Grand Hyatt at Baha Mar in the Bahamas (Category 4) and Holiday Inn Express Solvang (Into the Nights Promo Drama)
I received an email yesterday afternoon from Hyatt and noticed a new Grand Hyatt at Baha Mar hotel opening in the Bahamas. It looks like a very nice hotel/resort (hotel link).
Clicking through, it appears to be a category 4 hotel, requiring only 15,000 Hyatt Points per night. The best part of this, is that if you have a Chase Hyatt Credit Card, you get a free night certificate every year you pay the annual fee good for any category 1-4 Hyatt hotel in the world. This new hotel/resort qualifies! Reservations cannot be made until June 2015.
If you are a fan of Points + Cash, the same hotel room will cost you 7,500 Hyatt Points + $100. Pretty good deal. Assuming the $277 advance price includes all taxes/fees, the standard points only rate would get you 1.85 cents per point. Compared to the Cash and Points rate, you would get 2.36 cents per point.
This weekend, I am flying up to San Francisco with my parents to stay at the Hyatt Fisherman’s Wharf (hotel link), using my Hyatt Free Night Certificate that expires at the end of November. Pretty good deal, but the Grand Hyatt in the Bahamas sounds even nicer!
In other news, I am working toward my IHG Into the Nights promotion (link). I just need 2 Saturday night stays at a Holiday Inn Express to qualify (must pay with Chase IHG Credit Card and book one night with bonus points). My first stay is at the Holiday Inn Express Scottsdale North on November 8 (near Phoenix, Arizona for the #westcoastdo travel conference). I’m sure I will be seeing other miles and points junkies…
My second Saturday night stay was a bit more complicated. My parents and I are driving to Carmel / Monterey Bay in Northern California for Thanksgiving this year. We plan on driving half way and staying in Solvang, CA for Saturday night.
Before the Into the Nights promo was announced, I had used Cash and IHG Points for the reservation ($70 + 5,000 IHG Points). I decided I wanted to cancel that reservation and make a new paid reservation to qualify for the Into the Nights promo. Unfortunately, the Holiday Inn Express website is a bit messed up. Searching for a 1 night stay resulted in “Rooms Not Available”…
…But searching for a 2 night stay (check in Saturday, check out Monday) shows rooms are available. Since I could not book the room online, I called the hotel directly. Apparently this weekend “requires a 2 night minimum stay.” What? Did I hear that correctly?
After putting me on hold and speaking to the reservation department, they could offer me a 1 night stay using the AAA discount for $191.28 after taxes. Crazy expensive room, but if I kept my Cash and Points reservation, I would not have earned any stay credit, thereby not qualifying for the Into the Nights promo. I would have had to do a mattress run later on, which probably would have cost $70-$100, but I decided it wasn’t worth it. Plus, I had already canceled the Cash and Points reservation and my parents really wanted to stay in Solvang, so my options were limited. Oh the things you do for miles and points (and free night certificates!).
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
Happy Halloween from the Travel with Grant team!
Grant, from my interpretation if you book with a AAA rate it wouldn’t qualify. I hope I’m wrong wrong!
Per Into the Nights verbiage:
[i]Points are not issued for stays at the following reduced room rates (Non-Qualifying Room Rates; Non-Qualifying Stay): net wholesale individual and group rate, certain package rates, employee discount rate, friends and family rate, crew rate, special discounted contract rates, seasonal worker/crew rate, 50% travel club discount rate, travel industry discount rate, distressed passenger rate, IHG® Rewards Club Reward Nights/Airline Hotel Reward rate, most rates booked through most third party web sites, complimentary hotel stays and any other rates not defined as a Qualifying Room Rate. [/i]
Funny, I was also working on a Thanksgiving weekend itinerary from OC to Central Coast or even NorCal and was looking into the Holiday Inn Solvang as well as other ones in SLO, Santa Barbara, and wherever else in between. Have you also looked into the 50% off points Vegas @ the Venetian/Palazzo stay going on now??
Hmmm, I hope the AAA rate counts. That would be very bad if it did not. I haven’t looked into the Venetian / Palazzo promo going on now, but I will check it out. Thanks for the heads up!
For past IHG promos, AAA rates were qualifying and have counted. I think you’ll (probably) be fine.
I was just in Carmel last weekend. It is beautiful there.
I look forward to seeing you in Phoenix. I noticed your promo requires stays at Holiday Inn Express. I actually have to stay at regular Holiday Inns for my offers. So I’m staying at a Holiday Inn in north Phoenix. I also knocked out two nights by doing a mattress run at the Holiday Inn across the border in Tijuana ($59/night).
Thanks for the AAA reassurance, I hope the stats still count.
I love Carmel, I’ve gone there every Thanksgiving since I was born. Family tradition with my relatives.
I guess living near San Diego has advantages for mattress runs. Lots of cheap hotels down there, right? Have you ever flown out of the TIJ airport?
Cya in Phoenix next weekend!
hotels are cheap in TJ, but unfortunately they are rather pricey in San Diego.
I’ve never tried flying out of the TJ airport. They do have a shuttle bus from central San Diego to Tijuana Int’l airport. And there is a direct flight to Shangai (the only flight to Asia out of SAN is to Tokyo).
TIJ-PVG on Aero Mexico, hmmm, no thank you. I’m surprised SAN doesn’t have more routes to Asia.
Can you book a Holiday Inn Express with the Bonus point package with Breakfast? My Points Promo has this too but the Holiday Inn Express includes breakfast so I don’t think you can book the bonus point package with breakfast at a Holiday inn Express. Which means you would need to do one other night somewhere else. If you tell me I’m wrong I will be happy because that means I too only have to stay 2 nights instead of 4.
I think the bonus points with breakfast is the same thing, at least at the Holiday Inn Express. There are 2 different packages available:
1,000 Bonus Point Package: 1,000 Bonus Points for Every Night: No deposit required & Breakfast included
5,000 Bonus Point Package: 5,000 Bonus Points for Any Stay: No deposit required & Breakfast included
I have a stay November 8 that I got the “5,000 Bonus Point Package: 5,000 Bonus Points for Any Stay: No deposit required & Breakfast included” option. I will post whether that package counts toward the Into the Nights promo.
I was just wondering how that stay went this weekend? Did it count like you thought? Sorry to be annoying.
Are you asking about my IHG Into the Nights stay at the Holiday Inn Express Scottsdale North? If so, I believe it takes a few days for the stay to post to my IHG account. I’ll keep you posted in a few days.