Skink

Two weeks before check-in they usually email a welcome letter that contains a link for your personal preference menu. One question on that menu is "Purpose of Visit: Quick Getaway, Birthday, Anniversary, Babymoon, Honeymoon."

ruxpin810

thanks for the info!

dsiderx2

I mentioned it in the survey they ask you to fill out approx 1 month before the stay. I'm pretty sure the upgrade was just the lowest suite level, so maybe someone else got bumped higher.

Boraxo

Interesting. Not seeing anything except 90k suites for the summer dates I want (also within 14 days). Apparently those suites are still not selling.

dsiderx2

Just finished my stay over the weekend for 2 nights at 30k/night. Really unexpected to have a heat wave in the 90s at Ventana, so it was a much different experience than my first trip. The pools and hot baths were not as popular in the heat. I found it a great value at that price and probably would go every year for a quick getaway.

Looking forward to my next stay at a distant future but the prices are so high now. I'm counting only 39 "off-peak" dates over the next 13 months. I haven't done a full count, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that the average rate for this place is closer to way over 40,000 points now. I thought the goal of dynamic seasonal pricing was that all the dates would end up totaling the mid point (which is 40,000).

antonius66

The was another obvious lie that everyone knew was nonsense. It was clear they were going to allow hotels like this to "high season" 80% of the year and basically let them make a super 8 category. Endless endless greed and it's cool though because (insert numerous Hyatt excuses here).

dsiderx2

Anyone know what's going on with next year's availability? Suites completely dropped off the availability all of next year. Even the regular rooms, which were downgraded to just "1 King Bed" instead of the ones with fireplace, are kind of sparse for winter and weekdays.

Seems like Hyatt or Ventana is going to start playing some games. I'm guessing they needed a new strategy since the old one was probably losing Hyatt a lot, with the money going toward Ventana's high rate reimbursement.

SP03

With travel rebounding, may be they want to have more paying guests instead of point redemptions

Clemson

It's not a very big place to begin with and it's in high demand. I made an award booking here in 2023 back in February of 2022 to find standard availability.

JackE

What was the lie?

myperks

that standard pricing was to be for the majority of the year (I would assume majority of the year is >50% of the year). Appears to not be the case for Ventana Big Sur.

nsx

Did you review the entire points calendar?

https://www.hyatt.com/explore-hotels...ate=2022-08-06

myperks

Casually counting all non 45k dates come up to about 125 nights over the next year. So about 60%+ peak, and less than 40% standard/non peak mixed.

dsiderx2

39 low season when I went through it quickly earlier this week. It’s definitely skewed towards high season.

as for availability due to demand being too high, they have never in the last two years that I’ve been tracking them, sold out their suite awards. If you look for this year, there are plenty of suites available up til end of December. Seems like something shifted in how Hyatt wants Ventana to handle points.

Richklhs

Ventana Big Sur Review
Bottom line: it's a one and done for me. It's an amazing place for nature and the hikes we went on were fantastic, but by no means is that place a 40k point or $3k per night hotel.
All boiled down to the restaurant, of which there is one to go to (well plus bbq place) and then in-room dining. Breakfast service was the worst I've had at any hotel, including Hampton Inns and Courtyards. Wait 15-20 min for a server to get coffee or tea, server disappears, maybe they come take your order, brought wrong food, can't get a coffee refill, ate yogurt with a fork two mornings in a row after I got tired of getting up to go find someone.

The best was the table next to us got the wrong food, apparently meant for the table next to them. The server finally came back 10 min later after the lady had picked at the food. Server picks it up and tries to set it down at the correct table next to them. At this point, all tables around are invested and are looking at each other like did this guy just do that? The table the food was meant for didn't speak much english and about 4 of us spoke up and told the server to go get a fresh dish for them. Every meal at the Sur House was stressful with not bad, but atrocious service. Gave up on dessert the second night after no one came back to clear plates or take dessert order 20 min after we were done with the main course.

Bar-b-que place (Closed Mon/Tues) was inedible bar-b-que. Mass produced in stainless steal kitchen. Awful. I understand you don't go to California for bbq, but if the resort has a whole restaurant dedicated to it, it should be pretty good.

Room and grounds were the highlight. Rest of the place needs a facelift. If you sit on the pool deck its this layered shale/granite stuff that comes up with you. All the grout is 1/2 inch higher than the stone because its worn down. Other annoying stuff that really made me wonder who the hell was paying this much for this place. Go for the hikes and views, but man that was disappointing. Offered 20k points at checkout for the service failures - it still hasn't show up 5 days later. Oh boy.