Looking Hard at Hyatt

As you know, my father's been a loyal Starwood Hotels patron for the past 5+ years. But as he likes to remind me, sometimes a father can love multiple kids equally but in different ways.

So over the past year, while still frequenting Starwood properties, he's been quietly online stalking Hyatt Hotels from afar.

For me, a hotel is a hotel is a hotel. As long as there's a place for me to sleep (and I can sleep just about anywhere), I'm a happy baby.

But my father's a bit more selective and really wants to enjoy some top tier resorts now before our family get too big to stay in a single hotel room (I caught them plotting to give me 2-3 siblings without even consulting me). And while he still has a long bucket list of Starwood properties to visit, he's also really into some of the sexy Hyatt properties and thinks the time might be right to double up.

Hyatt Overview
For those of you who aren't as travel obsessed as my father, Hyatt is about the same size as Starwood in terms of # of properties. And similar to Starwoods, it has a diverse portfolio of brands that range from budget to luxury and everything in between.

Hyatt Points vs. Starwood Points
But unlike Starwood, it's much easier to get/redeem Hyatt points to stay at a top tier Park Hyatt or Andaz hotel than it is to stay at a top tier St Regis, W Hotel or Luxury Collection hotel.

• Top Starwood hotels cost 30,000-35,000 SPG points per night (e.g. St Regis Princeville)

• Top Hyatt hotels cost 22,000 Hyatt Points per night (e.g. Grand Hyatt Kauai - photo below)

But of course, free hotel room redemptions are just part of the picture. Because like US Dollars or Israeli Shekels or Thai Baht, it's not just about what they can buy, but also how easy/difficult it is to earn one currency over another.


So from my point of view (which is only 2 feet off the floor), there's at least 2 ways of comparing the different points programs: (a) how you redeem points and (b) how you earn  points.

Redeeming Points

So how much can you get per point when you redeem them for free nights?

• At Starwood, you can consistently book a $284/night hotel for 12,000 SPG points (about 2.4 cents/pt such as the Sheraton in Santa Monica) and can sometimes find 3.0-3.5 cents/pt redemptions (like the W Fort Lauderdale) and save $499/night by using 16,000 SPG points.

• At Hyatt, you can get a $225/night room at the Andaz West Hollywood for 15,000 Hyatt points (1.5 cents/pt; photo seen here) or save $505/night for 22,000 Hyatt points at the Hyatt Key West (2.3 cents/pt).

Earning Points

First, how many points do you get from your Hotel Stays? It depends on how much you spend but also what status you have in their loyalty program.

• At Starwood, you get 2 SPG Starpoints for every $1 you spend on your stay. So a $100 Starwood hotel room can get you 200 SPG points. If you're a Gold (mid-tier) or Platinum (top-tier) SPG member, then you can earn 3 SPG points / $ spend, so 300 SPG points.

• At Hyatt, you get 5 Hyatt Gold Passport points for every $1 you spend on your stay as a regular Hyatt Gold Passport member. For a Platinum (mid-tier) or Diamond (top-tier), you get an additional 15% or 30%, respectively. So for a $100 Hyatt hotel room, you get up to 500-575 Hyatt points per dollar depending on your status.

Second, how many points do you get from your Credit Card Spend?

As I mentioned in an earlier post about how my family quickly earned over 225,000 Hilton HHonor points to redeem for 6 nights at the Conrad Koh Samui, you don't rack up massive hotel point totals by actually staying at them. That's what Canadians do.

Instead, you really pile on the points by opening and using either (1) hotel affiliated credit cards (and staying fiscally responsible) like the Starwood Amex and Hyatt Visa or (2) credit cards with transferable point programs like Chase Ultimate Rewards or American Express Membership Rewards.

• If you use your Starwood Amex credit card to pay for the hotel bill, then you get an additional 2 SPG points per dollar spent on the hotel. All other credit card spend gets you 1 SPG point per dollar. So let's assume you took a $20 taxi to a restaurant and had a $30 dinner. Paying for everything with the Starwood Amex, you'd get 200 SPG points for the room and another 20 for the taxi and 30 for dinner. Total SPG points for $150 spend = 250 points.

• If you use your Chase Hyatt Visa to pay for the hotel bill, then you get an additional 3 Hyatt points for Hyatt spend. If you use a Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa/Mastercard, then you "only" get an additional 2 Chase UR points (which can convert into Hyatt points). The Hyatt Visa only gives you 1 Hyatt point for transportation but the Sapphire Preferred gives 2. Both cards, however, give double points for restaurants. So assuming the same $20 taxi and $30 dinner, you'd get 300 Hyatt points for the room, 20 for the taxi, 60 for dinner. 380 points total for using the Hyatt Visa. If you used the Sapphire Preferred, it would be 300 UR (or Hyatt) points.

In general, Hyatt points are so much significantly easier to earn than Starwood that it's giving my father a very compelling alternative, especially when you look outside the United States. Here's another way to think about Starwood vs. Hyatt:

• To stay at The Westin Paris-Vendôme (2nd highest category tier in Starwood), you'd need to pay $450 USD/night or 20,000 SPG points. To earn 20k points, you'd need to spend $20k in credit card spend (2.25% rebate) or $4,000 at SPG hotels.

• To stay at the top category Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme (that goes for $800 USD/night or 22,000 points), you'd need to spend a combined $11k in restaurants, airfare and taxis using the Chase Sapphire card (7.3% rebate). Or you could spend $2,750-3,143 at Hyatt hotels using those cards.

But at the end of the day, the goal is not to stay at the most luxurious hotels where they will stare at you for bringing a baby (no matter how adorable) or even getting the highest per point redemption (which is often the lower tier hotels in big expensive cities). The goal is getting you to somewhere you want to be for as cheap as possible so your family can start to build some great memories.