There are lots of great benefits to World of Hyatt Globalist status. In this post I wanted to talk about one of the “softer” benefits of Hyatt status, which is the “My Hyatt Concierge” perk. How do you earn it, and how valuable is it?
In this post:
How do you access a Hyatt Concierge?
With World of Hyatt, you receive some perks simply for qualifying for a certain status level, while you receive other perks as part of the Milestone Rewards program. The “My Hyatt Concierge” benefit falls in the latter category:
- You receive a Hyatt Concierge when you earn 60 elite nights or 100,000 base points (equivalent to $20,000 of qualifying spending) in a calendar year, and you also get the benefit indefinitely if you’re a lifetime Globalist member; even elite nights earned with Hyatt’s credit cards count toward this
- Once you qualify, a Hyatt Concierge representative will reach out within four weeks with their contact info; typically it happens much faster than that, but in some cases it could take that long
- Note that all Globalist members (regardless of how they qualify) receive access to a dedicated phone number with shorter hold times and (hopefully) better service, but that’s different than this perk
How valuable is a Hyatt Concierge?
While I’ve had top tier status with Hyatt for well over a decade, the “My Hyatt Concierge” program was only introduced in 2017, with the launch of the World of Hyatt program (this wasn’t a feature of the old Hyatt Gold Passport program). Since I’ve now had several years to experience this perk, I figured I’d share my thoughts on the overall value of this service.
A couple of things to note:
- Like anything in customer service, your experience may differ based on who you’re assigned as your Hyatt Concierge
- I’m not someone who is looking to have a Hyatt Concierge make all kinds of special hotel requests for me, I’m not expecting them to get a presidential suite upgrade and waived pet giraffe fee for me, etc.; I know what I’m entitled to under the World of Hyatt program, and I’m just looking for them to help with taking advantage of those benefits
With that in mind, what has my experience been, and how have I found the Hyatt Concierge service to be useful?
- The Hyatt Concierge appointed to me is an absolutely lovely and helpful person; she’s competent, highly responsive, and always resolves what I ask for help with without me having to follow-up
- Looking at my email history with her, I’ve contacted her a total of 14 times since early 2018; I’ve primarily contacted her when points and/or elite nights didn’t post correctly, I contacted her a couple of times when I had issues with a refund, and I’ve contacted her a few times to help apply suite upgrade awards
- I haven’t been in contact with her for all of 2022, because I haven’t actually needed anything; all my stays have posted correctly, etc.
I’ve found the service to be useful every time I’ve used it, and I’ve also been positively impressed by the friendliness and competence of the Hyatt Concierge assigned to me. I only have to ask her to do something once, and she “gets it.”
That being said, in general I’ve found that I probably contact @HyattConcierge on Twitter about as much as I reach out to my dedicated contact. Why?
- Twitter customer service is available 24/7, while understandably your Hyatt Concierge has to sleep (it seems that Hyatt Concierge team members monitor inboxes when someone is out of the office, but not 24/7)
- For things that are time sensitive, like applying a suite upgrade award or making a Guest of Honor booking at a hotel with limited availability, there’s value in being able to do things right away
- In those time sensitive situations I typically go the Twitter route, thanks to how quick the responses usually are
How does this compare to Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador service?
Marriott Bonvoy’s top tier Ambassador status requires 100 elite nights plus $20,000 in spending per year. Historically the greatest benefit of Ambassador status was that you had a dedicated point of contact at Marriott. However, that has been eliminated since, and nowadays Ambassador members just have access to a shared team of agents by email, so the service isn’t nearly as personalized as it used to be.
Nowadays the Hyatt Concierge service is unarguably more personalized than the Marriott Ambassador service.
It is worth recognizing that Marriott Ambassador service used to be great, though. While I’m a Marriott Bonvoy Titanium member now, I was an Ambassador member until early 2020, and had a great experience at the time (before we saw the service cuts):
- I had an absolutely incredible Ambassador who constantly proactively looked after my reservations, left personalized notes for me in my room, and would often proactively contact hotels about upgrades
- That being said, there was always a huge variance in terms of the quality of Marriott Ambassadors, with some being awesome, and others providing very little value
At the time I think the Marriott Ambassador program was intended to be a bit more personalized and proactive in terms of service, and that’s totally fair enough, given the higher requirements. That being said, in practice that wasn’t necessarily always the case.
Nowadays that’s no longer the case, since there isn’t dedicated service anymore.
Bottom line
The “My Hyatt Concierge” feature is available exclusively to World of Hyatt Globalist members who earn 60 elite nights or 100,000 base points in a calendar year. With this, you get a dedicated point of contact at Hyatt who can help you with just about anything related to your reservations.
I’ve had an overall good experience with this service, and I’ve found the service to be friendly and competent. That being said, I’m not sure it’s worth going out of your way to stay more just to get this benefit. That’s simply because @HyattConcierge on Twitter is also awesome, and can often help with inquiries really quickly, and that service is open to everyone.
If you’ve had access to and used the “My Hyatt Concierge” service, what was your experience like?
I have been a Globalist for several years, and have found the concierge service unhelpful/unreliable/unresponsive for 90% of the time. Requested switch to new concierge, but no apparent improvement. Wish Hyatt would either put more serious support into this service or replace this Globalist benefit with a different benefit.
I have a new Hyatt concierge. Have sent 4 emails. No repsonse. wondering how to request a new concierge;
"Like anything in customer service, your experience may differ based on who you’re assigned as your Hyatt Concierge."
This is the key! I can guarantee my rep wont respond for a solid 48+ hrs. Occasionally, she sends me emails saying "I've signed you up for X promotion." However, I'm always confused how she accomplished this considering, OMAAT wrote about the promotion 2 days ago and I signed myself up immediately. But I take the "something...
"Like anything in customer service, your experience may differ based on who you’re assigned as your Hyatt Concierge."
This is the key! I can guarantee my rep wont respond for a solid 48+ hrs. Occasionally, she sends me emails saying "I've signed you up for X promotion." However, I'm always confused how she accomplished this considering, OMAAT wrote about the promotion 2 days ago and I signed myself up immediately. But I take the "something is better than nothing approach."
Agree with the overall sentiment--my Concierge has never blown me away with some sort of amazing service request I could not have wrangled through call centers myself, but has helped me to use Suite Night Awards (proactively kept checking for rooms to open up at a sold-out/high-demand vacation destination--the space appeared many weeks later and she jumped--got us into a beautiful suite), minor details for various trips and helpful suggestions. I do appreciate her on...
Agree with the overall sentiment--my Concierge has never blown me away with some sort of amazing service request I could not have wrangled through call centers myself, but has helped me to use Suite Night Awards (proactively kept checking for rooms to open up at a sold-out/high-demand vacation destination--the space appeared many weeks later and she jumped--got us into a beautiful suite), minor details for various trips and helpful suggestions. I do appreciate her on limited number of occasions we've had to interact (3 or 4 times per year)--always a pleasant experience and I feel like we have a genuine rapport.
That said, I do think there's room for Concierges to (once-in-a-while, once-a-year maybe?) really impress long-time customers. I'm by no means an entitled elite, but Starwood (again, once-in-a-while) would surprise our family with incredible upgrades or welcome gifts/notes, etc. They seemed to know when we'd least expect it and most often was on family trips and not business travel. That'd be a nice touch for Hyatt to think about---I hate asking for upgrades or perks even when they're part of the program....personalized service is a very hard thing to execute--if you can do it right, you'll keep customers forever.
One suggestion--when I'm traveling with my family, some hotels will limit breakfast to 'only two guests'--no big deal (my wife enjoys a morning run and coffee anyway)--but if a Concierge knew which hotels had this policy and reached out prior to our arrival and had this extended to all three of us so we didn't 'have to ask about the policy'....that'd be huge, really appreciated. It's a small thing that might be once a year, but we'd certainly remember the gesture. BL: A worthwhile service that we appreciate, but rather limited in ability to really 'go-the-extra-mile' for high frequency customers.
p.s.
Lucky--enjoy your blog so much...high-five from a long-time reader!
My concierge, Karen, has been an absolute rock star over the time that I've had her, and I've had positive experiences with the rest of the folks who pitch in when she's not in office. About 50% of the bookings I do directly through her, since it's easier than booking myself. And, when I'm traveling somewhere on work and am adding a couple of personal nights on the end, they do a great job of...
My concierge, Karen, has been an absolute rock star over the time that I've had her, and I've had positive experiences with the rest of the folks who pitch in when she's not in office. About 50% of the bookings I do directly through her, since it's easier than booking myself. And, when I'm traveling somewhere on work and am adding a couple of personal nights on the end, they do a great job of making separate bookings and letting the hotel know that I'd like the same room for the whole stay but just separate folios. She's also been good at communicating dietary restrictions (have to be low-carb for medical reasons) to hotels, so they don't give me a platter of chocolate dripped strawberries and then ask why I'm not eating it.
outstanding pet giraffe reference
Hahaha yes agreed Diamond Guest! :D
The problem is how long it takes the concierge to respond. It takes at least 1-2 business days sometimes. Faster to just call but not as easy as writing an email
Everything the Hyatt Concierge does for you you can get it done yourself, either by calling the hotels directly or contacting Hyatt customer service, but it is SO MUCH easier and faster just to shoot my concierge an e-mail and know that the issue will be taken care of. I compare it to have a very competent and proactive administrative assistant who is out there looking after you. I have had 100% success rate with...
Everything the Hyatt Concierge does for you you can get it done yourself, either by calling the hotels directly or contacting Hyatt customer service, but it is SO MUCH easier and faster just to shoot my concierge an e-mail and know that the issue will be taken care of. I compare it to have a very competent and proactive administrative assistant who is out there looking after you. I have had 100% success rate with everything I have contacted my concierge for, very fast response. It is a valuable and tangible benefit.
"I'm not looking to get my concierge to get me upgrades to the Presidential Suite."
Why not? Mine often will contact a hotel for me and and ask for a specific suite that I like and have been upgraded to before. Example at Park Hyatt Vienna. She almost always gets it for me even though it's technically above the standard upgrade list of suites.
Concierge member have a dedicated phone line beyond the globalist phone line that cuts down the waitlist even more and gets answered directly by an agent. The agent seems to be a small group of people as I have had repeat agents a few times now and they also remember me, which is nice. The dedicated concierge line actually has personalized detail about my account (such as I have full control of my family's account...
Concierge member have a dedicated phone line beyond the globalist phone line that cuts down the waitlist even more and gets answered directly by an agent. The agent seems to be a small group of people as I have had repeat agents a few times now and they also remember me, which is nice. The dedicated concierge line actually has personalized detail about my account (such as I have full control of my family's account and therefore do not need to pretend or have them on the line when need to change things for them).
the concierge benefit has never worked out much in my experience. getting a random agent on the concierge line has worked out better than my assigned gal. working at a call center in Omaha seems like it might be a not so great gig.
Mine is nice. She signed me up for a Q4 double points promotion I didn't even know about yesterday. She's very responsive as well. I'd probably be fine without her, but nice to know I can reach out to her.
The my Hyatt concierges should be more proactive about contacting the hotel to get better rooms (like your ambassador did). There are too many globalist-lite people who are flooding the hotels and not staying 60 nights and severely affecting the 60 night plus people’s benefits. Doing 20 nights versus 60 is an insane difference and should be prioritized for sure. The concierges could do this but they rarely so.
I know this post is a year old, but I wanted to give my 2¢.
Upgrades at checkin aren't easy to obtain at desirable properties, whether you're a 60-night Globalist or not. Sometimes the type is sold out. Sometimes the property tries to double-talk you into thinking that the room you see available in the app isn't really available (and the concierge can help with this).
If you need an upgrade, use your SUA...
I know this post is a year old, but I wanted to give my 2¢.
Upgrades at checkin aren't easy to obtain at desirable properties, whether you're a 60-night Globalist or not. Sometimes the type is sold out. Sometimes the property tries to double-talk you into thinking that the room you see available in the app isn't really available (and the concierge can help with this).
If you need an upgrade, use your SUA (20-nighters don't have those) or pay for a different room type. "Globalist-lite people" probably aren't affecting you much in that respect.
BS jobs that serve no purpose other than making wealthy people feel good about themselves. I think they wrote a book about it.
Yes, treating your $40k/year customer the same as your $400/year customer is a much better model and will surely lead to Hyatt dominating; they should switch to that! /s
Grow up
@Mike
Bull Shit Jobs : A theory by David Graeber