Hyatt Offers New Promo, How Does It Compare?

Hyatt is offering its first promo since the fall of 2016 and allowing World of Hyatt members to double their points with certain eligible stays. Here are the terms of the new bonus offer:

• Double the base points after your first eligible stay on all stays from April 1, 2017 through June 30, 2017
• You must register here (before June 30, 2017)
• You must provide your World of Hyatt membership number at the time of check-in and choose points for each stay.

How much can you earn back with the Hyatt promotion?

I’m going to run numbers to see what the return rate would be for a one night stay for $200.  

Member (0% bonus)

• 200 x 5 = 1,000
• 1,000 bonus base points
• =  2,000 points at 1.5 cents per point = 15% back.

Discoverist (10% bonus)

• 200 x 5 = 1,000
• 1,000 bonus base points
• 100 elite bonus points
• =  2,100 points at 1.5 cents per point = 15.75% back.

Explorist (20% bonus)

• 200 x 5 = 1,000
• 1,000 bonus base points
• 200 elite bonus points
• =  2,200 points at 1.5 cents per point = 16.5% back.

Globalist (30% bonus)

• 200 x 5 = 1,000
• 1,000 bonus base points
• 300 elite bonus points
• =  2,300 points at 1.5 cents per point = 17.25% back.

So with this Hyatt promotion, you’ll likely earn somewhere around 15% to 17% depending on your level of elite status.

Those rates are respectable but how do they compare to other promotions going on with some of the other major programs? I’ll compare these returns to currently running promotions with Hilton and Marriott and keep my analysis to top-tier elite status comparison.

Hilton Honors 

Hilton is currently offering a 2K every day promotion where you can earn 2,000 points every day at over 4,800 hotels when you sign up and complete a stay from February 1 through April 30, 2017. Also, right now you can book with the Hilton Honors app and get 500 more points for each completed stay through December 31, 2017. There are a couple of other targeted promos, but I’ll just work focus on these two for the comparison.

So for a $200 stay for one night.

• 200 x 10 = 2,000
• 200 x 5 = 1,000 (points + points)
• 1,000 (50% Diamond elite bonus points)
• 2,000 points 2K every day promotion
• 500 book through mobile promotion
• = 6,500 points at .4 cents per point = 13% back

The Hilton promotions all stacked together would net you a 13% return for a one night $200 stay at .4 cents per point and 16.25% back at a value of .5 cents per point.

Marriott

Marriott is currently offering the doubling of base points for your first three stays until April 15, 2017. Let’s see how this would work out with Platinum status at a value of .83 cents per point for each Marriott Rewards point.

• 200 x 10 = 2,000
• 2,000 (double the base points)
• 1,000 (50% Platinum elite bonus points)
• = 5,000 points at .83 cents per point = 20.75% back.

The findings 

As I find often to be the case with value % returned,  Marriott comes out in the lead offering a 20% return, although it should be noted that this promo is only good for three stays. For a Hyatt Globalist, you’re looking at around a 17% return which is still decent and it’s nice that this rate will run all they way through June 30th, so it’s offering you much more long-term potential than the Marriott promotion. Finally, with different promotions stacked, the Hilton promo comes out to 13% to 16% back.

Overall, I think this is a pretty decent promotion by Hyatt if you’ve already got a number of stays lined up. But for the traveler who may only have a couple of stays coming up before June 30, 2017, it’s somewhat of a modest offer since you won’t get the 2X base points on your first stay. I wouldn’t necessarily go out of my way to take advantage of this promo but it’s a nice way to supplement points in your Hyatt account.