Update 3/18/25: Just a quick reminder that these World of Hyatt category changes will be going in to force on Tuesday March 25, 2025 at 9am ET. If you’re interested in booking a stay at any of the properties that’ll be going up on price, you’ll therefore need to do that ASAP if you want to lock in the lower redemption rate.
From what I can remember of past changes like these, Hyatt sometimes implements the changes a little ahead of schedule. I’d therefore be wary about waiting until 8:50am ET on March 25 to make your booking(s) in case the prices jump before 9am on the dot.
~
Every March, World of Hyatt revalues the award pricing for its hotels, moving properties up or down a category (or two in rare circumstances). Hyatt has today announced changes to its program that will take effect from March 25, 2025.
There’s some minor good news with this latest revaluation/devaluation, but the changes are going to be brutal for anyone looking to mattress run their way to Globalist status, as well as for those who earn category 1-4 and category 1-7 free night certificates.
You can find the full list of category changes here. In total, 151 properties will be changing. 118 will be increasing in price, while 33 will be decreasing. That means that almost 80% of the changes involve an award pricing increase, but note that only ~15% of World of Hyatt hotels overall are being affected one way or another.
Here’s a summary of the most notable changes.
Harder mattress running
One of the biggest changes is that there’s a significant number of properties increasing from category 1 to category 2. There are 41 of those worldwide, with 22 of those being in the US.
Some areas are particularly badly hit. Detroit is one such area, as all three of its category 1 properties will be moving to category 2. Dallas/Fort Worth is another, with five properties increasing in price, while the Houston area has three category 1 hotels becoming more expensive. In Germany, Frankfurt and Dusseldorf will each have two of their properties becoming category 2 locations from March 25.
This is particularly bad news for anyone looking to mattress run their way to Globalist status at the end of the year. Many people who need a few more elite night credits to hit 60 nights for the year (and thus earn Globalist status) will book a stay at a category 1 property as a low cost way of earning those credits. With these changes, 22 hotels in the US will go from costing 3,500-6,500 points per night to costing 6,500-9,500 points per night depending on if it’s at off-peak, standard or peak pricing. Having those hotels now cost 3,000 points more per night could have a big impact on the economics of mattress running and could make it more worthwhile booking a cash rate rather than an award night.
Fewer category 4 hotels
Hyatt’s most common type of free night certificate is one that can be redeemed at properties falling in to categories 1-4. These can be earned in a number of ways such as credit card renewals, spending $15,000 on a Hyatt personal card, earning 30 elite night credits and through the Brand Explorer feature.
Over the years, Hyatt has steadily chipped away at the number of hotels at which you can redeem those certificates for good value and that’s once again the case for 2025. Thankfully the overall impact isn’t as pronounced as the category 1 to 2 changes. This year, 11 properties will be going up from category 4 to 5, while 6 properties will decrease from category 5 to 4 – a net loss of five hotels.
The category 4 losses are:
- Hyatt Regency Newport Beach, CA
- Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport, FL
- The Bellevue Hotel, PA
- Hyatt Place Fort Worth Historic Stockyards, TX
- Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui
- Hyatt House Tokyo Shibuya, Japan
- Hyatt Regency Tokyo, Japan
- Hyatt Regency Koh Samui, Thailand
- Hyatt Regency Vancouver, Canada
- Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile, France
- Hyatt Centric The Liberties Dublin, Ireland
There are some big losses there, particularly the Hyatt Regency properties in Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo and the Hyatt Centric in Dublin.
Here’s a list of the hotels that will be newly-bookable with a category 1-4 free night certificate:
- Hotel Figueroa, CA
- Dream South Beach, FL
- Thompson Atlanta – Buckhead, GA
- Park Hyatt Doha, Qatar
- Grand Hyatt Sanya Haitang Bay Resort and Spa, China
- Grand Hyatt Jeju, South Korea
These reductions don’t really make up for the category 4 properties that are going up to category 5, but it is nice to have another Park Hyatt bookable with a free night certificate.
Fewer category 7 properties
The other type of free night certificate issued by Hyatt is one that can be redeemed at category 1-7 properties. In the past, that meant you could redeem those certificate at any Hyatt worldwide, but a few years ago the World of Hyatt program introduced a category 8 level.
Initially, only a handful of properties were placed in that category, but its number has slowly increased over the last few years and 2025 is no exception. There will be zero hotels dropping from category 8 to 7, but there will be six going up to category 8:
- Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa, HI
- Andaz Tokyo Toranomon Hills, Japan
- Grand Hyatt Tokyo, Japan
- Park Hyatt Tokyo, Japan
- Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort, Costa Rica
- IL Tornabuoni Hotel, Italy
For anyone wanting to use free night certificates in Tokyo, this is particularly awful news. It’s also disappointing seeing the Grand Hyatt Kauai moving up to category 8 as that’s one of the best properties in the US.
It’s also sad to see the Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort moving up to category 8. This used to be a category 4 hotel and was widely regarded at the time as being one of the best uses of a category 1-4 free night certificate. Having this now not be bookable even with a category 1-7 certificate is wild.
Other notable changes
With 151 hotels moving up or down a category, there are too many changes to list here individually. However, here are a few other adjustments that caught my eye.
- Grand Hyatt at SFO – this is going up from category 5 to 6. This is a very popular hotel for people to stay at when flying in or out of San Francisco due to the ease with which you can access the terminal. It’s now becoming worse value for points.
- Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa – somewhat surprisingly (given the cost of hotels in Hawaii), this hotel will be dropping from category 7 to 6. This and the Grand Hyatt Kauai used to both be category 7 locations, so there’ll now be a two category disparity between them seeing as the Grand Hyatt Kauai is going up to category 8. Having stayed at both of them a couple of months ago, this seems fair as the Grand Hyatt Kauai was a significantly better experience than the Hyatt Regency in Maui.
- Hyatt Regency Pittsburgh International Airport – this is another very convenient airport hotel that’s only a short walk from the terminal, so it’s a shame this is going up in price.
- Grand Hyatt Bali and Hyatt Regency Bali – these properties fluctuated between categories 1 and 2 for several years, but disappointingly both will now be going up to category 3.
Silver Lining
As I’ve mentioned repeatedly already, there are some real hits to the World of Hyatt program here, particularly when it comes to free night certificates and category 1 properties.
However, it isn’t all bad news. For starters, Hyatt is maintaining its award chart overall. There’s no new category 9 and there’s no increase in the number of points required for each of the category levels. In a world where nearly every hotel loyalty program has moved to dynamic pricing, it’s wonderful that there’s currently due to be no expansion of that with Hyatt.
Hyatt also deserves credit for the transparent, up-front and customer-friendly way that they conduct these changes every year. While many loyalty programs conduct devaluations overnight with no notice, Hyatt instead announces their annual revaluations a month ahead of time, providing the list of changes in an easily viewable method rather than trying to obfuscate the changes.
Providing a month’s notice of these changes therefore gives you plenty of time to book award nights at hotels that will be going up in price from March 25. If you book those stays before March 25, once March 25 comes you won’t be charged the difference. In a pro-consumer move though, if you book a stay now for a property that will be moving down a category, Hyatt will proactively refund you the additional points post-March 25 without you needing to lift a finger to rebook your stay.
Quick Tips
As mentioned above, if you notice that one or more hotels that you want to book a stay at will be going up in price towards the end of March, it’s worth booking it now to lock in the lower award pricing.
For properties going down in price, it might be worth doing the same thing. With award pricing at those hotels becoming cheaper, they could become more popular with World of Hyatt members, reducing the award availability from March 25.
If you think you might need to conduct a mattress run towards the end of the year, it could also be worth booking stays right now if the hotel closest to you that you normally use will be going up from category 1 to 2. If that’s your plan, it’d be worth booking the stays in one night increments so that you can cancel one or more of those nights if they later end up not being needed.
Question
What are your thoughts on these changes? Does it impact on your loyalty to Hyatt? Will the loss of some of the category 4 hotels affect your willingness to renew your Hyatt credit card? Let us know in the comments below.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
I wonder how this works on the back end. Do you know if hotels have any control over their category?
“Wednesday March 25, 2025 at 9am ET” should be Tuesday. So book by Monday night, or stupid early Tuesday morning.
You’re right, thanks for spotting that – just fixed it.
Can you clarify why it’s recommended to book a potential mattress run stay as separate individual nights? If I book a five night stay but need to cancel just one night later, wouldn’t Hyatt let me do that (at least over the phone)?
Not necessarily. If you make a change like that, it might also reprice at the new higher price, so it’s safest to book it as separate one night stays.
Gotcha. Thanks. Though I can’t imagine such an approach by Hyatt not really upsetting a lot of people, (Forget mattress runners, just regular bookings when someone needs to cancel a night for a longer stay. To be told that doing so will cause all of the other already booked nights to suddenly be repriced upwards? Yikes.)
I’m able to confirm that what Stephen suggested above is exactly right. Just called Hyatt, and they confirmed that if you have a multi-night booking for later in the year, and then try to cancel a night, they will cancel the entire booking and rebook for the reduced number of nights, based on what the then-current award price is at the time of making the change. Yikes!
I just updated a 10-night potential mattress run booking for December to ten 1-night bookings. Was a hassle but glad for the guidance, Stephen!
From what I can tell, it appears that the points redemption price changes have already taken place.
Last year, Hyatt would honor the booked price after the category change dates (and refund the difference if the hotel went down after the adjustment).
This year, it looks like you will get the old price if you book your stay for before 3/25 and the new price if you book your stay for after 3/25. All this is to say that I don’t think there is any price advantage in booking now vs. later.
Do you have any specific examples? I just checked and a hotel that’ll be going up a category is still showing the existing pricing for a stay in May.
Over the weekend, I booked the Grand Hyatt Kauai for later in the year. I noticed the cost was for 35,000 points (for a pool suite) for a near-time booking, but they were charging 50,000 points for the same room in November.
Perhaps this behavior isn’t system-wide? I may reconsider my travel plans to get more value for my points…
I suspect you were seeing Premium Suite availability for an off-peak period. It’s moving up to being a Category 8 property and 50k per night isn’t the cost for a standard room at that level.
Thanks Stephen.
I’m not exactly sure what’s going on — I think I encountered some funny business with their website (it wouldn’t be the first time, especially when trying to book late on weekends, way outside of the regular hours of operation).
For example…
Anyways, thanks for following up on this. I’ll keep my eyes open for opportunities to book my trips at the older category pricing while we still have time.
Yep, just checked and a pool suite is a premium suite which costs 50k per night – that’s the current category 7 pricing. I’m not sure how you’d be seeing 35k pricing for a premium suite – maybe it was showing a points + cash rate for the near term booking as category 7 premium suite peak pricing is 35k + cash
Do you know when Hyatt removed points calender at the top of the page when booking a hotel ?
It should still be there. It might be that the particular property you’ve checked doesn’t have it there right now for some reason, but I just checked and it’s appearing for me at the hotel I looked at.
Three hotels I looked at today didn’t have the calendar any more.
The issue for Hyatt is a limited middle to high end footprint aside from Hyatt Place/House in the US, and it is not an overly competitive hotel earning program except for those looking to mattress run or transfer a lot of UR points from Chase. Like many in the mile and points game, I have had some amazing Hyatt PPP redemption values thanks to the miles and points game, but I think a larger % of people redeeming Hyatt points via Chase UR do so at outsized value as compared to Marriott or Hilton. As a result, the Hyatt program is not nearly as profitable for the brand due to having to pay the average daily rate to the applicable hoteliers. This has led to the ever increasing Hyatt award prices chart changes, the loss of valuable partnerships with MGM & Small Luxury Hotels (SLH), and the poor value of the new Mr. & Mrs. Smith partnership. I don’t travel more than a few weeks a year internationally, so Hyatt Globalists isn’t worth it to me as compared to flexibility. For a small minority Globalist provides outsized benefits, for a lot of others it is basically pulling the wool over their eyes.
Honestly I would be fine with Chase to Hyatt being 3:2 if it means Hyatt is more profitable and reduces these devals.
A lot of what you say is true. There is little to no value in USA Hyatt Places: I personally wouldn’t spend my money at them. And most of Hyatt’s “best” USA properties are now very expensive on points. Unless you are a VERY frequent traveller (and, especially, stay in nice more affordable overseas Hyatts), it’s probably not worth the effort to retain Globalist status — even if you are adept at using Chase UR to pay for your stays.
Iowa is losing our only Cat. 1 . . . 🙁
The BS thing about the Park Hyatt Tokyo changing categories, is that it is under closure for 17 months until October 2025. So it is going massive (presumably awesome renovations) and will go from 7 to 8 category. SO will have to dump a boatload of points vs my 1-7 cert :/
The doubly annoying thing is that you still can’t book it yet. So, they announced the change, but there’s nothing we can do about it! I was hoping to snag a couple nights in October or November, alas.
[…] property adjustment devaluation again. World of Hyatt just keeps pushing them up and up and up: Hyatt’s 2025 category changes: Particularly bad for mattress running & free night certificates. Three Category 1 hotels near me in the Southeast Michigan Detroit area are moving up to Category […]
[…] are plenty of blogs that give a comprehensive review of the changes, but this year, seven changes really stood out to […]
Listen though, I usually stay at breathless Montego bay, last change it went up to 30k a night (for the worst standard room) now it’s going to 40k and it’s just not worth that. I don’t play credit card point games I just save points to try and get a deal. It’s a shame but honestly Hyatt inclusive has went down enough in service, food and overall resort that it’s worth looking into other brands.
A net loss of Cat 4 properties always hurts the value of those certs. The particular properties though sting quite a bit as it eliminates the use of the certs in certain cities or countries entirely. It’s now no longer possible to book any Hyatt property with a Cat 1 – 4 cert in:
The Orlando airport is also annoying for staying within terminal, but there are two Cat 2 properties just outside the airport so not a huge loss there.
Really doesn’t help the complaints about Hyatt’s footprint problem. There are a few Mr & Mrs Smith properties in these areas but they need to be available and as we know are all at mediocre redemption rates.
Grand Hyatt Kauai is very nice, the Club Room is much better than Maui. But the Maui Regency was just raised in points required 2 years ago and now they are dropping it back? Why the flip flop. I will return to both.
The Bellevue in Philadelphia is a hard sell. I enjoyed the renovated breakfast room at the top of the building but the room service breakfast I ordered was the worst thing I had all year. I ordered multiple things, all inedible. The rooms are typical of a historic hotel, lots of odd worn out things. It is also one of the Hyatts where they quietly closed the pool but kept and now raised their classification. Come on. I have been staying at the Hyatt Centric when in Philly. They both leave alot to be desired. I have travel here for work but would never go out of my way to visit these hotels.
Hyatt Regency Tokyo is a big loss for me. Hyatt House Shibuya I’m not surprised, considering the crazy cash prices I’ve seen for that hotel. The milestone certs being good for only 6 months was already making me rethink my race to Globalist each year. Never mind the small footprint and no real integration of the new chains, like Mr&Mrs Smith. Thinking my spend is better served with Hilton cards. FNCs valid for one year and any standard room. Reconsidering my Hyatt cards also.
I might drop my Hyatt card as in the past I’ve used my free annual night at the Regency Tokyo. Although with the renovation, I’m not surprised it’s increasing. It’sa wonderful hotel to stay at.