<\/a>Anantara Layan Phuket Resort<\/p>\n I\u00a0have been a Hyatt Gold Passport member for over 7 years. Most of that time I\u2019ve been platinum level, and in 2014 when Hyatt offered a \u201cDiamond Status Challenge\u201d I decided to take it. The timing was good as we happened to have a lot of Hyatt stays planed, and the challenge was successfully completed. I requalified in 2015, and both Susan and I have found a lot of value in maintaining my diamond level with Hyatt.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Because we value the perks, and hence the brand, we try to find Hyatt properties when we travel. The problem is that while Hyatt does have a global footprint, there are\u00a0many locations where they do not have a property. This happened on a recent trip to Thailand and the particular area did not have a Hyatt hotel (there was a location on Phuket, but oddly with no availability). As great as Hyatt is, it makes sense to have another hotel program that you can book rooms at, and still earn some rewards.<\/p>\n <\/a>Hyatt Regency Tamaya<\/p>\n If we had more time to travel, I might also try to maintain status in the Starwood Preferred Guest\u00a0program. The hotels look fabulous and\u00a0Preferred Guest\u00a0is also generous.\u00a0The reason we don’t also have Starwood status\u00a0is that would require 50+ hotel stays in a year, Hyatt and Starwood, and that is beyond our schedule. This leads us into the other hotel program we use, \u201cHotels.com Rewards.\u201d Many travel enthusiasts might scoff at this plan, but we get a lot of utility out of it.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n There are 3 things I love about the hotels.com rewards program. It\u2019s easy, it\u2019s lucrative, and it\u2019s broad. Sure it\u2019s a little light on additional perks and benefits, but we have Hyatt if we want to be pampered.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The Hotels.com Rewards program can be signed up for in a few minutes. You can choose to keep a credit card on file or just enter it at purchase\/reservation time. The Hotels.com software tracks your participation in the program (as well as rewards). The web software is very accurate and in 7 years I haven\u2019t experienced one discrepancy or short fall. After 10 nights you earn a free night (averaging the costs of the\u00a010\u00a0nights) and the credit is issued and available to use at will for a future stay. Make sure you book a hotel at the same or higher cost than the reward credit as any unused portion will be forfeited.<\/p>\n A great attribute of the Hotels.com Rewards is when you book a night you don\u2019t have to actually be the guest staying. Frequently I\u2019m asked to book nights for customers, employees and friends and when I use Hotels.com to do this I receive full credit\u00a0in their program. Credits rack up pretty quickly and there always seems to be a redemption that is useful for our travel patterns.<\/p>\n It\u2019s\u00a0rare we can\u2019t find a good property to book with using\u00a0Hotels.com. All of the major and minor chains are listed and there is a great mix of independents as well. I recently had to book an associate in the Hotel Del Coronado in the San Diego area. I was restricted to that property on specific dates and Hotel Del Coronado’s\u00a0rates were over $500 per night.\u00a0Hotel.com\u00a0quoted the exact\u00a0rate, and\u00a0I received Hotels.com Rewards credit when I booked the stay with them.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s easy<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n
It\u2019s lucrative<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n
It\u2019s broad<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n