Hyatt 48 hour sale is now my top pick for most useless hotel chain promotion around. I am building this article around an analysis of the time suck I find with Hyatt 48-hour sales when searching for random hotels. The Hyatt 48 Hour Sale 20% discount rate is analogous to finding a needle in a haystack. Except rather than getting pricked finding the elusive needle, Hyatt simply pricks me off with the number of searches I make to find one participating hotel in the Hyatt 48-hour sale.
Here are the Hyatt 48 Hour Sale details if you don’t want to read my whole Hyatt rant. I may simply boycott participating in social media advertising of Hyatt 48-hour sales until these offers are managed in a more consumer-friendly way.
Reserve By: 22 Oct 2014 11:59pm Central time (Chicago)
Stay: 05 Nov 2014 – 03 Feb 2015
Relax, Refresh and Save this Season. For a limited time, simply book using Offer Code C48OCT beginning October 21, 2014, and save up to 30% on a family vacation, romantic getaway or a holiday just for you.
Book your escape now at at participating hotels and resorts in the U.S., Canada, Caribbean and Latin America. This offer is valid through 11:59 PM CT on October 22, 2014.
They neglect to mention on the main webpage that 48-hour sale rates are prepaid and nonrefundable.
Terms & Conditions
- Offer valid for bookings only between 12:01 a.m. on October 21 and 11:59 p.m. on October 22, 2014 CT, for travel between November 5, 2014 and February 3, 2015 at participating hotels and resorts in the U.S., Canada, Caribbean and Latin America.
- Reservations are subject to availability and must be made in advance.
- Full non-refundable prepayment required at time of booking.
- Offer is for a limited time only.
- Simply request offer code C48OCT when you book your reservation and pay the 48 Hour Sale rate.
- Discount is off the Hyatt Daily Rate for the room type requested at time of booking.
- Rate is per room, per night, excluding service charges, taxes and other incidental expenses.
- Rate is based on double occupancy. Additional guests may be subject to additional hotel charges.
- Additional charges apply to room-type upgrades.
- A limited number of rooms are allocated to this promotion.
- Full, non-refundable, Prepayment due at time of reservation.
- No changes, amendments or cancellations allowed.
- Changing to a different property is considered a cancel and re-book, and is non-refundable.
- Canceled reservations and no shows will forfeit the full prepayment.
- Promotional blackout periods may apply due to seasonal periods or special events, and normal arrival/departure restrictions apply.
- Hyatt reserves the right to alter or withdraw this offer at any time without notice.
Hyatt 48-hour sale Terms and Conditions mention rate is prepaid and nonrefundable four times.
Why I do not give Hyatt 48-hour sales my search time
Seriously Hyatt, is it too difficult to provide a list of participating Hyatt hotels?
There are only 500 Hyatt brand hotels worldwide and based on my search results today for Hyatt 48 Hour sale rates, the participating hotel list is likely limited to under 100 hotels, perhaps even less than 50 hotels in the Americas. Searching for Hyatt 48 Hour Sale participating properties is a time suck.
I have trips to Denver, San Francisco and San Diego where I have been looking at hotel rates recently. I searched these cities again today.
Here are sample searches I made with screenshots to show why I think Hyatt 48-Hour sales are a time waster.
Denver, Colorado
I search Denver, Colorado using the Hyatt 48-hour link.
Nine Denver area Hyatt brand hotels appear with a rate shown.
- Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center $259
- Grand Hyatt Denver $189
- Hyatt Place Denver Cherry Creek $169
Under Special Rates, the Special Offer Code C48OCT is selected in this screenshot.
In red font I am told the Hyatt 48 Hour Sale is not available.
The special offer/rate you have selected is unavailable during the dates you have selected, or it is not offered at this property. Below is a list of rates available during your requested dates. To check alternate dates please click here.
When I click on ‘click here’ on the webpage, I do not receive a rate calendar like with Starwood Preferred Guest showing dates when a promotional rate is available. Hyatt kicks me back to the reservation starting page.
I clicked through all nine Denver area hotels to find the same rate unavailable message. Is this rate available at all in Denver during the promotion period? I didn’t want to waste more time checking other dates.
Club Carlson’s regular 25% and 30% discount rates list participating hotels and dates for their discounts. And those rates are not prepaid. Loyalty Traveler – Radisson Hotels Americas 25% off bookings before July 12 for stays to July 31
Main Hyatt 48 Hour Sale Flaw: There is no way to tell from the Hyatt search results for C48OCT rates if any of the hotel rates shown on the list are actually the 48 Hour discount rate – until you click on a specific hotel. In Denver, I wasted time checking all nine hotels to find none offered the 48-hour sale rate.
San Diego, California
One strike out in Denver was only the first out of the inning for finding a hotel discount with Hyatt Hotels on this 48-hour sale.
San Diego in the December holidays can be a sunshine joy, particularly since California is going into the third consecutive winter of drought.
Hyatt shows 8 hotels in a San Diego search for December 22, 2014.
- Andaz San Diego $189
- Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego $127
- Hyatt Regency Mission Bay Spa and Marina $144
The same red message came up for these three hotels and four others in San Diego area.
Park Hyatt Aviara in Carlsbad, California (Legoland) offers Hyatt 48-hour sale rate.
$156 is a good deal for Park Hyatt Aviara.
Park Hyatt Aviara has the 48 Hour Sale rate, however, any Hyatt Gold Passport member can get the same 20% discount rate with My Elite Rate. Even better, My Elite Rate has a 72-hour prior to arrival cancellation with no penalty term rather than prepaid and nonrefundable 48 Hour Sale terms.
So far I located one hotel out of 16 Hyatt hotels offering the 48-hour sale rate. That rate if true across the USA means fewer than 40 hotels are participating in the 48-hour sale.
Two strikeouts for me with Hyatt.
Next data point San Francisco, California
San Francisco search returns a list of 14 Hyatt Hotels.
- Grand Hyatt San Francisco $299
- Hyatt Regency San Francisco $364
- Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf $259
13 of 14 hotels showed the red font unavailable message for 48 Hour Sale rates.
Again, one hotel out of 14 in the San Francisco area has a 48 Hour Sale rate for the dates I checked. Hyatt Vineyard Creek, Santa Rosa is not San Francisco, just like Carlsbad is not San Diego.
Once again the My Elite Rate is the same price as the 48 Hour Sale with better terms. My Elite Rate allows cancellation with no penalty 48 hours before arrival. Hyatt’s 48 Hour Sale is prepaid and nonrefundable.
Three strikeouts with Hyatt and I am walking away from this ball game.
Hyatt moves to #1 for Useless Promotion
I individually checked 31 hotels searching for the Hyatt 48 Hour Sale rate in three different cities to find only two hotels participating for the dates I searched. That percentage of hotels offering Hyatt 48 Hour Sale rates indicates that fewer than 40 hotels in the Americas are participating. Maybe I just searched the wrong cities. 31 hotels is about 7% of all Hyatt Hotels in the USA.
I repeatedly called the monthly IHG Rewards Club Last Minute Reward Nights the most useless hotel loyalty promotion for the past few years when 50% discount reward nights were offered at 50 or so random IHG hotels around the world for three nights only on the first weekend of every month.
I publicized the IHG promotion each month since I make money when people read my articles and there was a chance a reader might find a great discount reward stay for the next weekend. But there was very little interest in the IHG promotion every month based on article readership. IHG dropped Last Minute Reward Nights in September 2014. I had always hoped they would expand the offer to every weekend, but that change never materialized.
Hyatt Hotels needs to disclose up front which hotels participate in the regularly recurring 48 Hour Sale promotions. Otherwise, you can waste a morning searching for a Hyatt rate discount to no avail.
Please remind me readers when I write about the next Hyatt 48 Hour Sale that I made a decision during the writing of this post to boycott my participation in blogging about this time waster promotion until Hyatt offers a list of participating hotels.
Seriously Hyatt, is it too difficult to provide a list of participating Hyatt hotels?
*****
Ric Garrido of Monterey, California is writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler.
Loyalty Traveler shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. Check out current hotel loyalty program offers across all the major chains in Loyalty Traveler’s monthly hotel promotions guide.
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