Hyatt Is Offering 10,000 Points To Guests Cancelling Non-Refundable Reservations

March 9, 2020

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Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian is in the process of sending out emails to Hyatt loyalists detailing all the precautionary measures that the hotel chain is taking in the light of the worldwide coronavirus situation and to reinforce Hyatt’s “increased flexibility with travel planning“.

Get World of Hyatt Points In Lieu Of A Non-Refundable Reservation

As part of Hyatt’s increased flexibility, the hotelier is announcing that guests who have made Advance Purchase rate non-refundable reservations made directly with Hyatt on or before 8 March 2020, for travel through June 2020, will be offered 10,000 World of Hyatt points as compensation should they wish to cancel.

Here’s what the announcement looks like:

Guests holding [Advance Purchase rate] fully prepaid reservations who have decided not to travel may opt to receive 10,000 World of Hyatt bonus points compensation in lieu of their stay to use toward future travel at any of our 900+ hotels across 17 brands globally.
For full details and to make arrangements, guests can call one of our Global Contact Centers or email us at worldofhyatt@hyatt.com.
Guests must contact us at least 48 hours before their stay to elect this (World of Hyatt Explorists and Globalists must contact us at least 24 hours before their stay dates to elect this).
For interested non-members, colleagues will be able to quickly assist with enrolling the guest into World of Hyatt and creating a World of Hyatt account to deposit the points.

Quick Thoughts

You can look at this one of two ways:

Hyatt is being generous in offering guests something that they’re not actually entitled to should they choose to cancel a non-refundable reservation.
10,000 points are worth approximately $140 and for most people that won’t come close to covering the cost of the reservation they’re canceling.

I’m choosing to see this announcement as a positive thing.

Hyatt has no duty to refund non-refundable reservations and, as far as I know, no other major hotel chain is offering to give people with non-refundable reservations a dime if they decide not to travel, so Hyatt is leading the way here.

Sure, 10,000 points aren’t going to cheer you up if you’re sitting on a $3,000 booking but no one is being forced to cancel here and, to be frank, everyone should be well aware of what they’re doing when they book non-refundable reservations (I book the all the time).

Bottom Line

A few hours ago those considering canceling a non-refundable Hyatt reservation were looking at a total loss (unless they could somehow persuade their insurance to help out). Now, the loss is still very much there but there are 10,000 points on offer too and whichever way you look at it that’s better than nothing.