Venetian and Palazzo joining World of Hyatt

A press release came out yesterday from World of Hyatt and the Venetian & Palazzo in Las Vegas announcing a partnership that will enable the ability to earn and use points on stays at both properties in the future. We don’t yet know exactly when this will begin, but I think this is a an exciting development — though one that may be both good and disappointing at the same time.

Venetian and Palazzo leaving IHG, joining Hyatt

Venetian and Palazzo have had a partnership with IHG for years. That partnership is coming to an end at the end of this year. We don’t know when the partnership with Hyatt begins, but the smart money is on “early 2025”.

We don’t yet have a ton of detail about what the partnership will look like. The press releases notes that World of Hyatt members and meeting planners will soon “be able to earn and redeem loyalty points on qualifying stays, earn credit toward the Brand Explorer Award and, for World of Hyatt elite members, enjoy additional on-property benefits.”

We don’t yet know what those on-property benefits will be, but there is some hint at status matching:

As part of this long-term licensing agreement, World of Hyatt will, in the future, offer elite Venetian Rewards members benefits within World of Hyatt.

My impression is that part of the impetus here is to encourage event planning, which makes sense given the location.

This might be good-ish news for weekends/peak times

My initial reaction was that I expected award rates would likely be unattractive. The Venetian and Palazzo certainly market themselves as upscale properties with large, opulent rooms (Note: I’ve loved the casino and resort property since my first visit when I turned 21 years old, but I have not stayed the night at either property. However, the standard rooms at Venetian have long been known for their large size and friends who have stayed recently report being very happy with the property). Based on that and the recently-completed “$1.5 billion” renovation, I would expect the property would be priced such that it would often be an unattractive deal from an award standpoint. That had mostly been the case with IHG.

However, Las Vegas has long been incredibly expensive over the weekend and is often times very reasonably-priced during the week (from a room rate standpoint — food and entertainment have certainly gotten expensive! Long gone are the days of Westward Ho’s $0.99 3/4lb hot dog or Riviera’s $1.99 late night all-you-can-eat pancakes). I therefore thought that this partnership may be very useful for weekends, when Hyatt’s top-end award pricing could still be reasonable as compared to cash rates, particularly when there are major events in town.

This might be good news for those who love cheap Rio nights

Rio Las Vegas became affiliated with Hyatt over the last year or so and has become well-known for its very cheap midweek rates as an opportunity to pick up cheap elite-qualifying nights with Hyatt. From an award standpoint, Rio is typically only attractive on the weekends (and even then not always as compared to cash rates).

However, if I could imagine Hyatt’s partnership with the Venetian and Palazzo applying some downward pressure on Rio. Right now, the draws at Rio for World of Hyatt members are the cheap rates and the chance to collect World of Hyatt elite nights while visiting Las Vegas (something many of us took for granted for years and years thanks to the now-gone MGM partnership!). If Venetian and Palazzo are reasonably-priced — whether at cash rates for mid-week stays or award stays on weekends — Rio might have to get even cheaper yet to attract members to book away from the strip. Could we see that pressure push Rio down to Category 2? I think it’s not impossible. On the one hand, Venetian and Rio are likely drawing from different customer bases in general, but if a room at Rio is $50 or one at Venetian is $150 or $200 (I’ve sometimes seen it dip that low at off-peak times), Rio will certainly still draw those customers looking for the cheapest Hyatt-qualifying rates, but they will almost certainly lose some segment of Hyatt members who both want elite nights while in Las Vegas and a more upscale hotel. Those members may have previously only chosen Rio to pick up elite nights (some of them in fact check in at Rio but actually stay somewhere else and could now potentially only have to check in at one property).

Do I think it’s likely that Rio will drop a category? Certainly not right away. But in 2026 and beyond, I won’t be surprised if they need to do something if they want to try to attract World of Hyatt members who would be tempted to choose The Venetian / Palazzo.

But I’m worried this might be a nothingburger

Unfortunately, all of the above may be a pipe dream.

The announcement yesterday said nothing of World of Hyatt category. It did note that The Venetian and Palazzo would qualify separately for Brand Explorer. Unfortunately, that gives me more skepticism than excitement.

That’s because by treating Venetian and Palazzo as some sort of separate entity instead of part of the “Unbound Collection” (remember that Ocean Resort in Atlantic City used to be a Hyatt property in the Unbound collection!) or some other existing “indie” sort of brand, I think there is a greater possibility that we’ll see Venetian and Palazzo get the Mr. & Mrs. Smith treatment.

That is to say that I am concerned that we’ll see fully dynamic award pricing at these properties that is completely unchained from the award chart like with do with Mr. & Mrs. Smith. If that happens, I expect (just like with Mr and Mrs Smith), points will yield poor value that makes for highly unattractive award redemptions. If that is indeed what happens, it will be a colossal disappointment to see Hyatt take a further step away from the strength of its award chart.

Hyatt’s award chart is indeed the biggest reason to choose them over competitors with much larger footprints (like Marriott, which has a huge footprint in Las Vegas with the MGM partnership or Hilton which has a number of Las Vegas options as well). It’ll be a shame if these properties depart the award chart standards.

It is further concerning that the announcement noted elite benefits but included no specificity as to what they will include. Specifically, I would have liked to have seen a mention of standard Hyatt elite benefits and how they will be applied here. While Hyatt’s partnership with MGM didn’t include elite benefits (although it did include matching Explorist and Globalist to MGM Gold, which included things like waived resort fees and complimentary valet parking), I’d certainly like to see something closer to standard Hyatt benefits.

For those wondering what a status match could entail, it’s worth mentioning that the Venetian did recently offer a status match to its newly revamped loyalty program, but it didn’t come with any benefits like what we’ve seen in terms of free cruises and/or dining and spa credits at other casino resorts.

There is obviously the chance that I’m wrong about some of this or that I’m right about a lot of it but the partnership still works out well for some. We’ve certainly seen some attractive Fine Hotels & Resorts rates at The Venetian this year and if those rates earn World of Hyatt elite credit, that could be a way to get elite-like benefits such as free breakfast and late checkout and potentially also earn World of Hyatt credit, though we saw that double dip eventually get killed through the MGM partnership. We’ll see what happens here.

And truth be told, I’ve always loved visiting the Venetian. Ever since my first visits to Las Vegas as more than 20 years ago, I’ve enjoyed the aesthetic of the casino (less so the fake Venice than the atmosphere of the casino itself). I’ve long said that if I’m going to lose money in a casino, I’d prefer it to be one where I enjoy sitting at the table in a comfy chair and where the ambiance matches my taste. The Venetian has always been that type of spot for me and it is a place I have really enjoyed playing poker on occasion (including a final table appearance in one of their smaller Deepstack Series events in 2023). It’s a place I’ve always wanted to stay but have never chosen specifically because I spent most of the last decade loyal to MGM for Hyatt elite night credit (and in more recent times because I’ve leveraged the Hilton partnerships just up the road at Resorts World). If I’m being honest with myself, I imagine that I’ll probably stay at Venetian on my next trip after this partnership launches even if the Hyatt partnership ends up being disappointingly executed — and that’s probably why it will be.

Speaking of when the partnership launches, the announcement left out detail on that, so we’re left waiting to see when we know more.

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