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Hyatt is offering triple points June 15 through September 15, 2020 beginning with your second stay during the promotion period. The bonus is available at all Hyatt properties, and even at MGM and Small Luxury Hotels of the World properties that participate in World of Hyatt.
Members of Hyatt’s program with any status at all can earn 2500 bonus points with their first stay during the promotion.
Anyone with The World Of Hyatt Credit Card gets ‘Discoverist’ elite status and is thus eligible for the full promotion. And of course through the end of June, in addition to earning up to 50,000 points as part of the card’s welcome offer, the card earns extra nights towards elite status.
Two Separate Registration Links For This Promotion
Hyatt has separate registration links depending on whether you’re an elite member in their program or not.
- General member registration triple points starting with second stay
- Elite member registration 2500 bonus points with first stay, triple points starting with second stay.
Separate registration links seems a bit strange. Hyatt offers the explanation,
Elite members can register for BOTH promotions by using that second link. If a Base member tries to use that link they would receive an error. If an elite member registers with the general link, they will not be registered for the elite member offer to earn 2,500 Bonus Points on their first qualifying stay.
How Valuable A Promotion?
I consider a Hyatt point worth 1.4 cents. Elites on their first stay, then, receive a rebate worth $35.
On subsequent stays the value of the rebate depends on spend. The base program earns 5 points per dollar. Triple points means an extra 10 points per dollar.
- A general member normally earns an effective 7% rebate
- And a Globalist member earns a 9% rebate due to their 30% bonus
- This promotion adds an additional 14% onto that rebate.
Triple points for a Globalist means a 23% rebate on stays. At the very least that’s a darned good reason to book direct with Hyatt versus through an online travel agency and I view this as the current best offer in the market.
The Strategy Behind The Promotion
It’s now possible to encourage people to stay in hotels again. We’ve seen travel demand pick up slightly, with hotel occupancy hovering around 36% on average in the U.S.. Marriott has re-opened all of their China hotels.
The promotion isn’t generous enough to get people to make stays they wouldn’t otherwise make (this isn’t going to be one for mattress running). However triple points may encourage some share shift.
However by not offering bonuses for most guests on their first stay, they save a lot of money. Most people will stay just once during the earning period. However that gives up the opportunity for share shift among infrequent guests who will.. stay just once in a hotel during the earning period. The registration requirement keeps them from awarding points to people who didn’t know about the promotion, so keeps them from wasting money. I’d do something generous from the first stasy.
Expect To See Generous Hotel Bonus Offers Going Forward
I view this as an opening gambit. Before going fully flexible on prepaid reservations, Hyatt was first out of the box offering guests something (points) for reservations they had to cancel. It’s good to see Hyatt out of the box with this, other chains will certainly offer their own promotions, and hopefully for consumers there’ll be some form of an arms race.
Hotels are, after all, still treading lightly in their message. Hyatt is, quite appropriately, holding off on notifying members in some places about this promotion. They say they won’t send emails out all at once, instead messages will go out later to “members in places around the world where travel is still recovering…based on factors including market readiness and travel demand.”
Many people in the U.S. are ready to travel, though of course many people aren’t. However it’s clear we’re ready to talk about travel again which means it’s a good time for hotel programs to be talking about bonuses for those who are venturing out.
While Hyatt has by far the most generous elite program, and a competitive base program for earning points, their weak elite bonus means that top tier elites don’t earn free stays as quickly as Marriott or IHG elites. Triple points helps counter this, although Hyatt needs promotion earning just to be at par.
@gary, I am not elite with Hyatt so I tried the like above for non-elites and it produced the following error for me: “Registration for this promotion has closed.”
@JM – Hyatt has provided an updated link, which is now in the post, thanks!
Thank you Gary. Is there a link with a list of participating hotels?
here’s a surprising downer…i had a recent stay that i chose to fill rather than cancel, no bonus at all for the stay other than my elite bump. Hyatt twitter support refused to grant me anything based on this new promo saying it was outside the promo period…even though it was at the height of low occupancy. yet they refused to do anything. guess I’ll quit being nice and giving them money…
@Grant – all Hyatts participate, or are you asking about which SLH hotels are integrated into World of Hyatt so far?
Discoverist via the CC. Elite link doesn’t work for me. Says I’m ineligible. Bummer.
Do you still get 2500 points bonus if you book with points for the first stay?
@max – yes that should be a qualifying stay
Ok thank you, hopefully all M Life properties (when open) are participating.
“While Hyatt has by far the most generous elite program…”
Absurd claim no matter how often it is baselessly repeated. Hyatt will catch to the competition when they begin offering one of the most lucrative perks, if not the most lucrative, in hotel loyalty: 5th award night free.
CITI Prestige’s claim to fame? The 4th Night Free benefit, that is, before CITI gutted it and lost cardmembers as a result. Nuff said.