Originally Posted by skywalkerLAX

The problem with hotel gift cards is usually the practical aspect of it. It always takes forever to have a gift card applied to a folio and staff doesn't know what to do. It has always been a disaster both at Hyatt and Marriott plus international locations often don't accept them. At least IHG Giftcards are physical Mastercard Prepaid Cards.

Originally Posted by skywalkerLAX

The problem with hotel gift cards is usually the practical aspect of it. It always takes forever to have a gift card applied to a folio and staff doesn't know what to do. It has always been a disaster both at Hyatt and Marriott plus international locations often don't accept them. At least IHG Giftcards are physical Mastercard Prepaid Cards.

Originally Posted by Tino

I am not sure about Marriott, but the last time I tried, Hyatt gift cards could not be used to purchase advance discounted hotel rates from their website. Any savings from buying the discounted gift cards are negated by the higher pay-at-the-hotel room rate. You are required to use a CC to "hold" the room at the higher rate and then attempt to pay at the front desk with the gift card. Some of us don't currently travel on the company's dime.

Originally Posted by GUWonder

Hyatt will probably be selling gift cards with a value that is practically a 12-25% discount from card value.

Originally Posted by escape4

Fully agreed. I recently received a promotion from Banyan Tree for the sale of gift certificates / rate packages. The price was good so I was initially interested, until I found out that if I book a room using these certificates, I will not get any elite benefits such as room upgrades, and no points earned or night credits, so I passed. Just my opinion, but now would be a good time to be liberal with benefits, not stingy. There is a wave of great hotel deals coming up in the second half of this year and possibly next year; they could have secured my cash in a non-refundable gift certificate, but failed to do so. Similar for sales of points by Hyatt or other chains: Hyatt might have enticed some folks to buy points at 40% off but 23% is probably not enough for a good number of customer. Some of these same people might end up staying in a Marriott hotel in October instead, when huge cash sales come out, when they could have stayed in a Hyatt hotel instead.

Air Canada seems to understand the issue. They are selling miles at 1 US cent per mile as part of a promo. They will raise a lot of cash at that price.

Originally Posted by escape4

Marriott selling gift cards at 20% off is a far superior way for a hotel chain to raise cash in hard times, than Hyatt selling points at 23% off, hence OP's very valid question here "that's it?".

Not to mention that Marriott's sale is counted as "travel" so people can get 3x on Chase UR credit card or can get 6x on Marriott branded credit cards, unlike Hyatt's sale where you get 1x.

Hyatt could come up with a gift card sale as well in the near future, but the problem will be that there is a first mover advantage here. People who loaded up on Marriott gift cards will not have as much budget to spend on Hyatt gift cards. Speaking of people who like to stay at both chains of course...

Originally Posted by GUWonder

Hyatt will probably be selling gift cards with a value that is practically a 12-25% discount from card value.

Originally Posted by escape4

Then it would be in Hyatt's best interest to do this sooner rather than later, because several travellers who are flexible between Marriott and Hyatt are currently going through their travel budget buying those Marriott cards. There is a first mover advantage to some extent here.

Originally Posted by lsquare

I agree. That's a much better deal than loading up on points. For me personally, I don't really care about points all that much now especially airline points. It's too easy for them to devalue the points.

Originally Posted by Matt4200

Even if they are devalued the benefits for Globalists increase the value greatly. At properties with $50 nightly parking charges that are only waived with points bookings (or Free Night Certs, but I’m saying Points vs. Cash Rate), that increases the value IMO.

I have an upcoming stay that I wish I could pay the Cash Rate, except with points parking is waived which is ~$35 a night after taxes. So it’d be ~$100 (pre-tax plus the ~$35 parking) or 8k points. It’s a multi-night stay and parking adds up. I tried emailing the property (which is open) to see if they even offer discounted parking for Globalists, which some properties do, they never responded. So Points, for me at least, make a difference.

I wouldn’t encourage spending thousands on points right now, but buying enough to cover upcoming stays may be helpful depending on your situation.

Originally Posted by lsquare

We discussed this before and I agree with you. Another negative about using points is that it won't get you any closer to LT status.

Originally Posted by JackE

What discount do you think they should offer?

Originally Posted by skj

Hyatt has regularly offered a 40% bonus. or approximately 30% discount on points. They would need to do better than that, especially since Marriott just rolled out a 60% bonus, or close to 40% discount, on their points.