Hyatt is introducing a new award chart for all-inclusive properties. That’s because they used to have the Ziva and Zilara brand, but are now starting to bring the 100 Apple Leisure Group properties that they acquired into the World of Hyatt program. In fact, 6 hotels are already live and 50 more will be joining the program May 9. Kudos for speed, this took about 8 months from deal announcement rather than the traditional 18 months.
- This will give Hyatt around 1100 hotels, and closer to 1500 with partner hotels (MGM, Small Luxury Hotels) included.
- And it makes Hyatt a big player in all-inclusives, and these are largely premium all-inclusives.
The New All-Inclusive Award Chart
Hyatt is taking Ziva and Zilara, which had their own pricing, and placing those in a new all-inclusive award chart that the ALG properties will join as well. Categories will be A-F, not 1-6, and Hyatt’s Senior Vice President Amy Weinberg tells me that’s to avoid the confusion that might stem from having “two category twos.”
Here’s the chart for standard rooms, noting that there are premium room options and cash and points here as with other Hyatt properties.
Standard redemptions run between 15,000 and 50,000 points with a discount for off peak and a premium for peak redemptions.
Interestingly they do not go beyond category F to include Miraval properties into this (Miraval continues to have its own separate chart) and where existing other brands have all-inclusive hotels that doesn’t move over to the all-inclusive chart. Alila Ventana, for instance, stays where it is.
There’s some shifting of Ziva and Zilara properties given the new chart but Amy Weinberg says “not a lot of change for existing all-inclusives.”
Ultimately it’s great to see Hyatt doubling down on the concept of award charts, when all of the other major chains have abandoned the transparency that comes with them.
Seven More Brands For Brand Explorer Free Nights
For each 5 Hyatt brands that you stay at for the first time, you earn a category 1-4 free night award. That includes staying at a brand for the first time on points.
There were 18 live Hyatt brands to stay at, and so 3 possible free nights to earn.
The ALG properties will include 7 brands, which will bring this to a total of 25, and 5 possible free nights to earn. These brands are Secrets Resorts & Spas, Dreams Resorts & Spas, Breathless Resorts & Spas, Zoëtry Wellness & Spa Resorts, Alua Hotels & Resorts, Sunscape Resorts & Spas and Vivid Hotel & Resorts brand (“coming soon”).
ALG Hotels You Can Now Earn And Redeem With
The first 6 all-inclusives from ALG that are live with World of Hyatt are:
- Secrets Playa Mujeres Golf & Spa Resort
- Secrets The Vine Cancun
- Dreams Natura Resort & Spa
- Dreams Sapphire Resort & Spa
- Dreams Playa Mujeres Golf & Spa Resort
- Zoëtry Paraiso de la Bonita Riviera Maya
These newly-added hotels are all in the ‘B’ and ‘C’ redemption categories.
- Dreams Sapphire Riviera Cancun and Dreams Nature Resort & Spa are category B with standard redemptions costing 20,000 points per night.
- Secrets Playa Mujeres Golf & Spa Resort; Secrets The Vine Cancun; Dreams Playa Mujeres Golf & Spa Resort; and Zoëtry Paraiso de la Bonita Riviera Maya are category C with standard redemptions costing 25,000 points per night.
The dates I checked for these properties show 2-3 cents apiece in value per point against standard redemption prices at these properties, and these weren’t peak of peak dates. However we’ll have to see what best rate pricing actually looks like against award rates (peak and off-peak) to know for certain what kind of value this represents for each hotel.
Hyatt explains the focus of their premium all-inclusives as each featuring from three concepts:
- Endless Privileges: no checkin/checkout times, gourmet food + unlimited top shelf spirits. At Zoëtry Paraiso de la Bonita Riviera Maya, for instance, there is a Temazcal ceremony wellness experience with heat and sounds.
- Unlimited-Luxury: Secrets and Dreams offer top shelf cocktails, gourmet cuisine, 24 hour room service, and minibars are refreshed daily.
- Unlimited-Fun: Sunscape Resorts offer gourmet restaurants, unique checkin locations for kids, and a focus on experience not just price.
They’re certainly describing a different concept from my mental model of an all-inclusive, which is busy hotels with lots of rail drinks.
Elite Benefits At These New All-Inclusive Brands
Free breakfast is a non-issue at an all-inclusive, but – as with Hyatt’s Ziva and Zilara brands – other benefits apply. This includes not just upgrades but also confirmed suite upgrades.
50 More Properties Coming
Hyatt will be adding hotels in Europe “soon” but they aren’t sharing the dates yet. Ultimately they’ll have a truly significant portfolio of all-inclusives.
Very curious to read a few reviews from travel bloggers. I stayed at Secrets Cancun for a wedding last year and it was exactly as you’d expect. Acceptable quality food, watered down drinks. Really hope Hyatt improves the F&B quality here.
So is there a list of hotels by category?
Really surprised to see the Hyatt Ziva PVR bumped up a category. I really like the location, but the property is very dated compared to Cancun and DR, both of which appear to be in the same category now as PVR (bookable at 25k/night). Cabo remains a category lower.
What Jim said, would be fantastic to see a consolidated list of these all-inclusive Hyatt properties (including Alila Ventana, etc.) plus their categories. That would be a popular and oft-examined list, I’m sure.
Question: I assume that if you make a booking this month/now on the AMR/Dreams/Secrets website for a stay sometime after May 9th and beyond, that you will get WOH points/stay credit since they will have been added into the program at that time?
Also, what’s the deal with the NOW Emerald Cancun…it’s still listed on the AMR website as one of the brands in the group but all write ups re. Hyatt’s takeover exclude this one. It’s the last one remaining; all others have been rebranded as Dreams. So will this not be a bookable brand/hotel for Hyatt when they continue with the addition of new properties?
Another devaluation is coming…
Some may remember that when Hyatt released their most recent seasonal award chart, I was surprised that the highest award cost was not 50K WoH points/night, as that value would have exactly matched Hilton’s new highest award rate of 150K HH/night (50K WoH * 3HH/1WoH = 150K HH). I had that expectation because Hyatt has religious adjusted their highest award rate to be ~1/3 of Hilton’s (an example of a points currency “peg”).
Well, here it is. Hyatt’s highest standard award rate is now 50K WoH points per night as I’d expected, which opens the door wide for 50K/night to also become the highest award rate for non-all-inclusive properties.
Stay tuned!