World of Hyatt has announce a series of changes to its award categories for 2022. In the World of Hyatt program, a hotels award category largely determines the number of points that you will need for an award night. The higher the category, the more points you will need.
The changes see some hotels go up a category, while others go down. As a result, the number of points you need for an award night will rise, or fall.
In Australia, one hotel will go up a category, while another will go down.
Australian Hotels
The two Australian hotels affected by the changes are both in Sydney. The Hyatt hotels in other cities are unaffected, and remain at their existing category.
Firstly, the Park Hyatt Sydney is changing from a Category 7 to a Category 8 hotel. In points terms, that sees a standard award night jump from 30,000 points to 40,000 points. A solid increase of 33% in the number of points required.
Category 8 is the top of the tree for Hyatt Categories, and there are only a relatively small number of hotels at that level. As such, the Park Hyatt Sydney joints a select group of Hyatt’s at that level.
On the other hand, the Hyatt Regency Sydney drops from Category 5 to Category 4. As a result, the number of points needed for a standard award night drops from 20,000 to 15,000. That’s a 25% drop on the number of points.
Thoughts
Hyatt generally make adjustments to their categories once a year, with hotels being adjusted in line with changes in their cash prices. Category 8 hotels can command some sky high cash prices, so it may not be a surprise to see Park Hyatt join other hotels at this level.
The new rates are set to take effect on 22 March 2022, and you can view all the changes on the World of Hyatt website.