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The hotel promo lucrative enough to get my attention during a pandemic
Summer Hull has been covering (and using) travel tips, rewards credit cards and loyalty programs for over a decade. She has flown close to a million miles, often on points and miles and with her family in tow.
August 28, 2020 • 7 min read
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Quick summary
A limited-time promotion allows travelers to book two nights at Miraval resorts for the points usually required for one night, with additional credits included for activities and spa treatments.
An extra offer provides up to 25% of redeemed points back on award stays, further reducing the effective cost for eligible guests.
These deals are available at three wellness-focused Miraval properties, with varying minimum stay requirements depending on location and season.
Booking requires a phone reservation and advance registration, and the offers are valid for stays through late 2020.
What to consider
The Miraval Berkshires property imposes stricter requirements, including a six-night minimum for the BOGO offer through September and a three-night minimum for standard points bookings on high-demand nights.
Occupancy restrictions and minimum stay rules may change after September, especially at the Berkshires location.
You must register in advance and book by phone using a specific code to access these promotions.
What you'll miss from the article
A detailed breakdown of how to maximize these stacked offers at Miraval resorts, including property-specific booking challenges and tips for navigating new restrictions.
Generated by AI with support from our editorial team.
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
I'm not traveling enough at the moment to care all that much about hotel or airline promotions. I mean, I care a little, but I have yet to see one that caught my attention enough to spur me to book unnecessary travel during a pandemic ... until perhaps now.
These promos aren't brand-new but also didn't catch my eye until recent days. But now that they have, I'm borderline obsessed with the thought of a fall getaway at a new all-inclusive socially distanced resort courtesy of way fewer Hyatt points than it would normally cost.
Here's how you can stack two promos for a phenomenal deal if you may be ready to get away later in 2020.
Via the World of Hyatt program, you can use points to book a stay at three different wellness-focused Miraval resorts. I've stayed at the one in Arizona, there's a brand-new one in the Berkshires and a still pretty new one outside of Austin. You don't go here for a place to sleep, you go here for a wellness reset. (Which, being honest, I could really use.)
Main pool area Miraval Berkshires (Photo by Zach Griff/The Points Guy)
Normally, an award stay at Miraval is pricey on cash or points.
If you use Hyatt points, it normally costs 45,000 points per night for single-occupancy or 65,000 points per night for double occupancy in a standard room. That's a ton, but starting rates for paid stays can creep toward $1,000 for double occupancy during normal times.
When you stay on points, you not only benefit from the all-inclusive model with meals and many activities included but on top of that, you also get a $175 credit per person, per night to use toward additional activities, spa treatments, etc.
Miraval Arizona (Photo by Summer Hull/The Points Guy)
That's a good deal, though not totally unheard of as Hyatt has had a somewhat similar offer in the past where you get 50% of your points redeemed at Miraval back. But now, it's even better because you can stack a second promo that awards 15% to 25% of your redeemed Hyatt points back on all award stays, not just those at Miraval. Those with The World of Hyatt Credit Card get the higher 25% rate of return on redeemed points.
Adding it up, a two-night Miraval stay with double occupancy would normally cost a staggering 130,000 Hyatt points and come with $350 in credits per person.
With this promo, assuming you have a cobranded Hyatt credit card to trigger the full 25% points rebate, you'd pay just 48,750 Hyatt points for the same two-night stay and have $175 in credits per person to use.
If you are short on points, you could transfer them over at a 1:1 ratio from a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or similar Ultimate Rewards card.
That's a 62.5% decrease over the normal award rates. It's also obviously a smaller resort credit total than if you paid the full points rate for each night since you aren't getting credits to use on the award night you're not paying for. That doesn't bother me much at the moment as my time in the spa using up that credit during a pandemic probably won't be what it would have been in normal times.
Spa relaxation areas (Photo by Zach Griff/The Points Guy)
The offer for one free award night for each award night paid with points at Miraval is valid for stays until Dec. 31, 2020.
The offer to get up to 25% of your redeemed points back is valid for stays until Oct. 8. You must book over the phone by calling 866.792.3395 and using the code "World of Hyatt Miraval BOGO." You'll need to register in advance to get 25% of your points back.
Beware, potential hurdles redeeming at Berkshires property
TPG's Zach Griff recently stayed at the brand-new Miraval in the Berkshires. Overall, he enjoyed his stay (read the full review here), but one of the biggest pain points was how hard it was to actually book a stay at the property.
It took countless calls to multiple customer service departments before finally confirming the reservation.
In the month since his stay, much has changed. And not necessarily all for the better when it comes to this deal. We've heard countless reader reports of the Miraval Berkshires adding in a bunch of conditions to the BOGO offer.
Some readers have reported that you now need to stay a minimum of six nights to take advantage of the offer at that property. Others are reporting that standard points availability has been removed entirely. Upon reaching out to the hotel reservations department, we confirmed that the six-night minimum stay does indeed apply to stays through September — the tail end of peak season. And standard points availability is only available for a minimum of three consecutive nights.
We reached out to Hyatt to confirm these new conditions, and were told that due to demand and "efforts to maintain social distancing and other COVID-19 safety protocols, Miraval Berkshires has occupancy restrictions in place through August and September. Therefore, the property has a three-night minimum length of stay requirement for all stays on many, high-demand nights (mainly weekends) during this timeframe, including for World of Hyatt members who call to book a stay with the special BOGO offer during that timeframe."
Hyatt also said that they do not expect the minimum length of stay requirement to remain in place at the Berkshires property come October and beyond.
It's worth knowing these same issues aren't being reported for the Austin or Arizona properties which both aren't nearly as new as the Berkshires resort.
Coronavirus is still a very real thing and needs to factor into your decision making on heading to any hotel or resort right now. Reading through the current Miraval procedures and offerings, I am strongly considering this as a much-needed early fall respite.
Since I'm just a few hours by car from the Austin location, I could drive there in one shot, and then enjoy outdoor activities such as horseback riding, time by the pool, outdoor fitness classes, included take-out meals, smoothies and more. It wouldn't be exactly the same experience that I had at the one in Arizona in 2018 that went heavy on indoor group classes and spa time, but it still sounds like a pretty perfect 2020 nearcation getaway.
The story has been updated with additional information provided by Hyatt.
Comments
By commenting, you agree to our Community Guidelines to help create a positive space for conversation. The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser, our partners, or The Points Guy (“TPG”). They have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these parties. All responses are submitted by individual contributors, and neither the bank advertiser, our partners, nor TPG are responsible for ensuring that all posts and/or questions are answered.
