When you’re booking a hotel room, there’s a chance you’ll make a mistake. Maybe you booked the wrong dates or even at the wrong hotel. If you catch it immediately, places are usually willing to work with you to correct your error.
However, if you never notice your mistake, you may show up at a hotel to find out you don’t have a reservation.
But what if you make a little mistake, like forgetting to change the number of guests in the room from the preset of 1 to 2?
That happened when I booked a Hyatt hotel using free night certificates.
Hyatt makes using multiple certificates much easier than IHG, which requires you to make a separate reservation for each certificate. With Hyatt, I could book a single reservation using our certificates.
When I received the confirmation email, I noticed that I forgot to mention that there would be 2 people in the room. I tried to edit the reservation online, but it said I could only cancel. It advised me to call Hyatt if I needed to make changes.
Since I hate calling places, I messaged the Hyatt Concierge on Twitter (@HyattConcierge). I’ve written them to help with other issues before, and they’ve always come through for me.
I explained that I forgot to book a room for two guests and could they change the reservation.
In a few minutes, I received a response.
I felt a little guilty that I made the concierge rep cancel my reservation and rebook the same stay for 2 guests. However, I would prefer they did this because if something happened where the room didn’t reappear in inventory, they could get involved with the property to restore my reservation.
Apparently, changing the number of guests is one of the unchangeable things in the Hyatt reservation system. Who knew?
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10 comments
I also noticed this last week when staying at a hyatt resort. I was worried they would only allow the number of guests stated to receive the breakfast for globalists (lite) . I used the chat feature as well as calling them to change it, yet it was never changed. I called the hotel itself, who also couldn’t do it, but they made an internal note to change it.
How did you book all your night with Hyatt certificate. I’ve always had to book each night separately. If I book it together I end up either having to pay with points or cash.
I searched for a stay of 3 nights and when I checked to pay with points it gave me the option to use “Free nights” or “Points”. I didn’t know it was a big deal or I would have taken some screenshots.
Hilton also doesn’t let me edit the number of guests. Inconvenient.
I actually almost ran into a big problem with this. I booked a Hyatt all inclusive using points right before Hyatt had a rate increase on the property, almost doubling the amount of points needed.
I realized a few months later that the reservation had only 1 person on it and so I called into the general concierge line (I’m a globalist) and was told that if I wanted to add a second person I would need to pay an addition 30k points per night (it was a 2 night stay) and there was nothing they could do about it.
That seemed crazy to me since a 2nd person would have been included in my original points booking had I originally marked the reservation for 2 instead of 1. The next day I called my personal concierge and she was able to make an “exception” and add the 2nd person on for free.
Lesson learned but it seems to be a crazy archaic rule!
Normally when you pay with cash, you have to pay more for two people at an all inclusive versus one so not surprised they wanted more points… But they probably wanted more points than had you booked it correctly from the get go. Glad they made an exception for you.
I’ve never found in the US at a Hyatt or any other hotel it makes a difference when you say one or two people on the reservation. If I just made it for one I’ve always been able to add a second person no problem at checking. Now once you get to three or four people that can be different as they may have an extra charge for total guests higher than two.
Can anyone use the Hyatt concierge or do you have special status?
Anyone can contact Hyatt Concierge. I believe the seperate Twitter handle is to seperate messages for help from the main corporate page.
Marriott/Bonvoy does not let you change guest count either…. You have cancel and rebook.