Hyatt has announced that they will change their best rate guarantee policy on July 31st.
- Current policy: 20% off on the lower rate. (e.g if you book a room that costs $150 and you find a rate of $100 you will pay $80)
- New policy: They will match the lower rate and also give a $50 credit. $50 credit will be in the form of a single use offer code. This must be used within one year of being issued and will be issued within four days of check out of the initial stay.
- Claim form can be found here.
Chains want customers to book directly otherwise they have to pay a large fee to online travel agencies (up to 18-25% but chains such as Hyatt negotiate significantly better deals). Is the new policy better or worse? That really depends on your booking habits. Any bookings over $250 would have been strictly better under the old program, bookings under $250 are better under the new program assuming you actually use the $50 code and would have booked another Hyatt anyway. I personally find best rate guarantee policies to have too many out clauses for the hotel chains meaning they rarely actually pay out your claims anyway. I also don’t really care about hotel status/status recognition so I rarely book directly anyway (instead preferring to stack deals on Hotels.com).
I imagine most Hyatt bookings are over $250 (or at least the average booking is) so this looks like a net loss for Hyatt members. What are your thoughts on this change? Let us know in the comments.
Hat tip to VFTW
