Tag Archives for hyatt.
Two well-placed sources tell me that Hyatt is a finalist to acquire Two Roads Hospitality which manages and operates Alila Hotels & Resorts, Destination Hotels, Joie de Vivre Hotels, Thompson Hotels, and tommie Hotels.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Hyatt purchased Miraval not because they wanted a standalone wellness resort, but because they want to extend the brand and create an association with wellness across their hotels. They purchased Exhale spas as part of the same strategy.
To date they’ve offered discounts and bonus points, getting their feet wet, and today they’ve rolled out Exhale Spa benefits as a feature of the World of Hyatt program.
A year ago Hyatt took a stake in Oasis and then in March launched points earn and burn, elite stay credit, and very limited benefits when members stayed at any of the Oasis homesharing options (which were in 20 cities).
However Oasis has been sold and is no longer associated with Hyatt.
Hyatt introduced a pretty revolutionary partnership with MGM 5 years ago with reciprocal points earning, redemption, and status matching. Hyatt didn’t have a significant presence in the Las Vegas market, while this became an opportunity for MGM to reach affluent customers whose choices in Vegas might otherwise be brand-independent. This was a tighter relationship with more value than we had seen from other chains, something almost akin to the kind of codesharing airlines do with each other. Since then the status match has been made less generous for Hyatt members, but there’s still valuable recognition. And the Hyatt-MGM M life deal isn’t ‘either-or’ you receive MGM recongition while still earning Hyatt points also. Through the end of the year there’s a promotion to earn double Hyatt points (an extra 5 points per dollar) at MGM…
According to Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian, “If a group is primarily focused on disparaging a group by virtue of their identity…that’s really where we need to draw the line. We’re going to apply our values to making these decisions along the way.”
Hyatt used to be super generous with elite status matches. If you had a pulse they’d give you 90 days of Diamond status including confirmed suite upgrades, and an expedited path to keep that status.
No doubt they brought over a lot of great members with the offer, but they also picked up plenty of people who just wanted to have that one special trip (honeymoon, anniversary) but transferring in Chase points, booking a cash and points redemption, and applying a suite upgrade to it. Probably at the Andaz Maui or Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris.
Airlines have an easier time delivering consistent benefits than hotel chains do. Occasionally gate agents do not do their jobs correctly but for the most part airlines are able to follow their own rules for delivering elite benefits.
Hotel chains rarely own the hotels themselves any longer. And in some cases they do not even manage the hotels.
When I wrote that Hyatt points have remained a remarkably steady source of value for the last 5 years since they devalued their points, that even when they announced those changes in late 2013 they weren’t that bad, and since then even the modest shifts in award categories we’ve seen for hotels have been balanced my point was to re-assure about Hyatt points not to cause consternation.
However I received several comments along the lines of why are you pointing out to them it’s time to devalue? Hyatt is already aware of the economics of their program and when they last made changes.
It’s been five years since Hyatt last devalued, introducing a new category 7 and raising the price of many awards. The best hotels became more expensive, suite redemptions became more expensive, but overall the weighted average of free night award prices went up just 4%.
Since that time there have been remarkably few changes to the earn and burn side of the Hyatt program. Even the total revamp and introduction of ‘World of Hyatt’ nearly two years ago was a change only to the elite program.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
