No. In fact, when I checked about a week ago it was still possible to book additional rooms online using the Diamond "72 hour" guarantee.

Don't think that would hold much water come check-in time, but worth noting.

I don't believe I made a mistake. As I noted, since the hotel (and just about everything else nearby) is sold out, the reservation is worth more than 3.75 cents per point to me.

Dividing the retail cost by the number of points is a valid method of determining value because it is constant. Once you start adjusting for personal variables, the numbers become meaningless for comparison in a thread like this.

Hyatt reservation = $600

SuperBowl Tickets = $3000

Not having to drive 2 fricking hours to get to the game = Priceless

The diamond guarantee rate no longer seems to be available. I still have my 2 rooms for Feb 3-6 and am a little apprehensive about showing up at the hotel. Even though GP has told me that there are no problems with the awards, I would hate to show up at the hotel and be told otherwise.

If you had been willing to pay the $600 in cash you did not make a mistake on the valuation. However, if you were not willing to pay that amount in $$'s the the value of a point is obviously less.

While I agree that "list price" is the not the correct value, what YOU are willing to pay in cash is also not the correct value.

To determine value, and being conservative about it, I would say it is "What is the lowest amount of hard cash you need to spend to get that". That's what great about these programs... use them wisely, and you can get great value on things you wouldn't otherwise spend your money on.

If I had a coupon for a completey free, oh lets say, a 60 inch plasma flat screen HDTV, what would the value be to me? Let's say the retail value of this TV is $4000. I already have a large HDTV (but not plasma) so I don't really need it. If someone want's to give it to me, I would gladly take it. If I could somehow find one for $500, I would buy it immediately (I'm cheap). If I can't I won't. So $500 is what I would pay for it at this time. Scouring the internet and local stores, just about everyone is selling it for $3000. But I find a repuatble store who for some unknown reason is selling it for $2000.

Then to me, the value of this coupon is worth about $2000 at this time, and not $500, what I am willing to pay in cold hard cash, not $3000, nor $4000, the list price.


Similarly, if I wanted to stay 2 nights at a Hyatt or similar quality hotel in Detroit over Superbowl weekend, and the absolute lowest price I can get for those two nights is $600, but I can get those nights for 16K points, then those points are certainly worth 3.75 cents each to me when used for that purpose. This is true even if I'm cheap, and the most I would be willing to actually spend in cold cash out of my pocket for those 2 nights over that weekend is $200 total.

I'm going to have to side with holtju2's definition of value here. The value (maybe a better word would be "worth") to YOU is what YOU are willing to pay for it. If you wouldn't pay $2000 for that free plasma TV coupon, then the coupon is not worth $2000 to you. Similarly, if you wouldn't pay $501 for that free plasma coupon, then the coupon is not worth $501 to you. It is only worth $500 to YOU becuase that is all you would pay for it. It may be worth $2000 to somebody else, likewise it may be worth $3999 to somebody at the store about to buy it for $4000.

I've seen as high as 3 to 3.5 cents per point mentioned here. If you are willing to pay $500 out of your own pocket for a Cat. 4 hotel in the first place, then this is a reasonable value for YOU. If not, then this valuation is too high. Similarly, if you are willing to pay $175 out of your own pocket for a Cat. 1 hotel in the first place, then this is a reasonable value for YOU. I would not pay these prices out of my pocket except for a rare special occasion, so I do not value points so highly. Also note that you must take into account GP points, stay credit, and G1/G2/G3 and other promotional bonuses forfeited by using GP points. Likewise you also must take into account for taxes not paid during an award stay that you would pay during a paid stay.

So in summary, I believe the worth of a GP point is different for each person. And for me it is about 1.4 cents per point currently. And FYI, I think the 2 Superbowl nights are definitely worth both $600 as well as 16K points to stay in the same hotel at the same time as one of the Superbowl teams!

completely agree.... it basically boils down to how exactly each person defines "value" for themselves. Gregorygrady and Holt2j defines their value in terms of "personal value", and my definition is more in terms of "market value".

"Personal Value" = Would would I be willing to pay for something.
"Market Value" = "If I had to pay cash to get that, what is the lowest possible price I have to pay to get it"

Since value is a very subjective thing, I would say each is equally valid, and different people will choose different defintions of value that's meaningful to them.

I choose my definition because in the example given, though I personally may not be willing to pay more than $500 for the TV, I can redeem the coupon, and have a reasonable chance of reselling it for $2000. As an extreme example, I would never by a Rolls Royce automobile. But if was able to redeem 100 Gold Passport points for a brand new one, I would certainly do it, and I would certainly value it at a lot more than the $0 I am willing to pay for one.

That being said, I competely understand the other definition. For example, if the thing they give out as a Diamond Amenity is a bottle of wine, and you don't drink wine, it's not something you want to give away as a gift, and wine is not something you can easily resell, then clearly, that Amenity has almost no value to you, despite what the market value of the wine is.

Whew...took a lot of searching, but I finally found the "What is a GP point worth?" thread. Knew there had to be one...

Kind of a Hyatt noob here. I travel to Seattle a lot and I just found out that our corp rate at the Grand Hyatt Seattle is really good. I've currently been hitting all of the Marriotts and Starwoods in Seattle for promo bonus purposes, but I might switch over to the GH simply because people rave about the hotel.

So...I get the fact that Hyatt would probably match my other hotel statuses, which would get me 5.75 points per dollar which, by the common 2-cents-per-point I'm seeing here, would be roughly a 11.5% return on my paid stays. Throw in the 1 Starpoint I'd also earn (since there is no Hyatt credit card), and we're at about 14-15%, which is in the appropriate ballpark.

My question is: what type of awards are popular in this program? I would probably value a true 1-bedroom suite in a full-service hotel at maybe $75/nt. over a typical room. So those awards seem pretty good, although I doubt I'd use 'em at GH Seattle since I go there by myself. Are there any particular "sweet spots" in the program? For example, with Marriott it's the Travel Packages, with Hilton it's the GLON-type awards, and with Starwood it's the 5-nighters or "Nights & Flights" depending on your valuation of FF miles.

Finally: sometimes we do short family trips, so the Summerfield/Hawthorne/Amerisuites type properties actually hold some value to us. Are these chains comparable to a Residence Inn? I have seen them from a distance but never actually been in one. Do they offer true suites (as opposed to "large hotel rooms", minisuites, junior suites, etc.)? 3000 pts/nt seems like a potential "sweet spot" for us, considering we'd otherwise pay $100-150 for a Residence Inn.

My major sweet spot is 23k points for a 1 bedroom in Kauai.

Actually, Kauai's probably the sweet spot for a regular room if you're upgraded to RC. Those puppies go for over $700/night. Not bad for 15k points.

Hyatt treats diamonds very well. Add to it all the bonus promos & FFNs and, at least for me, I do what I can to maintain status.

The "Sweet Spot" is that you can reserve rooms using points well in advance then switch them to Faster Free Nights and not use any points at all.

In addition to the regular points earnings, Hyatt has a lot of bonus oppertunites that are available to everyone (not targetted like SPG). Most are 1k, 1.5k, or 2k bonus points / stay. Right now they also have a 3k bonus for a stay at a Summerfield Suites.

Check out these links:
http://goldpassport.hyatt.com/gp/en/offers/index.jsp

http://goldpassport.hyatt.com/gp/en/...equestid=27023

I would say that the 3k award properties are not as consistant as Residence Inn. They do have true suites, but the quality varies. There are also fewer of them around.

I actually value suite upgrades at most Hyatts (especially resorts) much more than $75/nt. Here are some photos of the hotel and suite we got at the Grand Hyatt Kauai. We used points to reserve it in advance then switched to FFNs. Cat 4, 15k points per night:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tum/set...7594087887532/

Ditto on that suite. I, too, was upgraded on FFN. Thought I died & went to hotel room heaven ^^

Cool...my wife and I love Kauai, so it's good to hear that there is a solid property there. We spent a week at the Marriott there and enjoyed it, but if we went back I think we'd want to try something else. Starwood's Princeville is highly thought of but frequently sold out, so a Hyatt option might come in handy.

Question on the upgrade awards: I see language on the website that says "prevailing rack rate" must be booked in order to get a suite upgrade. But isn't that a conflict of terms? "Rack rate" is usually an ungodly high rate that no one really pays. "Prevailing rate" could mean a couple of different things, but in this context it sounds like the best available direct-booked Hyatt.com rate (e.g., not the Priceline or other wholesale rate). How does Hyatt actually interpret this for the purpose of allowing suite upgrade awards?

If we're doing this, then I managed to use a 6k suite upgrade for four nights at the Grand Hyatt Tokyo. When from a Grand Deluxe Twin at 48000 yen/night to a Grand Executive Suite Twin at 113000/night. That was a value of about 2600 dollars. This is a value of about 43 cents per point!!