ZBigFam

You must not have kids and don't remember being a kid. Not all kids are misbehaved. Treat them with respect as you would any human being.

GUWonder

The Hyatt Regency ORD also has some check-in reps who have the same customer-unfriendly approach. There was a time when Hyatt check-in reps could be assumed to be the most guest-friendly of the major hotel brands and they weren't so eager to shake down the hotel program's elite status customers for as much money as possible on incidental charges. Unfortunately, that era has ended with Hyatt. And now a growing number of Hyatt hotels' check-in reps even try to find excuses to charge for internet access even when there are Globalists or Explorists booked in the rooms.

No paid room's guests eating in the lounges are eating and drinking for free. They are eating and drinking for no additional charge beyond what it cost for the booked room while having the benefit of lounge access married to the booking.

While I do find children in the lounges to be somewhat disruptive at times, the Hyatt lounges are not the kind of places where I expect no disturbances of any sort even when there are no kids around in them.

You do realize that Globalists can book two rooms using Hyatt points and thus get the lounge access for up to four people even at properties where the hotel tries to limit lounge guess access to no more than 2 people per room at any given time?

Visconti

RE: Kids

I've no issues with kids who are well behaved and find them a joy; it's actually nice to see Parents preparing their children on how to behave for when they become adults. However, the misbehaved ones running around yelling, touching everything and stomping on furnishings with shoes are the ones I'd rather see kept out until they are properly schooled on how to behave in public venues.

joe_miami

Hotel and airport lounges need more kids like we need more plane crashes. I never said "all kids are misbehaved," but a decent percentage of them misbehave, and their parents tend not to care. And if a staffer or guest says something, they're the bad guy.

There's no point to having lounges if they're going to be as chaotic as the gate or lobby.

This makes no sense. Every additional person in the lounge is an additional expense.

GUWonder

Every additional paying/paid-for customer filling up the travel service providers'/facilitators' lounges is additional revenue for the travel service provider that it may not otherwise have got. Do you really think the hotels and airlines would prefer their lounges be mostly empty and non-chaotic or full and somewhat more chaotic than when empty? I'll tell you what I really think: the hotels/airlines are more extremely greedy than their customers filling up the lounges which the customers access as part of their paid/paid-for travel. Guess what that means: they care a lot more about shaking out more money out of their customers here and now than they care about an empty and very peaceful lounge.

joe_miami

Hyatt makes more money when four people from one room go to the lounge and eat and drink than when two people do so? Huh?

GUWonder

Hyatt hotels tend to charge more for hotel rooms than the marginal cost for food/drink in a typical Hyatt lounge, and that's usually more money coming the hotel's way than if the hotel rooms had gone empty instead were the lounge access to be useless for the prospective customer with included lounge access for only part of the immediate family.

The lounge operators' marginal cost for additional food and drink for 2 kids in a lounge is usually way less than the mark-up on lounge costs for the average American adult male traveller. Maybe the Hyatt lounges should be cheaper per child and more expensive for the average male Globalist given Globalists are more likely to be able to eat and drink way more into the margins of the lounge operator than the average pre-12-year old.

joe_miami

In other words, Hyatt doesn't make more money when it ... gives more food and drink away. Glad we cleared that up.

GUWonder

No, you confused it, as Hyatt isn't necessarily giving more food and drink by doing so. Giving (away) more food and drink is not the same thing as what Hyatt does in its lounges.

Here it is cleared up again in other words: Hyatt hotels make more money when the lounges are more full and chaotic with food and drink consumers who happen to consume less food and drink than the average Globalist in the same lounge than Hyatt hotels make when the lounges are only populated by Globalist (if anyone at all). It's the revenue-maximizing incentive that drives Hyatt and the hotels to offer the children and adults access to the lounge for additional price/fee.

And Hyatt hotels tend to make more money when the lounges are more full and chaotic with food and drink consumers than when the lounges are way more empty and peaceful. Hyatt and its hotels don't care for more empty and peaceful lounges. Hyatt and its hotels just want the lounges to be bigger revenue and higher margin generators for them than they used to be, and Hyatt and its hotels don't really care if the lounges are chock full of chaotic guests or not as long as it maximizes the money that Hyatt and its hotels can shake out of their customers.

azepine00

Hotels are likely to make more money from families as they are far more likely to pay for all sorts of extras - meals, rollaways, transfers, activities, room service etc etc - it is just much easier to do things on property.

When alone my hotel expenses beyond room rate is near always zero, with family it is routinely 100-200 extra each night (plus extra cost of suite booking).

joe_miami

You're just repeating the same silly point over and over. If Hyatt made more money in your scenario, it wouldn't be "foolishly" limiting access and/or charging fees for children (or not allowing children at all, like at some lounges in Asia).

If Hyatt's lounges get too chaotic, their prime customer base will start looking for hotels other than Hyatt.

joe_miami

Except lounge access, apparently.

When would families be spending all of that extra money on F&B if they're getting breakfast, dinner, and snacks for free in the lounge?

GUWonder

You're eating dinner at most Hyatt lounges which you visit? Most of those Hyatt lounges which I've visited don't have food to supply a well-balanced meal of interest to young children, but I'm sure there are people who would love to know where all those wonderful Hyatt lounge dinners are for young children too.

Lots of lower-end hotels -- hotels that don't have lounges at that -- seem to be able to provide an included breakfast for all hotel guests, but Hyatt hotels are so tight for money that they can't do so despite its rates being higher than the rates of those lower-end hotels with included breakfasts for all hotel guests? Ok, I get the point: "greed is good, when you're the business." But the gluttonous customers who aren't Globalists should be skinned when accompanying Globalists? And what about the gluttonous Globalists by themselves?

MarkOK

I've still not experienced these crazy misbehaving children in lounges. The biggest annoyances I have encountered in lounges, which is very very often, is when a group of 5-10 middle to upper aged adults come in together and treat the lounge as a private party room and/or a rallying point (let's just assume they all have or bought legit access -- the amount of noise, from laughs, bad jokes, and outright shrieks and cackles, and the additional social drinking, overeating, etc that occurs when a group of adults go above 3 is amazing. I guarantee that if you go into a lounge with 10 kids, vs a lounge with 1 party of 6 adults traveling together, that that nice cheese or hot appetizer you enjoy will be plenty available in that lounge with kids, but probably eatened and being carefully hovered over by that group of adults).

I am biased of course, as I have been bringing my daughter (now 8) to lounges since she was 6. And, something like 80% of the times I am in a Hyatt with a lounge is when she and wife are travelling with me. She (the kid) has always been fairly well behaved, but I think being in adult places with treats has helped a lot in reinforcing polite behavior (in all public settings).

And regarding this odd back and forth above about the cost of a kid in the lounge. First off -- food and the drinks that kids eat and drink are cheap, and kids don't really eat and drink much. Secondly, being able to bring my kid into a lounge has been more valuable to me than any sort of value I personally get from the lounge on a personal food/beverage consumption level. My loyalty to Hyatt is deepened and strengthened by lounge access for the family. Hyatt corporate likely knows that full and well.

Visconti

Trying to figure a way to phrase this without running afoul of the PC police and sanitation fetish clique. Let's take China for example, which is probably the only third world-like country we can make observations about without having it scrubbed. I've experienced some lounges and public venues where children of what I can only speculate are from areas of rural China where, for all intents and purpose, still very third world in every sense of the word, and haven't the foggiest of how to behave in western civil society. This is where I've seen children completely out of countol and their parents not doing a darn thing about it.

This isn't to suggest it's the case with all in China or even the majority, but only as an example of where I've unfortunately encountered it. To be fair, there are tons of other third world type countries where I can use as an example, but, in today's environment, China is the only one where I think it's even possible to use in this example without offending or causing the social justice folks to go crazy on me.