Hotels are notorious for having opening delays. They’re consistently overly optimistic and excited to open, and will start accepting reservations for a particular day, only to later have to postpone the opening. Some hotels handle these situations as well as they can, by communicating proactively and offering alternative accommodations or compensation. And then you have hotels like this…
In this post:
Hyatt’s Rancho Pescadero delays opening… on opening day
I had written about Rancho Pescadero, an intriguing new Hyatt Unbound Collection property in Baja California Sur, Mexico. The property looks gorgeous, and is in one of my favorite areas of Mexico.
On November 10, 2022, I wrote about how the hotel opened. What was my source?
- In the couple of weeks leading up to the hotel’s opening, the hotel was saying on social media that the hotel opening was planned for November 10, 2022
- On the morning of November 10, 2022, I saw that the hotel was selling rooms for stays as of that date, so then it’s safe to assume that the hotel is opening then
At least that’s how it has always worked out until now. Well, I’ve just received a note from Hyatt indicating that “unfortunately the opening date for this property had to be postponed,” and the hotel is now planning to open by early 2023, with no exact date yet.
A hotel’s opening being delayed by several months is nothing new, and is hardly surprising. However, usually there’s some advance notice, and you don’t see the opening delayed literally on the day of opening. It gets much worse than that…
How the hotel informed guests of the delayed opening
FlyerTalk user strbrynkrm was booked to stay at this hotel one day after the scheduled opening. Here’s what they share about how that went:
I was booked to stay at Rancho Pescadero from Nov. 11 – 15. They canceled my reservation on Nov. 10 at 6:35 PM.
After following this forum, I emailed the hotel on Nov. 7 asking about whether they were still planning to open.
No one answered my question directly. However, they had been communicating with me all week about activities and bookings. I even received several confirmations on Nov. 9, so I figured all was well.
Until I received an AUTOMATED email at 6:35 PM on Nov. 10 to notify me that my reservation was cancelled. No proactive guest communication despite having exchanged no less than 30 emails with me about coordinating my visit. I ended up spending 30 minutes on the phone with Hyatt reservations to figure out what had happened. Apparently some “technical glitches.”
Such incompetence.
I’ve seen a lot of hotels handle delayed opening poorly, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like this. Informing a guest the night before their scheduled arrival (to a pretty remote place, no less) via an automated message that the hotel won’t be opening as planned, all while offering no alternatives, is outrageous. Never mind the fact that the hotel had been in communication with the guest all week about activities.
Hyatt really owes it to those who were booked to make this situation right…
Bottom line
Hotel opening delays are common, though it’s not often you see a hotel’s opening delayed by months the night before arrival, all while still selling rooms at the hotel for the planned opening date. While delayed hotel openings are frustrating under the best of circumstances, this one takes the cake, if you ask me.
What do you make of how the delayed opening of Rancho Pescadero has been handled?
Yes things happen but how are they allowed to get away with it and turn it into your problem. I had an IHG hotel booked for NYC for months, and 2 weeks before I was supposed to get there they cancelled and the hotel opening delayed a couple weeks. A big chain with 20+ hotels in Manhattan and they basically said we can help you book another chain hotel at the current publicly available rate...
Yes things happen but how are they allowed to get away with it and turn it into your problem. I had an IHG hotel booked for NYC for months, and 2 weeks before I was supposed to get there they cancelled and the hotel opening delayed a couple weeks. A big chain with 20+ hotels in Manhattan and they basically said we can help you book another chain hotel at the current publicly available rate (i.e. moving from a 4.5 star to a 2.5 star and about 1.5 times the initial booked price). Not cool
Agree. In fact the experience will not be very good just when it opens because they have not had everything worked out yet.
Update - called Hyatt (bc we have a mid Dec reservation) and they said hotel was opening this Friday (Nov 18, 2022). They said they spoke with the hotel itself and confirmed this info.
Overreaction. Communication breakdown, Hyatt PR will respond anyway at some point on they will get their free night for their bruised feeling and 'trauma'. Hyatt will survive for the opening don't worry.
Helpful to know. When the opening was announced I excitedly booked a stay (for mid Dec) for my husbands birthday, even cancelling a prior reservation I had for the Cape (Thompson). Now will be calling Hyatt customer support early tomorrow am….
As a past hotelier myself, the opening day is more of a statement. I opened a 300 + room hotel with only 5 rooms just because we "needed" to open even though, the hotel was faaar from ready. It took over 6 months to open the entire rest of the hotel. I have opened 5 brand new hotels and in my experience, none of them were as smooth as we wanted them to be. Reasons...
As a past hotelier myself, the opening day is more of a statement. I opened a 300 + room hotel with only 5 rooms just because we "needed" to open even though, the hotel was faaar from ready. It took over 6 months to open the entire rest of the hotel. I have opened 5 brand new hotels and in my experience, none of them were as smooth as we wanted them to be. Reasons always varied. In almost all cases, there was "constructive criticism" provided, which basically ended up in some form of compensation. If you're going to a brand new hotel, expect hiccups.
While this particular case might have been handled better, I'm sure Hyatt will do right by the guests who were inconvenienced. We wouldn't know the actual reasons for the delays, of course. Its all speculations.
To be fair, there are many a guests (again, I speak from experience) who want to take advantage of such situations and are banking on their experience so go south. If you are genuinely looking to enjoy a brand new hotel, I highly recommend waiting at least 2 to 3 months after the official opening date. This allows the place to settle in, the employees to get used to the protocols and procedures - put their trainings in action essentially and lastly, it allows the hotel to work out all the kinks and glitches.
Sounds about average for Hyatt these days. They will say "property owner problems" and call it a day.
I'm gonna harp on this until time ends, but Hyatt Centric Waikiki is *still* not offering Globalists breakfasts because of The Covid. That crap worked in 2020, and Hyatt can't do a dang thing despite it being *their own property.*
It could be the property did poorly on the preopening inspections by Hyatt. Although, they typically don't have the reservation system opened for the date unless the preinspection tasks are verified.
Not sure if it still a thing, but in times gone by it would be commonplace for certain travellers to book a hotel about a week after it was scheduled to open with the hope that it wouldn't actually open. Then they would claim compensation for the inconvenience and hope for flights to be paid and/or alternate hotels to be paid for. If the hotel did actually open on time, the guest would simply cancel the reservation.
You mean those notorious bloggers who like to extort the industry?
The same people who seem to get much better compensated than normal people like us who never get's anything if someone knocks your door with DND hanging or you missed your wake up call etc.
Yes only if you have a lot of traffic or followers.
LOL, I call this "pulling an Adele". No respect for people that pay your bills.
Hyatt is going south fast. Used to be great, now they just done care about people and doing the right thing. They need better leadership like 5-7 years ago
Why anyone willingly books a brand new hotel, at any level on the luxury spectrum, is beyond me.
It's nice to sleep in a bed that nobody else has slept in
Before realizing they bought up all the beds from the closed Holiday Inn next door.
This is why I never stay at properties near their opening. It's too much of a either way situation. Usually the staff isn't trained well enough yet. Guests know more about the programs and status than the employees do. It's very difficult to navigate, they don't know where local eateries and attractions are, etc. I prefer to wait at least 6 months until after opening before booking anything.
that sucks, I was supposed to stay at the "Grayson Hotel" in Manhattan on points which was brand new and was a couple of days after planned opening. But about a month before- I was notified that the opening was pushed back the by a couple weeks, but they took great care by moving me to the nearby Hyatt Centric and refunded me all my points + zero cost for my stay at the centric.
If this were a Marriott, they'd "open up a case" and then you'd call back in a few weeks and "sir the case was closed, would you like me to reopen it?"
Faced an almost similar situation with the 7 Pines in Sardinia, Destination by Hyatt property. Property was scheduled to open on June 1st and I had a reservation for August 6th. I noticed the hotel kept delaying opening to the point I was concerned about our trip. I called the hotel a day before to confirm it was indeed open and they confirmed it was. We had a fantastic stay but I was shocked to...
Faced an almost similar situation with the 7 Pines in Sardinia, Destination by Hyatt property. Property was scheduled to open on June 1st and I had a reservation for August 6th. I noticed the hotel kept delaying opening to the point I was concerned about our trip. I called the hotel a day before to confirm it was indeed open and they confirmed it was. We had a fantastic stay but I was shocked to learn that was the second day the hotel had been open. I can only imagine the frustration of all guests that had booked that hotel in the prior 2 months.
Why are people so excited to book a hotel RIGHT when it opens? That's like waiting at the restaurant door when they open for dinner at 5pm. Regardless of the open date being pushed back, just wait a few months. Or even a year to give them time to get everything going. People just need to relax.
Generally speaking, when a company says “Open for business!” people take them at their word. People get excited about brands they love offering new products.
Your suggestion that people “relax” misses the point by a long shot.
Get excited all you want. And waste your hard earned dollars on a business that is still in training mode and knows less about the amenities and experience than you do. That's called stupidity.
Get all perverse all you want. And waste your hard earn dollars on skipping opening rates and don't get experience the amenities because they got devalued. That's called stupidity.
I’m getting the feeling this is a typical Hyatt thing. Whilst not a delayed opening, I experienced a cancellation due to a wedding buy-out at the Alila Fort Bishangarh and only after some persistence they offered to look into (not comparable) alternatives for those dates. At the end I cancelled the entire trip, but never been offered any compensation (or even a sorry).
My own experience and reading this isn’t giving me much confidence in Hyatt.
As bad as Marriott at least they have a defined compensation benefit unlike Hyatt and IHG.
Except in this case, Marriott's compensation wouldn't apply. The "Ultimate Reservation Guarantee" only applies if the property is open and operational.