Hyatt Announces 2020 Award Category Changes (117 Increasing In Price, 100 Decreasing In Price)

Hyatt has announced it’s annual award category shuffle for 2020, these changes will go into effect on March 22nd, 2020 (book by March 21st to be safe). In total:

  • 117 Increasing In Price
  • 100 Decreasing In Price

If you book a property now and it increases in price you won’t be charged the difference. If you book a property now and it decreases in price you’ll automatically receive a points refund. In addition to these category changes Hyatt is also introducing peak and off peak pricing (discussed previously here). The actual property changes don’t look to bad, but obviously this is offset by the introduction of peak and off peak pricing. The real test will be in 2021 (for example Marriott didn’t do a big category reshuffle with the introduction of peak and off peak pricing but the following year they did a massive devaluation).
    William Charles
  • On February 12, 2020, 14:24

View Comments (39)

    • Wow, can't believe this HP is moving to cat 5. I stayed here in Oct and it was average at best. Location I suppose.

  • The changes in the last year make the free night absolutely worthless. I guess I will cancel mine and P2's Hyatt card when they come due again.

    • Hyatt Olive 8 (Seattle)
      Manchester Grand Hyatt (San Diego)
      Hyatt Centric Waikiki (Hawaii)
      Hyatt Centric Magnificent Mile (Chicago)

      All Excellent redemption options with typical rates $250+ for the Category 1-4 Free Night Award. If you factor in taxes and fees that would be paid with a cash rate you’re getting roughly 3x (on average) of what you’re paying in the annual fee by redeeming at one of these locations.

      $95 for a guaranteed night at a property is a great deal. I see no reason to cancel it at all, unless you travel literally 0 nights a year.

    • I'll be canceling at well. We went from three decent redemption to zero -- good thing we already had our nights booked for this summer.

      The sting hurts more because we are 10+/24 with no plans to get down below 5/24 -- so there's no way we can even get the cards back if we changed our minds.

  • I’m surprised they aren’t moving any of the all inclusive resorts up a category. They must really rely on point redemptions to stay afloat.

  • I see quite a few properties move from cat 7 to cat 8 (particularly in Europe)... didn't they introduced cat 8 only for new lux hotels, and now (as predicted by many) slowly move some existing hotels there.

      • The State College Hyatt Place was a Cat 3 only a year ago. It moved to a Cat 4 around this time last year and will soon be a Cat 5. Lots of rapid changes for HPs in college towns.

  • I hope Extended Stay America Hotel makes a new credit card with a huge bonus that is easy to get and has great promotions

  • Hard to complain about any of this. Hyatt treats their loyalty members well. There's a couple of hotels I may book before the price increase, but there are also a couple that I'd benefit from going down in price.

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