Exiled in Express

I believe the high rates are a change in hotel pricing due to difficulty getting to full staffing. Labor cost is up significantly for what they can get so reasonable price floors were set rather than chasing marginal revenue.

I was looking for a cheap staycation, Minneapolis in January is not attracting tourists no matter the pent up demand, and $129 seems to be as low as the downtown HR goes when winter weekend packages were frequently advertised at little over half of that nightly in the past.

Matt4200

Actually labor costs for hotels are up much, if at all since pre-pandemic. Labor costs may be up in other industries, but I’ve checked Hyatt properties and their job listings which the pay rate hasn’t increased.

Here’s some job listings posted this month specifically for Hyatt in Minneapolis since you mentioned there.





If anything I feel like Hyatt Hotels have found a lot of versatility through cutting down on staffing.

For example - I just finished up a few nights at Hyatt Regency Westlake (SoCal) on weeknights they had only 2 staff members working, the Front Desk Agent and the Security Guard, despite being fairly busy (50% or more occupancy). The security guard was also working housekeeping and as the hotel engineer, though I’m fairly certain he wasn’t getting paid for multiple positions.

With costs of stays being up significantly as I posted and you concurred, I see no reason not to cut requirements to ease the blow, especially with still being deep in a pandemic.

Travelfitforaking

Thanks for starting this thread. If I had to guess, I would say full-pre-Covid requirements with DEQN during the second quarter of 2022.

UA-NYC

An update - take it for what it's worth, but MHC confirmed requirements for 2022 were back up to 60 nights / 100K base points. Maybe it will be that but w/crazy promo activity...

Matt4200

Odd - message from MHC from yesterday said that she didn’t receive any guidance on 2022 requirements and to check back mid-January is what she said her “manager” said.

UA-NYC

This will be very YMMV I'm sure for a while - the party line right now is likely "full requirements" but that could change esp. if Q1 bookings look soft

Matt4200

I would definitely estimate they’d be very soft in comparison to last year Q1.

They definitely can change at any time, but many Hyatt loyalists would at least prefer a heads up to plan their travel accordingly.

I find it very interesting that many Globs were offered a further qualification period to keep status through 2023. Typically it’s just through 12/31 but many who didn’t re-qualify we’re offered until the end of February 22’ to re-qualify.

It’s very interesting because of the Q4 20’ Rollover Promo, the Q1 21’ Double EQN Promo AND the reduced qualification nights (30 or 15 in Q1 or 10 in Q1 if you have the WOH CC).

These are very out there moves for Hyatt, especially the moves for the Q4 21’ Promo and the Q1 22’ Promo.

CIT85

I missed this extra qualification period. When and how was this communicated? Given all the promos in 2021 with DEQN and halved requirements, I would consider this unnecessary for anyone based on the US. Maybe Asia, EU and Canada.

skj

I think he's confusing this with 90 day challenges for status that have been offered to some. Some of the reported challenges are through the end of February.

Matt4200

It was offered via MHC to Globs who qualified the last 3 years but had not re-qualified by (IIRC) the end of October yet.

HeadInTheClouds

That describes me exactly, and I never got any such thing.

Dr Jabadski

Inflation and price gouging. And the “COVID excuse”, used by many companies across all sectors to simply cut services and raise prices.

Maybe a better answer is the same answer to almost all questions that start with the word “why”. (Hope this doesn’t violate any FT rules.) That answer is the same as the punchline of the joke “why does a dog lick his balls?”.

Because he can !

Why do hotels raise their rates; because they can.
Why did banks originally start ATMs as a quicker no-cost alternative to tellers, eliminate most of their tellers, and now charge hefty fees for ATM use and still have fewer tellers; because they can.
Why have hotels not brought back breakfast buffets and daily housekeeping, because they can.
Why have supermarkets instituted self-service checkout, thereby transferring the labor cost of cashiers from them to us (our time); because they can.
Why did cable TV start as a no advertisement alternative to broadcast TV and now has 6 minutes of commercials for every 14 minutes of programming and ever rising rates, because they can.

Matt4200

Except -

People hate banks, people hate cable companies, people hate all of these things you’ve mentioned.

Hyatt is actually well loved, and well liked. They’ve always been consumer friendly and stood out from other hotel brands.

krazykanuck

This is what my mind jumped to. I think Hyatt was wildly generous in 2021 between the promos and reduced requirements. Given that Marriott and Hilton have both extended status again, it would seem a bit silly for Hyatt to nothing. Also for those of us that qualified for Glob this year for the first time, some kind of carrot to keep it up. a 30 night requalification threshold is within the realm of reason for me without DEQN. 60 isn't, and knowing I won't requal from the get go doesn't drive incremental stays.

sfgiants13

The counter reset this morning and it's back to 60 nights so I'll assume that's going to stick and it's normal requirements this year. Although if bookings are light due to covid in the 1st quarter I suppose it's possible to have a promo to make it a bit easier. But I believe domestic bookings are still strong so who knows.