After being kicked back due to the pandemic, the dreaded Hyatt peak pricing is now here. Maybe it’s just the fact that we’ve known about this for quite a while, but I haven’t been bemoaning this change. Or it is just the Hyatt loyalty speaking. I know that this will ultimately have a negative effect on the value you can get for your Hyatt points, as the best uses are when cash rates are highest. You’re paying 30% more at most, if your booking dates fall under Hyatt peak pricing.
The flip side is that you can score a hotel for less during off-peak dates. Staying at a Category 1 Hyatt Place for just 3,500 is a steal virtually anywhere. That part I’m excited about.
But what I really want to explore today is a feature I didn’t know was coming: the Hyatt award calendar.
Hyatt Peak/Off-Peak Pricing and Award Calendar
If you want to see the new peak and off-peak pricing, head to the Hyatt website. I’m going to do a quick walkthrough of the award calendar feature. In this example, I decided to search for hotels in Seattle in December. This isn’t necessarily when you want to visit Seattle and is not a recommendation. It was just the first thing that popped into my mind.
Given the cheap cash rate of the Motif, I was curious if it would be available at off-peak rates this winter. Selecting this hotel took me to the typical rates page. There are all sorts of award available, including standard and premium suites. Pretty cool. What I was looking for though is the link to the calendar, which is underlined in red.
This pulls up the Hyatt award calendar for this individual property. You can see the hotel category, and the price each day is provided. Note the “Check Availability” button. The one important thing to note is that this is the pricing calendar. It does not necessarily mean there will be award inventory on the day you select. It would be far better if Hyatt would incorporate availability into the calendar as well, a la airline award search engines.
The new award calendar makes it easy to find off-peak dates. The green background let’s you instantly see which are cheaper. I jumped ahead to March to find nearly half the month is marked as off-peak at the Motif Seattle.
Not so for Hyatt peak pricing. This is harder to see. Jumping ahead to June 2022, there is a mix of peak and standard award. Kinda hard to distinguish between “8” and “5” at a glance.
Selecting dates and clicking “Check Availability” will take you to a form that let’s you search these new dates. You will be taken back to the typical award pricing page.
Overall, the Hyatt award calendar is an excellent new feature and is super easy to use.
Hyatt Peak Pricing: An Awful Change?
The new Hyatt peak pricing is an overall net negative for the program value, but I would call it a relatively minor one. We’ll be paying more during the busiest times for a given property, reducing the outsized value we can often get for our points during these periods. The flip side is that some properties will be even more of a steal during off-peak dates. Overall, this isn’t affecting my loyalty to Hyatt and the value I see in their program.
What are your thoughts on the new Hyatt peak pricing?
