Hyatt has announced they will be changing their Best Rate Guarantee Program starting on July 31, 2017.

Hyatt has offered a Best Rate Guarantee since 2003 to guarantee that Hyatt provides the lowest online, publicly available and immediately bookable rates for room reservations at Hyatt hotels worldwide. If a guest finds a lower qualifying rate elsewhere, Hyatt’s Best Rate Guarantee will now match the comparable lower rate and also offer a $50 credit to the guest, valid for use on a future Hyatt stay booked on Hyatt.com. The $50 credit will be provided as a single use offer code within four days of checkout of the initial stay and must be used within one year of being issued. This benefit will replace the current Best Rate Guarantee, which offers a 20% discount on valid lower rates found and is intended to underscore the value of booking directly with Hyatt for the best experience.

You can view the full details in this blog post.

Keeps getting better

Empty promise gets emptier.

The hits from Hyatt just keep comin'

Wow, just...wow. honestly, I'd rather they get rid of it. That's insulting. They sure as #### better start honoring everything now without all of this current absurd bs now that the benefit is worthless.

I guess the big question is, will this change stop the ridiculous denials for phony reasons? I could get on board with a less generous reward, assuming they stop denying 99% of all claims.

Lmao. I knew Hyatt would get worser.

The optimist in me can see how this change might allow Hyatt to approve more claims. (since franchisees will have nothing to complain about)

The pessimist in me suspects that Hyatt corporate isn't going to start paying $50 per BRG claim just for its dubious marketing value, when BRGs are ultimately designed to punish franchisees for providing lower rates to OTAs than to the chain itself.

Ha! ^

That's lousy

I seriously have no idea what is going on with Hyatt. They already gutted a decent BRG program by switching it to an online form and allowing and clearly encouraging denials for any reason under the sun, and then to do this on top of that. It makes no sense.

Not sure what the plan is to compete with SPG/Marriott. Hyatt used to be stronger in several areas, and now it's pretty much just the breakfast benefit, which is only marginally better now with the recent cutbacks.

Huh, back when Hilton had a policy like this, at least they sent you an American Express Gift Card after your stay...

Must be nice times at Hyatt these days. I think they have an excellent product. It appears many others feel the same, and are willing to pay for it. So many that Hyatt is gutting things like the loyalty program, the best rate guarantee, breakfast buffets on property seem to be shrinking...

We will see what happens next time the economy pulls back and hotel occupancy levels start falling. The gutting of the loyalty program and things like this will cost them... and cost them big.

I actually like the new policy.

The old program gave 20% discount. The new program gives 50 bucks. The new program is a better deal if the room costs $250 a night or less.

Well, hey, if my room costs $250 or more a night, I'm staying on points anyway. Or else the client is paying for it. Either way, it's not money out of my pocket.

Bottom line: The new program is a better deal for me, 100% of the time.

You must have a very particular set of circumstances because the new deal is resoundingly worse. There is no real way to debate the math. Yes, on a stay totaling 250 or less, it's better. That is such a narrow set of stays though.

It's odd that Hyatt would change their program in a way that favors those who purchase rooms in cheap hotels.