I’ve been following the miles and points world for well over a decade. When it comes to hotel loyalty programs, one of the biggest gripes is how hotels exploit their “guarantees” with the “when available” exception. No matter if it’s suite upgrades, club access or early check-in/late check-out, hotels always find a way to say that while that is a benefit, unfortunately, they’re unable to provide for your stay because they’re fully booked.
This is a major point of contention with Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors and IHG Rewards, who rarely come through on these requests. However, Hyatt loyalists claim their hotel of choice is better than the rest because they honor these benefits more times than they don’t.
That is, except when Hyatt allows properties to not offer late check-out.
What? Hyatt lets individual properties skirt the rules? Yep, even Hyatt.
A quick look at the benefits shows that Explorists and Discoverists are eligible for 2 PM checkout while Globalists get 4 PM late checkout:
You have to click on the “LATE CHECKOUT (AS AVAILABLE AT SOME LOCATIONS” link to learn more. But that first click really doesn’t show much. Just this:
Clicking on the “LOCATIONS” hyperlink brings you to a more detailed page:
If you’re a Discoverist, like me, from your World of Hyatt credit card, you might expect to get a 2 PM late checkout. However, when I asked the Grand Hyatt Kauai for a 2 PM checkout, I was denied. The desk agent did thank me for being a Discoverist member and offered me a delayed checkout time of 12 noon (1 hour past the usual 11 AM checkout time). This worked out well for us to get back to the room and freshen up after our early morning helicopter ride. But 12 noon isn’t anywhere near 2 PM.
It’s only if you click through to the “program terms” for the World of Hyatt program that you find the fine print that allows properties to skirt the promises the program makes to loyal members.
PLEASE NOTE: The distinction between a Hyatt resort and a Hyatt hotel may not always be obvious and Members are encouraged to call a Hyatt Global Contact Center for help determining a hotel’s or resort’s designation. Please visit hyatt.com for contact information
Even for Globalists who are promised a 4 PM late checkout, properties considered resorts are excluded. Hyatt admits that a guest may not be able to determine the difference between a hotel and a resort, and the only way to know for sure is to call Hyatt.
Really? There’s no way for Hyatt to put on the website that a property is exempt from the World of Hyatt promise and another one isn’t? For a program that’s lauded for its clarity in benefits and straight talk, this seems to be an easy cop-out for a property to say it’s a resort and therefore not offer late checkout.
I’m not saying this puts Hyatt on the same level as the other chains when it comes to honoring elite benefits. Instead, it shows that not even Hyatt, the poster child of exceeding expectations, isn’t above adding obscure wording into their program rules that let a property skirt the rules if they’re so inclined.
Admittedly, this wasn’t a problem for us. We returned to the hotel from our helicopter ride, packed the car and checked out at noon. We did take one last picture from the room.
I miss this view.
While people who stay at Hyatt frequently know this, people who only occasionally stay with Hyatt might not be as familiar with the ins and outs of the World of Hyatt program. If you’re depending on a late checkout when staying at a Hyatt property, you should call in advance to know if the property is a resort and not a hotel.
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8 comments
Byatt is going so downhill and becoming Marriott. It was such a great program totally sucks lately and hotels deny globalist benefits more than they honor them. Time for a new ceo
You can understand why they do that since otherwise a huge proportion of customers would want the latest checkout possible. They sure could make it more apparent though to avoid unhappy guests.
Most of the the resorts have the word resort in the name of the hotel. Example Grand Hyatt Kauai RESORT and Spa!! Also all resorts have a resort fee another clue ; ) imagine checking into a resort and all the amenities/activities are full because they allowed late check outs for every member. I hope this information helps.
Hyatt never says ‘promise’ in the terms and conditions. Its up to the user to read and understand what the program details.
Literally had the same experience at the Grand Hyatt Kauai back in October. Currently a discoverist and they couldn’t honor any late type of checkout. I’ve been a big loyalist of Hyatt over the years but this particular trip rubbed me the wrong way. The resort grounds are nice but the rooms are dated and the staff were very unpleasant
Not knowing what you were expecting but I thought our room was really nice. The hallways were old but well cared for so I personally wouldn’t say it was dated.
I know they don’t have such a presence in the US but Accors ALL program is exceptional for sticking to its stated perks list. To the point that at one property in Munich I was given €100 at my, late, check out to apologize about them not having been able to grant me an upgrade during my 5 night stay.
This certainly isn’t a published or promised thing and I hadn’t complained past asking about it when I checked in when they said they couldn’t as it was during Oktoberfest and were unsurprisingly rammed.
I think I have about a 96-98% success rate on getting both early check-in, room upgrade and late check as a Gold level member. I regularly get all these even though the published loist only grants me EITHER an early.in OR a late out.
There’s also a great sweet spot in that with locations with an exec lounge aslong as you’re Gold or above you can book the level below and then get bumped to the above grade which saves a substantial amount ( as obviously there’s a marked pricing difference between the two no matter which brand you stay at). Whilst not getting room upgrades is extremely rare with them I’ve still been afforded exec lounge access throughout even of they can’t bump up the actual room itself.
For any readers outside the US I’d highly recommend the program above HH, IHG etc. Side by side ALL provides better perks across the tiers.
About the only bad thing is their frankly appalling IT. Whilst this is something they’re working on members across even the entry level are supposed to get variable rates discounts across the board but on multiple occasions I’ve found that there are in fact lower rates if I’m not signed into my account/ get someone else who isn’t a member to look for me. It’s easily rectified by reaching out to CS but is a pretty fundamental error on their IT / back end stuff so doing the check is something I’d always recommend and REALLY needs to get sorted out.
Today I’m thankful that terms like “resort and spa” (you know, like the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa, the full name of the hotel you stayed at but conveniently omitted in your post) aren’t super confusing to me.
Although I suppose not being a dishonest blogger helps.