Hyatt recently announced three policy changes that implicate breakfast, upgrades, and early check-in. What is Hyatt trying to achieve with this mid-year tinkering?
1. Breakfast only for World of Hyatt members who book directly with Hyatt
Hyatt trialed removing complimentary breakfast at select Hyatt Place hotels earlier this year. I can only imagine that change proved a flop, because free breakfast quietly returned only weeks later. Now Hyatt is taking another stab, by keeping breakfast free for all…but on two conditions. This breakfast benefit will only be applied to guests who book directly through Hyatt booking channels (online or telephone). Furthermore, it will only be applicable to World of Hyatt Members (though presumably you can join on the spot to receive free breakfast).
First, I’m not sure how Hyatt can practically control that. Won’t stationing employees at the restaurant end up eating up the money saved by charging some for breakfast? Second, why should my stay booked through Chase (a close Hyatt partner) be penalized? This does not strike me as a prudent change.
Hyatt Place hotels will also be refreshed, but that’s lipstick on a pig.
2. Confirmed early check-in at Hyatt Place
Starting in 2019, Both Explorist and Globalist members will be entitled to space-available 9am check-in at Hyatt Place properties. While it is nice to be able to confirm this in advance, early check-ins are generally already offered if you ask nice and there is space available. In fact, this courtesy is often extended to those without status.
3. Extended expiration date for Globalist suite upgrades
When Gold Passport transitioned into World of Hyatt, a new suite upgrade policy kicked in for Globalists. Suite upgrades were deposited immediately upon qualifying or re-qualifying for Globalist status and were valid for one year from date of issue. This created a disincentive to cross the Globalist finish line if suites were needed later in the year. For example, if you re-qualifed in June 1, 2017 for Globalist status, you’d receive four upgrade awards. If you wanted to book a family trip for June 2, 2018 and use one of your upgrade, these suite upgrades would not work. To remedy this, now all suite upgrades will expire at the end of the next member year (February 28th).
This is a “no brainer” policy change that Hyatt should have made months ago.
CONCLUSION
I’m not impressed. I’m simply not impressed. The breakfast benefit will be limited to those who book directly with Hyatt, early check-in is already available at most Hyatt hotels, and the suite upgrade expiration policy change was merely correcting a blatant problem, not adding a new benefit.
With Hyatt’s limited footprint, it must invest more in its loyalty program or it will continue to see valuable customers abandon it.
I’m also not impressed. Why would I choose a Hyatt Place over a comparable Hilton property given how much Hilton offers their Gold’s and the fact that even without status comparable Hilton’s give me free breakfast?
The new breakfast requirement will hit corporate customers hard, most (like me) who are prohibited from booking using hotel/airline websites and must book through their in-house or contracted travel group. However, the flip side of that is the corporate traveler is going to expense breakfast regardless, so ultimately it’s a win for Hilton.
This is a very insightful observation in regard to business travelers.
Separately, I wonder if Hyatt will offer a “breakfast included” rate for the OTAs to use, and if so how much will it cost?
I wouldn’t be surprised to see customers who’s booking arrives via the GDS counted as “direct” – this is pretty normal (as hotels are only paying a small processing fee + ~10% commission vs 25+% for OTA) – so corps using booking tools may not be impacted
The days of driving 100 miles out of the way just to stay at a Hyatt are thankfully over. From now on, staying at any Hyatt will be on a clear and present business need with the client paying.
It would take significantly more than these trivial tokens to induce me back to Hyatt. They shot themselves in the foot over the emasculation of GP; fortunately Marriott had the brains to learn from that fiasco and decided to reconsider their initial poor treatment of very frequent SPG guests.
But for Hyatt the horse has bolted.