cancel.

My understanding is that you get the points back but pay the cancellation penalty in $$.

That's my understanding also. Here's the verbiage from the Hyatt T&C page (http://www.hyatt.com/hyatt/customer-...conditions.jsp):

4. Hyatt Gold Passport award reservations are subject to the reservation requirements of the individual hotel, such as length of stay. Hyatt Gold Passport award reservations are subject to the cancellation policy of the individual property at which member is redeeming an award. If member does not follow proper hotel cancellation policy or if member does not check into the hotel, the credit card provided with the reservation will be charged in accordance with the hotel’s cancellation or no-show policy. These policies vary by hotel and each hotel’s cancellation policy can be found on the hotel’s website on hyatt.com, by calling the hotel directly, or by contacting the local Worldwide Reservation Center.

Still probably worth a call to the hotel to hotel to confirm. Or better yet, an email, so that the response is documented.

Attention Bed Experts
 

Hi All
How do the beds compare to other Andaz properties in comfort
Andaz Liverpool has the best beds IMHO
more plush and softer than the Hyatt Grand Bed

Andaz Wall Street is the hardest bed ever but has foam they put on top for those that don't care for the hard surface which makes it comfortable
Are the beds at Andaz Maui also very firm?
Thanks for the feedback

The mattress was definitely not firm. It was a bit soft. We did sleep quite well, although we normally prefer a firmer mattress. The linens were quite nice.

That's great news for me :cool:^
Good to know.
I'd also be really interested to direct comparisons to other Andaz beds at their other properties if anyone takes notes observes obsessive details like me :)

Totally agree. I also prefer a firmer bed but slept as well as I have ever slept (home or hotel.) I do think it's mostly due to the linen/pillows.

I just read a TripAdvisor review that says diamond members no longer get free breakfast here. Checking in tonight and hope that isn't the case. And curious how it could be the case with Hyatt policy. Anyone have recent reports? Thanks!

Breakfast is a required benefit of the program so no that is not the case. Plus that's not exactly what the review said; it said "The only negative change is the fact that Diamond guests no longer get the free full breakfast, which was a major amenity."

The breakfast now is a continental-style breakfast with your choice of one hot item (the Pantry Breakfast is what it's called). I won't bore everyone with another recap of the breakfast change, but if you want some more background on it just go back a couple pages and it should be mentioned in approximately 99% of the posts.

What would happen if you have a confirmed diamond suite upgrade, but they end up just giving you a regular room? I noticed that in my reservation, the room description has changed back to the most basic room's description...and I can now see that for my dates, suites are no longer available.

Thanks for this clarification. This made me feel better before we took off last night, but... here's something interesting. We checked in last night, and the person who checked us in let us know that as Diamonds, we would have complimentary breakfast at the buffet. I asked him if there were special limits or if we needed some vouchers. He said no - just charge to the room and they will get knocked off. This seems to be more liberal of a policy than you mentioned. Have they changed again or did he give us wrong information?

Its a broken contract/agreement and I would consider it unacceptable and in bad faith
If it happened to me and it never has I would want to be fully compensated and moved to the Four Season or other Hyatt in Maui at the rate I paid
and very well taken care of(meaning reconfirmed in a suite) for the issue
First I would call Hyatt reservation's and be sure you have been downgraded without official notice

New Resort Fee
 

There is now a new $40 per night resort fee for all stays June 1, 2015 and later. This includes stays that were booked before this announcement in which your rate was quoted without a resort fee. I presume this is on top of $30 per night valet.

Not enforceable (bolded part).

Well, I hope they have changed it again. We'll find out in a few days...

I'll post the full conversation when I'm out of this d*mn doctors waiting room.


http://imgur.com/4rMQDcp

I'm not doubting you, just saying that no matter what the Hyatt Concierge says, that is not enforceable, in my opinion.

Is it not charged on award stays?

As much as I don't like the government messing with the travel industry, I really think resort fees need to be abolished. These need to be included in the room rate, it's not the same an ancillary charge because everyone is getting hit with it.

Here's the whole exchange:

http://i.imgur.com/VLSX0h5.png

http://i.imgur.com/vb8wM76.png

http://i.imgur.com/kkszh5A.png

http://i.imgur.com/5FhIdz7.png

http://i.imgur.com/PyZidIs.png


And here's what the resort fee now gets you. Again. Apologies if this has been covered before.

http://i.imgur.com/Yfz6zzk.png

Is there some sort of world government that handles such issues for hotels around the world?

Hawaii is part of the United States

> That's a s h i t t y thing to do.

This.
And retroactively, without notice - shame on them.
I thought their change of Diamond breakfast policy was really a non-issue, and for such a small segment of their total guest population I would figure. But this resort fee, on top of the valet fee, sucks. Lame. ...glad I only stay here on award stays that waive any resort fee.

Great April Fools Joke! You guys almost got me there.

Price it and see. Not funny joke at all :(

Just tried a dummy booking in July and it's indeed real ! I can't believe how downhill this property has gone in regards to treating it's customers. $600 a night isn't enough without a $40 resort fee ?


Additional Fees & Taxes
state tax
24.33 USD
occupancy tax
54.02 USD
resort fees
40.00 USD

Total Per Room
702.35 USD

This resort is nice and I've been a big fan but $70/day in fees alone is absolutely ludicrous!!! I am so turned off by this property. I will tell everyone to stay away. This hotel is absolutely not worth those fees. I would stay at the Grand Wailea or Fairmont before staying here just on principle. This hotel has such a snotty attitude now that I am extremely turned off by them. The rooms are small too. I have stayed in a suite every time but once and the suites are large but the regular rooms are tiny and have no dresser to store clothes. What hotel has no place to put your clothes? I'm not one to write reviews on TripAdvisor but this change has convinced me to give them an honest review now and it won't be pretty.

Resort Fee
 

This is disgusting. I have a stay 6/11-6/13, and the resort fee was just added to the reservation without any notice.

Is this new GM's idea from Aviara ?? They also charge extra $70/day.

This is absolutely ridiculous. And doing it retroactively approaches the point of theft. I've made a note to update my reviews of this hotel. The breakfast games weren't getting my ire up too much but this is just absurd.

I'm surprised quite frankly on a number of counts
First the property had no resort fees and now mandatory fees suddenly proposed
Second retroactive resort fees? I've never heard of that :rolleyes::td::confused:
Third its one thing to start out at $20 or $25 a night but $40?
For a moment I thought it was an April Fools Joke



I booked two rooms on Cash and Points.
Just got in under the deadline for the new nuisance fee
My instinct says the policy is property driven with Hyatt going along with the bizarre policy to make the owners happy
at the expense of Hyatt's customers and typically wise decision making.
I heard the property is doing well so this is all the more surprising that they are taking it to the extreme

I'm trying to stay optimistic for my upcoming stay but starting to think I should have booked the older Hyatt which has never been confrontational with policies in my memories.

Sorry, I didn't realize that you wanted a law for this one hotel.

Is this fact confirm-able?

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 5: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 8_1_3 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/600.1.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/8.0 Mobile/12B466 Safari/600.1.4)

Yes. However, the fact you're on an award stay won't take care of the parking fees

You can avoid the resort fees with the Kihei Option. Just sleep in the car. ;)

At this point, I'm pretty sure that's what they want us to do: sleep in the car and avoid their resort altogether.

This is an absolute disgrace. So glad I crossed the Andaz off my list earlier this year. Will never be back unless this changes. How can Hyatt feel like this is a good representation of their brand?

At least they aren't charging for beach chairs. This is a recent post from the Luxury Hotels Forum re: Montage Hotel Kapalua.
I was shocked to find out that my family if four needs to spend an additional $80 a day for beach chairs, let alone the costs of snorkel tubes, boogie boards etc.

I asked them about getting water and soda for the fridge and I got a form to fill out that said it would be a $30 charge in addition to the cost of the items.