Hyatt Gold Passport favors American members

The great feature of Hyatt Gold Passport for Americans is the ability to stay at Hyatt House and Hyatt Place hotels where the average rate is about $100 per night and earn loyalty points and promotion bonuses on far less hotel spend than international travelers staying at Hyatt Hotels.

Hyatt House and Hyatt Place are select service brands and all 220 properties in these two brands are located in North America. The other 249 Hyatt Hotels in the brands of Andaz, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency and Park Hyatt have a far higher average room rate of $175 to $235 per night.

Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced their 2012 Q-2 financial results. The primary reason I look at hotel chain financial reports is to see the official number for hotels in each brand, the geographic distribution of Hyatt Hotels and the average room rates.

There are far more Hyatt Place and Hyatt House select service hotels in the US than full service Hyatt Hotels with less than 40% of the properties in North America being full service Hyatt Hotels. All Hyatt properties outside of North America are full-service Hyatt Hotels.

Hyatt Place and Hyatt House select service hotel brands, all located in North America, average 132 rooms per hotel with 29,128 rooms in 220 hotels.

Hyatt Hotels on average have significantly more rooms. Hyatt Regency and Grand Hyatt hotels in most cities are designed for large conferences and conventions.

Grand Hyatt with an average hotel size of 570 rooms across the brand means these hotels are frequently hosting conferences. Stay at the hotel when rates are cheap and no conferences are scheduled and your chances improve vastly for securing a nice suite upgrade as a Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond member. The benefits of a Regency Club lounge are another nice feature of full service Hyatt Hotels.

Is the $100 Average Room Rate a myth?

Typically I use a fictional standard of an average hotel room rate at $100 per night when I plan out the rebate value for hotel stays provided by current hotel loyalty promotions.

My rationale is that I can generally fulfill hotel loyalty promotions staying at hotels throughout the year with an average hotel rate of $100 per night. In reality my annual hotel spend tends to work out to about $115 to $135 per night after taxes and fees for all my paid nights. All my discount hotel nights using points throughout the year bring my average hotel spend per night to under $100 per night.

 

$100 per room night is my objective and that objective with Hyatt Hotels is still a reasonable expectation with selective stays. I pay for Hyatt brand stays when the rates are cheap and the bonus points are good and I redeem for Hyatt stays when the rates are high and the redemption value is good.

Hyatt Hotels on average have far more expensive room rates for hotels outside the USA. The combined effect of higher room rates outside the USA and the inability to be a cardmember of Hyatt Visa Card for international Hyatt Gold Passport members makes the program less advantageous for non-Americans.

Related post: Hyatt Gold Passport Bonus Points 9/1/12-11/30/12 “Imagine the Possibilitiesâ€.

Loyalty Traveler original post link: http://loyaltytraveler.boardingarea.com/2012/08/09/hyatt-gold-passport-favors-american-members/

Ric Garrido, writer and content owner of Loyalty Traveler, shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. You can follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter and Facebook and RSS feed.