Hyatt Award Chart Changes
Hyatt just announced their annual property category changes taking place on May 20.
136 properties in the Hyatt portfolio are affected, with the majority of them moving up a category - meaning future bookings will require more points.
112 properties are moving up a category, while the rest are moving down a category.
Around 90% of properties will remain in their current categories.
Free night certificates for category 1-4 and 1-7 hotels are going to be harder to use as well.
14 properties are moving from category 4 to category 5, and then 5 properties are moving from category 7 to category 8 - so certificates can no longer be used at those designated locations.
The date that these 136 properties are changing categories (May 20) will also be the same date that Hyatt's new award chart goes live.
Their fixed award chart that currently has 3 tiers is changing to 5 tiers.
Current chart:
Off Peak
Standard
Peak
New chart:
Lowest
Low
Moderate
Upper
Top
As we approach May 20 when all of these devaluations will be happening, a trend we noticed is that many of Hyatt's category changes were in their "Classics" and "Essentials" brands.
Think Hyatt Regency, Hyatt Place, and Hyatt House - mostly category 1-4 properties.
Many of these properties were great value because of low points per night requirements.
Our best guess for why these properties are being affected the most?
Hyatt didn’t touch the Luxury and Lifestyle brands as much because they will be impacted the most by award price increases.
Think Park Hyatt, Alila, and Andaz hotels - mostly category 5-8 properties.
For example, the highest rate you can currently pay for a category 7 hotel is 35,000 points per night - but that highest rate will be increasing to 55,000 points per night.
The highest rate for a category 8 hotel is 45,000 points per night - and that highest rate will be increasing to 75,000 points per night.
So if a category 7 property was being changed to a category 8, then that means that their highest nightly rate would go from 35,000 points to 75,000 points - and that would be a potential 114% increase!
Hyatt targeted the lower category hotels for 2026 changes, but we may also see a trend where those category 1-4 hotels have better value.
That's because the new "Lowest" tier could actually bring some price decreases on certain dates, depending on the property.
We still don’t know exactly what award pricing will look like in practice when these Hyatt changes go live in less than a month...
So if you have Chase or Bilt points, then we would suggest searching, transferring points, and booking your Hyatt stays ASAP.
Lock in guaranteed lower rates before pricing goes up on May 20!