Update 5/19/26: Just a quick reminder that both Hyatt’s category changes and changes to how its overall award chart will work will be effective as of 8am CDT on May 20. In past years we’ve sometimes seen those changes go live slightly earlier than the specified time.
That means that it’d be best to make your reservations today, whether those are finalized plans or speculative bookings. Remember: if the award pricing drops once these changes have taken effect, Hyatt will proactively refund you the difference in points, so there isn’t really any risk to making speculative bookings provided you aren’t booking a rare property with a non-refundable award booking policy.
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Not content to simply obliterate its award chart, World of Hyatt today announced its award category changes for 2026. The good news is that “only” 136 properties are affected. The bad news is that 112 of them are going up in price. The really bad news is that Hyatt’s new, nearly dynamic award chart means the average point prices for the “unchanged” properties will almost certainly be going up as well.
The category and award chart changes will take effect on May 20th, 2026, at 8:00 am CDT. Several significant US category 4 hotels will be affected; if you have World of Hyatt free certificates, it’s worth taking a look and booking before the change.
The full list of properties changing category can be found here. Hotels worldwide are affected, and 5 will move to category 8 for the first time.
World of Hyatt award category changes
14 hotels will no longer be eligible for the Category 1-4 annual free night certificate.
This certificate is an annual benefit of the World of Hyatt credit card and is also awarded after staying 30 nights in a year or after staying at 5 different brands. 14 may not seem like a lot in the grand scheme of things, but the US is particularly tough with 9 properties moving to category 5, including:
- Hyatt Regency Seattle, the last category 1-4 left in the center of downtown Seattle.
- Hyatt Regency Jersey City on the Hudson, across the water from Manhattan
- Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort, a highly-regarded family favorite in Florida
- Hyatt Centric Las Olas Fort Lauderdale
- Hyatt Regency Coral Gables
- Hyatt Place Santa Cruz
On the flip side, only 2 US hotels are moving down into categories 1-4, for a net loss of 7 domestic 1-4 properties. It’s yet another blow to the utility of Hyatt’s free night certificate in North America.
5 hotels moving to category 8
Hyatt’s Category 8 continues to expand, and several properties will no longer be bookable with a Category 1-7 certificate. and the list includes some of the most aspirational Hyatt properties in the world:
- Andaz 5th Avenue
- Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort Spa and Casino
- Hôtel du Louvre, Paris
- Hotel Fluela Davos, Switzerland
- Park Hyatt London River Thames
It’s very disappointing to see these properties no longer bookable with certs and potentially costing up to 85,000 points a night in peak season with the new award charts. When Hyatt originally introduced a Category 8, it said it would be strictly confined to Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) properties, which were then part of World of Hyatt. It then started reclassifying its own properties as Cat. 8s in 2022, and it’s steadily grown since then. A substantial chunk of Hyatt’s most aspirational properties worldwide is now out of reach for the 1-7 free-night certificate awarded to members upon reaching top-tier Globalist status…including the Hyatt Regency Aruba?
Is there any good news?
Not in the US
Only 8 hotels are dropping a category in the US. It’s nice to see the Hyatt Centric in Austin and the Dream Hotel in Nashville now bookable with a Category 4 cert. But overall, the changes in the US are broadly negative. Over 60 properties are increasing category and, in a blow to mattress-runners everywhere, a whopping 19 Category 1 hotels are moving up.
Asia has some appealing options
Half of the 24 hotels going down in category are in Asia, and there are 3 new category 4 hotels, two of which are in relatively expensive locations:
- The Standard, Singapore
- Andaz Macau
- Hyatt Regency Dharamshala Resort
I’m thrilled to see a hotel in Singapore back in 1-4 cert territory. That said, it does feel like we’re reaching a bit for positive news, doesn’t it?
Book hotels that are increasing categories now
Hyatt has always been good about providing notice of these category changes and handling pre-existing award bookings. If you make a reservation before May 20th, you will lock in the current pricing for hotels increasing in category. If you make a reservation for a property that decreases in price, Hyatt will refund you the difference, so you’ve got nothing to lose by making prospective reservations now.
Bottom line
This is a smaller change than many World of Hyatt category adjustments. Despite the size, it’s a tough one, especially when combined with the upcoming award chart changes. The pillaging of US category 4s continues, and this announcement is a tough one for folks who find value (or elite nights) at domestic category 1 properties. Spend those Hyatt points while ye may.
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I have been seeing numerous reports of an even more disturbing trend with respect to post-devaluation points prices is *availability seems to be hugely lower for many popular hotels*. I’ve seen anecdotal reports online and in my own searches I’m seeing it. One of the justifications Hyatt made for the change was that expanding the range of allowable prices would potentially open up more points availability, but I’m seeing MASSIVELY reduced availability for some hotels. For example, Hyatt Centric Ginza – one of my favorite Tokyo hotels – decently priced points-wise, I cannot find a SINGLE example of a two-night stay available to book a standard room at this hotel, no matter how far out I search. We just booked a stay a few months from now before the devaluation for two nights for a standard king, and it was easy to find availability – now, the ONLY points availability I see for this hotel (I’ve tried many dates from close-in to far away) – only suites available. For premium suites the points price is actually not that bad – 50K – 60K points/night, but I find their regular king rooms very nice and there is now no way to book that for a couple of nights. I also tried a few other Tokyo hotels and found similarly limited points availability.
On the other hand, the Andaz Maui, a spectacular resort hotel, does seem to have plenty of standard room availability and it is now a Cat 8 but I see lots of rooms available for 45K points/night. Not exactly cheap but it’s not at the stratospheric end of the chart.
Let’s hope the lack of standard room availability at some hotels is a temporary glitch, and not a sign that Hyatt has signed off on hotels using availability games as a way of avoiding making standard rooms available.
There was a massive booking spree over the last couple of weeks that is most likely at least partially to blame for the dip in availability, especially in popular locations like Tokyo.
Yesterday, Hyatt’s booking engine was erroring out due to the volume of activity.
Possibly, but I’ve seen reports that claim it’s literally before/after – lots of availability a couple of days ago, no availability today. In my case I looked at least at fifteen different dates, all of which had premium suite availability but no standard room availability. Thankfully this isn’t the case for every hotel internationally, but Tokyo seems particularly bad right now.
WOH card is still a keeper since I use it for repositioning airport hotel stays and the annual fee is less than a room rate. I’ve never put high spend on the card as there are much better cards for that. I’m all in on Hilton. Much better world-wide hotel selection and the FNA’s are uncapped. Love the SLH via Hilton as well.
Booked Hyatt Regency Cape Town last night for 8,500 points per night, it’s already up to 14,000 points for the same night.
Crazy, I don’t even want to look!! Happy I’ve been in this game for years and not just starting.
First look at the changes: Category 2 hotel was 8k points at 730am EST, and is 10k points at 905am EST.
Cash price is $251, giving me 2.5cpp. Obviously this is just one example, but if this is the trend for this particular hotel (where I spend most of my Hyatt points), I won’t be too upset.
LOL… People crying and cancelling their cards like it’s the end of the world.. wait.
Anyways, Some of the other programs are so shitty, that even when Hyatt goes to “shit”, it’s still smells better than the rest.
Sure. Enjoy your 1-4 certificate from the WOH credit card which gives you lowly Discoverist status for which you’ll be lucky to get even a mediocre upgrade . While you stay way out in the boondocks in say, the Hyatt Tokyo Bay or in Hyatt Yokohama, with no breakfast benefit or lounge access, I’ll keep my Hilton Aspire card and use the FRN to stay at the Conrad Tokyo with free breakfast and access to their executive lounge using the Diamond status I get from the card. Face it. The WOH card from Chase is crap compared to other hotel cards like the Amex Aspire card. What’s the point of keeping it open and keeping a Chase slot occupied when I can cancel it and use that Chase slot to apply for a much better Chase card? If someone has several Chase cards already like me, it’s just not worth keeping that card open anymore where it could be preventing you from getting a better Chase card.
The best benefit of discovered is guaranteed 2pm late checkout
Explorist every year. Stayed at the Hyatt Regency in Tokyo last year. Going back next year. I don’t wait for cert to travel. LMFAO
We were talking about the WOH card and comparing its weak benefits and how the 1-4 certificate is getting more and more worthless every year and how its not worth keep a Chase slot taken for it, not about your status right? And by the way, Hyatt Regency Tokyo is category 5 now so guess you won’t be using the 1-4 certificate to stay there anymore.Ha! Have fun in Yokohama. L”my”FAO
Didn’t use cert last year, already booked for next year. next..
Still off topic which was about the credit card, its weak and getting much weaker certificate, the lame benefits compared to other premium hotel cards, and how it isn’t worth taking up a precious Chase slot anymore. Next….
Canceled my WOH card last year after holding it for over 10 years. Wife still has hers but thinking of canceling that as well when the fee hits this year. Compared to the Hilton certificates, the Hyatt certificates are really weak and getting much harder to use. I wonder how long before Hilton nerfs their certificates. I still remember the gold old days when IHG certificates also had no limit and I could get hotels like the Intercontinental Boston or Intercontinental Park Lane with the free nights. Even Hyatt long ago was the same. I stayed 4 nights at the Park Hyatt Tokyo using their certificates several years ago.Now I’m lucky to find even an airport hotel in most major cities with their 1-4 certificate.
100%. Hilton FNC still has real value. Hyatt Cat 1-4 certs are dead.
Closing my WOH Chase card. Cat 1-4 is dead, unless you like a Hyatt Place off I-95 in Florence, SC.
Or Hyatt House BWI
Oh, darn, shoulda kept it open… not.
Funny! I made a booking a couple of days ago for two nights next month at that HP Florence. It went from 6500 to 6000/night, so I rebooked. In laws live a few miles away from there.
I’ve never seen any availability at the Hotel de Louvre in Paris.
whats everyone booking? just got Hyatt Regency Kotor hot tub suite booked for next year
HR Lisbon. Not because it’s “aspirational”, but because it fits well w/ what i need.
HR Lisbon was great! We got an upgraded suite with a washer/dryer and one of the front desk attendents was amazing! I think his name was Rafeal, perhaps? He provided incredible customer service.
Miraval.
If I book a hotel now that is actually going down in category level will it automatically refund me the points?
Yep. If it doesn’t automatically, you can contact Hyatt and they’ll do it manually.
Thats a strange auto? 😀
Hyatt House Shibuya going to a cat 6 is absolute madness, that hotel was reasonable when it was a 4 but in no way does it justify being so high anymore, other than trying to take advantage of overtourism and robbing people of their points. The Tokyo Bay property also going to a 4 is annoying, it’s really just a Tokyo Disney hotel and nothing else and there are much better placed hotels in the area not even counting the ones on the monorail so the 3 was fairly reasonable. I wonder if this is just taking advantage that it’s the only hotel with the name ‘Tokyo’ (hotel is not in Tokyo) that can be booked with a cert.
The Jersey hotel is also really painful, when I go into the City that was my mainstay, you could get insane value out of those certificates by staying there and taking the train in.
Well, at least Toronto wasn’t touched.
I never understood the craziness even before the category change. I stayed at the Regency and enjoyed the best breakfast there. They can keep their ‘house’ and change it Cat 8 of they want.
Oh man, the Hyatt regency coral gables and grand cypress moving to category 5 really sinks my battleship. Those moves may be the final nails in the coffin for me continuing to pursue globalist or being loyal to hyatt. Such a bummer.
I suspect that the only reason this very bad news is not a whole lot worse this year is that now Hyatt can charge huge amounts of points within a category anyway when they feel like it. To make things even more painful, Hyatt has said that the big devaluations haven’t even hit yet this year, so next year on should actually be much worse.
I’m basically committed to Hyatt for this year with 60+ nights booked or already stayed but it’s not looking good for me continuing to be loyal to Hyatt when they’re increasingly being less loyal back.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill: World of Hyatt is now the worst hotel loyalty program, except for all the other ones.
That may be so but this is definitely not their finest hour.
An iron curtain has fallen over points and miles
Yep, pretty much over so far as I can see. If you ever wanted to come to LEX for our Horse and Bourbon DO, where we tour around and have lots of points/miles talk, October is the time and you should book today. Details at Flyertalk Community Buzz.