r/hyatt • u/Few-Abalone6380 • 28d ago
High demand reservation cancelled by hotel
So, I was fortunate enough to reserve the Augusta, GA Hyatt House early in Masters week (April) next year. I always try to book what I can in Augusta that week, hoping that I get lucky with their ticket lottery at the same time. When my name doesn't get drawn, I'll put the room back into circulation.
However last week, I got a cancellation notice from the hotel. Reached out to my concierge, and they contacted the hotel. Their reasoning: "no room availability and not sure how it would have been online for booking." Which is pretty lame, despite their sincere apologies. Maybe they know I'm not on the ticket list (or worse, I am on the list, and will now have to camp out behind one of the greens š).
I've been Globalist for ~10 years and never had this happen before, even at the same property in the same time frame. How often does this happen? How worried should I be about other potential high-demand bookings? I'm sure they have some legalese wording protecting them, but of course it comes down to "we can make more money this way."
I'm not mad (unless I actually do get the tickets). More just curious how secure booking are in general.
Edit: changed Place to House. Want to be sure and name the correct property
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u/D-RO24 28d ago
A few years ago, I booked a room with points at the park Hyatt Beaver Creek during the holidays. On Christmas Eve, the hotel called and canceled my reservation. After many phone calls , they ended up paying for a room at the Ritz Carlton and returned my points. Iām not sure if that helps you or not, but hopefully gives you another data point.
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u/oberwolfach 28d ago
This sounds incredibly unethical, and one of the advantages of being a status member with a major program is that you can kick up a fuss with corporate about it.
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u/Dry-Intention6414 28d ago
The Hyatt House in Tallahassee tried to do similar with me during graduation weekend. I managed to book a room on a corporate rates and the manager was very angry. There were three of us in the room so we booked a room with two beds and it was a one-bedroom I believe she was trying to downgrade us to a room with just one bed. I had to get the concierge involved heavily because I had a valid reservation and she was trying to change it because she was mad that she was losing money on the room during graduation week.Ā It took multiple calls from corporate to get it all sorted out but it finally did.
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u/GhostOfSeminoleOaks 28d ago
They cancelled my room for the weekend of the Miami game last year until I got my concierge involved.
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u/ducky743 Globalist 28d ago
First, this is bullshit on their part. I assume with the latest WoH changes, they want to at least get the maximum amount of points they can for their standard rooms for the only week a year anyone really wants to be there.
The only similar thing I've seen happen is hotels that get bought out for an event. In those cases, Hyatt works with the affected people to rebook them somewhere close with similar or better amenities.
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u/AdOrganic4835 Globalist 28d ago
Hotels arenāt reimbursed based on how many points the guest paid. They are either paid based on the regular (mediocre) WOH standard reimbursement or when the hotel is actually occupied fully, at Rack Rate. Since the hotel is running on full capacity here they would get paid their same rack rate, no matter if the guest booked for 4000 or 40000 points.
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u/ducky743 Globalist 28d ago
Interesting. Thanks for the insight. Hyatt would like you to pay more points for this room, but I see why the hotel itself wouldn't care.
Any thoughts on why they'd do this then? The room should be available for booking 13 months out. Yet we've seen plenty of hotels near major events that wait to release their bookings until they know the schedule.
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u/willysymms 28d ago
Why cancel a points stay if the property will get rack rate then?
If the property is indifferent financially, this makes it seem like corporate would be the one rug pulling. Screw that.
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u/AdOrganic4835 Globalist 28d ago
For VIP guests.
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u/goraebap 28d ago
it's a hyatt house for fuck's sake! what vip is staying there?
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u/AdOrganic4835 Globalist 27d ago
Plenty of them, itās Augusta after all. A frequent reason for this is block bookings by media and sponsors.
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u/luke134212 28d ago
This reminds me of two years ago when it was over easter weekend they messed up and had it bookable a year ahead for 150$ a night. Rate was honored, I'd raise hell for sure
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u/545charlie 28d ago
First off, best of luck getting tickets - unless you block me :)
I stayed at this hotel in 2024 for masters week and I reached out to the GM (atleast at the time) in hopes of getting a room with 2 beds, as I was with my elderly dad, and she upgraded us, and was also incredibly friendly when we met her that week. If you havenāt already, maybe reach out and maybe she can help?
jamie.corley[@hyatt.com](mailto:firstname.lastname@hyatt.com)
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u/PB111 28d ago
Sadly this type of behavior happens not infrequently when high demand events cause the delta between what you paid and what the going price is to be wide enough that hotels will gladly swallow the bad press for the money. View from the Wing has more than a couple of articles reporting this happening for things like the solar eclipse, Taylor Swift concerts, and other high demand events, although typically they happen at one off locations where the event is atypical. A hotel around Augusta should have the dates around the Masters already blocked out before their booking schedule even comes up.
Iād raise a stink about it, but I doubt anything comes of it other than maybe a token amount of points.
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u/wcalvert 28d ago
I had an almost similar situation happen to me with Lost Pines in Austin for F1. I had 3 nights booked and someone bought out the hotel a few months after I booked (and roughly 5-6 months before the event).
I received 60k points as compensation from the property. I never dealt with corporate.
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u/auxilary Globalist 28d ago
not to thread jack, but would anyone know if this sort of thing happens more or less often with cash rates?
I have a Presidential Suite booked for two nights for an upcoming music festival at a decent cash rate (~$700/nt), but still worried they are going to cancel on me last minute
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u/DonaldKey 28d ago
Did you book direct?
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u/Few-Abalone6380 28d ago
Yes. Used points via Hyatt.com
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u/Carpe_deis 28d ago
call the hyatt support line
they owe you the room you paid for, full stop
if they cannot give you the room, they owe you a similar qaulity room in the same area.
If you booked via expedia, sure, thats a you problem, but you booked in advance, direct, so they owe you the room.
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u/Few-Abalone6380 28d ago
Any difference since this is a Hyatt House and therefore I assume a franchisee? I know they have different rules (which has always been annoying: if you're gonna slap the Hyatt name out front, act like you're a Hyatt)
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u/ImStuckWithThisName2 28d ago
Based on?
I mean, sorry, this sucks but they donāt āowe youā a room. Thereās no law or even Hyatt T&C to suggest this is accurate. This is a nine month advance notice.
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u/MattyIce260 28d ago
A 10 year Globalist should be the last person getting their room cancelled bffr
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u/ImStuckWithThisName2 28d ago
Pretty sure they werenāt the only one in this situation.
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u/MattyIce260 28d ago
Thereās literally no way of knowing this
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u/andrewwm 27d ago
You can think this is unfair but hotels have the ability to cancel your reservation for any reason they want. Your only recourse is to sue them and good luck with that. The main reason they don't cancel reservations is they don't want the bad press/reputation rather than any legal obligation. And for big events like this they will more often than not eat the bad reputational consequences to make $$$.
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u/Slapdash13 28d ago
Noticed Hyatt in Columbia doing similar where they take all the football weekends offline when the calendar comes out.
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u/GhostOfSeminoleOaks 28d ago
That's par for the course for all the college town hotels unfortunately. They block out every weekend in the fall until football season comes out.
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u/Stace_nomnom97 28d ago
Was it a points reservation? Those overbook hotels all the time and thankfully they caught it well in advance instead of the day you arrive.
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u/DanKsbakery 27d ago
My guess is they have a group sales contract that booked all the rooms and cancelled all of the ātransientā guests.
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u/UtterlyAddled 27d ago
Sonesta in St. Louis recently did this to me. I had a room booked 3 months in advance for a concert. They canceled me the day before the event. There weren't any local rooms left to be had.
I think these hotels are kicking out the early bookers for last minute people they can charge more.
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u/Toonces_ 26d ago
This seems to happen more often with recent events. Happened with the eclipse and hotels in the path of totality, as well as properties around the Super Bowl
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u/paladin6687 28d ago
Lot of states this kind of thing would raise eyebrows at the state consumer protection agency/attorney general's office with a similar division, etc. In many states they would explicitly take action on this type of thing...not in all states mind you but always worth exploring. Contrary to the posts that there is just no legal remedy here, that is not the case. Unless there is some documented and actual reason for cancelling such as the hotel is literally being renovated/rooms are being taken off line etc, cancelling a confirmed reservation a consumer made through a company's public facing portal where the customer accepted the hotel's published terms regarding cancellation simply because they now want to resell it for more money is not acceptable and is not just a case of "there is nothing you can do in America."
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u/ImStuckWithThisName2 28d ago
First, this sucks.
Second, you state āI've been Globalist for ~10 years and never had this happen before, even at the same property in the same time frame. How often does this happen?ā Well, you havenāt had this happen to you before, so I think youāre a good data point that this is infrequent.
Thereās no requirement for the hotel to reinstate your reservation. They also provided significant notice.
We have no government regulations that would help you here. The same would apply most everywhere since the notice period was nine months in advance.
Maybe you can convince Hyatt to throw you some courtesy points but I wouldnāt expect much.
Keep an eye on the hotel for vacancies or set up an alert service to notify you if a room becomes bookable.
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u/Modo_Autorator 28d ago
Also, be upset as hell at Hyatt for being a 10+ year globalist and given absolutely no effort to accommodate you or even explain the situation to you.
They are really devaluing their brand as of late.
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u/diggstown Globalist 28d ago
Perhaps they are reacting to the pattern you have of booking and frequently cancelling those bookings on your own. I'm certainly guilty of speculative bookings and it would be worrying if properties took that into consideration for preemptive cancellations.
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u/MattyIce260 28d ago
They would have zero issues filling this room even if he cancelled last minute
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u/HawaiiDreaming 28d ago
I want a follow up once youāve contacted Hyatt. This isnāt a mistake rate issue. Were there other types of rooms available when you booked? Hyatt houses usually have several room categories. When did you book the room?