Hyatt Gold Passport Program Changes

The if seems clear -- "with a late checkout request" (but I like the term "notification" better )

Haven't had any difficulty with the benefit, it's been proactively offered which is rather nice, I'm actually surprised by how overall smoothly the rollout has gone, that's a lot of front desk employees that have needed training to do things differently and front desk employees are very much the weak link in service delivery for any chain given the number and variability in quality.

The weakest link is true at times, at check-in and get a lack lustre service experience and from then on things improve most times!

When you say "training", do you envision more than a one paragraph memo (email? verbal instruction?) that tells FS Hyatt FD staff to proactively offer 4pm checkout to Diamond members effective July 28? They had a late checkout benefit before, so no new computer screens to roll out, no new forms to learn.... the process change seems rather minimal.

I dunno, I actually think getting every front desk agent at every full service Hyatt to remember to proactively offer late checkout is a pretty big undertaking, that if they hand each one a memo that really isn't enough to get it to happen consistenly in practice, and that the level of consistency I'm seeing suggests there aren't just memos but actual conversations and explanations happening across Hyatt at the individual property level, and that to make that happen must involve lots of conversations and not just memos from the corporate folks all the way on down.

Getting consistent service delivery from the front line, when implementing a change in procedure -- and a change in procedure that applies to some but decidedly not all guests -- is a complex and cumbersome endeavor. So that's why I rather applaud Hyatt for the overall pretty good effort most have seen so far.

I wonder if their computer system would be flexible/configurable enough to prompt the agent upon check-in of a Diamond member to ask them about their amenity preference and whether they want 4pm checkout. I definitely don't see them asking me about the amenity every time (though HP of all places has noticeably improved over the last year in my experience) and I find it definitely more awkward to request a "gift" than to ask for late checkout. Then again, in the US I pretty much always take the 500/1000 points and request them after the fact via email.

"Oh, so that I don't forget, could you flag my account for the 1000 point Diamond amenity?"

Thanks!

I agree it's not a difficult change. But, expecting thousands of employees to get it right 100% of the time a month after a policy change isn't realistic, IMO. There are times my standard Diamond benefits haven't been applied correctly. More than once, in fact. And, those benefits have been around for years.

We've had very isolated reports that this isn't being done right, not wholesale complaints.

In the example above, maybe the employee hasn't been retrained by their manager.

This is still worlds better than SPG, where I've frequently had to call the Plat desk to have someone call the property to enforce the benefit.

Very true. As I mentioned, the Diamond Amenity offer isn't being made consistently in m experience... Which then leads me to wonder, of course, whether this benefit will ultimately fare any better.

That said, as I mentioned early on in this thread, it isn't a benefit that I personally will be needing very often.

My experience during SMD3 was that none of the three Hyatts offered the late checkout at checkin. Arguably the first two knew that we would not be using it, but when I mentioned it to a low-level manager/supervisor during the hotel tour at the third property, she told me that it was NOT available to our group, to which I said that this wasn't an exception in the T & C and that I had made my flight reservation with the expectation that the 4 pm guarantee would be honored in the absence of communication otherwise. When I had a discussion with another staff person regarding a failure to deliver turndown service, including several related requests that I had specifically called about, I asked for and received the 4 pm checkout.

I hate to criticize Hyatt on this since the Corporate Office did an amazing job with SMD3 (giving everyone Diamond status and the Sat night reception / dinner) but the properties did not show Hyatt in the best light - issues being denial of RC/GC access (spelled out in the ORD letter) and the welcome amenity primarily (and now your late checkout issue). I've given my thoughts both to Jeff Zidell and the SMD3 organizers.

Edit: Well with the SMD3 stays - we were group checked-in usually and they probably knew that we were leaving before 4 - except for DEN.

Two stays at the GH Seoul within the last week. The first time, the agent didn't ask about checkout, so I eventually just stated that I would like to check out at 4pm. After some typing and checking he said "okay". Didn't sound very automatic to me. Second stay (another) agent asked when I expected to be checking out. No offer of late checkout. This time I didn't actually need it, so I didn't push it.

Turndown service was not automatic at the GH Seoul. I found a little sign on the nightstand stating that one would have to call for turn-down service. I didn't bother with it since I didn't want to be disturbed and generally don't have a need for it.

Despite what others have stated here and elsewhere, I don't have the impression that these changes have been rolled out completely.