Tag Archives: Hyatt Hotels

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My Amazing Experience Interacting with the Park Hyatt Butler Service Team

There’s been a lot written about Hyatt lately, especially with all the changes in the Hyatt elite status program. And oddly enough, much of the blogging about Hyatt and all the changes took place while I was enjoying a stay at a Park Hyatt! So I couldn’t help but think about why I like Hyatt so much and why I bother maintaining elite status. Rather than just adding my voice to the pro or con discussion about the changes and whether maintaining status is worth it, I decided to explore and write about one of my most favorite luxury amenities of Hyatt hotels and especially the Park Hyatt’s: butler service.

My seven night stay at the Hotel Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt in Buenos Aires gave me the perfect opportunity to do this. This was my fifth stay at a Park Hyatt, but in the past, I’d never stayed at one for more than a few days. This stay in Buenos Aires gave me the chance to experience getting to know the butlers, and I sat down with three of the five-team member butlers and had fun, engaging conversations with them about their roles, how they see us (the guests), and other questions of mine they answered. If you’re like me and you enjoy getting to know how hotels operate behind the scenes, you’ll enjoy reading about the butlers!

Image source: https://buenosaires.park.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html

Image source: https://buenosaires.park.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html

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My Craziest Airport Arrival Story… Ever!

Do you have a crazy airport arrival story? Traveling as much as we all do, we’re bound to have a few. Recently though, I had my zaniest arrival story ever. See if you can top this! After two long flights and a LONG layover in between them, I arrived at Buenos Aires Ezeiza International Airport (EZE) around 6pm. After waiting 45 minutes for bags to arrive in baggage claim, my bag arrived half open because LATAM broke my zipper. Incredibly, because of the way I pack using packing cubes and strapping them all in, nothing was missing. But this isn’t even the zany part!

My friends who live in Buenos Aires for part of the year suggested I take a taxi to my hotel. The company they recommended is called Manuel Tienda Leon. They said not to bother with the bus and not to take just any taxi into the city.  From the reviews and the Manuel Tienda Leon website, it seemed like an easy choice……walk up to the counter, get in the taxi, and you’re city bound in no time. And they even took credit cards. Easy peasy…….YEAH right :(

The airport was packed. I mean crazy crowded. I later found out that due to earlier rain, the other airport in Buenos Aires had been shut down so people were shuttling back and forth trying to figure out what to do next. I did find the Manuel Tienda Leon counter and I headed over there. I should have realized something was up as there was nobody in line. And in fact, there was nobody inside the counter to help, either. Finally, after saying, “Hello hello, anybody here?” a guy comes to the window and tells me Manuel Tienda Leon has NO CARS.  What do you mean no cars? No cars, how can that be?  Continue reading

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$10 Amazon eGift Card Winners Announced for Cash Back Monitor & World of Hyatt Giveaways

Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  After much procrastinating deliberating, I have selected the winners for my Cash Back Monitor giveaway in which I asked my readers: what feature is missing from Cash Back Monitor that would make the service better for you and other users?  I carefully reviewed your answers and selected my 6 favorite comments (I couldn’t pick just 5 winners).  The winners are… La La Land!

  • Brian said: It would be great if the exclusions (if any) were listed on CashBackMonitor, instead of having to go to each site individually.
  • Nancy said: Using a symbol/indicator to denote if a portal is currently offering a bonus for hitting a certain level of spend, i.e. United offering 500 bonus miles for spending $100.
  • rxgeek said: CBM saves me money all the time. Great site! Suggestion: Have a pop-up alert when the merchant is in CBM like Ebates, Piggy and others do.
  • Pinky said: Love CashBackMonitor! Please add how long it takes to confirm/track on the site. For example, I often will choose eBates over TopCashBack at a slightly lower rate because TopCashBack takes forever to confirm/track and then pay out. Please also add if gift cards are excluded.
  • Marc said: Might be hard to do, but how long the rate will last. I know there are a lot of short term rate boosts (i.e. until Valentines Day, Presidents Day, etc.)
  • esdot said: An ability to receive email or text notifications when a retailer has a [or a certain, user selected] portal offering increased rates or more than [x, user inputted]% rates.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the giveaway and congratulations to the winners.  I will email Yansong (creator of Cash Back Monitor) and share my 6 favorite suggestions to improve the service.  Hopefully some of your suggestions will be available on his site in the near future!

Cash Back Monitor Long Logo

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World of Hyatt Loyalty Program Now Live – What Would You Change? (Giveaway for $50 in Amazon eGift Cards)

Update: Comments are now closed.  I will go through all the comments and pick the top 5 suggestions.  I will email the winners and send them each a $10 Amazon egift card.  Thank you to everyone who participated in the giveaway.

Good morning everyone, welcome to day 1 of the new World of Hyatt loyalty program *sarcastic round of applause*.  Since I am not a former Hyatt Diamond or current Hyatt Globalist (unlike my friend Shelli: Dear Hyatt, I am a World of Hyatt Globalist, not an Explorist), I don’t really care about the new loyalty program.  I have never chased elite status, done mattress runs, or spent thousands of dollars on hotel credit cards to reach or renew elite status (but I will send a status match email – thank you Hilton Diamond).  I have had a Chase Hyatt Credit Card for several years and enjoy using my anniversary free night certificate, which I am happy to say hasn’t changed in any way with the launch of the new World of Hyatt loyalty program.

Grant World of Hyatt My Account Page

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Dear Hyatt, I am a World of Hyatt Globalist, not an Explorist

Is this new Hyatt loyalty program confusing or what? Back in October, Hyatt changed the name of its loyalty program, as well as the terms and conditions, and it launches on March 1.  This week we’ve all been getting those emails letting us know what tier we’ll be on next year. I got an email that said, “Welcome to the World of Hyatt, You’re An Explorist”.  Only one thing wrong. It should have said, “You’re a Globalist” because according to me, I had made Diamond again for next year. Uh oh!

World of Hyatt Tiers

I started to check my own records and then thought to myself, call Hyatt and let them work through this with me. Could I possibly have been mistaken? I would not have been a happy camper if that was the case. I do keep good records but I’ll admit to booking and canceling stays, and some of my stays can be quite confusing in the way I set them up. And sometimes I use suite upgrades, and hotels often record these as two rooms which can also confuse the numbers.

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