Peak and Off-Peak Rules

Hyatt officially began using its peak/standard/off-peak award chart on October 26, 2021. Key points are as follows:

  • For reservations made after October 26, 2021, for stays after March 1, 2022, the required points will be based on the peak/off-peak chart. Stays before March 1 will still be priced at the standard rate.
  • If you already made a reservation and the required points for that hotel later drop because of peak/off-peak pricing, the points difference will be refunded. If the hotel moves higher, you will not need to pay any additional points.
  • Peak/off-peak pricing does not affect Free Night redemptions; those still depend only on the hotel category.
  • cash+points is also priced based on peak/off-peak rates.
  • All room types follow peak/off-peak pricing.

The peak/off-peak chart for award stays by category is below. Each category has three pricing levels, so it is still fairly easy to understand. One thing to note is that during peak dates, a lower-category hotel can require as many points as a higher-category hotel, so it is worth checking multiple hotels to see whether there are any overlooked good deals.

Peak and Off-Peak Award Chart in Practice

Since peak/off-peak pricing only starts for stays after March 1, 2022, let’s search for New York hotels in April. In the search results list, you cannot see any peak/off-peak indicator.

After clicking into a hotel and selecting view rates, you can see a Points Calendar in the hotel information section. This shows that hotel’s peak/off-peak pattern for the month.

For Grand Hyatt New York in April, most dates are standard at 20,000 points, while a small number of dates are peak at 23,000 points. One important thing to remember is that this calendar only shows the hotel’s peak/off-peak designation; it does not mean award space is actually available on that date. You still need to click check availablity to see whether an award room is really bookable. There is also a chance that no standard room is available, and only premium room types requiring more points remain. Hopefully Hyatt will eventually combine availablity and award price together to reduce the amount of work people have to do when booking.

Changing the dates to March, you can see quite a few off-peak redemptions.

There are also some differences in peak/off-peak calendars among New York hotels. For example, at Park Hyatt, March 20 is still off-peak, while at Grand Hyatt it is standard. That said, off-peak and peak dates still seem to overlap most of the time, which matches common sense.

Peak/Off-Peak and Cash Prices

In general, you would expect peak/off-peak pricing to be tied to cash rates. When hotel prices are high, it should be peak; when prices are low, it should be off-peak. But after checking, that does not seem to be entirely true.

On one peak date at Grand Hyatt, the award price is 23k, while the hotel rate is $259 and the member rate is $234.

On another day with Standard pricing, the award costs 20k, but the cash rate is actually $319 and the member rate is $288.

So my guess is that Hyatt determines the peak/off-peak calendar in advance, perhaps once per year or once per quarter, based on prior-year or other data, rather than changing it continuously with prices. Of course, that is only speculation. Once we get closer to March and April, I will check again to see whether this chart changes.

Points+Cash Redemptions

According to Hyatt, Points+Cash redemptions also vary based on peak/off-peak pricing. But I am still a bit confused by the two Points+Cash examples below. A 20,000-point award requires 10,000+$160, while a 23,000-point award requires 11,500+$130. The points portion of C+P should be half of the full-points price, but the cash portion does not appear to be determined by point value alone. It may instead be based on the hotel’s actual all-cash rate for that day. In short, you should run the numbers based on your own points balance and see which option makes more sense.

Free Night Certificate Redemptions

I also tested Park Hyatt Hangzhou (Cat 4). April 15-16 prices as peak and requires 18,000 points (standard is 15,000). You can still redeem a Cat 1-4 Free Night normally. Also, it seems that as long as you have a Free Night in your account, it will now automatically appear during booking, so you no longer need to start from the certificate page.

Bookings Before March 1

Just as Hyatt officially stated, stays before March 1 still follow category-based pricing only, with no peak/off-peak distinction. Starting on March 1, peak/off-peak pricing begins, and those dates happen to be off-peak.

My Take

After peak/off-peak pricing is implemented, if you usually travel during public holidays, your points do suffer some devaluation. If all your trips fall during peak dates, that is effectively about a 10%-15% hit. Still, that is within a manageable range and better than Hilton-style fully dynamic pricing, where award value can collapse instantly. If your travel dates are flexible and you can travel during off-peak periods, then this change may actually work quite well for you, since you can save a meaningful number of points. Overall, I think Hyatt’s peak/off-peak change is relatively reasonable.

That said, my personal view is still that being able to book is what matters most. The most frustrating situation is having a large pile of points but finding no award availability when you actually need a room. And if you want to get outsized value from your points, you still need to book popular hotels for popular dates well in advance. In those 3c/p or even 10c/p redemptions, a 15% swing from peak/off-peak pricing does not matter all that much, such as for New Year’s Eve stays.