Through Friday, June 1, 2018, you can receive a credit of up to $25.00 for food and beverages when you stay at a participating Hyatt House or Hyatt Place hotel property — but watch out, as this deal is not as good as it initially seems.
Why You Should Avoid That $25 Food and Beverage Credit With Stays at Hyatt Place or Hyatt House
When I read this article written by Danny the Deal Guru of Miles To Memories, I thought that I had just missed out on a potentially good offer, as I recently stayed at a Hyatt House…
…but I decided to choose a random Hyatt House hotel property on a random date for one night to see what guests would actually pay — and this is what I discovered:
You can receive a credit of $20.00 for food and beverage per stay — not per night, and not including tax — at the Hyatt Place Roanoke Airport/Valley View Mall. If you are a member of the World of Hyatt frequent guest loyalty program, you can secure a rate of $131.00 for the night if you checked in on Saturday, April 21, 2018 and checked out the next day — and that rate already includes breakfast — as opposed to the rate of $149.00 when applying the code FBCRDT to the rate.
This means that you are paying $18.00 for a credit of $20.00 — but believe it or not, you are not saving two whole dollars. When taxes are included, the total of the food and beverage rate is $168.82; while the total of the World of Hyatt rate is $148.03. The difference between the two rates is $20.79…
…which means that you are paying 79 cents more with the food and beverage rate when taking into account the credit of $20.00. You may as well just pay the $20.00 outright — or, better yet, spend it at your favorite restaurant on a meal you know you will enjoy.
If you were thinking about using the food and beverage credit on alcoholic drinks, forget it — and that is only one of a number of restrictions associated with this rate.
Yes, you are required to be a member of World of Hyatt to take advantage of that lower room rate — but joining as a member is free and easy; and only takes a moment or two of your time.
Summary
Travel companies do a good job of obfuscating the true cost of doing business by marketing deals which either are minuscule in savings and therefore not worth the effort; do not exist altogether; or — as in this case — have you actually paying more to get your “savings” than if you had just paid the lowest room rate and purchased what you wanted outright.
Of course, not all hotel properties may result in similarly useless results — you might even actually benefit if you find the right hotel property at the right time of year — but please do your research before taking advantage of one of these “deals”, as they could actually cost you more money.
I stayed at a Hyatt Place hotel property for the first time recently. Look for an article containing a trip report and photographs of my experience…
Photograph ©2018 by Brian Cohen.
