What are World of Hyatt points worth?

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This article is our attempt to decide what World of Hyatt points are worth.

Valuing miles and points is a thankless job. We have always published articles on what Avios points are worth, but that Avios article is so complex that it simply proves my point.

In the face of constant reader requests, however, I wrote this series of articles on how we value each of the major hotel points currencies.

Our other articles in this series are here:

The reason I have changed my mind after all these years is that I have found a methodology that works for me. It takes a subjective valuation and then explains the boundaries around it. Or, in plain English:

I will tell you (without justifying it) what I think a World of Hyatt point is worth

I will tell you, on the upside, how far wrong I can be (which is good news)

I will tell you, on the downside, how far wrong I can be (which is bad news)

I will tell you what World of Hyatt points are worth if you turn them into something else – usually airline miles – which effectively locks in a floor value

Why I think ‘range’ is important when valuing hotel points

When we look at using Avios for business or First Class flights, the ‘cash alternative’ is often a poor comparison. Most HfP readers don’t want to, or simply can’t afford to, pay cash for business or First Class flights. Their choice is Avios or nothing. Even if you can afford to pay, what are you comparing with? A cheap non-refundable sale flight? A pricier flexible ticket? The cost of an indirect flight, not on BA?

Hotels redemptions are different:

you stay in far more hotels each year compared to the number of premium cabin flights you take, so you can be selective about when you use points

you can usually afford to pay for a hotel if you choose not to use points

there are far more options in the hotel market than in the flight market – most people only have a lot of miles in one airline programme, whereas you are likely to hold hotel points in multiple schemes

It is easy to sit on hotel points until you get a good deal

The net result of the three facts above is that it is easy to turn down a hotel redemption when it doesn’t seem like good value. You can pay cash or redeem via another hotel scheme instead.

Here is the crux of what I am trying to say. If you compare two hotel schemes:

scheme A usually gets you 0.3p per point but if you are lucky you can get 1p

scheme B usually gets you 0.4p per point but if you are lucky you can get 0.6p

…. scheme A may actually be the best.

Most people who try to ‘value’ hotel points don’t take this into account.

If you redeemed points for every stay you did, regardless of the cash price, scheme B would be the best. No-one does this though. In reality you can pay cash for your stays in scheme A until the day when a bumper redemption arrives and you can get 1p.

Here’s a real example. I value Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.5p as this article explains. If you do 20 Marriott hotel stays and use Bonvoy points for all of them, I think you will average 0.5p, give or take.

However, in December 2020, I redeemed 400,000 points for two villas at The Ritz Carlton Al Wadi Desert in Ras Al-Khaimah. This would have cost £4,800 for cash, which I would have paid if necessary. I got 1.2p per point. It justified all of the Marriott stays where I paid cash rather than redeem for 0.5p per point.

What are World of Hyatt points worth?

With our methodology out of the way, let’s take a look at what World of Hyatt points are worth.

To keep things simple, we do not adjust for the fact that you would earn points back if you paid cash instead. This can have a noticeable impact when generous bonuses are running.

On the upside, World of Hyatt waives resort fees, where they exist, on redemption nights which must be paid on cash nights.

The HfP average valuation of a World of Hyatt point:

1.1p

Regular readers of this series will know that I do not justify these valuations. In this case, I am making an exception. This is because 1.1p is – slightly oddly – our ‘what is your escape route?’ valuation in case the programme devalues. Irrespective of what value you can get from a free room night, you can still get 1.1p using points to settle extras on your bill as I will show.

Regardless of that, 1.1p also makes sense when looking at the points needed for a free night. Even when World of Hyatt introduces peak and off-peak pricing in 2022, the most expensive night (excluding partner hotels) will be 35,000 points. At 1.1p you are looking at £385. You can easily pay more than this at a top Park Hyatt property such as New York or Sydney, or the Hyatt hotels in Biarritz (photo above), Cannes or Nice in peak season.

Even at mid-market hotels, 20,000 points – £220 at 1.1p – is fair at a property such as Park Hyatt Hamburg.

How high can value go on the upside?

High, which is good.

Each World of Hyatt hotel has a points price cap, which you can see on this page of their website.

In October 2020 I was planning a trip, obviously later cancelled, to Alila Jabal Akhdar in the mountains of Oman. The hotel is 25,000 points per night but at peak periods cash rates are £400. This is over 1.5p per point.

In this article, I wrote about how I used 15,000 Hyatt points to get a £400 room at Park Hyatt Hamburg during the annual Aircraft Interiors Expo exhibition.

Picking a random date in May 2022 for Park Hyatt New York, rooms are £645 or 30,000 World of Hyatt points. You can’t complain at 2p per point.

How low can value go on the downside?

Low, in theory, but it rarely happens.

By setting a fixed points price, irrespective of the cash price of the room, there will clearly be cheap days in the year when the value per point is not great.

When World of Hyatt introduces peak and off-peak pricing in 2022, this will become less of an issue as the points price on those dates should drop.

In truth, however, it doesn’t matter. If you are planning a stay and the ‘pence per point’ rate is poor, you can pay cash. Save your points for a day when you can get at least 1.1p and hopefully more.

If World of Hyatt devalues hugely tomorrow, what is my escape route?

This is our floor price. What can you do with your points if World of Hyatt devalues massively overnight?

This is where it gets a bit weird. When we write these articles, we usually show you the ratio of points to airline miles and work out a floor value from that.

(For the record, World of Hyatt points convert at 5:2 into airline miles. This means that if you value an airline mile at 1p, the floor value of a Hyatt point is 0.4p, because 5 Hyatt points are worth 2p of airline miles.)

With Hyatt, there is something better. You can redeem World of Hyatt points for money off your bill, excluding room charges.

Here is the chart showing what you can get:

As you can see, 65,000 World of Hyatt points will get you $1,000 of credit. At the current exchange rate, this is worth 1.1p per point. Your ‘worse case scenario’ is actually your best case scenario much of the time.

You can find out more on this page of the Hyatt site.

In summary …. what do we think World of Hyatt points are worth?

on average: 1.1p per point

on a very good day: 1.5p+, most likely at luxury hotels which hit the 30,000 points cap

on a bad day: potentially 0.5p, but you can always save your points for next time if you see a redemption where the value is this low

if you transfer out to airline miles in a worse case scenario: 0.4p per point

if you end up using your points for in-hotel credit: up to 1.1p depending on how many you redeem

As to how this should impact your behaviour:

if you tend to visit prime hotels in prime locations at prime times of the year, it makes sense to keep your World of Hyatt points until you can achieve a redemption valuation of 1.5p or more

if your travel style is more about travelling off peak and staying in mid range hotels, you should refuse to settle for anything less than 1.1p, because this is the value you can get by redeeming points for in-hotel credit

World of Hyatt update – December 2021:

Get bonus points: Hyatt is not currently running a global promotion.

New to World of Hyatt? Read our overview of World of Hyatt here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on what we think World of Hyatt points are worth is here.

Buy points: If you need additional World of Hyatt points, you can buy them here.

Until 30th December, you will receive a 30% discount, equivalent to a 43% bonus, when you buy Hyatt points – click here.

Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Hyatt and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.