Unfortunately it’s really common to see hotel openings delayed. It’s such a consistent problem in the industry, and it seems like hotels start accepting reservations based on a best case scenario timeline, when that’s rarely how things play out.
Well, the highly anticipated new Park Hyatt Los Cabos might be in a league of its own when it comes to what a poor job it’s doing with managing the opening timeline…
In this post:
Park Hyatt Los Cabos keeps delaying opening, days out
The Park Hyatt Los Cabos, Mexico, was supposed to open over the summer. Since then, we’ve seen the opening timeline pushed back a countless number of times. But I’d argue that matters have gotten especially bad in recent times.
For example, just to look at the situation over the past couple of weeks:
- On Monday, November 17, 2025, the plan was still to open on Friday, November 21, 2025
- Just four days before opening, the timeline was pushed back to Friday, November 28, 2025
- On Wednesday, November 26, 2025, guests with bookings in the coming days were informed that the opening has been delayed until Tuesday, December 2, 2025
Those are just the two most recent examples, in a string of delays. It’s shocking to me that a hotel is delaying its opening just two days before guests are supposed to check-in. One certainly wonders if the hotel will even be remotely ready for “prime time” when it welcomes its first guests, given how fragile the opening timeline seems to be.
There’s always a risk to booking hotels soon after opening
This situation is a good reminder of the risk of booking a hotel shortly after it’s due to open. There’s always a good chance of the opening being delayed, and beyond that, even if it does open, it’s questionable how ready the hotel actually is to offer a great experience.
In theory, hotels will often take care of guests nicely in situations where they’re impacted by a delayed opening, but even that isn’t consistent. Most nice hotels will accommodate guests elsewhere and refund them the cost of their stay in those situations, but that doesn’t seem to be how Hyatt has handled the situation for most guests.
While Hyatt’s approach has changed over time, it seems that the only thing that has been consistent is that Hyatt has offered guests 10,000 bonus points as compensation if they cancel their stay.
Other than that, they’ve generally just been offered a stay at The Cape, which I wouldn’t say is of a comparable quality to what the Park Hyatt promises to be. For that matter, going back some time, Hyatt wouldn’t even offer guests who had booked with points a stay at The Cape, unless there was standard room availability.
Bottom line
The Park Hyatt Los Cabos has delayed its opening once again. The latest delay comes just a couple of days before the anticipated opening date, making it the latest in a series of delays.
It’s disappointing how common hotel opening delays are, and how poorly hotels often handle this, acting as if it comes as a complete surprise. They consistently choose to accept reservations earlier than they should, only to have it end this way.
But as guests, there’s also a lesson here — if a stay really matters to you, don’t book a hotel shortly after it’s scheduled to open, since there’s a high risk of things going wrong.
What do you make of the Park Hyatt Los Cabos’ opening delays?
As a construction lawyer, I suspect that the PH failed some sort of an inspection - likely a fire and life safety inspection. Either the architect failed to desing a safety feature in or the construction contractor failed to execute the plan. And the failure was not detected until the inspection occurred.
This is obviously disruptive - I can only imagine that a full slate of employees have been hired. Whether a legal requirement or...
As a construction lawyer, I suspect that the PH failed some sort of an inspection - likely a fire and life safety inspection. Either the architect failed to desing a safety feature in or the construction contractor failed to execute the plan. And the failure was not detected until the inspection occurred.
This is obviously disruptive - I can only imagine that a full slate of employees have been hired. Whether a legal requirement or not, it is a practical requirement that they be paid lest they walk. And it is a guest relations nightmare - an esteemed brand is left looking terrible. PH needs to lawyer up an identify just who dropped the ball so they might shift the loss to someone else
I avoid visiting hotels, bars or restaurants that have just opened - nearly always have issues, so prefer to give the place a chance to bed-in, train their new staff and then I'll go a bit later.
I'm working in Vienna this week and I almost booked the Mandarin while I was making reservations two weeks ago. They were accepting bookings with an opening from November 17th. However, I decided to stick with my regular Park Hyatt in the end. Well, I was walking through the 1st District near the MO two days ago and decided to drop by for a drink and see the lobby and offerings. At the front entrance...
I'm working in Vienna this week and I almost booked the Mandarin while I was making reservations two weeks ago. They were accepting bookings with an opening from November 17th. However, I decided to stick with my regular Park Hyatt in the end. Well, I was walking through the 1st District near the MO two days ago and decided to drop by for a drink and see the lobby and offerings. At the front entrance was a security guard who informed me that the hotel has now been delayed to open "We hope sometime in December." I imagine this was really difficult for those who did book some time ago as Vienna is packed as always this time of year and the Park Hyatt, as one example, is often at 100% occupancy.