Understanding Hyatt’s 48 Hour Diamond Guarantee

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-images-modern-5-star-hyatt-hotel-kiev-image20021124Hyatt has a 48-hour guarantee for rooms for Diamonds and 72-hour guarantee for Platinums.  This means as long as you book ahead of that window, you are guaranteed a room.

What does this guarantee mean?

First, it means you pay the Hyatt Daily Rate for the reservation, which can be significantly more than you are used to paying for the property.  If you must do this, keep an eye on the inventory.  Sometimes rooms will open up, especially if a room block from a wedding or conference releases, and you can grab a room at a AAA or other discounted rate.

Second, it does not count for resort properties.  Third, it only counts for standard rooms.  Upgrades are still possible (especially when the sell out is from an event that sells a lot of standard rooms), but you can’t book directly into a nicer room.

IMG_0356Last, this guarantee does not count “during extraordinary room demand”.  What does this mean?  Hotel properties get 4 periods a  year where they can black out the guarantee.

I was trying to book a hotel in Atlanta when there was a popular event going on–DragonCon (Tiff had this same problem!).  I could not book the regular Hyatt in Atlanta because it was blacked out for that event.   I asked about the Hyatt Place next door, and it hadn’t opted to choose this period as its “extraordinary room demand” dates.

But do call.  I was just searching for an Andaz property and found it sold out.  The website told me that if I were a diamond and logged in, I could see if there were any rooms available under the guarantee.  The website told me the Andaz was completely sold out after I logged in.

I called anyway, and found there were definitely rooms available for Diamonds.  Those didn’t show on the website at all, even though the site suggests they will.

There you have it.  The Diamond and Platinum Guarantee comes with four important caveat.

Disclaimer: I didn’t end up booking the room. It was $400!  Ouch.  I was hoping to use points, but would have done it in the $200s.  Okay, I probably would have booked it in the $200s, woken up panicked in the middle of the night, cancelled it, then booked myself into a Club Carlson property using my 53,416,842 points I never use.

 

About Jeanne Marie Hoffman

Former bartender, still a geek. One equal part each cookies, liberty, football, music, travel, libations. Stir vigorously. +Jeanne Marie Hoffman Jeanne on Twitter

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6 comments

  1. How on earth do you have that many CLub Carlson points??

    • Jeanne did a lot of promos and a lot of credit card churn. She’s also been known to occasionally exaggerate slightly. But holding her wedding at a Club Carlson property definitely helped!

    • Jeanne Marie Hoffman

      It is more accurate if you remove two decimal points, but it feels impossible to use up right now 🙂 I did my rehearsal dinner and post-brunch and room block at a Radisson, and they let me run it all through my room (and I paid with my Club Carlson Card).

      So, I got 40 points per dollar for wedding costs, plus they left some rooms on my gold points number that I booked for other people.

  2. Ugh, yes, and Alabama was playing at the Georgia Dome that weekend too.

  3. Had the same experience with Hyatt and Hilton as well. I *could* book the room but the rate I’d have to pay is so high that I never do…

    • I actually had success with this at the Grand Hyatt Macau. I’d heard such great things about the hotel that I was almost making the side trip just for that hotel. Unfortunately the hotel was sold out for that date, but was able to use the 48 hour guarantee and get a room for only $230.

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