I was part of the Insider Group as well and agree with your comments! My only addition and maybe some food for thought is.....don't you think that the complaining and nit picking was kind of self imposed by Hyatt due the WOH switch? I think most of the Insiders felt a little annoyed that if the Insider Forum was to be Hyatt's sounding board WHY were they not asked about the changes Hyatt was considering to the program before they went completely off the deep end with WOH. I felt WOH was what caused the Insider members to turn and sadly we saw that here on FT as well. Before WOH the FT Hyatt forum generally was a big Hyatt cheerleading squad but once people feel that "loyalty" became a one way street they turned sour real quick.

For various reasons, I have stopped focusing on Hyatt's loyalty program in favor of Japan's Prince Hotels loyalty program.

One of the things they do is send out quarterly surveys to their elite members, asking them to evaluate the various facets of the program, and what they would like to see in the future. The program has evolved in direct response to the surveys, and they even give out a small credit towards re-qualification to the participants. It really serves as an example of a rewards program as a partnership between company and customer, as opposed to a system where everything is an edict from above.

Yes I agree with you on this. I guess what I was saying was I didn't expect the level of complaining within an Insiders group. Now looking back I do remember a lot of the 25-stay per year Diamond members that had been with the Insiders for years were really thrown for a loop with the WoH changes and I agree that the forum and Hyatt team could have handled it better with more frequent communication. The Hyatt team kind of crawled into a hole but then that's also when Jeff Zidell left as well so I think they were lacking leadership.

I'm all for giving feedback and telling Hyatt when things are wrong but in a way that is professional and respectful. At least that is how I viewed being a member of Insiders.

Yesterday I received what appeared to be a handwritten note from Amy Weinberg WOH, thanking me for my participation. It ended with "We wish you all the best, and we will be in touch with future engagement opportunities". So perhaps Hyatt is just revamping Insiders ?? The envelope was definitely hand written, even the return address was done in ink!

I was a member of the Insiders group as well, and enjoyed my time there before it closed down. I enjoyed some of the conference call sessions, and felt that they were actively listening to the questions and suggestions on the couple that I attended.

As PortlySpartacus notes above (I'm putting my own words to his comment), for the past year there was virtually zero activity or meaningful participation from the Hyatt team that supported the group, so when I got the email about the site closing I was certainly not surprised.

For the Insiders who were Diamond from stays, they were really upset with the change WoH took when it was announced that stays would no longer count. I've rarely made status by stays; that said, I really think WoH needs to bring back the stay criteria as a way of earning status, as the bad will the change generated was so upsetting to those who were very loyal to the brand. I know I would be quite peeved if I made status this way and it was then announced that it no longer counted.

Some of the long-time contributors added a lot of value, and they were not Hyatt cheerleaders - Elaine xxxxxxxx (<-- She used what I believe was a real surname, so for the sake of privacy I'm not including it here) stayed(stays?) at Hyatt properties more than anyone I know, and she wasn't all love and hugs and kisses. She offered criticism all the time, but did so calmly and very professionally, and I enjoyed reading her comments. Some of the members who only had complaints got a bit tiresome (to me). If I were Hyatt (or anyone, really) running a board of loyal customers, I would want to know where I could improve, but I would want feedback on what I'm doing right as well. Some members didn't seem to have that balance, or lost that balance at some point (and WoH really ticked off many.

I also received the handwritten card from Amy Weinberg last week as well, and I thought it was a very nice touch, as she (or someone) likely has to write hundreds of these...

Got the same note, while it appeared to be handwritten, now I wonder.

I was a member of the Insiders as well. I agree, that there was not much presence from Hyatt in the last two years. The communication desaster with WoH is unforgotten, the „important“ insiders received the info about WoH after some random bloggers. I disagree about the point, that there was too much critic on the boatd, you can only get better, if you get feedback about our weaknesses. Of course good things should and were discussed as well.

i received the card as well, it is printed with inc, but if you look closely, you can see, that the letters are 100% equal. My guess is, that they digitized Amy handwriting and then printed it.

The award has to posted yet.

FYI only - I chose 10,000 points as the parting gift, and the points were credited to my account yesterday.

My points posted today.

My points posted as well. I do find it interesting that virtually everyone took the 10k points instead of the Cat. 1-4 free night which could be worth 15k. I was worried about not finding a Cat. 4 I wanted to stay at before it expired. (As an aside, this year I cancelled my Chase Hyatt card because I was having issues with the free night redemption offered for the card as well.)

I chose the free night and it has not yet posted.

My award night posted yesterday.

do you know what the title of the free night says? for example, "category 1-4 promo award" etc. i know the anniversary free night awards from the cc also posted for a few members last week so just making sure you're not confusing the two. i received my anniversary night last week as well.