It has now been almost two years since Hyatt first announced that they would introduce Peak and Off-Peak awards to their award chart. Covid changed a lot of things and part of those changes with hotels was it pushed off the change that Hyatt had said was coming. Well, it is almost here and here are all the details.
Hyatt’s New Off-Peak and Peak Award Chart
Link: Hyatt Credit Card Offers (this is a personal referral link that pays me points if you are approved – thanks!)
We will jump right to it – Hyatt will introduce their new redemption chart for off-peak and peak award redemptions on Tuesday, October 26, 2021, at 10AM CT. This will be for stays booked from March 1, 2022 and beyond.
Here is how this new award structure will work:
- Off-peak: Fewer points will be required during Off-peak times, starting at 3,500 points per night (the best value when hotels are less busy)
- Standard: Points required during standard redemption periods will follow today’s point requirements, starting at 5,000 points per night (the most common rate)
- Peak – More points will be required for a free night during Peak times, starting at 6,500 points per night and will be no more than 5,000 points above the Standard point requirement (when hotels are the busiest)
For sure, it will be a blow to members who were able to get insane value for their redemptions at properties during peak periods. This will include, of course, those hotels in highly sought after vacation destinations in prime vacation time. This will likely end up encouraging more shoulder-season travel – which could have an effect on the available rooms as well if that really kicks up in certain areas.
More Details about the Hyatt Peak/Off-Peak Awards
- This new structure will be true for all types of award nights, including free nights in a standard room, club-access room, standard and premium suites.
- Points + Cash awards will also offer Off-peak and Peak point redemption. With Points+Cash, members can save 50% of the points required for a free night and 50-70% off the Standard Rate.
- If a member has an existing award reservation that changes to Off-peak on October 26, 2021, we will automatically refund the point difference. If it changes to Peak, we will not charge any additional points.
- Members will have plenty of time to plan ahead. Redemption rates for free nights will be announced as soon as nights are available for reservations (usually 13 months in advance). A new online calendar will also be available to assist in planning.
- Category-based Free Night Awards, such as a Category 1-4 or Category 1-7 Free Night Award will not be affected by the new structure. For example, you can use a Category 1-4 Award during an Off-peak, Standard or Peak night.
- Our hotel award categories are not changing and will remain 1-8.
When this was first launched as coming out, I asked Hyatt what would happen about the designation of what was peak and who would be making those decisions (as well if they would be dynamic changes). You should read this post for more on the questions and answers to get further details. But, as you can see above as well, those changes will be made 13 months in advance (usually, based on when the hotels open up for reservations on the calendar) so members will have time before rates would change.
One curious thing may be what happens when full-on business travel kicks in again, post-covid. For sure, metrics are all over the place right now and will likely influence some peak rates, especially if they go off pre-covid numbers. So, we may see some adjustments as time goes on, hopefully to off-peak but likely just from peak to standard.
Bottom Line
No one likes it when a program makes changes like this. But, Hyatt has kept it together much longer than others as far as being very customer-friendly in rates and such. We do not know what the end result looks like yet so let’s not forget that off-peak is coming as well and this could give some great options for those of us who don’t mind visiting a place that tourists avoid at certain times. 🙂
Plus, this makes the Free Night Awards go up in value since they can be used at their designated categories regardless of the peak/off-peak/standard dates.
