Hyatt Gold Passport in New York reveals the variability in the value of points as room rates wildly fluctuate from week to week and weeknights to weekends. There are six Hyatt properties currently open in Manhattan and the new Hyatt Times Square New York scheduled to open later in 2013. The Hyatt Regency Jersey City is also included with Manhattan hotels due to close proximity. One survey looks at seven hotels in Manhattan and Jersey City separately.

Another 15 Hyatt brand hotels are located within 50 miles of New York City in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. These hotels are grouped together in a separate survey since the room rates and reward rates are substantially lower than Manhattan hotels and provide an alternative hotel option for travelers without the cash or points to stay in Manhattan.

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An interesting graphic I came across shows the number of hotels in the U.S. by the seven largest U.S. hotel chains.

U.S. Hotels domestic supply among major U.S. Hotel Chains

• Hilton Worldwide: 3,382 hotels; 506,455 rooms.
• Marriott International: 3,110 hotels; 501,070 rooms.
• Wyndham Worldwide: 5,815 hotels; 451,755 rooms.
• Choice International: 5,081 hotels; 385,827 rooms.
• Starwood Hotels & Resorts: 495 hotels; 152,693 rooms.
• Hyatt Hotels Corporation: 354 hotels; 91,590 rooms. 
• Carlson Rezidor Hotels: 549 hotels; 59,742 rooms.

Source: STR 12-31-2012 year end data.

I’m not sure why Best Western is missing from the list?

• Best Western International: 2,165 hotels (North America); 178,518 rooms (North America). Source: Best Western. What is impressive about Best Western is 1,312 hotels in Europe.

IHG is a UK based company, although, the majority of properties are located in the USA.

• InterContinental Hotels Group: 3,555 hotels; 449,617 rooms (North and South America and Caribbean). Source: IHG Fact Sheets. IHG has 628 hotels in Europe.

Starwood and Carlson have the highest proportion of hotels outside the USA among these chains. There are roughly 500 to 600 hotels outside the USA for Hilton, Marriott, Starwood and Carlson-Rezidor. 

The high number of hotels outside the USA is one of the features I most enjoy about Best Western Rewards. The Best Western chain can put you in many places the other hotel chains can’t. And for free with points stays.

And when you are in the U.S.A. there are nearly 25,000 hotels in just the top nine chains with global points-based hotel loyalty programs.

Hyatt Gold Passport has changed the Diamond elite member welcome amenity to include the choice of points when staying at hotels outside the US, Canada and Caribbean.

Diamond members can choose to earn 1,000 points instead of a food/wine selection commonly offered at most hotels.

As a Diamond member you may have recently experienced something new with our Diamond welcome amenity.

What’s new?

At Park Hyatt®, Grand Hyatt®, Hyatt® Hyatt Regency® and Andaz® locations outside the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, Diamond members now have a choice of welcome amenity. Diamond members can choose either a food and beverage amenity (locally inspired amenity at Andaz hotels) or 1,000 Hyatt Gold Passport® bonus points.

 

What remains the same?

At Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt and Hyatt Regency locations in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, Diamond members can continue to select a food and beverage welcome amenity or 1,000 Hyatt Gold Passport® bonus points. And, at all Hyatt Place® and HYATT houseTM locations, Diamond members will continue to enjoy a choice of 500 bonus points or in-hotel selection (complimentary beverage at Hyatt Place or $5 credit in the Guest Market at HYATT house).

FlyerTalk April 11, 2013 – Gold Passport Concierge (Hyatt Gold Passport company representative)

The food and beverage welcome amenity is often a pleasant benefit when arriving at a hotel.

Other times the arrival is so late that a bottle of wine is not desirable before sleep and not allowed as a carry-on item for an early flight. These are times when a welcome amenity of 500 or 1,000 points is a better choice.

More choices for Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond elite members with no loss in benefits is an improvement for Hyatt Gold Passport.

April 2013 is a time of reassessment for many hotel loyalty program members. The sudden and dramatic changes to the structure of hotel rewards across five of the top ten global hotel loyalty programs in the first quarter of 2013 was an incredible amount of information to digest.

The changes in the opening months of 2013 comprise the biggest overall change in the hotel loyalty program industry over the past decade.  Read More…

World Rainbow Hotels are a brand of certified gay and lesbian welcoming hotels. In the 15 months since World Rainbow Hotels launched there are more than 500 hotels participating in this travel market. In coming months the site will expand to include more gay-owned and gay-operated smaller independent hotels.

What does it mean to be a certified World Rainbow Hotel?

The World Rainbow Hotels acceptance criteria analyzes:

• the hotel’s location
• the hotel’s characteristics and category
• the hotel’s knowledge of the local gay scene
• the hotel’s current involvement with the LGBT community
• the hotel’s compliance with non-discrimination policies and same sex benefits for their hotel staff.

Glancing through the list of World Rainbow Hotels shows Hyatt Hotels are one of the major hotel brand participants. While Hyatt stands out for widespread participation in World Rainbow Hotels among the major chains, there are plenty of other name brands including Marriott, Hilton, Carlson Rezidor, Best Western, Wyndham, Fairmont, Kimpton, and Four Seasons with listed hotels on the World Rainbow Hotels site.

World Rainbow Hotels exhibit at ITB Berlin 2013.

One of the features of booking with World Rainbow Hotels is knowing the hotel will have information about the local gay and lesbian scene. Each World Rainbow hotel member has a welcome Out & About Gay Travel Guide packet of information for guests. Read More…

Looking back over my YouTube videos uploaded a few years back I saw this short video giving a panoramic sweep of the Hyatt Highlands Inn, Carmel Highlands, California property. This is one of Hyatt Gold Passport’s category 6 hotels. The video was likely taken from the balcony of Room 506.

Celebrating my six year anniversary of being self-employed as Loyalty Traveler with the successful inclusion of my first YouTube video on the blog with the Changing of the King’s Guard at the Royal Palace Oslo, Norway. I just now have to figure out how to upload videos in less than 12 hours. That was seriously slow.

Uganda African dancers and the view from the top of the London Eye are other videos from my trip to Europe last week.

I have always liked video and I will likely add much more video to the blog now that I have a camera that works in video mode and I figured out how to use that YouTube button on my WordPress dashboard.

Tomorrow is the start of the global Hyatt Gold Passport promotion for 3,000 points every three nights. There is a maximum 45,000 bonus points for this offer which should be no limitation to earning bonus points for the vast number of members who will not even come close to 45 nights in paid Hyatt stays over the next three months.

Hyatt Gold Passport members need to register for this offer by April 30, 2013. New members enrolling in Hyatt Gold Passport from March 1 to April 30 will be automatically enrolled in promotion.

Since this promotion is based on nights, some members might find this a good bonus to earn while completing a Hyatt Diamond elite status challenge. Call Hyatt Gold Passport and request a Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond elite status match. These are often approved for members who hold Marriott Gold or Platinum, HHonors Gold or Diamond or SPG Platinum.

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• Grand Hyatt Denver with a suite upgrade.
• Fairfield Inn Cherry Creek with a Look No Further 25% discount rate.
• Crowne Plaza Denver with a Best Price Guarantee free night.

After basking in the 80 degree sun of Monterey Bay with sea otters and sea lions on Friday, Feb 15, I had my hands freezing on the chilled steering wheel of a Toyota Corolla driving out of DIA, Denver International Airport 48 hours later on Sunday night. Despite the one-day hot spell in Monterey, the temperature this winter has been abnormally chilly in central coast California with overnight lows frequently in the 30s since December. I packed the right clothes for a high plains drifter spending time in cold weather Denver.

Southwest Airlines out of San Jose got us to Denver on time and we were on I-70 heading to the Grand Hyatt Downtown Denver before midnight. One interesting observation is the rental car rate offered at the time I booked my Southwest Airlines ticket was $90 from Payless for four days and that rate was comparable to the best rate I eventually found from FOX car rental at DIA.

Grand Hyatt Denver was part of my four night Denver hotel plan since the AAA rate was $89 last Sunday night for a downtown Denver hotel. Rates went over $200 per night for Monday and the hotel was sold out for Tuesday during the weekdays when a banking conference was in town. I had a Diamond member suite upgrade to burn before expiration at the end of February. Read More…

Hyatt Gold Passport has opened registration for Hyatt More Possibilities promotion from March 1 through May 31. The basic deal is 3,000 points after every 3 nights or 3,600 points for Hyatt Gold Passport Visa card members (20% bonus). I notice the promotion T&C do not mention anything about the 20% credit card member bonus that was included in the press release I received from Hyatt on Feb 5.

I registered this morning while working in a Hyatt Hotel suite and thinking last night’s stay might qualify and then realizing the promotion does not start for another 11 days. Registration is required by April 30, 2013.

When I registered for the Hyatt promotion the webpage mentioned voting for Hyatt Gold Passport in the 2013 Freddie Awards. Read More…

Late April 2012 the streets were wet with puddles of rain as I drove from downtown Los Angeles to Hyatt Regency Century Plaza near Beverly Hills. A spring rain storm dropped about an inch of water. The rain had ended only a few hours earlier at daybreak. 

Hyatt Regency Century Plaza

2025 Avenue of the Stars,
Los Angeles, California, USA90067
Tel: +1 310 228 1234 Fax: +1 310 551 3355
Maps & Directions

This hotel is located on the Avenue of the Stars in Los Angeles, on the border of Beverly Hills. The hotel neighborhood is filled with entertainment industry businesses and studios. The corporate office building lined drive along this stretch of road also has the InterContinental Los Angeles Century City hotel. Read More…