World of Hyatt has announced hotel category adjustments for 2024, which will dictate which hotels are in which categories. These changes impact how many points are required for a free night redemption. Unfortunately, it is not all good news if you like the redemptions at aspirational hotels.

183 Hyatt hotels changing categories on March 26, 2024

Hyatt is now a unicorn, one of the only hotel chains with an award chart. Hyatt moved to a peak-off-peak kind of structure a couple of years ago, where the chain would charge more points or less depending on various patterns such as occupancy, but for whatever it is worth, there is still a category assignment. This prevents a hotel from being available for 20,000 points on one day and spiralling to 50,000 the next because the hotel got significant occupancy booked out overnight.

World of Hyatt’s hotel category changes for 2024 will reflect bookings made 8 AM Central Daylight Time, March 26, 2024, onwards. This translates to 7:30 PM Indian Standard Time on March 26, 2024.

On that day, 183 hotels will switch categories, with 137 hotels moving up to a higher category and 46 hotels moving down to a lower category. You can find a complete list of hotel category changes here.

Some things to note here:

• All reservations made before March 26, 2024, will follow the current award chart, even if you stay on a later date.
• Members who have stays booked at hotels that go down a category will receive an automatic one-time refund of the points difference.
• Any adjustments to bookings after the changes go into effect will follow the new pricing charts.

Many aspirational Hyatt properties move to Category 8

While more properties are going down than up, many aspirational redemptions are going up in price, which is bad news. Back in the day, when Hyatt launched Category 8, they said these would be reserved for some Small Luxury Hotels of the World properties only, with Hyatt’s properties maxing out at Category 7. Now, they are walking back on that statement.

As of March 26, 2022, five more Hyatt properties will move to Category 8:

• Alila Villas Uluwatu
• Hotel Du Palais Biarritz
• Hyatt Centric Park City
• The Everline Resort and Spa
• Vail Residences at Cascade Village

These changes reflect the current market situation. Hotels that are seeing the most business now are the high-end properties, perhaps because the higher-end segment is travelling a lot or is willing to open their chequebooks more often now. So, in these cases, even World of Hyatt has to pay more for the hotel room. And they want to adjust the pricing accordingly.

Nine Indian Hotels Going Up!

In the whole change, nine hotels in India will also be changed. All of these are moving up a category to reflect the high-cost environment of current hotel prices. Here are the changes in India:

• Category 1 to Category 2:
  • Hyatt Centric Candolim Goa
  • Hyatt Centric Juhu Mumbai
  • Hyatt Regency Jaipur Mansarovar
• Category 2 to Category 3:
  • Alila Diwa Goa
  • Grand Hyatt Mumbai
• Category 3 to Category 4:
  • Grand Hyatt Goa
  • The Diwa Club by Alila
• Category 4 to Category 5
  • Hyatt Regency Dharamshala Resort
  • Alila Fort Bishangarh

Some of the other hotel category changes that are interesting are:

• Andaz Singapore goes from Category 5 to 6
• Park Hyatt Auckland goes from Category 5 to 6
• Park Hyatt Istanbul goes from Category 5 to 6
• Park Hyatt Washington goes from Category 5 to 6
• Park Hyatt Zanzibar goes from Category 5 to 6
• Andaz Bali goes from Category 4 to 5

Eventually, if you want to make a booking at Hyatt properties and don’t have enough points, perhaps top up or buy using Hyatt points with a 20% discount and lock in those stays for later in the year now. 

Bottom line

While annual hotel category adjustments are not new, Hyatt is killing it for those looking for aspirational redemptions this year. Hyatt’s top properties are moving up in terms of a category. However, this is better than the dynamic pricing approach because you get a month to plan and execute your redemptions.

What do you make of these World of Hyatt changes? 

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