Venetian Las Vegas Now Bookable Via World Of Hyatt. Yay?

Recently, I’ve gotten so excited about Hyatt news only to be completely disappointed when the details comes out.

This is the opposite of how I felt about Hyatt news for years and years. 

When Hyatt lost SLH and gained Mr. and Mrs. Smith, I was super excited. What a footprint Mr. and Mrs. Smith has, I thought!

And then it launched with mediocre elite benefits and, worse, dynamic pricing eliminating the opportunity to get any outsized value for points or, put another way, it’s a waste of your Hyatt points to redeem for Mr. and Mrs. Smith. This shrunk Hyatt’s footprint in an incredibly bad way, especially in Europe. 

When Hyatt announced that they would be taking over the partnership from IHG, which had it for over a decade but offered worthless revenue-based redemptions, I got all excited.

I didn’t think I’d be fooled again, given that Hyatt bought the Rio and, while the Rio is a dismal property (I went to check it out. It really is.) at least it’s a full service property with Hyatt in terms of waiving resort fees for awards, free Globalist breakfast, etc. i.e. it’s a real full service Hyatt in Vegas even if it’s off the trip and still in need of some solid TLC. At least it’s cheap!

But I saw Venetian going much more like Rio and not at all like Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Sure, I was *hopeful* there might be some sort of status match between Venetian Rewards and World of Hyatt. But I didn’t expect it. And they didn’t let me down there – no status match indeed!

But worse is this:

• Redemptions are revenue based. It’s not in a category in their award chart. So, again, like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, why spend your hard earned and generally valuable Hyatt points here? The only advantage is that if you have more Hyatt points than you know what to do with, you can book any room for points.I chose a random night next month and here are the cash rates before tax and the points price. I took the first room and got a final price with tax. $319.

  However, I do not believe the resort fee is waived on award stays! It’s not mentioned in the benefits in the Hyatt press release (would love to be wrong). So it’s 32,500 points + $56.69 vs. $261 + resort fees = $319. 

  This is LESS than a penny a point!!!

  I want to say ???

  Because I want to be wrong. And that includes my second point….

• No resort fee waiver for awards and no free breakfast.

In short, unlike the Rio, this is NOT a Hyatt. It’s just affiliated with Hyatt. 

Here are the benefits listed in the Press Release:

Elite members can enjoy even more with qualifying stays booked through Hyatt, including:

• “5 Base Points per eligible $1 USD spent on rooms and resort fees and at 20+ participating restaurants and bars, select retail locations at The Venetian and The Palazzo when charged to your room (alcohol, taxes and other exclusions apply)
• 4 Bonus Points per eligible $1 USD for World of Hyatt Credit Cardmembers on eligible spend when charged to your room
• Standard tier Bonus Points for elite tier members on eligible room rates and resort fees and eligible spend at participating restaurants and bars, and select retail locations at The Venetian and The Palazzo when charged to your room
• Credit toward earning tier status and Milestone Rewards
• Redeem points for free nights at The Venetian and The Palazzo as well as 1,350+ Hyatt hotels globally
• On-property benefits for elite members from The Venetian Resort, like Invited Guest check-in; late checkout and early check-in (pending availability), suite upgrades (pending availability); and discounts on gondola rides and select retail locations.“

What irritates me so much is that there is NO reason to stay here as a Globalist other than to earn elite nights towards more Globalist. It’s not NOTHING, but this place isn’t cheap either. SO you may well be paying quite a bit more than you’d pay elsewhere to get these night credits. OK OK – you get “Invited Guest Check-In,” but so does a Discoverist that simply holds the Hyatt credit card. Late checkout is subject to availability, upgrades are of course subject to availability (and do not appear in any way guaranteed available or not), and there’s no breakfast.

And then it goes on to say:

“Stay tuned for additional information on World of Hyatt benefits for elite Venetian Rewards members and World of Hyatt benefits for eligible meeting and event planners at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas.”

MAYBE there is more sauce coming?

I’ll also note they call out this auction in case it’s of interest:

“Limited-Time Auction to Stay & Play like a VIP at The Venetian Resort: One World of Hyatt member and their guest will get to celebrate the new World of Hyatt and The Venetian Las Vegas relationship through an exclusive, luxuriously curated weekend of indulgence and entertainment available on the World of Hyatt FIND platform, which offers World of Hyatt members 500+ curated experiences to enhance their stay and immerse themselves in their destination. The Venetian Resort-exclusive VIP experience will offer two VIP suite tickets to a concert at the Sphere at The Venetian as well as a food and beverage credit to use at The Venetian’s renowned restaurants, a gondola ride through the iconic Venetian canals and a luxurious Venetian Cabana to relax poolside. The member and their guest will also receive a three-night stay in the newly renovated Luxury King Suite at The Venetian with views of the Sphere. Visit FIND Experiences by World of Hyatt to bid on this experience now through January 16, 2025.”

Note that for the auction, the dates you stay are fixed… arriving on Thursday, March 13 and departing on Sunday, March 16.

Bottom Line

• I’m disappointed.
• I’m disappointed that Globalist benefits are non-existent, just lumped into “any elite” benefits.
• I’m disappointed there is no Globalist breakfast.
• I’m disappointed that there’s no Resort Fee waiver (when it comes to over $56 with tax!) on awards.
• I’m disappointed there is no free parking on awards (It’s still $20/day plus tax).
• I’m disappointed that Hyatt Points don’t even appear to be worth a cent here, when I value them at at least 1.6 cents on an average day. This also blocks the use of credit card free night certificates. 
• I’m disappointed there is no status reciprocity whatsoever. 

And I’m disappointed that this is what Hyatt came up with here. If they were in a rush to get things going, I would have preferred to wait and get great.

Great is what I expect of Hyatt. They’ve set the bar very high, attracted loyal followers as a result, and are missing the mark on things lately.

Am I being too harsh? Let me know…

Thoughts?

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