Last Friday, Richard Kerr shared on TPG that World of Hyatt would be changing how the cash portion of Points + Cash bookings would be changing. Some additional evidence has come to light today that seems to confirm that these changes will indeed be coming on November 1.
That additional confirmation has come via Point Me To The Plane. Adam has advised that they’ve received a copy of a document sent to a Hyatt hotel that confirms the changes laid out in Richard’s post.
The biggest news from those changes is that the cash portion of Points + Cash bookings will no longer be a fixed amount. At the moment, this is how much you’ll pay when booking a Points + Cash stay:
From November 1, the cash portion will no longer be fixed. Instead, it’ll be based on 50% of the standard rate. That means that the cash portion could be even higher than 50% of the lowest rate seeing as Advance Purchase rates are often cheaper than the standard rate.
For example, my wife and I will be staying at the Hyatt Regency Bali next year to celebrate our anniversary. It’s a category 1 property and so we booked a straight points stay seeing as it’s only 5,000 points per night.
If we’d wanted to book a Points + Cash stay, it would’ve cost 2,500 points + $50 per night:
For anyone wanting to book a Points + Cash stay there from November 1, the cash portion could increase substantially. For example, the standard rate in August is $205 per night, so the cash portion would be $102.50 (or $103 if they round it up). That’s more than twice the amount you’d currently pay. Note that the standard rate is ~17% higher than the Advance Purchase rate of $175.
Seeing as the cash portion will be dynamic, it’ll be worth keeping an eye on rates once you’ve made a Points + Cash reservation. If the standard rate goes down, you’ll be able to cancel and rebook with a lower cash portion.
With the cash portion being tied to the standard rate, there’ll no doubt be some instances where the amount you pay for Points + Cash bookings will actually go down. For example, the Hyatt Place Houston/Katy is also a category 1 property and so currently costs 2,500 points + $50.
Paid stays at the standard rate can be had for $84 per night which means the cash portion would reduce to $42. On the one hand that’s great, but opportunities like this are likely to be few and far between. In many such cases, it’d also make more sense to book a paid rate seeing as Points or Points + Cash stays probably wouldn’t provide great value for your World of Hyatt points.
If you’ve been eyeing up a Points + Cash stay, it looks like you have just over a week to take advantage of the current setup.
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Wyndham Rewards going to 65% BAR for their cash&points earlier this year killed the value of that reward option for the program. I don’t see much value in Hyatt’s cash& points program either at 50% BAR. Looks like you are better off holding on to points for all points reward stays.
Massive devaluation of the WOH P&C program. No potential increased P&C availability makes up for this. It really just stinks
Any chance they’d make similar changes to the 100% point bookings? I’m just about ready to pull the trigger on the Chase Hyatt, but am concerned. I like searching for $.05/point or better redemptions