thatflyer

Is this right?

I stayed at a Hyatt .. and because I didn't book direct with them but through a third party I am not eligible for points?

Seems a bit unfair! I still stayed with them....

mahasamatman

It depends on who the third party is. Real travel agents are generally OK, but online travel agents (OTAs) usually earn nothing in any program. Every hotel program I'm familiar with works this way now.

59Impala

writerguyfl

Admittedly, few people would think to check ahead of time, but it is noted in the World of Hyatt Terms and Conditions:

“Ineligible Rates” are all rates other than Eligible Rates and include Free Night Awards (as defined in Appendix B), complimentary nights awarded in connection with Miraval’s Authentic Circle program, rooms booked on third-party online retailers (such as Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, Hotels.com, Booking.com, Priceline.com, Tripadvisor.com, Inspirato.com, home-sharing sites, or any other third-party online/mobile travel portal or bookings made directly on Google.com and TripAdvisor Instant Book), traditional wholesale rates (examples include, without limitation, GOGO Worldwide Vacations, Pleasant Holidays, Tourico, and Hotelbeds), airline crew rates, airline employee rates, travel agency employee rates, media rates, Club at the Hyatt discount stays, Hyatt employee or employee family or friends-and-family discount rates, airline interrupted-trip vouchers, or contracted rooms.
Source: https://help.hyatt.com/en/hyatt-term...att-terms.html

The reasoning behind this restriction relates to commissions. Websites like Expedia and Travelocity make money though commission paid by hotels. But, hotels also have to pay for points. Hotels (many of which are franchises) aren't keen to pay both a commission and a fee to give you points.

As mahasamatman notes, most (all?) major hotel chains now incentivize guests to book direct with the chain by only awarding frequent points to people who book direct.

MSPeconomist

VegasGambler

The problem is that you probably paid the same rate that you would of you had booked directly with Hyatt, but Hyatt probably paid a commission of about 15% to the travel site. They aren't going to pay that 15% and give you points.

I don't understand why people use OTAs. Nothing but problems.

thatflyer

warakorn

One question that always is confusing me.

Lets say a hotel offers a rate of USD 150 on their own website.
OTA offers the same room for USD 110.
The hotel does than have to pay USD 20 to the OTA for commission. Hence, the hotel is only left with USD 90.

Why are hotels not trying to offer the cheapest price on their own website?

FlyerTalker7654

Hotels will often have wholesale (FIT) rates which are much cheaper. They contract these out to certain companies who in turn sell them onto other companies who then publish these rates online. FIT rates are to be booked as part of a package ie. With a flight, however as you are seeing, sometimes FIT rates appear online and can be booked as stand alone...

coggie

that really shouldn't happen unless you are on a smaller more obscure OTA site. Those sites are usually managed manually and that take hours to get updated but otherwise should always be the same rate. I have never seen a cheaper rate on an OTA.

If Hyatt.com showed no rooms but an OTA did, that is just bad revenue management on the hotel's behalf.

writerguyfl

If the hotel is in a touristy area, the reasoning behind this is probably what SgtRyan wrote. Wholesale rates are a whole different animal. A hotel isn't going to be paying a commission on a wholesale rate.

When examining wholesale rates (and actually all revenue management in general), you really need to look at the bigger picture. If you only look at a single case, it's certainly possible to find what seems like a dumb decision made by the hotel. In order to see if that's a dumb decision by design, you need to look at the rate across a larger time span.

Example: When I was a hotel Revenue Manager, we negotiated a wholesale rate for tour group that always stayed Saturday and Sunday nights about twice per month. At that business-oriented hotel, selling out on a Saturday night was hit or miss, depending upon local events. Sundays were virtually always dead unless it was a long holiday weekend.

Now, if you looked only at the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend, you'd say we were dumb because we had this wholesale that was $30 less than the prevailing rate. But, when you look at the entire year, you'd see that that total revenue from that wholesale contract far exceeded the displaced revenue we lost on those 2 or 3 long holiday weekends.

If the hotel is not in a touristy area, then coogie is probably correct. Today, it's pretty rare to find actual cases of different rates between the official website and online travel agencies (OTAs). The big sites (Expedia, Hotels.com, etc) connect to the chain for inventory, which means they use the same pool of availability.

If you see a lower rate on an OTA, it's probably phantom availability (where you try to book and the rate increases because the rate data is updated) or a legitimate wholesale rate. In rare cases, it's one of those obscure sites that coogie mentions.

MSPeconomist

DG206

Somewhat related to this, we just switched to Concur/Amex GBT system for work. First trip I took with Sheraton (SPG still at time) it was like pulling teeth to get my points credited, they did finally, not easy.

Has anyone had issues with Hyatt points through Concur/Amex? Have 2 Hyatt stays booked. TIA