you don't have to book the hotel.
just call hyatt BRG.
fyi, they will discourage you with all kinds of crapy...reasons......
good luck!

From my experience, you don't need to worry about which type of rate you book. I've submitted quite a few BRG claims against the Advance Purchase/Non-refundable rates and when Hyatt approves the claim, my reservation has never had the non-refundable terms. I asked about this once and was told that they create standard reservations that follow the hotel's cancellation policy.

And to reiterate pclee's point, you don't have to book a hotel first. This works for new reservations as well.

Thanks Kenbo and Pclee. I just made a successful claim :).

Grand Hyatt New York $350
Final rate--$223.20 by matching to priceline.com

Congrats!! I assume you mean for priceline it's not the "name your own price" option since that is opaque (you don't know the name of the hotel until after you pay).

Very positive experience w/ Hyatt BRG
 

I use a browser plug-in called "DropDown Deals" that is a little annoying sometimes. But it just saved $300++, so I won't uninstall it just yet.

Hyatt Regency Tampa, 2 rooms, 2 nights and Hyatt.com was $189 / night + tax. Room77.com re-directs to dhr.com, and that site (sorta like Kayak) says $159++ with same T's and C's is the rate.

So, 10 minutes later with Hyatt BRG, and boom. They take 20% off of the $159 ($125+ tax), and I've got four room nights at the Hyatt Regency, each for less than a.Hampton or Courtyard.

Thanks Hyatt! And Room 77 / DHR.com.

How nice would it be if all BRG calls were this simple. Hilton, SPG --> I'm thinking you could learn from this...

Correct, it's not the "name our own price", but the "regular" booking site.

Good to know they will match the regular booking tool on Priceline. I was always kind of skeptical simply because it was Priceline.

Success story
 

Booked the hyatt coconut point in bonita springs, florida.

The going rate on the hyatt website (AAA, mind you) was $269 per night before taxes and fees.... I found it on American Airlines' website (publicly-accessible) for $166 before tax.

I called hyatt and spoke to a nice woman (who didnt know I was a diamond member) who got things straightened out for me. I was on hold about 20-ish minutes, but ultimately got the hotel for $133 per night :D

I was skeptical but I guess it never hurts to try!

I'm trying to do a BRG with hoteltravel and Hyatt claims that since this site requires a (free) login/membership before the reservation can be finalized, this is not a publicly available rate. I've even had a supervisor confirm this.

How did you get around this?

IMO where they're getting you is the fact HotelTravel requires you to create a password when you go through the steps of making a routine booking. To a lot of people that signifies "joining" some sort of club or membership. But you're right in that it's a free membership and the rate is publicly available to anyone. This is probably one of those scenarios where two people can have two different experiences (one positive, one negative) when using HotelTravel for a BRG claim w/Hyatt. It's merely the luck of the draw depending on who takes your call. Sad, but true.

It seems that way.

I found the same rate at olotels.com (that hoteltravel.com had) but this site uses Euros to display the final rate. In the end, I did get the BRG but the exchange rate used by Hyatt to convert to USD was so poor that I only saved about 1 percent rather than 20 percent. However the olotels.com was > $100 cheaper per night than hyatt.com so I am OK with the end result since I will get stay credit, can likely use a Diamond Suite upgrade since my rate shows as "Hyatt Daily Rate", and the reservation is cancellable if needed.

I did a second BRG on a different hotel using dhr.com and that one went smoothly. Within 15 minutes, the BRG was approved and booked.

Just booked GHNY using BRG.
Hyatts rate was $394
And, after using BRG and otel.com, got it for $225.
Great saving for four nights :)

Just tried another BRG claim and Hyatt refused it, based on the fact that the booking on hyatt.com was only possible with the guaranteed availability - cannot find a base for this in the T&Cs.

Was this correct?

My first time with BRG
 

After 1.5hrs fighting with Hyatt, I finally got what I wanted :D

I want to go to NYC for a broadway show this weekend for my birthday, Andaz Wall Street AAA rate is $225. Public rate is $250.

After spending almost an hour on the phone:

hoteltravel.com ($135++) DENIED. Reason: account needed :td:
Innstant.com ($177 a/i) DENIED. Reason: T&C said credit card is not charged instantly :rolleyes:
Expedia.com, getaroom.com, dhr.com all have regular rate so no go.
Supervisor wouldn't do anything. She called the hotel to see if they would honor the rate from innstant.com. DENIED

I almost gave up until aa.com came to rescue :) Their rate is $132++. Another call to Hyatt and I scored my first ever BRG. With 20% off my rate is $105++. Cannot beat that :D

Keep fighting till you get what you want ^

aa.com is in American Airlines?