Hello, I see you’ll be staying with us for – oh wait – how many nights are you staying with us for?
If you ever find yourself making use of some points, some cash, or just a couple different rates to stay at a hotel, you probably hear this from time to time. Hotels don’t love it, you certainly don’t love it – and that all begs the question -why must it even exist? Hyatt is working to change that, and the future looks a lot simpler.
According to One Mile At A Time, “Pay My Way” has rolled out to select World of Hyatt loyalty members and is expected to complete a full launch by the end of February. The feature is designed to streamline an otherwise frustrating process for savvy travellers who may be covering their stay with a variety of means.
No more going through an entire booking flow for each rate and night, and then watching the eyes of the check in clerk roll as they try to put the pieces together, ever so politely.
In short, the tool allows you to book multiple rates across multiple nights on one reservation.
- You can pay with points for one night
- Pay with cash for another
- Pay points and cash for another
- Have a flexible rate one night, and non-refundable for another.
Punchline: one reservation.
These are things which any savvy modern traveller tries to take advantage of, and with any hope, Hyatt’s ‘Pay My Way’ will make it all seamless. Take the Andaz Tokyo, where I may not have enough points for five nights, but use points for two, cash and points for one, and pay cash for the other two.
Rather than having to check in and explain that I have three separate reservations, where the check in clerk may then need to try and figure out a way to get me the same room across all five nights, it’ll just be thrown into one digestible reservation. It may still take a bit of fidget to input all your wishes, but once you do, the stress should end there – rather than be waiting for you at check in.
This feels like one of those “why didn’t someone think of this sooner” features, but i’m certainly glad someone has. This should make it much easier to combine different rates using cash, or to throw your points into the mix as well. It’s hard to think of anyone who doesn’t benefit here, if they get it right.
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