cfabar1

jn in ca

I guess I'll have to be the curmudgeon. I agree that the HP breakfasts are improved, but they are still not up to the competition. I've stayed in 4 HPs so far this year, and every one of them still had the communal cottage cheese, the communal yogurt and now they are even doing the communal jar of peanut butter. Oh yeah, like there is any chance I am going to try and guess whether or not some kid sneezed on that stuff 10 minutes ago. This is not at the level of a Hampton Inn or Holiday Inn Express (or Hyatt House) breakfast.

Re: the original question. Was WoH racing to the bottom, and has it now turned around? You vote with your dollars. Here's my vote. In 2016 I had over 80 nights with Hyatt/Mlife. In 2017, when WoH came along, I had less than 20 nights. Yup, WoH was that bad. In 2018 I was back over 80 nights. WoH has improved that much.

Look at this new 1500/night bonus for HP nights. I have no idea why Hyatt would want to give an extra bonus for stays at the cheapest hotels, but heck, it got me to stay there.

joe_miami

Just as the “racing to the bottom” thing was silly hyperbole, it’s hard to believe the modest improvements Hyatt made to WoH would take people from being highly disgruntled in 2017 to staying over 80 nights in 2018.

BaconSF

Biggie Fries

Um, I think you might be talking about me.

Under the old Hyatt program, I had been scraping into Diamond on the basis of 25 annual stays ... or 23 stays and spending $20,000 on Hyatt card for two more stay credits.

When the new World of Hyatt program started, I could not see any way to keep up the pace, so in 2017 I fell off to (barely) 30 nights, therefore maintaining Exploristism for 2018. I was going to miss Hyatt, but I did not see myself staying on as a volume customer without some of the better benefits of Diamondness.

Then, at the beginning of 2018, World of Hyatt started counting points and award stays toward the 60 needed to re-qualify as a Globalist. The new World of Hyatt card in the second half of the year was just that much more gravy. Gravy that led me all the way to -- wait for it -- 80 nights in 2018.

The more I have seen of other hotels and hotel chains, the more I appreciate Hyatt. [Posted from an HP.]

joe_miami

WoH is now great because people can get Globalist by hardly ever staying at Hyatt? How many of those 80 nights did you stay at Hyatt?

You started off by complaining that you used to barely scrape into Globalist via 25 stays. Hard to believe counting award nights helped such people all that much once the new requirement became 60 nights.

Biggie Fries

I think I stayed 71 nights at Hyatt ... I did get 5 nights with the card, 2 for $5,000 spend, and 2 during an Andaz bonus thingee.

There were also 2 (3?) awards stays in there. Point is that, in the past, those, plus whichever among the residual 68-69 stays were booked with points, would not have counted. It's the points stays counting, not the awards stays, that got me back in the Hyatt groove. That plus the fact that I knocked out a number of stays in Jan-Feb 2018 when still a residual Globalist that reminded me of what I would be missing, plus some FHRs and Visa-whatever stays to numb me while I was "only" an Explorist (which ended up being about 7 months).

Word choice: I was admitting that I used to barely make it over the 25 stays bar. It was not a complaint.

Hard to believe: Once upon a time, one could state that folks were entitled to their own beliefs, but not their own facts. Evidently less true nowadays. For whatever they are still worth, what is stated above are the facts as I understand them.

iflyjetz

You have a lot of posts denigrating others on how they achieve their status. Why?
Biggie Fries has posted on this forum for a long time with helpful information. Besides, if he mostly stays at HH/HP, how's he negatively impacting you? In other words, why do you even care what others do? You're still getting your status on OPM.

beachfan

This would be a problem with all buffets. Hot (i.e., warm) items and cold. Not saying you are wrong, just that complimentary breakfasts of made to order items is more rare.
(I don't like buffets either). Unless you are happy with things that come pre-packaged (yogurt but without fresh fruit for example).

joe_miami

I simply took the facts as you presented them. When you said you “scraped” to Globalist via stays, that implied that you were staying maybe 30 or 40 nights, tops, so it was hard to see how counting awards and points stays could help you that much. There can’t be many people staying 30 nights per year on points, year after year.

You seem to be confused. I didn’t denigrate this guy or anyone else, and I don’t travel on “OPM.”

iflyjetz

Yes you do denigrate others. He's not the first person you've talked down to for going after Glob.

You're a consultant. You bill your clients, including covering the cost of your hotel rooms. That's OPM.

joe_miami

As I said, you’re confused.

txhyattlvr

I think all the "free" breakfasts are about the same. What I really appreciate about Hyatt Place is the fresh berries that now seem standard. That's a premium item not found at any other competing chain as far as I know.

joe_miami

Just as a reminder for the people who tend to avoid HPs in the U.S.: The breakfast at non-U.S. HPs tends to be much better, with an array of hot items, fresh fruits, and an omelette station.

uppereastsider

What I'm reading in this thread is: Some hotels have been poor Hyatt experiences, but others have had good Hyatt experiences at other hotels. We're trying to conflate those experiences with resembling the program as a whole.

I'm a 80+ night Hyatt corporate road warrior (with anywhere from 30-60 at other chains, mostly SPG/MR), where I'm not loyal to any one specific hotel or even city (DC is one of my more frequent destinations, and I've stayed at every Hyatt in DC proper and in Virginia), my experience is like everyone else: I've had some spectacular Hyatt stays at flagship and non flag properties, I've had some great HH/HP stays, I've had some god awful HH/HP stays, I've had some very average Hyatt stays and I mostly have a good stays at Hyatt. I'm in the midst of 2 weeks w/o Hyatt travel (thank you NYC client meetings...), but one thing I noticed was that there doesn't appear to be hand lotion in HH/HPs recently.

Every individual hotel experience has been YMMV. The Hyatt in Arlington VA treats me average and never upgrades (even when suites are available) despite 15+ stays there, but the PH DC (4 visits) treats me as if I've been a 10+ year regular on each check in and always has a suite pre-booked for me. The HP in SW DC usually gives me a suite, while the HR in Crystal City is 50/50 on whether it'll be amazing or average treatment. It's very possible to have two different Hyatt loyalty experiences even in the same city, and for that to shape your views.