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Ok, it’s very possible that I’ve missed a bit of news somewhere along the line, but I’ve been living under the impression that ever since the World of Hyatt introduced peak, standard and off-peak seasons, the dates relating to those seasons are set 13 months in advance and then don’t change.
Based on at least one Hyatt property, however, this doesn’t appear to be the case.
Changing seasons at the Hyatt Regency Seattle
I may need to be in Seattle towards the end of September, so as the Hyatt Regency Seattle appears to be well regarded, I’ve been monitoring cash prices and award availability at the property since the middle of April.
The Hyatt Regency Seattle sits within the World of Hyatt as a Category 4 property and this means that an award booking will cost 12,000, 15,000, or 18,000 points per night depending on whether the dates of a stay fall into off-peak, standard, or peak seasons.
It also means that this is a property at which a Category 1-4 Free Night Certificate can often be put to good use.
Back in April, I took this screenshot showing the cost of an award booking for 25, 26, and 27 September and, as you should be able to see, the cost breakdown looked like this:
- Thursday, 25 September 2025 – 18,000 points
- Friday, 26 September 2025 – 15,000 points
- Saturday, 27 September 2025 – 15,000 points
And that looked promising for a property charging $342/night (including taxes).
Knowing that if I ended up not needing to travel (or if I needed to change my travel dates) I could cancel an award booking without penalty, I parted with 48,000 points and made the booking.
By mid-June, I had earned a Category 1-4 Free Night Certificate (FNC), so I went back to Hyatt.com to check if awards were still available and, as they were, I canceled the original booking and made a new one using the FNC for the 25th (18,000 points/night) and 30,000 points for the 26th and 27th.
This saw me getting $342 in value out of my Free Night Certificate and 2.28 cents out of each point I used, so I was happy.
Over this past weekend, my plans changed and I needed to change my booking, so I went back to the Hyatt website to check award availability for my new travel dates.
As my new travel dates are reasonably flexible, I opened up the award calendar for the Hyatt Regency Seattle to see if I could coincide my visit with the property’s off-peak or standard nights.
It was at this point that I noticed the award cost of the nights I had already booked (25, 26 & 27 September).
All three nights are now priced at 18,000 points per night for a standard room.
That’s peak season pricing for a Category 4 property and this means that at some point between 21 June (when I last checked award prices) and 30 August, someone has moved the nights of 26 and 27 September 2025 at the Hyatt Regency Seattle from standard to peak season.
What’s more, between now and 31 March 2026, every night on which award availability exists is showing peak season pricing.
I can’t be 100% certain, but I’m reasonably sure that this wasn’t the case in April or June.
What’s going on?
Have I missed the news that Hyatt properties can now change award prices mid-year or is there something else at play?
If I remember correctly (someone correct me if I’m misremembering), when the World of Hyatt introduced off-peak and peak seasons, we were told that the seasons were set centrally (i.e. by Hyatt and not by individual properties) and that award prices would only change mid-year if there were “extenuating circumstances” which were “based on unique market conditions”.
Well, the nightly rates for the Hyatt Regency Seattle have fallen by $10/night for the dates in question, so that would appear to rule out any “extenuating circumstances” or “unique market conditions”, and if Hyatt is the one choosing which dates will be designated as peak/standard/off-peak, that would appear to rule out the possibility that the Hyatt Regency Seattle is playing games that it shouldn’t be playing, so what’s going on?
I’m genuinely very confused, so if anyone can shed some light on this I’d be very grateful.
Bottom line
Based on a single experience that I’ve had recently (not really a significant sample size is it?!) it looks like it’s possible for a World of Hyatt property to change (or have changed) the dates on which it offers awards at off-peak, standard, and peak pricing even if there don’t appear to be any extenuating circumstances at play.
Given that I wasn’t aware that this was possible, I’ve been caught me by surprise, so if anyone can explain this I would be eager to hear what that explanation is (have I missed some key news?)
Also, if anyone else has any data points showing something similar happening elsewhere within the World of Hyatt portfolio, please let me know in the comments.
You’re perfectly right to call bs on this. Nine months of consecutive peak season dates? What’s the purpose of having peak season then? That’s like the Conrad in London showing on premium award rooms available for entire seasons.
Since you’re a Globalist I’d reach out to my concierge to ask what’s going on because Hyatt is supposed to make these changes once annually to avoid exactly your situation and the ongoing high season as well is just wrong.
There’s no question that Hyatt has been slipping over the past several years but this is not acceptable, particularly without notice.