Here’s an exciting and long overdue development, if you ask me…
In this post:
Hyatt’s new award availability calendar feature
World of Hyatt has just rolled out an awesome new award availability calendar feature, whereby you can search award availability at a particular hotel for an entire year in just seconds. This is available through both the Hyatt website and the World of Hyatt mobile app.
For context, up until now, Hyatt has had a points calendar, but that only showed you the pricing for a particular night based on peak or off-peak pricing, and didn’t actually tell you if any award rooms were available, so it was of limited use.
So, what all has changed? For one, if you search for points availability at a hotel, the initial search page will show you both the cash and points price, and if there’s not points availability for that night, it’ll say “Points rates unavailable for selected dates.”
If you click “VIEW RATES,” you’ll then brought to a page that lets you go to the points calendar.
Below is what the points calendar looks like. As you can see, it’s super easy to use, and you can see both pricing and availability with ease.
If you want to see the calendar while searching for availability, just click on the “Points Calendar” prompt near the top of the page, and that will take you to the calendar.
Lastly, if a member has a destination in mind and wants to see what hotels have award availability, the map feature now shows the lowest points rate, if available, or the cash rate, if award nights are not available for a stay.
I’m happy to see World of Hyatt introduce this!
I’m delighted to see World of Hyatt offering a proper award availability calendar, as this was missing for all too long. It’s something that both Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy have had for a long time, and IHG One Rewards has a “secret” calendar like this as well.
I found that the old calendar that Hyatt had almost caused more confusion than anything, since people would see a points price, and then be disappointed that there was no award availability (since it just showed the theoretical pricing, rather than actual availability).
Over the years, we’ve seen all kinds of tools pop up to help people find award availability. That’s largely because of the lack of transparency programs have offered in that area, either due to bad IT, or by design. The more that programs empower members to redeem their points, the better.
Bottom line
World of Hyatt has finally rolled out an award availability calendar, letting members search points availability and pricing across months at a time with ease. This is so much more useful than Hyatt’s old points calendar, so I’m pleased to see this change.
What do you make of World of Hyatt’s new award availability feature?
i just checked for a hotel that is thru mr. & mrs. smith. no calendar feature there. Its for royal champagne in Champagne, France. Anyone else see what i see or any work around?
Was always a frustrating thing with Hyatt's web site. You'd think you actually found some availability at Ventana Big Sur, and then you see there is nothing. So will actually be quite useful as I've been trying to snag some availability there.
Under this new version, how can I see the points required for specific date if there is no room available? e.g. Park Hyatt Kyoto. I can't seem to tell whether specific date is peak / off peak..etc Thanks!
It is helpful to have. Thanks for bringing it to our attention Ben.
Yes all the brands hotel's play games, but that is up to corporate to police or not, or maybe they accept it.
Lounge open or not would also be helpful.
Grand Hyatt Washington DC, our reservation was made with a Hyatt Globalist office. The hotel did not list it on the website that their lounge was closed for renovations.
Also they...
It is helpful to have. Thanks for bringing it to our attention Ben.
Yes all the brands hotel's play games, but that is up to corporate to police or not, or maybe they accept it.
Lounge open or not would also be helpful.
Grand Hyatt Washington DC, our reservation was made with a Hyatt Globalist office. The hotel did not list it on the website that their lounge was closed for renovations.
Also they did not tell the Hyatt Globalist making the reservations.
Finally the GM lady there apologized and said she should have listed it on the website and have informed Hyatt.
We decided not to stay due to the unprofessional front desk office. We cancelled same day and went to Thompson, which was far better.
Now how about adding lounge or suite upgrade availability? Now that phone reps speak unintelligible English we need a good way to see availability
You can sort to suites.
I appreciate the alert, Ben & team.
From hyatt.com, a couple of Mr. & Mrs. Smith properties in Scandinavia did not show a calendar when I checked earlier. All the other properties I looked at did.
off topic, but I really wish you would label the hotel pics you post. Some look so intriguing, but unless I've been, I have no idea which one it is.
Look at the hyperlink of the images, he's literally the best blogger when it comes to tagging his images properly.
Thanks! I never knew that was a thing and I always want to know where they are too.
No me gusta. Likely bad for availability - I don’t mind putting the work in.
This is great news. Good to see them joining the 21st Century! Thanks for reporting!
Cool, I guess. Except there's never any availability anyway, so what's the use?
I don't get all the hype around Hyatt...
The only place I have ever seen where Hyatt plays games with availability is Miami.
Sure there's some hotels that never show availability, but that's common among all the programs. Where are you trying to book? Andaz Maui? I generally don't have issues finding availability, except for one hotel in particular that I was able to use Cat1-4 certs and points at one time back in 2017, but have never seen availability since. Looking at you Hyatt Regency Tokyo.
Beyond that I've used points at other Tokyo Hyatts, the Thompson...
Sure there's some hotels that never show availability, but that's common among all the programs. Where are you trying to book? Andaz Maui? I generally don't have issues finding availability, except for one hotel in particular that I was able to use Cat1-4 certs and points at one time back in 2017, but have never seen availability since. Looking at you Hyatt Regency Tokyo.
Beyond that I've used points at other Tokyo Hyatts, the Thompson Gild Hall NYC, Andaz Savannah, Hyatts in and around Atlanta, the Hyatt Place in Charleston, and so on.
Literally any place I've ever looked.
Sure, occasionally there might be one hotel available in a given city, but it's like...40,000 points. It never makes any economical sense to book.
I can just stay at a HoJo for $100.
Why would I spend that many points?? It's just a bed to sleep on.
So literally zero point in you being on this site and commenting on hotel-related articles then. Cool cool.
Finally, now we just need Hyatt to crack down on properties gaming what a base room is. There is on hotel in Paris that has a standard room, and standard room with view, but its the same room.
Doesnt appear to be working for All Inclusive properties as of now, but definitely an upgrade
Much needed and welcomed addition.