Yesterday I wrote about how it’s now possible to redeem World of Hyatt points for suites online, and this is creating some interesting opportunities.
In this post:
“Premium suites” are inconsistent
World of Hyatt is the only major hotel loyalty program that lets you redeem points for suites at a fixed cost. Hyatt lets you redeem for either “standard” or “premium” suites, though it’s up to individual properties to define which suite falls into each category:
- At some hotels, premium suites are simply standard suites with premium views, and are marginally more expensive if paying cash
- At other hotels, premium suites are truly special suites that are often exponentially more expensive than standard suites if paying cash
For context, here’s Hyatt’s award chart by category:
I’ve spent quite a bit of time playing around on hyatt.com and looking at how different hotels are categorizing suites, and that has been quite fun. There are some really cool opportunities available.
Check out this premium suite redemption
Reader Zach points to what’s possibly the most interesting premium suite opportunity I’ve seen.
The Cape is a Thompson Hotel in Cabo San Lucas. This is a Category 6 World of Hyatt property, meaning that a free night costs:
- 25,000 points in a standard room
- 40,000 points in a standard suite
- 50,000 points in a premium suite
What makes this opportunity so interesting is some of the premium suites that are available. Most notably, this property has the “Penthouse Villa with Ocean View” as one of the premium suites, so you could book it for 50,000 points per night.
This is a room that ordinarily retails for $3,700 per night after factoring in taxes and fees (which are extremely high in Mexico).
For example, a four night stay would cost $14,794 if paying cash.
The Penthouse Villa with Ocean View is described as having 3,000 square feet of interior space, including three bedrooms with king beds, a living area, and a kitchen. Then there’s a 2,000 square foot rooftop private balcony featuring lounge seating, wet bar, barbecue, and plunge pool.
You can actually book this room on points for up to six guests, which is the first time I’ve seen any room bookable with points for that many guests.
The generic room description says that a stay in this villa includes daily breakfast for all guests at The Ledge Restaurant, plus a private roundtrip airport transfer for up to six passengers in a luxury SUV, plus a private pool cabana one day. It’s not explicitly stated that this is included when redeeming points, but given that it’s part of the overall room description, I’d expect it would be.
For me this was worth a speculative booking
I have no plans to go to Mexico anytime soon, but this seems like an amazing value using points. Personally I’ve gone ahead and made a speculative booking for next year, and I’ll see how the current situation evolves. The hotel has a 21-day cancellation policy, so I have a lot of time to make a decision.
While The Cape is known as a party hotel, having a three bedroom villa with 5,000 square feet of interior and exterior space gives you quite the opportunity to distance from others.
Bottom line
I’m thrilled to see Hyatt bring suite redemptions online, since it makes it easy to see just which suites are bookable with points. While there are a lot of incredible opportunities, being able to redeem 50,000 points per night for a three bedroom villa with a 2,000 square foot outdoor terrace seems pretty awesome.
It goes without saying that there are lots of considerations with travel at the moment, but for some this may be worth a speculative booking many months out. This might be an even better value than redeeming for a stay at Calala Island.
If you are going to visit in the coming months, you can also get 15-25% off World of Hyatt redemptions for stays through October 8, 2020.
Are they covering the roundtrip airport transfer?
I just got a call after I submitted an official Hyatt feedback form. They will now honor all bookings with all the amenities as listed. Lucky you! :)
@Brodie & @Lukas - same reply from the hotel as Lukas. I’m going to contact Hyatt if they keep their stance, but would you mind sending me the correspondence as well? Landh8 [at] cs . Com
Thanks a lot!
Will update once I get to a resolution.
@Brodie, do you have an email? The management REFUSED to honor this deal for me. Please email me at techfather [at] Gmail. Thank you.
Good to hear Brodie- Will anyone staying on points please post a small review. Or head over the dedicated FlyerTalk page for this hotel and post there. Thanks!
Follow up to my previous post re transportation. The hotel reached back to me when I inquired about the cabana and they stated management has agreed to cover all amenities listed, whether booked with points or money.
Unsure if they removed premium suites or they’re all just booked now, but I haven’t had any luck finding the premium suites tab on a variety of dates.
@JoePro Thank you, that really helps, and good advice! I'll do that and keep my fingers crossed, the Penthouse allowing 6 guests was the main reason for me booking it. I'll keep my fingers but worst case I'll book a standard room or one of the less premium suites.
@Yaswanth Reddy: if you actually want to go to Cabo, keep the trip. Book a standard room for the other days. You can check availability for the Penthouse for those other days now and as you get closer. Keep your fingers crossed that it stays available, and you can make the request to stay in the room for the other days if it does. Completely at hotel discretion though, so be thoroughly prepared to change...
@Yaswanth Reddy: if you actually want to go to Cabo, keep the trip. Book a standard room for the other days. You can check availability for the Penthouse for those other days now and as you get closer. Keep your fingers crossed that it stays available, and you can make the request to stay in the room for the other days if it does. Completely at hotel discretion though, so be thoroughly prepared to change rooms if they say no.
Doubtful the Penthouse will be able to be booked with points again, they will likely dedicate a different suite for the premium (I think there were 2-3 to begin with).
This happened at PH Tokyo, I got into the Diplomatic Suite with points, now only Governors suite is bookable that way.
What are the chances that after things die down they might allow the Penthouse to be booked with points again in the future? I was able to book 1 night while waiting for points to transfer to book 2 more nights. They finally did but now it's too late it seems. So not sure what I should do with these points now or the trip.
Wow! That is some BS on the transfer. I have not gotten a response from them on my email about this. I guess I will need to complain. I have screen shots Any news on breakfast for 6 and cabana?
Follow up on car service and the included airport transfer with the Penthouse. The hotel responded today and informed me it is only included in the standard rate, so point bookings are exempt. They should make this more clear on their room description.
Brandon, I'll take it...
For anyone interested I got lucky and booked for Sept 7-10th. Unfortunately I can’t make it now due to processing delays on my daughters passport. Before I cancel wonder if there is anyway for me to transfer the reservation to another reader.
Confirmed dead. They pulled all the Premium Suite availability.
Lovely
I just looked at ten different 3 or 4 weekend and weekday options up to a year in the future and no premium suites are showing at the Thompson of any sort. Must have been a rush and they turned off the spigot.
Dead :(
On Saturday, I was so close to booking this a couple of weeks from now and I just went back to to so now and it's gone.
Lucky, if she is feeling well enough (and her doctor approves, of course), you should bring your mom and Winston there with you. Wouldn't that be a special family trip for all of you?
@Brian: check flyertalk threads. There is an entire thread on Premium suite opportunities.
Last year booked high-tier suites in Beijing ($2200/nt 2 story penthouse at the PH), PH Seoul, and PH Tokyo ($3600/nt Diplomat Suite).
The Park Exec Suite at St. Kitts is pretty nice too, but now that their Penthouse is as low as $650/nt, the Park Exec is not as extreme in value proposition.
@ Stags - “do they put a cash hold on your credit card if using points for a deposit?” Unlike Hilton which can, & will, depending on the property and when you book. Soooo wrong.
This is a tip for booking Premium rooms with points. I had booked 2 nights at a Hyatt resort (before the online feature was available) in a regular room using points.
When we checked in on a Saturday, there were still no available upgrades available. By that night, however, Hyatt was showing premium rooms with points for the following/Sunday night. Once you check-in, though, & points applied, you can’t “add to” your points for...
This is a tip for booking Premium rooms with points. I had booked 2 nights at a Hyatt resort (before the online feature was available) in a regular room using points.
When we checked in on a Saturday, there were still no available upgrades available. By that night, however, Hyatt was showing premium rooms with points for the following/Sunday night. Once you check-in, though, & points applied, you can’t “add to” your points for a better room if available.
The property went ahead & extended a suite without any addtl cost/points, but now that online point upgrades are available, I will book future stays in 1-nt increments. Since Hyatt will currently accept cancels (within 24 hours of check-in), this buys time to wait for a better room while still ensuring a reservation.
hotel notice says that masks have to be worn in all common areas of the hotel.
So I have to wear a mask to the pool and hotel bar?
Covid or not, that doesn’t sound like my idea of a vacation.
Ben - getting mentioned in your article was a thrill. Seriously - You made my weekend! Really enjoy your work.
Thanks again!
Just booked the Penthouse at The Cape for a couple of nights in August. Looks to be a killer redemption, especially with the 25% point rebate. All in 75,000 points for over $6k in value if paying cash. Wow and thank you. Also, I emailed about the return car service to see if they will pick me up at The Waldorf instead of the airport. Looking forward to this stay.
@john
I'm seeing the same. 24 hours cancellation policy. :)
I never knew that suites could be booked if you called hyatt directly. So bummed I didn't know this earlier. But anyway, This def makes it easier now that's its online; however, now that it's available to the masses... well if I were you I'd get booking haha.
Booked 2 stays already. Awesome property.
I'm seeing 2 Night Deposit Due at Booking Cancel 45 Days Prior To Arvl For Refund.
Lucky:
If you pay for everything in points, are you on the hook for any taxes or service charges?
They seemed to list the following on confirmation:
LODGING TAX: 3.000%
VAT TAX: 16.000%
SERVICE CHARGE: 15.000%
Lastly, do they put a cash hold on your credit card if using points for a deposit?
Thanks
Chris
@ Stags -- Nope, those fees are all a percent of room rate in cash, and don't apply when redeeming points. In my experience there's no cash deposit when redeeming points either.
Whilst big, the room doesn't look very nice.
The furniture especially is quite ugly.
The kitchen looks extremely dated.
@dot, Americans are allowed to travel to Mexico.
I just got back from staying at the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal. They are really taking the social distancing and mask wearing very seriously. Definitely felt safer there than in the States. That is a killer deal, thanks!
Way cool but... This one is DRY now!!! Where are the other Hotels with 3 such bedrooms!!!!??
Yeah, I agree with dot. This isn't anything I couldn't have called WoH and managed on my own. The real question for this whole industry is when recreational travel will be possible again. I'm not optimistic about my December or March trips to Japan. (Good thing VA only has a $50 change fee.)
Heck, I can't even stay in Hyatt Regency San Francisco, which is pretty touristy and domestic. They have pushed back their opening date 3 times now.
Lucky, can you do another post listing 1) best Hyatt standard suite redemption options and 2) best premium suite resemption options based on the research you have done? This one is cool, but a post on top 10 properties in each category would be fun!
wow tempting but when will we be able to go to MEX??
Or you can book a lower rate room and hope for an upgrade because no one is traveling.
Booked for October! Thanks, Lucky.
When you combine this with the current 25% promo - oh my
I'm seeing 24 hour cancellation?
Booked speculatively for 9/18-20. My wife refuses to travel, so I guess I'm going to have a 3bedroom myself
Thanks so much! Just booked 7 nights over new years!!
Booked for 3 nights next April. This will be great for our annual girls' trip.
Thanks, Lucky!!!!
Read this - and just booked a 6 night stay in March. Thanks!
Ok it is saying there is a 2 night deposit for me (Australian account). Cancel 24 hours prior to arrival. Thoughts? Given I am going to have to cancel calala. May as well try this one.
Stayed in this in room. It was huge but the 2nd/3rd bedrooms unnecessary since we were just two people. The Panoramic Suite is much better — probably one of the most incredible views of any room at any hotel — but usually books out far in advance.
Ben you should do a raffle prize (maybe to benefit a charity) so one of your readers could stay in one of the bedrooms during your stay (just kidding)
JUST BOOKED FOUR NIGHTS IN JANUARY! I love you, Lucky.
I have a feeling they will exclude this room once they realize how many people are going to book it on points.