I’ll admit it. The peer pressure got to me and I convinced myself it was my fault that I wasn’t in love with Hyatt. I must’ve been doing something wrong because how could everyone else rave about the hotel chain and I just didn’t get it? Even after staying in a few Hyatts, I didn’t find the experience much better than any other hotel chain.
I’ve been happy with our stays at Marriott properties and I find IHG to be the loyalty program that most fits our travel style. That doesn’t stop me from hearing the people saying that you’re doing it wrong if you don’t stay at Hyatt hotels.
I figured the reason I wasn’t staying at Hyatt hotels more might be because I wasn’t involved with the loyalty program. I had an account but I only used it to transfer points from Chase Ultimate Rewards on the rare opportunity I had to make a booking.
Maybe if I got the World of Hyatt credit card and earned a nice stash of points, I would be more likely to stay at their hotels. That’s exactly what I did. I even spent $15,000 on the card the first year to earn an additional free night at a category 1-4 hotel.
On my renewal, I received another certificate for a free night. That was two free nights in my account, plus all of the points from the sign-up bonus and ones earned for spending.
That’s about when COVID hit in 2020. I was glad Hyatt extended the expiration dates of the free nights to the end of 2021. Now I have three free nights in my account because I earned another one in 2021.
We had plenty of free nights in our accounts and I’ve done a good job at using them up. I used our Marriott free nights to stay at some nice places like this Residence Inn in Cape Canaveral and some not-so-nice ones, like this Courtyard at JFK airport. I used our IHG free nights on our yearly trip to Texas, even if the hotel we stayed in wasn’t as nice as our previous trips.
This was when I realized why we didn’t stay at Hyatt hotels often. It’s the major flaw of the hotel chain. It’s not the properties themselves. It’s not the World of Hyatt program, which is the most rewarding to Hyatt loyalists (or I’ve been told.)
It’s the lack of Hyatt hotels in places where I want to stay. When using my free nights from the other programs, I always looked to see if there was a Hyatt hotel anywhere nearby. I struck out every time, except when Hyatt showed me a hotel that was 30 minutes from where I searched.
I’m not giving up hope on finding a nice category 1-4 hotel to use our free nights. However, I’m considering getting rid of the World of Hyatt card. If I can’t easily find a use for the free night and the only other benefit for a casual user like myself is getting premium internet as a Discoverist over the basic version, it’s not worth the annual fee.
Right now, I feel like a person who wants to be in a relationship and does all of the things they’re supposed to do but ends up realizing that it’s just not a good fit for the long term. We’ll meet up now and then and enjoy our time together but we just don’t mesh.
I’m not saying that I don’t think Hyatt is a good hotel brand. It’s just never going to be my primary choice. Once I’ve used my free nights and the points I have in the program, I can always pad my balance with UR if needed for future stays.
Sorry, Hyatt. It’s not you. It’s me. Or, more accurately, it’s the places we like to travel to.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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