World of Hyatt adds peak room pricing – and improves ‘in hotel’ redemptions

World of Hyatt has announced some fundamental changes to their programme. 

To be honest, it is not the end of the world by any means and much of the value in the scheme will remain.  It’s only a shame that Hyatt points are so hard to earn if you are UK based ….

World of Hyatt to introduce peak and off-peak pricing

The main change is that Hyatt is following Marriott Bonvoy and introducing peak and off-peak pricing.  This will take effect from March 2020.

There are three things worth noting here:

if you have an existing redemption booking which moves to off-peak, Hyatt will automatically refund the difference – this means that you shouldn’t worry about making World of Hyatt redemptions now which you may possibly have to otherwise rebook

peak and off-peak dates will be fixed.  This may sound logical (it is how BA Executive Club and Virgin Flying Club work) but Marriott Bonvoy took a different track, resetting peak and off-peak dates each month.  This means that you won’t need to continually recheck your booking to see if the price has moved down.

peak and off-peak dates will be set by ‘geographic area’, and not on a hotel-by-hotel basis

Here is the new chart, which is on hyatt.com here (click to enlarge):

The 40,000 points category is only used for partner hotels such as Small Luxury Hotels of the World.  For the core Hyatt estate, you won’t see the best Park Hyatt hotels moving more than 5,000 points, from 30,000 to 35,000.  Even then, this will only be on peak dates.  As I said, it could be worse.

In-hotel redemptions suddenly become potentially worthwhile

Hyatt has clearly realised that no-one was using the option of redeeming points for hotel credit because it was such pathetic value.

This will change on 29th January, and it will easily be the most valuable ‘in hotel’ offer of all of the major chains.  Take a look here:

At the bottom end of the scale, you can redeem 1,000 World of Hyatt points for a $10 credit.  This is 0.78p per point.

Given that I have a very conservative 1p valuation for a Hyatt point, this isn’t bad.

However, at the top end, you are getting $1,000 of credit for 65,000 points.  This is 1.20p per point.

This is very, very good, although it is rare that you will have $1,000 of extra charges during a stay unless it is at a resort.

I clearly need to increase my World of Hyatt points valuation to somewhere nearer 1.20p per point, as this is now the floor level at £1 = $1.28.

Two quick Hyatt reminders – first Hyatt Prive …..

Remember that you can access Hyatt Prive benefits if you book via our hotel partner Emyr Thomas.

Hyatt Prive offers exceptional value – book a cash room via Emyr and you will get free breakfast, an upgrade CONFIRMED WITHIN 24 HOURS OF BOOKING if available and a food and beverage credit of $100.

It is valid at:

• Park Hyatt (all properties)
• Andaz (all properties)
• Miraval (all properties)
• Grand Hyatt (select properties)
• Hyatt Centric (select properties)
• Hyatt Regency (select properties)
• The Unbound Collection (select properties)
• Thompson (select properties)
• Alila (select properties)
• Joie de Vivre (select properties)

You can contact Emyr Thomas with your Hyatt Prive booking enquiries by using the form on this page of HfP.

Reminder: you can still buy Hyatt points with a 40% bonus

If you want to lock in some bookings before peak pricing comes in, you can get a 40% bonus when you buy World of Hyatt points before 31st December.

This may well be the last bonus before peak pricing launches.  Even if it isn’t, it makes sense to use your 2019 ‘buy points’ allowance now to give you additional flexibility to buy more points in 2020 if needed.

You can buy Hyatt points via this link here.

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World of Hyatt update – April 2024:

Get bonus points: World of Hyatt is not currently running a global promotion

New to World of Hyatt?  Read our overview of World of Hyatt here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on what we think World of Hyatt points are worth is here.

Buy points: If you need additional World of Hyatt points, you can buy them here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Hyatt and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.