Only a Few Hours Before Hyatt Changes Categories on These Nine Hotels
Hyatt is changing the award categories for nine of its hotels with very little notice. At 12:01am Central Time on December 13, 2017, one hotel's category is dropping while the other eight are increasing.
Here are the hotels affected with the current and new categories:
| Hotel | Current Category | New Category |
|---|---|---|
| Hyatt Place Orlando Airport | 1 | 2 |
| Hyatt Place Orlando/Lake Mary | 1 | 2 |
| Hyatt Place St. Paul | 1 | 2 |
| Hyatt Place Shenzhen | 1 | 2 |
| Hyatt Place Augusta | 2 | 3 |
| Hyatt Place Santa Cruz | 2 | 4 |
| Highlands Inn, a Hyatt Hotel | 6 | 7 |
| Hyatt Place Long Island/NYC | 2 | 3 |
| The Confidante Hotel, Miami | 6 | 4 |
Note that these changes go into effect for stays in 2018. The rates for the remainder of 2017 are supposed to stay the same.
The most tempting option for booking now may be the Hyatt Place Long Island City. Despite being just outside NYC, somehow this hotel has maintained a category 2 status. Before midnight, award nights will cost 8,000 points. At current TPG valuations, that's $144 in value per night for a hotel a short ride from Manhattan.
For this hotel, I'm finding nights for off-peak dates in January at $126 per night (AAA rate, including taxes), so this isn't as good of a deal for all dates. But, you'll get good value out of your Hyatt points — or transferred Chase Ultimate Rewards points — for spring and summer travel to NYC. If you need to top off your World of Hyatt account, transfers from Chase to World of Hyatt are instantaneous.
If you've already booked a reservation for The Confidante Hotel for 2018, Hyatt is saying that "Customer Service will proactively deposit the point difference into a member's account."
While not the worst round of category changes we've seen from a hotel, it's really disappointing that Hyatt is giving such short notice for these changes. If you're interesting in booking any of these hotels for stays in 2018, make sure to book now.
H/T: View From The Wing