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Each year, the major hotel chains update their award pricing. Usually they don’t do anything that would result in bloggers such as yours truly screaming DEVALUATION!!!  Instead they move their hotels from one award category to another.

Marriott is notorious for the direction being mostly one way… upwards. Hilton has basically just done away with the process and is increasing award pricing whenever it fancies it. IHG hasn’t published an award category list in a long time, even though hotels do have a fixed price using points.

Hyatt, on the other hand, generally has a balanced approached to these award category adjustments. Many hotels jump an award category or two, as is to be expected. But many hotels also drop a category. And often these are hotels that you might actually want to stay at…

Hyatt’s list of 2020 adjustments has been announced. They will go live on 22 March, 2020. It’s worth remembering that Hyatt are planning to implement a peak / off-peak calendar as well. You can click here to read about that upcoming change.

But until then… this is the award chart that is in operation.

What are the Highlights of the Category Changes?

You can find the full list by clicking here.  But here’s what jumped out at me…

Award Category Drops

• Hyatt Regency CDG Airport – 2 –> 1
• Hyatt Place Frankfurt Airport – 2 –> 1
• Hyatt Regency Mainz – 3 –> 2
• Park Hyatt Hamburg – 5 –> 4
• Grand Hyatt Athens – 3 –> 2
• Hyatt Regency Baku – 2 –> 1
• Hyatt Regency Amsterdam – 5 –> 4
• Hyatt Place Heathrow Airport – 2 –> 1
• Hyatt Place Hayes – 2 –> 1
• Hyatt Regency Birmingham – 3 –> 2
• Hyatt Regency Bangkok – 3 –> 2
• Grand Hyatt Rio de Janeiro – 3 –> 2
• Grand Hyatt Bogota – 3 –> 2
• Park Hyatt Melbourne – 5 –> 4
• Hyatt Regency Sydney – 5 –> 4

Award Category Increases

Even though these posts are usually about pointing out those hotels that must be booked posthaste… I could only really find…

• Park Hyatt Zanzibar – 4 –> 5
• Grand Hyatt Doha – 4 –> 5
• Hyatt Centric La Rosiere – 5 –> 6
• Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf – 4 –> 5
• Grand Hyatt Tokyo – 6 –> 7
• Hyatt Regency Tokyo – 3 –> 4
• Park Hyatt Saigon – 4 –> 5
• Andaz 5th Avenue New York – 6 –> 7

Plus a substantial number of SLH hotels.

Conclusion

It is a rare situation for me to find such a long list of interesting hotels that will soon cost fewer points. The implementation of the off-peak / calendar will mean that the price drop isn’t quite as dramatic during peak travel seasons. But off-peak, you might find that it makes a lot of sense to buy Hyatt points during promotions. 3,500 points would cost you just £45 during the standard 40% bonus promotion we last saw in late 2019.

Have I missed something on the list that interests you? Let us know in the comments section…