Hyatt recently finalized its acquisition of Playa Hotels & Resorts which included properties such as Hilton Rose Hall (now Dreams Rose Hall), Kimpton Tres Rios, Hilton La Romana, Hilton Playa Del Carmen and more.
Unfortunately this has brought terrible news for people with prior bookings at those properties as their reservations were abruptly cancelled this past week.
Reports started coming in a few days ago from members of our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group. For example, this member had a booking at what was Hilton Rose Hall, but when happening to check his account he noticed the points for the stay had been refunded and his booking had been cancelled. When contacting Hilton, he was informed that they wouldn’t be issuing and compensation and that he’d need to escalate it to Hilton corporate if he wanted any kind of resolution. For what it’s worth, this particular property has been rebranded as Dreams Rose Hall and is now bookable with Hyatt.
That’s scant consolation for some people though. For example, this person reports on Reddit that their stay for the following week was cancelled, leaving them little time to find an alternative. The worst example I’ve seen is a comment on that same thread where someone shared that they were heading off on their honeymoon the following day, only to find out that their booking had been cancelled.
Needless to say, this is appalling treatment by both Playa Hotels & Resorts and Hilton (note that some affected properties are with other chains like IHG too, but all these examples relate to former Hilton properties), not to mention Hyatt seeing as they don’t appear to have ensured that it’s been a seamless transfer for existing reservations. I get that hotels sometimes change the chains that they’re part of and that it’s not feasible to have all reservations carried over from the previous franchise holder to the new one. However, it feels like there should be some kind of cutoff, whereby stays that will be happening in the next week or two are still honored, with all hotel-related parties involved needing to come to resolution regarding how that’ll be funded. Otherwise you’ll have guests who’ve made plans and potentially have non-refundable bookings riding on this ending up out of pocket and out of luck.
Based on this Redditor’s comment, here are the properties that are apparently affected by this acquisition.
- Dominican Republic
- Hilton La Romana
- Hilton La Romana Adults-Only
- Hyatt Zilara Cap Cana
- Hyatt Ziva Cap Cana
- Sanctuary Cap Cana
- Wyndham Alltra Punta Cana
- Wyndham Alltra Samana
- Jamaica
- Hilton Rose Hall
- Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall
- Hyatt Ziva Rose Hall
- Jewel Grande
- Mexico
- Hilton Playa Del Carmen
- Hyatt Zilara Cancun
- Hyatt Ziva Cancun/Turquoize
- Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos
- Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta
- Kimpton Tres Rios
- Paraiso de la Bonita Luxury Collection Resort
- Seadust Cancun Family Resort
- Wyndham Alltra Cancun
- Wyndham Alltra Playa Del Carmen
- Wyndham Alltra Vallarta
If you have any upcoming reservations with them that weren’t booked via Hyatt, it’ll be imperative to check those and make alternative plans if necessary. There is a data point on that Reddit thread that some received 10,000-15,000 Hilton Honors points compensation, but it certainly doesn’t sound like you can count on that.
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Thank you for bringing awareness to this. I am one of those affected by the cancellation of a stay on points. I learned of it through social media, not one email from Hilton. I am still trying to pursue compensation. So many people have had their vacations ruined.
TA here. Hyatt Ziva/Zilara Rose Hall are not affected.
I booked Hilton Rose Hall through American Airlines Vacations in January for stay in September and I just spoke with Hyatt and they have my reservation still booked and thank goodness I didn’t use my Hilton points at all to book the trip as those are the people that are having problems. But I will still contact the resort on a monthly basis to make sure everything is still OK.
There are some Hyatt resorts listed above such as:
Hyatt Zilara Cancun
Hyatt Ziva Cancun/Turquoize
Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos
Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta
are they leaving the Hyatt portfolio?
Yeah same question. Why are these properties that have always been Hyatt listed ?
John of Loyalty Lobby recommendeds calling Hilton Guest Assitance1 888-240-6152.
Hiltons Guest Assistance they have the power to issue “Be our Guest” certificates (like FNC and std room rate) as well as points. This is different than the genrsl.Diamind/Hilton line.
As people have booked non-refundable airline tickets, tours, etc.
Thank you because I just found out about this 2 days ago, called Hilton guest assistance, they said I have to wait to see what delta airlines will do about it. Although I added my Hilton Honors to my booking,I originally booked the trip through Delta Air vacations. This is such a big mess and not a good look for Hilton or Hyatt. These big companies love to step on our hard earned money but want use to be loyal to them. Bunch of BS!!!
Didn’t someone post on the FMI group about it last week? They posted a further update that Hilton gave them a substantial number of points (I believe the number was 800k+) as compensation (apart from refunding million+ points used for original booking) for such cancelled booking? I also read that for some folks, Hilton was issuing “Be Our Guest” certificates for each night of stay that they had booked and was subsequently cancelled.
I remember reading that too…
Point of clarification: are people who booked with Hyatt points at the Hyatt properties above getting cancelled also?
Those reservations should be fine as nothing should be changing in that respect. It’d be worth double checking your reservation nonetheless just in case.
your post mentions the all-inclusives become exclusive. that was just a play on the situation right? If I book the Hyatt Playa de Carmen in Cancun via hyatt points, its still all-inclusive?
Yep, the title was just a play on the fact that some existing bookings were being cancelled completely rather than rebooked.
I haven’t even gotten notification from delta air of any cancellation or rebooking.