The Hyatt Regency Aruba has a history of playing games with free night award availability. They made it nearly impossible to spend Hyatt points, assigning only 22 out of their 357 rooms as potentially eligible for redemption. This hotel is actually owned by Hyatt, and after I brought their shenanigans to corporate’s attention they adjusted the practice.
However Aruba redemptions again became a problem. Some time in the second half of December all award night inventory at the property for 2023 zeroed.
- This is a popular hotel, one where people want to spend points, and the hotel hasn’t been super generous in the past to begin with
- But it wasn’t a case of ‘award nights go quickly’. There was space on offer every month, and then there wasn’t any.
Hyatt Regency Aruba, credit: Hyatt
I reached out to Hyatt, and a spokesperson offers, “Hyatt Regency Aruba is working to restore award nights in 2023 after a problem with their booking platform” and promises to update once availability is restored.
They’re blaming ‘the booking platform’ for being able to sell rooms, but not offer any availability on points (though the two should be linked to the designated standard room type and rate plan). The good news is that (1) there’s already some availability, though not much, and (2) we can expect things to improve.
Thanks for keeping them honest Gary!
This isn’t confined to this property. Andaz Liverpool Street also zeroes out the standard award room to force people to pay cash. The Churchill doesn’t offer anything above standard rooms so you can’t redeem for suites.
Hyatt needs to bring them all into line.
I feel like this is similar to Park Hyatt Aviara, never any avaliability
I haven’t found availability for this location that works for me in a very long time
When this recession kicks In to a higher gear – these hotels and airlines will be changing their ways
It ain’t just happening in Aruba or Park Hyatt Aviara.
Just look at the crooks/criminals at the Hyatt Centric in Honolulu
Hyatt allows hotels to game the program.I’ve retaliated taking tens of thousands of dollars annually to other programs. We also switched chains for group events/corporate bookings/events.
I also no longer spend on their credit card.Its Hyatt’s choice to not do business fairly and apparently this works well for them
More proof that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
FNT took the words out of my mouth.
Thank you Gary! I can finally use points at HR Aruba.
Lol they ll just put all the award redeemers in their sh ittiest rooms
Hyatt is an overpriced scam.
PH Vienna has zeroed out all availability for December in standard rooms and suites only allowed. Hyatt regency Churchill has zeroed out all awards for around Christmas too. They’re all playing games.
The availability at the Secrets Impressions Moxche is 100% zeroed. You can’t even book it 13 months in advance 1 second past midnight.
This property is by far the worse with award night. Additionally, the property doesn’t open up ANY availability (even paid rates) for the December Christmas time until January. Instead, they give guests who are staying over the holidays first right to book first for the next year.
Why would we expect things to improve? Clearly the problem is management.
The problem is not corporate it’s the sales department and front desk that plays with the system. We used to do this at ihg and marriott put most room out of service and make fake desk reservations and cancel them out before running the audit.
Park Hyatt Aviara – you have to use the same trick as Andaz Maui. Book 10 nights or more with pay my way than cancel what you don’t need. I have done it, it works. However, even with this trick they seem to have very few rooms in the award bookable category. I.e. they have a “standard” vs “foothill view”. Even Grand Hyatt Kauai has done this now – they used to have many rooms bookable on points, now they have “standard” and “resort view”. Resort view is not bookable with points and there are far less “standard rooms” than there used to be.
Obviously it’s somebody in the hotel management that’s making these decisions. Why doesn’t Hyatt just penalize the hotel sufficiently that A) The hotel will stop this immediately and B) Set an unpleasant example to other hotels playing games with award space? Either you have rules or you have guidelines, Hyatt just needs to pick choose between the two.
Andaz Wailea on Maui also *rarely* ever has availability on points.
Maybe corporate can go after em all. HC Waikiki is horrendous with this as well as Andaz Maui. What’s the reasoning? How much does the hotel get paid per point?
They have changed room and suite names so that they wouldn’t be available for points before this widespread blackout.
In the two around Christmas last month, EVERY SINGLE Hyatt property in Paris (except the Park Hyatt) had no availability on points for consecutive nights.
Individual rooms were available, but the rooms were different categories every night. One night twins were available. The next night a queen. The following night a king. That meant you couldn’t make a multi-night reservation on points. Who has the patience to manually check each night?
What’s more egregious about all this is, unlike Marriott or IHG, the bad actors within Hyatt are Hyatt-managed properties, not rogue franchisees.
Have you guys heard of TripAdvisor?
Seriously, major resort area hotels care about the reviews there. If there’s enough outcry that could move the needle.
Hyatt points are the most valuable points out there, but given that the award night availability is so poor with non existent enforcement by the Hyatt, why even bother with Hyatt (and Chase).
1) I have been able to find points redemptions at Andaz Wailea in the recent past
2) Nevertheless, I have found *Marriott* to have the most *availability* with points really across the globe the past twelve months or so (of course, award *pricing* has gone up).
“The best ability is availability”
One more point on Andaz – it seems like the best time to book award nights is one or two weeks out. For example there seems to be decent amount of points availability next week. I recommend having dummy bookings at hotels with flexible cancellation policy (think something like Residence Inn or AC Maui) and switching when you have the opportunity.
Any luck with the Andaz Tokyo? All find they play shenanigans with room designation and there availability
Hotels in Tokyo definitely playing games with availability. I cancelled a few award stays and they never went back into inventory. And I cannot find award stays around those dates
The other big trick is NEVER having 5 days in a row eligible so you can’t get the free night.
No, they are not. Haven’t you yet gotten the memo?
Gary, if you have the time and interest you should reach out to Hyatt again. Most recently they are playing the same games with their all-inclusive properties. In particular, most of the Secrets in the Cancun area are all blocking award travel in 2024. I suspect they are hoping to be reclassified to a higher level. I’m tried several properties, including Akumal and the new Impressions Moxche.
Thanks for taking action
Andaz and Park Hyatt Tokyo are totally gaming things right now. They are doing the exact same thing. @Gary you might want to add those to your list that Hyatt should look into.
Hyatt Regency Mission Bay has completely blocked out all award booking between now and May 5th 2024. I’ve tried working with my concierge and they are are claiming it must be a busy group booking and telling me that I am mistaken.
Gary how did you ge this done !
In Italy they are playing the same game. Who can we contact ?
Heard Aruba Hyatt was sold end of 2023z