uppereastsider

For me, I personally don’t care if Hyatt takes on even more debt. Not something I’d put a lot of energy into. I just want more places to spend my Hyatt points and this gives me plenty of places in one of my favorite European countries.

I wonder if I’m more representative of the normal leisure group vs FT, even though my airline mileage is more in line with FT

lowfareair

I like them for the same reason, although I usually avoid family AIs and stay at the upper end of adult-only AIs which avoids nearly all downsides with them.

Sunscape I most likely see them either attempting to offload the brand and/or improving the properties to the point they could be Dreams. That's the only one here that is way off from what you'd expect from Hyatt (although I honestly don't know much about Alua).

I think the travel agency play is the smartest here for them. While I am not well-versed in anti-trust law (and it could turn out everything I list here could be illegal), I could see them using it to better position their own properties in the listings (and not just the new ALG ones) as well as use data from it to help properties find optimal price points and see when competitors are selected over them. Although as I said, they may be limited based on what any anti-trust laws may be in place for them (I know there were bias restrictions in place for airline ticket systems for a while after AA was caught positioning their flights at the top).

WasKnown

Hyatt has a limited capacity for M&A. This deal exhausted a good chunk (if not all) of this capacity. I think people here just wish Hyatt had spent its resources acquiring something that is more appealing to the FT user base.

HoustonConsultant

We are a relatively comfortable family with kids who are 9, 9, and 7. We aren't taking them to Kyoto, Paris, or even NYC for a vacation, and an "adventurous" vacation with three kids in that age group is more of a hassle than an adventure.

We had kids relatively late in life, and we did a ton of "cool" travel through the years before kids. We would have never considered ourselves all-inclusive people before, but now we are looking for convenience with beaches and pools and big rooms/suites.

Not all of Hyatt's decisions will fit every traveler, and that is OK, but this acquisition actually fits what works for my family. There are reasons why the Zivas were generally full this summer.

cfabar1

I think there were limited options for Hyatt to acquire at the moment. My suspicion is that this was not their first choice.

Nevertheless, I see how attractive it would be for them, and it makes a lot of sense to me.

TTT103

I totally agree, and we tend to avoid the family AI's when possible. Although, we have found a few exceptions when pricing is higher at family AI's. For example, Beaches Turks and Caicos is the priciest of the three Beaches resorts (Sandals family resorts), so the clientele are many notches up from what one would find at a lower-priced family AI. The kids and adults seem to be better behaved.

There are only about a half dozen Sunscapes, and we have stayed at a couple of them, which weren't half bad when it comes to Caribbean standards. However, they are not by any means up to what one would expect from a Hyatt--even a run-of-the-mill Hyatt. What I've noticed is that Caribbean standards aren't generally comparable to the rest of the world--especially what we have come to expect in the US. Even AAA ratings are inflated in the Caribbean. a 4-Diamond property in the Caribbean might be lucky to be a 3 diamond property in the US.

I'm with you on this. They certainly could drive traffic if legal towards their properties.

TTT103

I'm glad you mentioned, "beaches" because on occasion we stay at family AI's, and notice that some families sit by the pools during their entire stay and never venture onto the beach. I don't know about you, but I can stay home if I want to sit by the pool. I don't need to travel far for that.

coleslaw

Pretty sure most people staying at these properties (and most people in general... myself included) do not have a pool they can lounge around at home.

notquiteaff

Agree with the first part. But I think if the Zivas were full this summer, it was mostly because huge swaths of the world were not allowing Americans in for vacation.

TTT103

We actually go for the beach, scuba diving, and culture.

59Impala

some interesting points taken from this source: https://www.travelweekly.com/On-The-...120C4685290I3C

• will remain independent
• "affiliation" with WoH (whatever that exactly means)
• pipeline to expand in the Mediterranean, in Turkey, Italy and Croatia

coleslaw

Hyatt Completes Acquisition of Apple Leisure Group, Creating Global Leader in Leisure and Luxury All-Inclusive Travel

Well Positioned to Capture Significant and Growing Leisure Travel Demand with Enhanced End-to-End Offerings and an Increasingly Diversified Portfolio; Reaffirms Expanded Asset Sale Commitment to Generate an Additional $2 Billion of Proceeds by End of 2024; Fully Completes Existing Commitment

CHICAGO (November 2, 2021) – Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) today announced that Hyatt has completed the previously announced acquisition of Apple Leisure Group® (ALG), a leading luxury resort-management services, travel and hospitality group, from affiliates of each of KKR and KSL Capital Partners, LLC.

Hyatt is doubling its global resorts footprint through the addition of ALG’s AMR™ Collection brand portfolio, which comprises approximately 100 hotels and resorts operating in 10 countries, as well as a pipeline of 24 executed deals in the Americas and Europe. As a result, Hyatt now offers one of the largest collections of luxury all-inclusive resorts in the world, including new destinations for Hyatt such as Acapulco, Curaçao, the Canary Islands, Menorca and St. Martin. Through this acquisition, Hyatt has added properties in 11 new European markets and expanded its European brand footprint by 60%, strengthening Hyatt’s growth potential in a critical region for global leisure travel demand.

In addition, Hyatt is offering even more options and experiences for its high-end guest and customer base and enhancing the end-to-end leisure travel experience through:

• Unlimited Vacation Club® by AMR™ Collection, an exclusive membership club whose members enjoy preferred rates and other benefits at participating AMR™ Collection properties
• ALG Vacations®, one of the largest packaged vacation providers and leisure travel distribution platforms in North America serving the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean
• Amstar, a leading destination services management company
• Trisept Solutions®, a unique leisure travel technology platform

Hyatt is determining ways in which the World of Hyatt® loyalty program and ALG’s Unlimited Vacation Club® can bring added value and unique loyalty benefits to their respective member bases. Hyatt plans to integrate the AMR™ Collection into World of Hyatt in 2022 so that members can earn and redeem World of Hyatt points at more than 100 AMR™ Collection hotels and resorts.

“Hyatt’s acquisition of ALG represents a brand-defining moment in our more than 60-year history and builds on our legacy as a hospitality leader,” said Mark Hoplamazian, president and chief executive officer, Hyatt. “Hyatt and ALG have highly complementary brand portfolios and share a deep commitment to colleague and guest experiences focused on care. Having first entered the fast-growing luxury all-inclusive space in 2013, we are ideally positioned to capture the significant and rising demand for leisure travel and extend the world-class hospitality we provide to a wide range of new travelers. We are excited to welcome the ALG team to the Hyatt family, and look forward to working together to achieve new levels of growth and value creation for all stakeholders – including our shareholders, owners, customers, guests, members and colleagues.”

“Today marks the beginning of ALG’s next chapter, in which we will continue to build on the strong loyalty and reputation we have established through our luxury travel brands and services, now as part of Hyatt,” said Alejandro Reynal, chief executive officer and president, Apple Leisure Group. “We strongly believe we can achieve more together and are excited by the opportunities ahead for our expanded family, including our ALG team members, who are excited to join a larger global organization. With Hyatt’s added expertise, we expect to accelerate our expansion as we welcome more travelers and turn vacation dreams into life-long memories.”

ALG’s business will continue to be led by Alejandro Reynal and the current ALG leadership team. ALG will operate as a distinct business unit within Hyatt. Mr. Reynal has joined Hyatt’s executive leadership team and reports to Mr. Hoplamazian.

In September of 2021, Hyatt fulfilled its asset disposition commitment announced in 2019 of $1.5 billion resulting in a total of more than $3 billion of proceeds realized since its asset-disposition strategy was launched in 2017, at a combined multiple of over 17x EBITDA. Hyatt also reaffirms its commitment to generate an additional $2 billion in proceeds from asset dispositions by the end of 2024.

GUWonder

I’m looking forward to seeing if this comes up on the conference call on Thursday. Too bad they won’t go into the nitty gritty of award travel pricing for these properties.

bcosinteno

AMR Collections now appears in the World of Hyatt Banner as coming soon.

coleslaw

Which isn't ideal for Brand Explorer purposes - just one more brand to add instead of the six existing brands that fall under AMR