Hotel loyalty programs can still make me do ‘irrational’ things

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I’ve been playing around with loyalty programs for a long, long time, so it would be nice to think that after all these years I’ve grown impervious to the ways in which some programs can make one do things that, to an outsider looking in, look completely irrational and a little mad. Sadly, that imperviousness still eludes me.

The World of Hyatt is the program that lures me into doing odd/silly/irrational things every now and again and as much as I tell myself that I need to get a grip and start employing the brain more and the heart less, I still find myself doing things that anyone outside the miles & points community (and possibly quite a few inside!) would simply not understand.

Here are just two recent examples of recent ‘odd’ behavior.

Example 1 – The scramble for status & milestone rewards

I’m fortunate enough to hold Hyatt Globalist status (top-tier status) and as is the case every year, I maintain a spreadsheet which tracks my bookings for the year, the number of elite nights I have earned, and the number of elite nights I’m projected to have by the end of the year (given the bookings made/planned).

Because there’s quite a big gulf between what Hyatt mid-tier status gives you and what you get as a top-tier elite, and because the Hyatt Milestone Rewards that you can earn as you inch closer to Globalist status are quite valuable, I’m more than a little reluctant to give up my Globalist status unless I really have to.

I like my suite night awards. I like my complimentary upgrades. I like how much cash I save with the complimentary breakfasts I get on every stay. And I really like having an excellent concierge that gets things done for me within 24 hours (often less) of receiving one of my requests.

Are any of these things really essential to a great trip? No.

In the grand scheme of things, are any of these things hugely important? Of course not.

Do I still place a lot of value on them? Nonsensically, yes.

That’s clever marketing by Hyatt and disappointing weakness on my part.

What does that weakness lead to? More money for Hyatt.

Recently, I received an email from Hyatt that offered me up to 10 bonus elite night credits for stays consumed in the 90 days following registration (for the promotion) and, annoyingly, the promotion period coincides with a period during which I’m not doing much traveling.

With my plans as they stood at the time I received the Hyatt email, I was going to earn no more than two bonus nights, and as a weak-minded person staring at a spreadsheet that showed that by the end of the year, I could miss the 60-night target required to retain Globalist status by 5 or 6 nights, that wasn’t good enough.

Logically, what I should have done at this point was to ignore the email and trust in the fact that like in most recent years, I will end up adding more bookings to my diary and retaining Globalist status organically.

Is that what I did? No. Of course not. That would have been the actions of a sane, well-adjusted human being.

Instead, I booked a 3-night stay at a cheap Hyatt Place property (a stay for which I had absolutely no real need) just to make sure that I gave myself a solid boost towards retaining Globalist status.

Admittedly, if it turns out that I wouldn’t have earned Globalist status organically, the amount that I’ll save through Globalist benefits next year will easily outweigh what I spent on this 3-night stay, but I really wish that after all these years I wasn’t still so easily manipulated.

Example 2 – The illogical reservations

Later this year, we will be having some work done to our home which will require us to vacate the property for 4 nights.

Joanna will be away anyway, but as I need to be in town at the time that the work is being carried out, I had to find myself alternate accommodation. Alternate accommodation could mean staying with friends or finding an appropriate hotel, but as I hate staying at other people’s homes, the hotel option won out.

Logically, the next step would have seen me book a hotel not too far away from where we live as I like the area and it would make it easy for me to keep an eye on the works.

However, as this is an article about how I do apparently illogical things in the name of the miles & points game, you already know that’s not how things have played out.

Not only have I not booked myself a stay at a nearby hotel, I’ve gone ahead and booked myself two 2-night stays at hotels in an area that I really dislike just because those stays can play a part in my World of Hyatt strategy.

I really, really, dislike Hollywood (CA), but within the boundaries of that wretched part of Los Angeles sit the Thompson Hollywood and the Tommie Hollywood.

I’ve visited both but never stayed in either (why would I? They’re in Hollywood), but now I’ll be staying at both just because my weak brain told me it was a good idea.

Sure, these stays will give me two reviews for this site that I wouldn’t otherwise have got, but that’s not what led to the bookings. No, that would been far too logical. I made the bookings because of Hyatt’s Brand Explorer awards.

Hyatt’s Brand Explorer program gives World of Hyatt members a Category 1 – 4 Free Night award for every 5 different Hyatt brands visited, and both the Thompson and the Tommie Hollywood are attached to brands that I have yet to check off my list.

In fact, by checking off those two brands (Thompson and JdV), I’ll trigger a Free Night Award, and that’s exactly the kind of thing that can persuade my malleable brain to book 2 stays in an area of a city that I would happily never visit again.

Fortunately for me, both bookings are relatively cheap (cheaper than the 4-night stay a logical person would probably have booked) so my weakness isn’t going to leave me out of pocket. But it’s still a little ridiculous isn’t it?

Bottom line

I’m a weak, weak man who after all these years inhabiting the miles & point world still allows a hotel program to manipulate his behavior when it really, really shouldn’t.

In my defence, I could point out that I don’t allow the likes of Marriott, Hilton, or IHG to manipulate me in the way that Hyatt does, but as that has more to do with how I view their loyalty programs and less to do with personal strength, that’s not really much of a defence 🙂

Do you still do things in the name of the miles & points game that an outsider would struggle to understand and that you know you probably shouldn’t do?