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Loyalty programs are guaranteed to do one thing: devalue their points whenever possible. Each year hotel chains like Marriott and Hyatt announce coming changes to the number of points required for an award at the hotels in their portfolios. Amazingly, many do go down, but more always increase year after year.
The latest changes for Hyatt will go into effect on March 28th. You can view the entire list here. It’s nice to have some time to quickly book rooms at the current levels, but I wish they didn’t seem to constantly cost more even as benefits and amenities are cut back. This year, 214 hotels are going up while 158 are decreasing. If you have a reservation booked or book one before March 28th, the current levels will apply. If the rate decreases after the 28th, you will be refunded the difference in points (kudos to Hyatt for doing this proactively).
27 properties (including those from the Small Luxury Hotels of the World partnership) are shifting to become category eight hotels. These redemptions will now cost 35,000-45,000 points per night. These include:
- Alila Marea Beach Resort Encinitas
- Carmel Valley Ranch
- Hotel Martinez Cannes
- Hyatt Carmel Highlands
- Hyatt Centric Key West
- Park Hyatt Beaver Creek
- Park Hyatt Zurich
- The Lodge at Spruce Creek
- 7Pines Resort Sardinia
- Wentworth Mansion
- Ksar Char-Bagh
- Hotel Gajoen Tokyo
- Viceroy Bali
- Keemala
- Hotel Excelsior Dubrovnik
- Le Narcisse Blanc Hôtel & Spa
- Boheme Hotel
- Mykonos Riviera Hotel & Spa
- Ca’ Sagredo Hotel
- La Villa del Re
- Margutta 19
- Villa Spalletti Trivelli
- Boutique Hotel Villa Geba
- El Lodge Ski and Spa
- Nobu Hotel Marbella
- Grand Hotel Villa Castagnola
- Villa Orselina
The hotels above represent the largest increases. Hyatt is also increasing the categories for many of its all-inclusive properties under the Hyatt Ziva, Hyatt Zilara, Secrets, Breathless, Dreams, and others.
Anthony’s Take: Hotels change categories every year. It’s not a surprise to see so many go up as hotel occupancy has been very high the past year. The best we can do is plan ahead and book any trips that are likely to happen this year before the March 28th deadline.
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
