PWMTrav

No, I agree with you, upgrade them - I said it in my first reply. The only reason I brought up inconveniencing another guest was in response to the person saying "but what if they were full of late checkouts?" If you have to make a choice, denying the late checkout is in my opinion very simply the best way. It's not ideal, but it's the best way. That's what my response was about. In reality, if the hotel had that many rooms advertised for sale, they likely had a better one they could have put the guest in and they should have done it.

I agree completely that the hotel has management issues. The pattern is too consistent for it to be the staff.

It might be a bunch of trainees, but the pattern is too consistent. It's being managed this way. On purpose.

If the room's not ready at check-in time, buy them a drink at the bar. If it's not ready until 6, buy them a late lunch at the bar or dinner.

cdancer20

Are you a new Diamond? If so, then I assume you don't understand how DSUs work. If the junior suite is available on the days that you are looking at, then you will have no problems using your DSU. When you are ready to book, you can look online at your dates to see if the suite is available. Then just call up HGP and book the suite. The biggest problem you will have is if the hotel has P+C availability for your dates. This is standard throughout all Hyatt hotels.

If you already know your dates and points, why not just book it now? If you cancel within the cancellation period, you will get back all your points and your DSU.

Goodmorning2U

Hi, and thank you. Yes, I am already booked using Cash and Points. What I'd like to know is does every Diamond call in every day to see if there is suite availability and then ask them to apply the DSU? It seems like they should have an automatic system which applies the upgrade when it becomes available.

And, does anyone have experience/success or lack there of for suites becoming available?

lautaro

The way you use a DSU is this:
You make a reservation for a room (that you already have), you check if there is availability for a standard Suite on hyatt.com for your dates, if there is, you call and book it using the DSU. That's it!

BlissWorld

I have stayed at this hotel a few times. During the most recent visit, I encountered quite a few unprofessional and inexperienced agents who should be working at Hyatt Place instead of Park Hyatt. Some of them blatantly made up BS because they had no authority and were too lazy to check with their managers. Next time, ask to speak directly with the manager and stop wasting your time.

FYI, this hotel receives a large amount of point bookings and management sees that you are on points and could not get rid of you soon enough.

NYC is all about $ and if you want good service you need to pay for it. Not that it's an excuse but if you are on points be prepared to "deal with it" - adjust your expectations.

PWMTrav

Hey, my local Hyatt Place (Portland, Maine) has some of the best Hyatt employees that I've interacted with. Maybe we should send them to NYC.

As far as points, points aren't free. We acquire them in exchange for opportunity cost - whether that's staying at a different hotel or putting spend on a different credit card. The hotel is compensated for point redemptions depending on its occupancy rate. Nobody's doing anyone else a favor by spending or accepting points. Besides, how much additional business do you think the hotel has generated because it's a part of Hyatt GP and not an independent property? Scrub this thread of branding and put it in a generic hotel forum, would you stay here based on what's been reported?

Anyhow, I burn my points first, so it's often happened that my first impression of any Hyatt has been on an award stay, and subsequent stays have been cash. It's not an intentional pattern, but I just looked at my stay history and it's generally held true. I can't remember any hotel in my booking history treating me any different based on how I paid. It's a bad idea in this business.

scented

This is slightly OT, but I totally agree with you, the method of payment should never be an issue and should not result in different treatment whatsoever. But in reality, from my personal experience I do see different behavior, especially in terms of room allocation and management attention when someone books on points vs cash. My experience is limited to the superstar PH properties (Paris, Milan, Sydney, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Saigon) and on points they tend to allocate the last damn room.

Miesque

There do seem to be some high end properties that unfortunately make the point redeemers the very low men on the totem pole. The Waldorf Astoria Chicago is my favorite hotel in the US and I have always been treated very well and had exceptional stays, but I have seen a lot of comments by those using points for stays (I have never used points there so I can't confirm personally) were treated similar to what BlissWorld and yourself have experienced.

Kacee

Yup. Arrogance and inexperience make a bad combination.

Yes, and really a missed opportunity for the brand. There's nothing to build brand loyalty like being treated well on a points stay.

PWMTrav

Remember that as a customer, there's also the aspect of how you allow yourself to be treated. I get that it's not always an option (maybe you're half way across the world in a city you've never visited or something), but if you feel you're not being treated fairly you can always tell them to cancel/refund you and walk. No need to be rude about it - just something like, "It's 5PM, I still don't have a room and I have a 7:30PM dinner reservation that I need to get ready for. Can you hand me some keys now, or would you prefer to cancel my reservation and I'll head across the street?" Obviously make sure you can get that other room if you really need it, but in a city like New York where there are options all within a reasonably small radius, walking your money over to a competitor is sometimes an option. The Mandarin Oriental is a couple blocks away, for instance. Or The London, a Ritz Carlton, The Plaza.

I find that I almost always get my requests by being nice, and I think most of the time I'm pretty reasonable (I'll even send a Hyatt rep my GP# if they want to look me up and verify that nobody's blacklisted me ). But when a hotel can't get me a room in a reasonable amount of time, for instance, I'll absolutely go somewhere else if it's possible.

sms6225

Hi All.

Wanted to update the board on situation (I am the OP who was denied a check-in until 6pm at PHNY last week).

Hotel did respond to me. Interesting in that the reply came to feedback I gave on the emailed survey post-checkout, and that I've yet to receive a reply to my email to Hyatt customer service.

In any case, I was very satisfied with a gracious note from the PHNY - pertinent to this discussion would be the following quote: "In regards to our check in time, you are absolutely correct, all rooms are guaranteed by 3 pm. When arriving for a one night stay and not having your room available at check in time is completely unacceptable..."

He also acknowledged they have to better with customer facing handling of these situations - which was really my main issue with the delay.

They have refunded 15k of the 30k points for the stay, which I've told them is more than generous.

Thanks to this group for all of the feedback to my post.

cdancer20

Glad you got a reply back. I am also waiting on them to reply to a small complaint that I had. I looked for the post-checkout survey first to reply to that but they didn't seem to send me one.

RTWSTARALLIANCE

We are in for three nights. Previously had six nights on award with little Diamond recognition. Decided this time to go paid which at these prices hardly would ever do in the States. Fine paying in Asia at Ritz-Carlton properties. Pleased at check-in advised room upgrade to Park Suite. If in the future had fair chance of suite upgrade would go revenue over points. I'm looking for a NYC hotel to call home and was just about to book the MO this trip. Glad I changed my award stay to revenue at the PH.

blahmeh14

Could someone clarify for me if the below benefits are available free of charge to non-elites/Plats (booking with points)? Or are they just for Diamonds?

Thanks!

ztstephens

I confirmed with Analy at PHNY that those 3 benefits are available to all guests, not just Diamond.