How This Dumb Mistake Cost My Friend $650 On Our Recent Trip

Select Two Guests For All Inclusive Reservations

We just got back from our trip to Cartagena, Colombia, and I will be sharing more about that trip here on the site and on the podcast / YouTube channel. The most important story to come out of the trip was that it is very important to select two guests for all inclusive reservations. If you are not careful, it can cost you hundreds of dollars – and potentially ruin your trip. This is true even though the rule makes no sense to me. Although, I do have a hypothesis on why that is.

Dreams Karibana Cartagena Golf & Spa Resort

Our trip had us staying a few days at the Hyatt Regency Cartagena hotel followed by three nights at Dreams Karibana Cartagena Golf & Spa Resort. We made our way to the resort around noon, and everything seemed normal at check.

My family, my buddy and his girlfriend were taken to the VIP area for check in. We were taken there because I used a lounge access certificate for the stay (more on why that was extremely important in a future article). He was there because he is a Globalist member.

We were hanging out in the lounge waiting for my buddy to check in when a hotel representative walked over and told him there was an issue with his reservation. Apparently my buddy had made the reservation for one guest, the default option. I initially thought it would be no big deal, because a points booking covers up to two people. It isn’t like they were bringing a kid or anything to go above the two guests included in the price. They informed him that it was in fact a big problem, and that he needed to select two guests for his all inclusive reservation. Because he didn’t, they were going to charge him around $250 extra a night! Uh, what?

He Called His Concierge, 1-800 Hyatt & Social Media DM’d To No Avail

I wasn’t too worried about it at this point. I figured his World of Hyatt concierge could get it settled and have a person added to the reservation. Or, at least they could explain to the hotel that the points should cover one or two people.

During the phone call I tried to talk with the hotel operators, but they just kept saying there was nothing they could do. Hyatt needed to change the guest count on the reservation to reflect two guests on the booking. I kept repeating, but points bookings (also cash bookings) cover two people – what is the problem?

Concierge Is No Help

He got off the phone with his concierge with a defeated look. She said that there was nothing that she could do to help. He could have canceled the room, paid a one night penalty (because of a 30 day cancellation window), and rebooked for 2 people. That would have actually been cheaper, but there were no standard points rooms left available. If he canceled, there was no guarantee that the standard award space opens back up either.

Everyone Else Says The Same

We tried the Hyatt team on X, who has always been super helpful, but they said the same thing. I think there were already notes on his account by this time. Calling the World of Hyatt 1-800 number didn’t produce anything either.

The Hotel Said Their Hands Were Tied

By this time the manager had come to the lounge to talk to us. She was very nice, but said they couldn’t really do anything. She just kept saying that he needed to have Hyatt modify his reservation (which wasn’t possible). When it was all said and done, she did offer a 20% discount on the extra guest charge. I still don’t think that was enough, which I will get into in a bit.

Why I Think This Happened

To be fair to Hyatt, and the hotel, there is a disclaimer on the reservation page imploring you to select the proper number guests for your all inclusive reservation. The problem is that we are conditioned for it to not really matter. I know plenty of people that just auto select one guest even when they have two, three or four people in the room. It is more lax in the US than anywhere else for sure. I wish they would auto select two people to make it more user friendly, but it is what it is.

Hyatt’s Horrible IT Is In Part To Blame

Having said that, you would think this is an easy correction to make. The problem is that Hyatt’s IT is bad, like really bad. They need to cancel and rebook your room any time you make a change to something, redeem a reward or use an suite upgrade certificate etc.

That sometimes becomes a problem if there are no standard rooms available. Other times it causes them to overcharge you because the room award price has changed. When I added my lounge access award to our stay they had to add 15,000 courtesy points to my account to re-do the booking.

You would think it would just take a few clicks to get stuff like this done. I imagine that is how it works with other hotel programs, but not Hyatt. It made them unable to take care of a multiple year Hyatt Globalist that spends a lot of money in their ecosystem.

I Think The Reimbursement May Be The Other Issue

Usually hotels in the World of Hyatt program get a set rate for award stays at their property. It is normally a fairly cheap rate, especially when compared to the cash prices. If the hotel gets upwards of 90% full, then the payout changes. At that point the reimbursement amount jumps up to the rack rate.

I wonder if things work a bit differently with all-inclusive hotels though. I wonder if the hotels are reimbursed, in part at least, based on the number of guests in a room. That is because there are additional costs per person. Things like food, drinks and activities. Although, one could make the claim that Globalist breakfast redemptions should work the same way. They don’t seem to focus on how many guests are selected at check in though.

This is my best guess after seeing the way the hotel acted with this situation. They didn’t seem to mind if there were two people in there, but they wanted to make sure the system reflected the proper guest count for each room. I would imagine a child vs adult could even play a role here. This is why it is important to select two guests for all inclusive reservations, since you just never know.

Why This Is Still Annoying

I find this entire situation pretty annoying for a few different reasons:

• The award price is the same for one or two guests
• Heck, even the cash price is the same if you select one or two guests (which kind of surprised me)
• This should have been an easy fix.
• The room rate was only $380 per night, which would have been $190 per night per person – not the $250 they quoted to add her.
  • I asked if they would take 50% off, but they said 20% was the best they could do.

There is no doubt that my buddy made a mistake. Hyatt even had the proper disclosure on the booking page. It still feels like something they could have worked around for a Globalist member that has 60 nights this year already. It isn’t like they showed up with three people when the cash and award booking covers only two people.

Select Two Guests For All Inclusive Reservations: Final Thoughts

When it was all said and done my buddy took his medicine and paid the $650. He knew he messed up, but he still was left with a bit of a bad taste in his mouth. The deterioration of the program, many of the hotels and lower customer service standards at Hyatt had him already considering a change. This was kind of the final nail in the coffin for him to make a change when his Globalist status runs out in February of 2028.

Hyatt lost a 100 nights a year top tier elite customer over $650 essentially. That seems awfully short sited to me, especially when the points booking would have covered two people any way. There is no doubt that he should have just clicked the right box to begin with, but Hyatt should be able to do that in their computer too. That is why it is so important to select two guests for all inclusive resorts, even if you don’t think you’ll use it.

Let me know how you would have handled this situation down below, or over in the MTM Facebook Group.