tkelsay

This year I decided to switch my hotel loyalty from IHG to Hyatt after 3 years as Spire. I'm roughly an 80 night per year business traveler. I have not had a good experience at Hyatt so far across 3 different hotels all in the Atlanta area...

Hyatt Place 1/2 - 1/5: Slow and often times unusable internet, no option for premium internet so nothing to purchase up to. Asked front desk staff about toothpaste & shaving cream but hotel ran out. Made some remarks on the survey regarding these issues and received a nice email from the manager of the hotel.

Hyatt: 1/5 - 1/7: Heat in shower lasted for 5-7 minutes or so then started to get progressively colder. 10 minutes in the shower it was too cold to stay in. Made a remark to front desk agent and they had maintenance check it but only had 2 nights here so it wasn't fixed before I left. Not a huge deal but still a minor inconvenience.

Hyatt Place 1/23 - 1/26: Used the stationary bike in the gym and headphones jack was completely broken with wires sticking out, couldn't plug in to listen to any entertainment - again not major but slightly annoying. Fire alarm went off @ 10:30 PM one night when I was already sleeping, it went off after about 5 minutes. Emailed hotel manager about both issues as I had her email from last stay (referenced above) and she said "we at times have guests to check in that will try and sneak and smoke in the rooms causing the alarm to go off and also make it an inconvenience to other guests". She also mentioned that they would try to get the bike fixed but that wasn't completed before I left.

Hyatt House 2/5 - 2/9: No issues, everything was fine though internet was extremely slow at times (seems to be a common theme for Hyatt). Became Discoverist after this stay posted.

Hyatt House (checked in last night): No recognition of Discoverist status and associated benefits, no water bottle in room, etc. Fire alarm went off at 4 AM this morning. Blaring alarm that would probably give you ear damage if you stayed in the building which I guess is pretty effective for getting people out in the case of a real fire. Had to evacuate the building and fire trucks came. Eventually went back inside after 15-20 minutes as I believe it was a false alarm (no explanation really, just said that we could go back in). Staff offered a bottle of water for the inconvenience but didn't seem to really care.

So I've had 5 stays with 2 fire alarms in the middle of the night, constant wifi issues, no recognition of benefits, broken exercise equipment, and a rather surly hotel staff.

The elite member benefits at IHG suck (i.e. basically nonexistent) which is why I wanted to explore different hotel chains this year. After finishing my current stay I will have 16 nights YTD and would easily hit Globalist this year but given my recent experience I am contemplating just cutting my losses and going back to IHG if this is what I have to look forward to. At least the Holiday Inn Express that is across the street from the Hyatt Place has good reliable wifi and hasn't had any fire alarms in the middle of the night over 3 years of staying there.

I know that 5 stays over 3 hotels isn't a very large sample size but my experience so far seems unusually bad. Am I just unlucky? Would you stick with Hyatt or go back to IHG? Should I send a complaint email to corporate with my experience so far? Any suggestions welcome. Thanks.

joey965

Wow, you have not had positive stays so far. Sorry about that. So I think I might be in the minority when I say that I love Hyatt as many folks on this forum have left them. I have been a Diamond/Globalist for 10 years and have not experienced what you have. The few times where something has gone wrong, I have always been offered extra points (usually 5,000 - 10,000) or some other extra amenity. All last year I was upgraded to a suite 60% of the time and if I was at a Hyatt Place I got a larger suite or one with a better view. I go monthly to the Hyatt Minneapolis and have never not been upgraded to a suite. I do usually email the hotel before I arrive and let them know how much I love Hyatt. I especially do this when I know I will be staying at a specific hotel on a monthly basis. They always call me by name and I feel very valued. I just returned yesterday from a 5 night stay at the Hyatt Coconut Point. Three rooms with two of them being suites (took the grandkids) using my TSU booked entirely on points. Welcomed me warmly at checkin and even gave the grandkids a somore kit (sells for $20 in hotel market). Regency Club got us milk and heated it up every night for the kiddos. I had totaled up what I would have paid in cash and it was over $10,000. I think you need to let them know what has been happening, tell them that you want to continue giving them your business and asking them how they can make it all worth your continuing down the Hyatt path.

mnredfox

shakim

If something doesn't work right, always mention that during the stay or check out (and email the manager of the hotel). They've always taken care of things.

I had some issues at Park Hyatt DC (charged for 2nd person's breakfast and I had to ask them to remove it, didn't leave a rollaway bed in the room). For that, they gave me 40,000 points (had a 2 night stay so the premise by GM was to erase the cost of those nights as each night here costs 20,000 ... although mine were paid).

At Park Hyatt Toronto, one night stay, we had a bad experience during breakfast where the service was just bad. Plus there was a hole in our comforter. 15,000 points given (again, this was to erase the cost of staying there which was 15,000 points but mine was paid in cash).

MichelinMan

That´s very unfortunate, OP. In a decade of staying at Hyatt´s, never once experienced such poor luck, back to back.

I know it´s of no consolation and of no help - I mean, there was a reason you were staying at those specific properties - but I´d never judge a chain based on experiences at their lowest tiered properties. (Sort of like judging SPG as a whole, based on a few Four Points stays....yeah, it matters, and there was a reason you were at the FP in the first place...just hesitant to judge the entire chain over it.)

My main knock against Hyatt is their limited footprint. Can´t imagine being an 80 night per year biz traveler and picking such a small chain. (I assume Hyatt is in all the cities where you work, so again, my thoughts are of little help.) If possible though, I´d switch to Starwood, because then you have the benefit of the entire Marriott behemoth as well.

I will say that Hyatt is great when it comes to service recovery. As others have stated above, they are very generous handing out points....

tkelsay

Thanks for the responses everyone.

I understand that putting in 80+ nights a year at Hyatt seems odd to some, given the smaller footprint that Hyatt has. I did a full analysis of all hotels in the area where my clients are located, comparing Hilton, Marriott/SPG, IHG, and Hyatt, and while it was a difficult choice I ultimately decided that I wanted to give Hyatt a shot. The current client I've been working on in January/February only has a HP and HH nearby hence the reason I've had 4 stays at these lower tiered properties and only 1 at their "premium" tiered property, Hyatt. Unfortunately there will be some areas that I will be stuck in HP/HH like I am now, so I will have to take these properties into my overall consideration.

Ultimately, my valuation of Hyatt points as well as reading anecdotal experiences online led me rank Hyatt as the highest (again, this is my own analysis based on my location, clients, price points, etc.). As such, I could be completely wrong with my analysis, but it sounds like my string of bad luck experiences is uncommon. I tried to address these issues with the manager or front desk agent while at the hotel but didn't have much luck getting them resolved while staying at the property. I think I will send an email to WOH and/or the global sales office explaining my experiences and see what they have to say.

Thanks again.

MichelinMan

This: it sounds like my string of bad luck experiences is uncommon.

And this: send an email to WOH and/or the global sales office explaining my experiences and see what they have to say.

Agree with the two above statements

MarkOK

I too rank Hyatt the highest in terms of benefits and point/earning-redemptions. A big part of the benefits though, is I know that practically all ~50-70 nights of leisure travel will be at full service Hyatt properties and about half my ~14-21 nights of work travel naturally will find itself at HRs. If I have 80 nights where I was to stay at HP/HHs most of the time, I would probably go elsewhere. The biggest benefits of the program to me are 1. Free breakfasts/club access, 2. Suite upgrades, and 3. Free nights from earning/burning points. HP/HH doesn't do much for 1 and 2 (yes, they have free breakfast, but it is much lower value to me than free restuarant breakfasts at full service properties or full club lounge access). And so while 3 (point programs) is still decent if you stay at HP/HHs, I would look elsewhere for a fuller breadth of benefits. But that is just me.

craz

+1, also WOH has done away with its Welcome gifts , not getting those extra pts really brought down the earning power that Hyatt used to have. That IMO leaves SPG as a standout in the pts dept, which will probably change once Marriott has put both chains together. Marriott Welcome pots are no better then IHGs and basically useless but at least its better then WOH Zero pts

mattsteg

It's not realistic or reasonable to blame Hyatt for fire alarms. That's pretty clearly an exceptional situation. For me the internet at most hotel chains : Hyatt, spg, Hilton, Marriott, etc. Is usually ok, seldom stellar, and occasionally poor.

I've had some bad (but mostly acceptable ones) experiences at individual Hyatt place, four points, Holiday inn, Hampton, Fairfield...all chains lower end options really.

As long as Hyatt has acceptable options for work travel and attractive options for your leisure travel and points usage, you will make globalist, and enough stays will be FS to enjoy the in hotel benefits, they are a top choice. It's up to you what acceptable is, and what constitutes enough fs stays.

In particular earning/burning rates for high end properties are quite good, as is the quality of top properties.

mattsteg

If you want to redeem for a cat 7 in Hyatt or spg, it's about 30k per night (except for the all suites properties at Starwood that may be double or more. Break-even in points earning between a 50 night spg plat and globalist is 200 per stay, with more expensive stays giving more points with Hyatt.

azepine00

In about 1000 lifetime hotel nights across multiple chains i have never encountered night time fire alarm. I think you had a string of very bad luck.
Spire doesnt come anywhere close to hyatt top tier perks but there simply isnt much to get at hyatt place.

lotrbfme

Wow that is quite the opposite of my experiences. IHG usually has the old and ugly hotels, they are usually my last option except some IC which are nice. Hyatt on the other hand are mostly new and nice. IHG has absolutely no elite benefit at all, unless you consider free chips and bottle of water at check in a benefit.

swingaling

I find it funny that bottled water is listed as a benefit of elite status. I have zero hotel elite status (though I really like Hyatt), but my room always comes with free bottled water.

Proudelitist

I avoid Hyatt properties in general, although I do still like the odd Hyatt Place in certain cities where options are more limited.

I find Hyatt to be generally substandard. They are not cheap by any means, but they cheap out. I stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Denver a few years ago. This is supposed to be a 4 star property..and it had 1 ply toilet paper. Seriously?? This is the general experience of a Hyatt...fixtures are cheap and unreliable, toilet paper is 1 ply, service is substandard..and it somehow remains a pricier brand.