callmedtop

About an hour ago I booked a 48K/night Big Sur Suite for the same dates as my standard level award. Even if those suites do have all-inclusive, will still need to weigh if 18K/night is 'worth' all-inclusive. I'm leaning towards no but would like to have the flexibility, if its even an option (aka if suite awards will be all-inclusive or not).

TSTraveler

I would say 48K for a suite is a sweet deal, indeed—just for the room. If that’s all inclusive, so much the better.

The website now indicates that the redemptions comes with all inclusive benefits—but only seem to offer the 60K suite options for the dates we considered. That suggests that suite award redemptions will be all inclusive, at least. That doesn’t indicate yet what will be the case for regular award redemptions.

callmedtop

I'm Globalist and was going to use a TSU on my standard award so it really is a incremental 18K points per night, not to mention the free night certificate I was also planning on using for the 3rd night. My guess is that it won't be worth it, even if the suite redemptions are all-inclusive.

dkc192

Isn't 48k a night the standard rate for a standard suite at a Cat 7?

callmedtop

The Big Sur Suite is the standard suite and is 48K/night, so yes, it is the standard rate. However, the website implies that it would be part of the all-inclusive plan. This is actually true for regular rooms too. I really think this is just wording that needs to be updated, but see for yourself:

nsx

It appears to be all-inclusive for any booking, unless they change their minds.

Text near the top is:
When you click, the details are:

Each Ventana booking now features the following inclusive offerings:

• Dining in-room (all meals), poolside on your dedicated chaise lounge (lunch), or at The Sur House (breakfast and dinner)—which has a spacious new seating plan and is now reserved exclusively for resort guests.
• Convenient, healthy, and inspiring snacks to take on the day’s adventures, along with complimentary keepsake reusable water bottles.
• Access to the resort’s Signature Experiences such as Yoga, meditation, Tai Chi, and daily hikes.
• The Ventana Big Sur picnic program.
• Access to indoor and outdoor fitness studios.
• Volvo chauffeur service within a three-mile radius
• Access to private, reservation-only indoor and outdoor wellness studios.
• The Excursion Outpost, featuring complimentary items for your use on picnics, hikes, and more.
• New outdoor lounging nooks across the grounds, perfect for couples.

Restrictions:

Please note that spa services, retail, Alila Experiences, upgraded food offerings and alcoholic beverages—including our award-winning cocktails and wines from our 10,000-bottle cellar—are available for a supplementary charge.

To maximize guest and team member safety, and to minimize the impact of capacity restraints on our ability to accommodate requests, we kindly request that you work with your Leisure Concierge to schedule meal, fitness, and activity reservations in advance of your stay. Additional private experiences are available for an additional fee.

Ventana Big Sur is an adult-only experience reserved for those 18 years of age and over. Your visit to Ventana Big Sur should be worry-free. For your convenience, a daily gratuity for our service team members will be added to your guest folio. Additional a la carte beverages and services will be assessed a 22% gratuity that will be added to your guest folio. Offer based on double occupancy. For single occupancy rates, please call reservations. Rate subject to all applicable taxes.

invalyd

Thanks, I was just able book 3 award nights at the standard rate for July. Don't really care if it's all inclusive or not, happy to grab 3 successive nights on points.

myperks

I wonder if glamping rates are eligible for benefits and points since it’s bookable on hyatt site. Never really done glamping before. Maybe book a night a glamping followed by a night at the resort to get back to reality.

bcosinteno

So we had a call with this sales manager today. I guess this has been in the words for about 9 months. He told us labor costs haver been challenging with how remote they were. And at times they were keeping the restaurants open for very few guests. So they finally made the decision to go to an all inclusive model since it will hopefully help solve some of their labor costs challenges. But he did confirm, moving forward, it will now strictly an all-inclusive property.

He did not share, and did not seem willing to share, what they plan to do with existing and or future points bookings.

scubadu

Thanks for sharing this insight. Unfortunately, that will make this property a hard pass for us. Part of why we travel is to enjoy the food/wine of an area and being constrained to "all inclusive" is a no go for us. Will be interesting to see if they are successful on this front, but honestly, I'm skeptical. That area is not Cancun.

Regards

boolean64

It depends on what you define as "an area." It takes almost an hour to get to a restaurant in Carmel. So your dinner options are really Post Ranch Inn and Nepenthe. (i'm going in august for first time after mostly staying in Carmel or Carmel Valley, so someone please correct me if there are other dinner options!)

As long as Post Ranch Inn dining is limited to hotel guests for COVID, you're really just foregoing eating at Nepenthe. For a weekend trip, i'd be OK doing room service one night and dinner at Sur House one night. I'd be annoyed with the fact that I have free breakfast anyways with globalist, but doubt they are optimizing for globalists. And all inclusive lunch is really annoying, although i'd probably eat at the pool one day anyway. So for the weekend trip this is not a huge issue. I think it will not go over well for those looking for longer stays and may lead to poor occupancy during the week as 4 or 5 night all inclusive would be too much.

Very curious to hear the resolution on already booked points stays! I doubt they will be all inclusive and can't see them cancelling the reservations. It seems a bit odd that they are switching operationally at the same time that they are switching bookings. Would have made more sense to say "all inclusive for stays after October 1" that would have limited overlap of all inclusive and regular bookings, athough i guess this property is always booked out months in advance so no good time unless they were going to wait a year.

SanDiego1K

I agree with you. I've stayed at the Hyatt Carmel Highlands many times, so have really paid attention to area restaurants. Besides those you name, the closest I've found is Rocky Point Restaurant. It's the furthest south of the Monterey/Carmel restaurants and is half an hour north of Ventana Big Sur. The views are exceptional. Food has varied from solid to mediocre when we've eaten there, but oh, the views. Otherwise, does anyone know of others?

josephstern

I typically don't like all-inclusive places either, outside of areas like the Maldives. But I did go to a Miraval, and I thought it worked really well. Hopefully the same plan will work here.

For my reservation, I made it with points before the new wording. So I just canceled and re-booked. Same amount of points, but now I'm sure I'll get the all-inclusive features. Obviously, don't do this unless your dates are still available at 30k.

TSTraveler

Just confirmed with the property: all points bookings made prior to the all-inclusive change will be grandfathered in and get the all-inclusive addition, as well. Very generous, indeed. It’s a win-win-win for everyone.

callmedtop

Wow, you're kidding! Any chance you have this in written confirmation? That's incredible.