The Hyatt Place “High Floor” Phenomenon
As any long time reader of this site knows, I am a big fan of Hyatt. As a Diamond member I stay at their properties often and work hard to keep my status. For me it is worth it. One of the best benefits of the Hyatt program is that award availability has no blackout dates. Any standard room can be booked with points as long as there is one available.
Here is how it is written in their terms:
Hyatt Gold Passport Free Night Awards apply to standard available rooms only as defined by each hotel and are not subject to blackout dates.
Do you see the wiggle room in that statement? They left a loophole a mile wide. My guess is that is purposeful. A “standard room is as defined by the hotel”, so that means that hotels can change what a standard room is at will. We saw that happen in Maui at the Andaz where the “Garden View” category was suddenly split into two. I recently wrote about the Grand Wailea where the same thing happened!
I sort of understand the “view” issue at a resort in Hawaii, but what about a Hyatt Place? Hyatt Place hotels are located in suburban areas generally. To put it bluntly, I have never seen a Hyatt Place with a view, nor is there any real benefit to being on a higher floor. Guess what though? Many Hyatt Places have introduced a new “High Floor” category. (Note: I am taking about the cookie cutter Hyatt Place locations. The one in Waikiki for example has had “view” rooms for a long time.)
The high floor rooms are no different than the other rooms, except they are on a higher floor. The cost is usually $5-$10 more than a regular room which isn’t terrible, but the big thing is these “upgraded” high floor rooms cannot be purchased with points!
Is This Right?
I sort of get it. Hyatt Place hotels don’t have a lot of room categories, so essentially under the rules every room is available for an award redemption. That certainly isn’t ideal if you own the hotel, but it is sort of consumer unfriendly as well. What is to stop a hotel from having only 1 room in their lowest category? Hyatt I guess would enforce this, but it is still an interesting occurrence.
This Is Spreading
The above screenshot is from the Hyatt Place Las Vegas. I stay at that hotel often and didn’t notice this new “High Floor” phenomenon until this week. I have seen it spring up at other Hyatt Place locations over the past couple of months. I’m not sure if it is everywhere, but many hotels are implementing it.
Perhaps this was an initiative from Hyatt to relieve their hotel owners from excessive award nights or to limit the company’s liability? I’m not sure, nor do I care. I just don’t see a 5th floor parking lot room as any better than a 3rd floor parking lot room, especially when it wasn’t any different a week ago.
Conclusion
I am not trying to nail Hyatt to the wall nor am I trying to say they are doing something wrong. This is completely within their terms and therefore they have the right to do it. With that said, it is something I have been noticing for awhile, so I thought I would share.
What do you think? Does the Hyatt Place high floor view warrant a separate category? Let me know in the comments!
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I’m wondering if the high rooms
Have been used less, and are therefore cleaner. That’s the only reason I’d go for them. Otherwise, it’s safer to be on a lower floor, in case anything.
Hi Shawn.
First, please forgive me to ask a question not related to this post.
I am used to make use of Dell Amex offer of 100 credit for 599+ purchase by buying Dell GC from Dell.com. I did few days ago and got credit without problem, so I was thinking to buy more. Today, when I tried to buy Dell GC on Dell.com again, it actually directed me to the dell.cashstar.com. But still, I made small purchase to test it out if it is still coded as dell purchase. Unfortunately, the pending purchase is coded as dell cashstar egift card purchase for now. According to my understanding, it will not be accounted as Dell purchase. I am not 100% sure about that. So, I wonder if you saw the same thing I saw. Apparently, this change happened recently since I did buy few Dell GCs on Dell.com few days ago. Any thought?
thanks
Rumor has it that Hyatt Centric South Beach has a total of 6 rooms available for points at most. Seems like Hyatt Gold Passport should require a minimum of x% of their rooms to be standard and thrre fore available for points redemption.
I actually request the TOP floor at every HP. I have found it is much quieter to not have people clomping around In the room above you. I do always agree to pay the $10 additional.
At my most recent HP stay, they gave me a room on the 5th floor (out of 6), not granting a request to a Diamond who paid the $10 per night and was staying 2 nights. I told them instead to put me on the 3rd floor and reduce my rate by $10. They did. In the future I guess I will make that note when I make a reservation that if you can’t get me on the top floor then don’t bother and reduce my rate.
Just a way to devalue the program. Doing it this way is less obvious than requiring more points or changing categories. I’ve noticed several times.
I stay at the Hyatt Place in Portland, OR often and the “high floor” rooms are actually $5-$10 LESS expensive than the standard rooms. I don’t get that either.
@Aaron-I stay at the PDX Hyatt Place quite a bit too. I would imagine the higher floors are less because they are louder-an acoustically direct shot from the runway 28L which is pretty darn close to the hotel.
You should rank the chains in order of most shenanigans to least. IHG is pretty high up there; their policies in this regard are way worse.