My first look at the World of Hyatt post devaluation (has value remained?)

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On 26 October, seasonal pricing was introduced to the World of Hyatt program meaning that while no properties moved hotel categories on that date, Hyatt stays from March 2022 onwards can now cost up to 25% more than they currently do. With Hyatt’s seasonal calendars now live, I’ve taken a look at a few regular Hyatt properties and a few well-known and higher-end Hyatt properties to see what the calendars show and to see if I can answer three key questions that have been on my mind.

The three questions I wanted answers to

1. Are the very popular properties heavily weighted towards peak pricing?
2. Are off-peak awards relatively easy to find?
3. Can you still get at least 1.4 cents of value out of each World of Hyatt point without going to a lot of effort?

In an effort to get some answers to my questions, the sample I took wasn’t particularly large so I’m not about to say that what I show in this post would stand up to statistical scrutiny. What I will say, however, is that I’m comfortable that I now have a reasonable feel for what I should expect to find when I come to redeem my points for Hyatt awards.

The findings

In an attempt to see just what properties had done with their award calendars now that they have been allowed to incorporate seasonal pricing, I took a look at six properties:

• The Andaz West Hollywood
• The Hyatt Regency Chicago
• The Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill
• The Park Hyatt New York
• The Park Hyatt Maldives
• The Alila Ventana Big Sur

The properties were not chosen at random.

I know the Andaz West Hollywood and the Hyatt Regency London very well and together with the Hyatt Regency Chicago, they provide me with a look at properties across three mid-tier World of Hyatt bands (3, 5, & 6).

The other three properties are probably three of the more aspirational and well-discussed properties in the Hyatt portfolio so as these are properties that interest a lot of people, it seemed to make sense to take a look at what seasonal pricing has done to their award calendars.

For all six properties, I examined the award calendars to see how many peak, standard, and off-peak nights are on offer in every month from March (when seasonal pricing is introduced) through November (the end of the current booking window). This is what the results look like:

And this is what those results look like in summary form:

Are the very popular properties heavily weighted towards peak pricing?

This is a tough question to answer based on this information alone and I think we need data from 12 months and more properties to answer this question fully.

March through November encompasses all of the quieter (off-season) months in the Maldives while the true peak months (December, January & February) are not included in the sample, so I don’t think we’re seeing a true representation of what award pricing will look like across 12 months at the Park Hyatt Maldives. I’m prepared to speculate that award nights in December, January, and February will almost all be priced at peak season rates.

The results from the Alila Ventana Big Sur are no surprise and this is what I suspect we can expect going forward. Hyatt may keep its promise of having a good balance of peak, standard, and off-peak nights on offer, but the super-popular properties will have award calendars that look like this (just 10 out of 275 nights were priced at off-peak rates).

The results from the Park Hyatt New York were a surprise as I expected to see a far greater bias towards peak season pricing at this property. It will be interesting to see what the full 12-month calendar looks like when it becomes available, but what we can see right now gives me some hope that we’re not going to see all the aspirational properties moving most of their nights into peak season pricing.

Are off-peak awards relatively easy to find?

• I didn’t find a single off-peak night in 9 months of awards at the Hyatt Regency London
• There are multiple months where the total number of off-peak awards available across all six properties is in single digits
• 31 of the 41 off-peak nights at the Park Hyatt New York were in just two of the nine months sampled.
• 25 of the 52 off-peak nights at the Hyatt Regency Chicago were in just two of the nine months sampled.
• 24% of all the off-peak awards that I found were in one month – March.

This would suggest (but doesn’t prove) that anyone hoping to make the most of off-peak pricing may have to be very flexible with their travel dates, and that there will be periods within each region where off-peak nights are very hard to find.

On a positive note, the results also show that if you’re prepared to gamble on the weather in the Maldives (i.e go in the summer months when it’s more likely to rain), finding off-peak nights at the Park Hyatt Maldives may not be a challenge at all.

Can you still get at least 1.4 cents of value out of each World of Hyatt point without going to a lot of effort?

I selected 9 hotels at random (I made sure that I selected properties across a number of countries) and took a look to see just how easy it would be to get great value out of any World of Hyatt points used.

All the results below were found within two searches, all results were checked through to the booking screen to ensure that awards bookings were genuinely available, and no properties have gone unreported (I only checked the properties that you see below).

Andaz 5th Av: This shows a return of 2.3 cents per point but as taxes would be added to the cash rate, the return will be even better.

Andaz London Liverpool Street: The cost per night here includes taxes so with £300 approximately equal to $410, the return on offer is 2.4 cents per point.

Great Scotland Yard Hotel: The cost per night here includes taxes so with £479 approximately equal to $655, the return on offer is 2.6 cents per point.

Hyatt Regency Newport Beach: This shows a return of 2.8 cents per point but as taxes would be added to the cash rate, the return will be even better.

Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile: The cost per night here includes most taxes so with €456 approximately equal to $530, the return on offer is 3.5 cents per point.

Hyatt Regency Yokohama: With ¥34,909 approximately equal to $305, the return on offer here is 2.5 cents per point. In fact, the return will be a little better as taxes have yet to be added to the cash rate.

Park Hyatt New York: This shows a return of 3.0 cents per point but as taxes would be added to the cash rate, the return will be even better.

Park Hyatt Paris Vendome: The cost per night here includes most taxes so with €783 approximately equal to $909, the return on offer is 3.0 cents per point.

Tommie Hollywood: This shows a return of 2.8 cents per point but as taxes would be added to the cash rate, the return will be even better.

These results are more than a little odd. They’re incredible. The values on offer are off the scale and it shouldn’t be *this* easy to find redemptions that offer more than 1.4 – 1.6 cents per point.

While it would be true to say that these results appear to indicate that it remains incredibly easy to find great redemption rates for World of Hyatt points, the reason for this may lie more with what’s going on with hotel pricing than with the World of Hyatt.

Hotel prices are unusually high right now and because the World of Hyatt hasn’t increased the cost of standard awards in each category, we’re currently seeing skewed results.

Worryingly, if hotel prices don’t fall soon (it may already be too late), this may give Hyatt all the reason it needs to increase the cost of standard awards when it next reviews its award chart (presumably that will happen early next year).

Bottom Line

My first look into the World of Hyatt following the recent devaluation has left me with a few new questions that I’ll be looking to get answers to, but I think I have a reasonable picture of what to expect the next time I search for award availability.

I’m going to expect off-peak awards to be very hard to find at most properties that I’m interested in booking. I’m going to expect to find that it will be relatively easy to get good value out of my World of Hyatt points until Hyatt reprices the award chart or hotel prices come down. And I’m going to expect to have to pay peak prices most of the year at the super-popular properties where the climate/weather doesn’t have a substantial effect on demand.

For the time being, I think it’s too early to say whether or not there has been a substantial shift in the value of World of Hyatt points because hotel pricing is skewing the results and we don’t yet have a full 12 months of award calendars to view. By summer next year, however, I expect things to be a lot clearer.