59Impala

How could you already be downgraded from globalist this year? the first year of WOH has not ended yet... you can only be donwgraded on March 1st, 2018

RedElmo

oh. I guess I meant from diamond to explorists.

59Impala

ah, OK ^

LeonardvonGrabe

While I need fifteen nights to requalify for Globalist I may kindly ask If somebody is interested in sleeping some nights for me in a cheap Hyatt - I live in Europe, so Hyatts are very expensive here :-(

I would subsidize this for sure ;-)
Please PN

RedElmo

Subsidized to free? I'll do it!

m1chael

I want to book a Hyatt hotel on points, ideally, from Friday, December 1 through Sunday, December 3.

Hyatt does not show any standard room availability for that day (either cash or points), however, if I change my departure date to Tuesday, December 5, standard rooms are available.

Is there anyway to book the hotel from Friday - Sunday with points? There is obviously a standard room available, but Hyatt is currently requiring me to stay two extra days.

I tried calling in, but the customer service lady wasn't able to help me (not for lack of effort). The hotel also says that the rate is prepay/no-change/no-cancel, so booking the full stay and then trying to shorten it after booking wouldn't work.

MarkOK

I come across this issue as well in my research -- where shorter stays have no availability but longer term stays will supercede that. In one case, I was trying to book a room at GH Atlanta and anything that included a given night was coming up as unavailable (I narrowed down the night by searching night by night). But once I upped my reservation to over 10 nights, it would be okay. Not sure what was going on that night, but the few days before and after were very expensive on single night reservations so something is going on in town that week. I ended up just deciding to stay for 10 days instead of 7. My best guess, as I don't have inside knowledge and it seems that reservation systems are quite well-protected, is that the system is set so that if a hotel has a night that is completely booked, the hotel will accept longer reservations and risk walking a customer to another hotel the overbooked night, but they won't take this risk for new 'shorter' stays. For example if you are a hotel with 100 rooms and the following are booked: Day 1: 80 rooms, Day 2: 103 rooms, Day 3: 95 rooms, Day 40 rooms -- the hotel may let you book Days 1-4 and risk not being able to accommodate a someone arriving on Day 2, but they won't accept that risk for a new customer booking Days 1-3. Or, on Day 2, they may have the standard rooms booked up, but not their high category rooms. So they may allow for a longer term stay and bump someone to the 'presidential suite' on the overbooked night, but they aren't ready to do that for a new short-stay reservation.

In other words, just because a room is bookable doesn't mean it is 'available'. Hotels overbook their rooms because people no show, check out early, cancel at last minute. They fill rooms as people check in, matching rooms to reservations, upgrading as needed (and, if they are good hotel, as loyalty status dictates), and if they end up not being able to accommodate everyone, they will get them set up (for a free first night, usually) at a 'comparable' hotel down the street. When I check in late, I often notice back and forths between the front desk and customers regarding why they didn't get the room they reserved -- and I've even been walked before. The conversations are often awkward as the front desk seems trained to 'spin' anything as an upgrade when most customers just get mad because now they are having to share a bed with their kids, or having an extra unwanted mattress, etc. But this is how a hotel finds ways to fill rooms and make money.

m1chael

That makes sense, but the Hyatt CSR said that there is still plenty of room availability.

The nightly rate that weekend is $300, while it's only 8k with points, so well worth the cost of the two additional nights.

opiuman

Strangely looking at a property for 11 nights through Hyatt website or OTA (Expedia, Hotels, etc) show only a very expensive suite available. However, going through the Chase UR portal it shows many rooms available. Is this normal? Could I call Hyatt directly or the property directly to book those rooms?

gm68

I've been trying to find a thread on this but haven't been successful. I'm noticing a trend of WoH point bookings becoming impossible for many hotels. For example the Andaz Maui doesn't seem to have anything available for even a single night in the next six months. A lot of hotels have set up 5+ categories of regular rooms like "Side View Room" and "High Floor Room". Are they doing this purposely to limit the availability of standard rooms and to block WoH bookings?

Not having blackout dates is a big part of the value of WoH for me and others I'm sure. I can't be the only one up in arms about this? Has anyone found a way to deal with this trend? TIA.

CMK10

I'm still not understanding much about being an Explorist. I get 4 Club Access Awards. Does that mean that if the hotel doesn't have a Club Lounge for me to access, say it's a Hyatt Centric, that means I have no real way to use them to upgrade or to get breakfast?

Mary2e

There is an entire thread about this. Maui, in particular, is very difficult WoH reservations. They may have a minimum stay of 5 nights.

The hotels are under a great deal of pressure since the changing of the program and people have made reservations to burn their points before they lose status.

But in general, yes, the hotels have been playing games with room types to limit the numbers of rooms available on award stays.

59Impala

Unfortunately yes, that is my understanding as well. It is only for the club access.

Stewie Mac

Looking to book a points stay into a club room. Hotel shows regular and club rooms available for the night w cash, but only regular rooms available for points - does the 'no blackout' thing only apply to standard rooms?

Follow-up Q: If I get a globalist to book me regular room on points, does GoH still apply/would I get upgraded to club? I am so disengaged from WoH that I forget, if I ever knew...

Thanks

59Impala

A Globalist friend would have to do a "Guest of Honor" booking in your name with his points. Then you have the same benefits as a Globalist.
You will have access to the Club, usually but not necessarily on the Club Floor itself.