Hyatt’s Destination brand is made up of Destination hotels & resorts and Destination Residences vacation rentals. Destination hotels were already bookable with Hyatt points. Previously, though, most Destination Residences were either not bookable with points or the room types that were bookable with points were extremely limited. That’s starting to change. It is now possible to book Destination Residences’ condos with points: mostly in Colorado and Hawaii so far.
New Redemption Options
Hyatt offers up to four room types for award bookings at their hotels:
- Standard Room
- Regency/Grand Club Room (these are basically the same as standard rooms but include hotel lounge access)
- Standard Suite
- Premium Suite
Now, for the purpose of booking vacation rental properties, they’ve introduced the concept of a “Premium Room”. These appear to be priced the same as Regency/Grand Club rooms. After looking at a number of properties, I found that most mapped the room types as follows:
- Standard Room: A studio or 1 bedroom unit.
- Premium Room: A one or two bedroom unit, usually with a view or other desirable feature.
- Standard Suite: A two or three bedroom unit
- Premium Suite: A two, three, or four bedroom unit, usually with a view or other desirable feature.
Updated Award Chart
The following chart shows current point prices for free nights at Hyatt hotels, resorts, and residences. The column between “Standard Room” and “Standard Suite” shows the award price of Premium Rooms when available or club rooms at Hyatt Regency and Grand Hyatt properties:
Note that the above award chart will not display correctly within an email client. Please view this post in a web browser instead (click here to open this post in a browser).
Hyatt’s Destination Residences: A dangerous precedent?
View from the Wing points out that some Destination by Hyatt Residences do not have any standard rooms defined. Instead, their base units are premium rooms or suites. He argues that this is setting a dangerous precedent because, until now, even all-suite properties had suites that were classified as standard rooms for the purpose of award pricing. His worry, I think, is that this may become a way for properties to charge higher award prices for their rooms.
Personally, I’m not worried about it. Perhaps I’m being naïve, but here are my thoughts about it:
- It’s totally reasonable for Destination Residences to work differently. Some Residences appear to be much more like entire houses than hotel rooms. I think its fair for such units to be classified in a higher category than “standard room”.
- The World of Hyatt program has demonstrated time and again good faith towards their members. I’m willing to bet that they’ll continue to handle all-suites resorts more like hotels, with standard room awards, rather than like vacation rentals.
- I love that Hyatt found a way to map multi-bedroom vacation rentals into their existing award pricing scheme. It gives us many more options for using points at properties that otherwise wouldn’t be accessible at all!
- I don’t know whether Hyatt will extend the “premium room” concept to their hotel brands. If so, this could be a good thing: it would mean, for example, that we might be able to book ocean-front rooms at resorts that don’t currently classify them as standard rooms. But it could also backfire if/when some resorts reclassify a number of their standard rooms as premium rooms.
Participating Destination by Hyatt Residences
Earlier this year, Hyatt introduced expanded redemption options at a small number of Destination by Hyatt residences:
- Resort at Squaw Creek in Olympic Valley, California
- The Lodge at Spruce Peak in Stowe, Vermont
- Vail Residences at Cascade Village in Vail, Colorado
Apparently the above additions went well because Hyatt has now announced many more Destination by Hyatt residences with expanded redemption options:
Property | Location | Award Options | Award Category |
---|---|---|---|
Christiania Condominiums | Vail, CO |
Standard Room Premium Room Standard Suite Premium Suite |
7 |
Christiania Lodge | Vail, CO |
Standard Room Premium Room |
7 |
Vantage Point | Vail, CO |
Premium Room Standard Suite Premium Suite |
6 |
The Landmark | Vail, CO |
Standard Room Premium Room Standard Suite Premium Suite |
7 |
Westwind | Vail, CO |
Premium Room Standard Suite |
6 |
Vail 21 | Vail, CO |
Premium Room Standard Suite |
7 |
Enzian | Vail, CO |
Standard Suite Premium Suite |
7 |
Willows | Snowmass Village, CO | Standard Room | 6 |
Countryside at Snowmass | Snowmass Village, CO | Premium Suite | 7 |
Stonebridge Inn | Snowmass Village, CO |
Standard Room Premium Room Standard Suite |
7 |
Aspenwood | Snowmass Village, CO |
Standard Room Premium Room |
6 |
Capitol Peak Lodge | Snowmass Village, CO |
Standard Room Premium Room Standard Suite |
7 |
Terracehouse | Snowmass Village, CO | Premium Room | 7 |
Lichenhearth | Snowmass Village, CO |
Standard Room Premium Room |
5 |
Shadowbrook | Snowmass Village, CO |
Standard Suite Premium Suite |
7 |
Top of the Village | Snowmass Village, CO |
Premium Room Standard Suite Premium Suite |
7 |
Interlude | Snowmass Village, CO |
Premium Room Standard Suite |
8 |
Villas at Snowmass Club | Snowmass Village, CO |
Standard Room Premium Room Standard Suite Premium Suite |
7 |
Tamarack Townhomes | Snowmass Village, CO |
Premium Room Standard Suite |
7 |
Kaanapali Alii Resort | Lahaina, HI |
Standard Room Premium Room Standard Suite Premium Suite |
7 |
Lahaina Shores Beach Resort | Lahaina, HI |
Standard Room Premium Room Standard Suite Premium Suite |
4 |
Puunoa Beach Estates | Maui, HI |
Standard Suite Premium Suite |
7 |
The Islands at Mauna Lani | Waimea, HI |
Standard Suite Premium Suite |
6 |
Mauna Lani Point | Waimea, HI |
Standard Room Premium Room Standard Suite Premium Suite |
6 |
The Lodge at Kukui’ula | Koloa, HI |
Standard Room Standard Suite Premium Suite |
8 |
Wailea Beach Villas | Kihei, HI |
Standard Suite Premium Suite |
8 |
Polo Beach Club | Kihei, HI |
Premium Room Standard Suite |
7 |
Wailea Grand Champions | Wailea, HI |
Standard Room Premium Room |
5 |
Ekahi Vacation Condos | Kihei, HI |
Standard Room Premium Room Standard Suite |
5 |
Makena Surf Resort | Kihei, HI |
Standard Suite Premium Suite |
7 |
Wailea Ekolu Village | Kihei, HI |
Standard Room Premium Room |
5 |
Wailea Elua Village | Kihei, HI |
Standard Room Premium Room Standard Suite Premium Suite |
7 |
Your thoughts?
What do you think of the latest changes? Are you excited by the new possibilities? Are you worried about how this will effect award pricing elsewhere? Please comment below.
I just tried to book lodge at kukul’ula with Hyatt points and was told by numerous people that if I cancel 30 days out they will refund all my points but charge me the prevailing rate on that day for all the days I was to stay there. So if I book with 400k points and cancel 30 days prior, they will give me my points back but charge me $17,206. This is not something I’ve seen before so it just sounds insane to me. Who in their right mind would do this!?
if I cancel more than 30 days out, they give me my points back and charge me the prevailing rate for one night on the day of cancellation = currently $2000+. Seems insane.
You’re better of finding a needle in a haystack than finding a room bookable with points at some of these hotels.
Those looking to extract needles from haystacks would do well to invest in large magnets
This is incredible in Maui! Some great value for 2 bedroom condos with points.
I am sure there are some sweet spots to be had here, but from an initial browse many of these CO properties appear to offer mediocre value compared to the cash price (even during peak skiing season). Things seem more appealing for the HI properties.
It looks like stonebridge inn jumped from a cat 4 to a cat 7. I had used free cat 4 certs there for christmas
I saw that too, and have a few cat 4 cert that I wanted to use there to ski Snowmass next winter. Wondering if this is mistake due to the refresh? Prices in Jan 2022 are ~$220/nt, which is similar to last winter. Not remotely a good value doubling to 30k. Borderline at 15k if not using a cert. Rooms are $350 over Christmas, so just around $1.2 cents/pt at best. And obviously a cat 4 cert does not work.
Other Destination condos in vail and snowmass seem to be about 1.3-1.5 cents/pt at best during the winter. While not the best value, the option of getting a 2-3 bedroom on points is nice, I guess.
The Westin in Snowmass now costs mucho Marriott points – not really any good values there for skiing on points any one.
The Vail options are attractive for larger groups. 25000 points at the Grand Hyatt or 39000 for a two bedroom condo attached to the Hyatt with access to all the Hyatt amenities is good. Basically you’re skipping out on Globalist breakfast for a ton more space and a few more points. Or you can stay in Vail Village itself on points, which is nice for dinner options.
Some of the search results show 0 on the map but when you click through the true points values are revealed.
So out of this list, which Colorado and Hawaii properties would generally be considered most appealing?
For Colorado, are you skiing?
No, probably wouldn’t be skiing.
If not skiing, Breckenridge is a more interesting town but I’m not sure any of these are worth the price. The attraction is bring slopeside for skiing.
He also incorrectly called them timeshares which they are not. The Hyatt Residence Club is the timeshare part and that is owned by Marriott.