Baha Mar Mistake Rate Issues
This past week I stayed at one of Hyatt’s most famous and largest properties, Grand Hyatt Baha Mar in the Bahamas. I spoke about it on the podcast, but I actually scored an amazing rate of $225 for a 1 bedroom pool villa and despite some service issues my family and I had a great time. (Look for my full and detailed review of my stay soon.)
Imagine my shock and surprise though when I returned home to find the hotel had changed the rate I booked to be non-eligible to earn points and night credits. My original confirmation (I booked directly with Hyatt) showed I was eligible to earn credit, so something was changed along the way. Or I should say the hotel changed something along the way.
This apparently happened to others as well. At some point the hotel changed the rate type in Hyatt’s system to a non-eligible rate. Was it done on purpose? I don’t know but it isn’t very customer friendly and feels sort of in line with the mixed service experiences I encountered at the resort. Either way, Hyatt is known for their customer service so I had faith that corporate would fix the problem.
Contacting My Hyatt Concierge
As a World of Hyatt Globalist I have access to a Concierge who I can email to help me with bookings and other stuff. Instead of going to the Twitter team like I normally would, I contacted my concierge and asked her to fix it. I sent her my original confirmation and all of the other relevant information.
Thankfully in less than a day she responded and had fixed the issue. She said my rate should have earned credit and she was not sure what had happened. To me it is clear what happened. The hotel changed the rate type in the system from a SUITE RATE to MANAGEMENT RATE. This was deliberate but it’s unclear if they did it in order to make sure people don’t earn credit.
What Makes A Good Company
In life things go wrong and to me, the difference between a good company and a bad one is how they handle it. Thankfully my concierge fixed it without any real stress and I expect that regular customer service or Twitter agents should be able to do it without too much trouble if you don’t have World of Hyatt Globalist status.
If you booked directly through Hyatt then your email confirmation will show you are eligible. This is in writing and should mean you will be protected. If you booked through Citi Concierge or another travel agency (not an online travel agency like Expedia) that normally earns credit you may have to escalate, but this problem is widespread and I have faith Hyatt will do the right thing. I do also hope they will investigate how this happened and come down on the hotel if they determine it was done on purpose.
Getting A Similar Mistake Rate
This particular deal had suites at the property going for the same price as a standard room. On some nights it was possible to book 3 bedroom suites for about $300 and as I poked around the lowest I found was $225 for my 1 Bedroom Pool Villa. The deal originated from Extreme Hotel Deals and their Premium Service. It costs $79 per year normally, however they are giving MtM readers 40% off with the code “mtm“. Look for a more detailed overview of this program soon, but if you were on the fence about this service make sure to save yourself 40% with the code “mtm“.
Baha Mar Mistake Rate Issues – Bottom Line
Baha Mar changed these amazing rates to not earn points or credit. It’s unclear if this was done on purpose but everyone should be vocal about getting what they paid money for. We all gave this hotel our money in good faith and they should honor the original booking. They had a chance to cancel these reservations a year ago when they were booked, but decided not to and thus this needs to be fixed.
Did you have any Baha Mar mistake rate issues with this particular “suite deal”? Share your story in the comments and any tips for others to get their points and credit.
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We unfortunately had to cancel our stay which had been booked at this amazing rate but I had seen the rate code sneakily change to managers rate so I think it was an intentional change to cheat customers.
Thanks for the tip. I am looking forward to a wonderful trip on the same rate. Can’t beat it!
‘Extreme Hotel Deals’. Interesting. Have you already done a writeup on that service?
My Hyatt Concierge blamed Citi used 3rd Party platform to retrieve the rate which made it ineligible. I will follow up again and ask Hyatt to fix it. Thanks for the post.
My Hyatt concierge still insists Citi booked an ineligible rate but is willing to give me an one exception for points & credits. I was gonna suck it after her first response. So glad you wrote the post. Thanks.
This resort looks so inviting…until I read the reviews and stuff like this. Hyatt should be ashamed to attach its name to it.
Thanks. I’d not heard of Extreme Hotel Deals before. It says on their website they have a free service vs. the Premium. How do you sign up for the free service? I didn’t see anything on their website for the normal service.