Hyatt’s CEO is gaslighting customers – telling them that they like that their points are now worth so much less. Hyatt’s new award chart has 78 different price levels for hotels. Top properties can now cost up to 67% more points. Spending $45,000 on a Hyatt Visa used to guarantee you a night at the Park Hyatt Vendome Paris. Now that same night can require spending $75,000 on their card.
Along with that devaluation, Hyatt projects that they will double the loyalty program’s profit. What bothers me most, though, is that their CEO is gaslighting us over it. It turns out it’s not a devaluation. It’s a member satisfaction initiative that just happens to require 67% more points!
According to Hyatt’s CEO Mark Hoplamazian, people love the devaluation . The reaction by members has been “positive.”
WSJ: You have a very dedicated loyalty-member base. Are some of the recent changes to the program, like expanding from three tiers of redemption to five, a way to stealthily devalue points?
Hoplamazian: Frankly, the reaction’s been overall positive. We’ve maintained a fixed award chart, so you don’t have to guess. Some of our competitors and others in the travel industry have gone to a dynamic award chart.
We also have a very unique offering, which is “guest of honor,” which allows you to gift your status and your benefits to someone else that you really care about. And while we have adjusted a number of hotels, that’s the result of changes in average daily-rate levels and costs.
The award chart may not be dynamic, but apparently Hplamazian’s definition of ‘positive’ is.
When members said they wanted more redemption options, I don’t think they meant 78 different ways to pay more points. But I guess in some sense the positive reaction might be true – if you only survey the finance department on North Riverside Plaza.
Guest of Honor is something that has nothing to do with Hyatt’s points. And it’s not something new to offset a devaluation of those points. It’s ‘Globalist status for a stay’ so you get breakfast and late checkout. And it takes staying at least 40 nights with Hyatt in a year to earn one. That benefit, too, was devalued two years ago (Globalists used to earn an unlimited number of these to be used when redeeming points for someone else).
Mentioning this benefit, which hasn’t changed recently, as a response to the brutal devaluation Hyatt just pushed through is a complete non-sequitur. It’s also not the benefit I’d mention, since after this interview the single most valuable Hyatt benefit may be the ability to suspend disbelief.
I’m genuinely struck with Hoplamazian saying that he’s being ‘frank’ when telling us how much we like it that our points are worth less. It was genuinely enlightening to learn that I actually wanted this.
Destroying credibility in one or two sentences.
Hop Amazing gaslighting
What an f’ing asshat. Yes, I love being Globalist.for a stay — in fact, EVERY stay! I supoose that will be the next shoe to drop.
Does an idiot such as this guy not realize he is basically telling long-time loyal members that they should stay somewhere else?
You don’t have to tell me again. Buh, bye, Hyatt. It was nice while it lasted.