Hyatt reveals which hotels are changing reward category – lock in nights now

As we covered here, the World of Hyatt hotel loyalty scheme is undergoing a big shake-up this year.

The good news is that the scheme will retain a reward chart, which is very rare these days.

The bad news is that the three pricing bands per category will be increased to five, meaning that there are 40 potential reward price points to choose from (eight categories, five price bands in each).

With a pretty large disparity because the highest and lowest bands – Category 8 hotels, at the top end, run from 35,000 to 75,000 points per night – it is arguably revenue based pricing by the back door.

Let’s compare the current and new maximum points prices:

• Category 1: 6,500 points to 9,000 points – up 38%
• Category 2: 9,500 points to 15,000 points – up 58%
• Category 3: 15,000 points to 20,000 points – up 33%
• Category 4: 18,000 points to 25,000 points – up 39%
• Category 5: 23,000 points to 35,000 points – up 52%
• Category 6: 29,000 points to 40,000 points – up 38%
• Category 7: 35,000 points to 55,000 points – up 57%
• Category 8: 45,000 points to 75,000 points – up 67%

Hyatt has said that change will be gradual. Few hotels are expected to use the two highest price categories this year, which is a good job – if top hotels jumped from 45,000 to 75,000 points overnight, it would not go down well.

Hyatt has now published redemption tables for Premium Suites, Standard Suites and Club Rooms, as well as the chart for Standard Rooms which we had already seen.

The new pricing goes live on 20th May.

What is interesting is that suites are now exceptional value although not all hotels make them available.

At the top of Category 8, for example, you have:

• Standard room – 75,000 points
• Club room – 85,000 points
• Standard suite – 96,000 points
• Premium suite – 110,000 points

Given the price gap between standard rooms and top suites when paying cash, there is clearly value here.

At the same time, I can see top tier Globalist members being unhappy. Every suite which is directly booked as a reward night is one suite less which is available as a potential upgrade.

What hotels are changing category in Europe?

The full list of hotels changing category is on hyatt.com here.

It is a fairly small list, with over 90% of hotels remaining in their current category. Of course, the top end pricing in each category will be going up sharply on 20th May anyway. Moving a hotel up a category is a double whammy.

Let’s take a look at Europe where it is, almost universally, bad news:

The only hotel in Europe dropping in price is Hyatt Place London City East. We like this hotel – take a look at our Hyatt Place London City East review here.

(Of course, it may not actually drop in price! The highest price bands in Category 3 are more expensive than the highest price band in the current Category 4.)

Pushing up Park Hyatt London River Thames to Category 8 is aggressive, given that rates are still fairly soft. You can find it at £400ish on some nights, compared to the £1,000 per night being charged at the very top of the London market.

What happens to existing bookings?

Hyatt always treats members fairly when it puts up its reward pricing. You can’t argue about that.

First, you have been given almost a month to book hotels which are increasing in price.

Second, if you have a reward booking at a hotel which is reducing in price, you will get an automatic refund. You don’t need to do anything – a credit for the difference will drop into your account soon after 20th May.

Full details of the changes can be found on the website here. Remember to make any speculative bookings before 20th May – you can always cancel for a full points refund later if needed.