TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Traveling For Miles has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Traveling For Miles and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.
Hyatt’s loyalty program has been expanding at an impressive rate over the past 18 months and after integrating 8 Destination Hotels properties into the World of Hyatt in August/September, and after adding a further 49 SLH properties to the program in October, Hyatt has now announced that a further 39 Destination Hotels properties will join the World of Hyatt in the next week….but this time there’s a catch.
Up until now all the properties that Hyatt has been so diligently adding to the World of Hyatt have been full participants in the hotelier’s loyalty program so Hyatt loyalists have been able to use their elite benefits and World of Hyatt points at a raft of new and exciting destinations…but that’s not the case with all the new additions to the program this time around.
The overwhelming majority of the new Destination Hotels properties that are being added to the World of Hyatt in the coming days are “Residences” or “Condominiums” so the rooms on offer at these properties are far being regular hotel rooms – they’re much more like a home away from home.
Because of this, a significant number of the new additions to the World of Hyatt program will not be offering guests all the usual benefits that we’ve come to expect when staying at Hyatt properties and a large number will not be bookable using World of Hyatt points.
Specifically, of the 39 new properties being added to the World of Hyatt…
- 17 properties will not offer the Globalist breakfast benefit, room upgrades or guaranteed availability.
- 20 properties will not be bookable with World of Hyatt points and will not offer the Globalist breakfast benefit, room upgrades or guaranteed availability.
That leaves just two of the new additions to the program which will offer the full complement of World of Hyatt benefits.
Here’s the full list of Destination Hotels properties that are either already part of the World of Hyatt or which will be joining the program today or on 12 November (click to enlarge):
Of the properties joining the World of Hyatt program at which points can be redeemed for award nights here’s the break down by category:
- 1 x Category 4 – 15,000 points/night
- 2 x Category 5 – 20,000 points/night
- 5 x Category 6 – 25,000 points/night
- 6 x Category 7 – 30,000 points/night
- 5 x Category 8 – 40,000 points/night
World of Hyatt members will continue to be able to earn points for their stays at all Destination Hotels properties just as they do for stays at any other Hyatt property, and World of Hyatt credit card holders and Hyatt credit card holders will continue to earn 4 points per dollar and 3 points per dollar respectively for spending with/at these properties.
Thoughts
I have mixed feelings about this news.
On the one hand, I can see why benefits like room upgrades and complimentary breakfast aren’t being offered at some of the new additions because they don’t fit with the nature of the property being booked – a residence or condominium is by definition more of a high-end self-service property than a standard hotel.
On the other hand, I don’t see why a lot of these properties cannot be booked with points.
Hyatt already allows guests to book suites and premium suites with World of Hyatt points so I don’t see why Hyatt couldn’t have found a way to incorporate more of the residences into its existing categories.
Off the top of my head…
Hyatt could have classified the currently excluded properties as Category 8, announced that no standard rooms are available at these properties, declared all rooms to be “premium suites” and charged 80,000 points per night.
Or Hyatt could have simply created a new category (9) and charged accordingly.
Still, that grumbling aside, I have to concede that a significant number of the 39 properties that will soon be joining the World of Hyatt look very nice indeed (I’ll happily pay 40,000 points/night for the Ka’anapali Alii) and the fact that we’ll soon have another 17 properties at which to spend World of Hyatt points is a nice bonus to be getting.
Bottom Line
Hyatt is adding 39 mostly very nice properties to its portfolio and that has to be good news for World of Hyatt fans…I just wish the hotelier had found a way to make all these properties bookable with points.
