Update 10.24.21: Hyatt confirmed that pricing would not be adjusted to peak rates once awards are bookable. This confirms our previous belief.
The actual situation could be more complex as properties may be allowed to raise pricing in certain situations, but it would not affect existing bookings and only new bookings. I have included their official response below in the Pricing will be Fixed Well Ahead of Time section. It is not good news.
Hyatt has provided us with more information about peak/off-peak pricing. We have some good news.
Off-Peak/Peak Award Pricing
As a reminder, the following are the Hyatt off-peak, standard, and peak pricing levels:
Hyatt will be offering off-peak, standard, and peak pricing starting in October 2021 for stays that begin in March 2022. We now know the exact dates, although those dates were vague.
The new award pricing for stays starting March 1, 2022 will be effective from October 26, 2021 at 11 AM ET. This gives you nearly a week to lock in the award rates at the standard rate if the hotel(s), where you plan on staying, becomes peak-priced.
We also have more details about how off-peak/standard/peak pricing will work.
All types of awards will be priced this way
Standard rooms will not be charged at peak, standard or off-peak prices. You can also book other types of rooms using points, e.g. Club access rooms, premium suites and standard suites. All room types are available for booking.
Stays booked with Points + cash will be charged at the same rate regardless of whether they are standard, peak or off-peak.
Good News: How to Handle Existing Reservations
Hyatt has confirmed that they will not charge more if you book a property prior to October 26. Peak pricing is applied for dates already booked. This is to be expected but it's good to know.
The best news is that they deal with existing reservations. In other words, the hotel will implement off-peak pricing on the dates you have already booked. I assumed you would need to monitor the pricing and cancel or rebook any existing reservations after October 26, if the price dropped due to off-peak dates.
Nope! Hyatt will automatically refund you the difference if your reservation is made at off-peak prices. This is a great example of Hyatt's customer service and just another reason we love Hyatt.
Pricing will be fixed well ahead of time
My second mistake was about Hyatt's implementation of peak pricing. If there was an unexpected demand, properties could change peak pricing dates at short notice (e.g. Hotels near a stadium for baseball.
However, this is not true. Hyatt advised the following:
Once nights are available for reservation (usually 13 months ahead), redemption rates will be made for free nights. You can also access an online calendar to help you plan.
Properties won't likely adjust award pricing at a later date, so you can count on how many points it takes to book an award stay, provided that there is award availability. You can book Hyatt award night reservations up to 13 months in advance, so you will know how many points you'll need for award stays.
Update: We originally believed that redemption rates would not be affected by Hyatt properties after the calendar was loaded 13 months in advance. Hyatt advised that this is not the case.
Point pricing may need to be adjusted for certain dates depending on market conditions. We will limit this whenever possible and will not charge extra points for any award reservation that is modified to Peak.
This is a bad development because it means that award pricing can change if you don't check back the next day. Hyatt says this will only occur in extreme circumstances. They will try to minimize this happening but there is a risk that some properties may play with award pricing. This could make it more difficult for guests to know how many points are needed to book an award-based stay.
Peak Pricing Doesn't Affect Night Certificates
The downside to Marriott free night certificates is their inability to be used on properties that cost more than a set number of points. A Marriott certificate that was valid for category 1-5 properties is no longer valid for properties that cost more than 35,000 points. This means that if the category 5 property is priced at peak for your dates, your 35k certificate will no longer be valid.
Hyatt doesn't play these types of games. You can use a category 1-7 or category 1-4 certificate at any time, even if the property charges peak pricing for your dates.
Category changes
We had originally expected that category changes would take effect in March 2022. These might still be happening, but there is no information on the front.
Last Thoughts
All this is good news. You will get the extra points back for bookings made at off-peak prices. This means that you will know 13 months in advance how much an award evening will cost. And you will be able to use your night certificate even during peak pricing.
Although I'm not excited by Hyatt's decision to introduce peak and off-peak pricing for their properties, it feels like they are implementing these changes in a best possible manner (even though they don't know how many days each property will charge peak pricing).
