Have you ever been stunned by truly AMAZING customer service? As a Hyatt Globalist, My Concierge surpassed all expectations to make me feel like her most important customer.
tl;dr My Hyatt Concierge is GREAT!
After a less than stellar anniversary stay at a Secrets all inclusive resort, My Hyatt Concierge went above and beyond with compensation that I turned into a free $7,176 trip! Read on to get the whole story!
Hyatt: The Best Hotel Loyalty Program
If you’ve read my eBook on how we travel for free, you know that I strongly recommend you join the World of Hyatt Loyalty program. For luxury travel, the Hyatt elite benefits far outpace perks of Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy & IHG One.
Zuzu & I love how well we’re treated as top level Globalists. One nice benefit is the My Hyatt Concierge program. I get a direct phone number to access the best Hyatt Customer Service Reps who have more power than a normal CSR.
As a WoH Milestone reward at 60 nights, Globalists get access to a group of Hyatt’s best customer service reps who are empowered to help Globalists make reservations, answer questions and address problems.
The Hyatt Concierge phone number is 800-544-9288 or 402-593-8615 in North America. Globalists can also contact their assigned concierge directly by the email address that was sent from their assigned concierge. Email addresses for Hyatt Concierges are usually first_name.last_iniitial@hyatt.com
Over the past 10 months since I reached elite Hyatt Globalist status, I’ve had many pleasant phone calls with friendly & competent members of the My Hyatt Concierge team. But I’ve never had an encounter that made me say WOW… until now.
Anniversary Trip to Secrets St Martin Resort
For our 29th anniversary, Zuzu & I spent 4 nights at Secrets St Martin Resort for free.
While the pictures of this all inclusive property looked fantastic, the reviews were all over the place. We were able to book 4 nights for only 88,000 Hyatt points (22k points per night) for a stay that would have cost $1940 if we had paid cash.
Read our Complete Guide to Hyatt Points!
We also applied a Suite Upgrade Award (another Hyatt Globalist perk) that I expected would upgrade us into a swim out suite (worth $2400) or a corner suite (worth $3400).
Secrets St Martin Reviews
Even though I had some concerns from reading several poor reviews of Secrets St Martin, the chance to experience this tropical island (& SXM airport at the beach with jumbo jets landing just a few feet above your head) combined with the low cost in points convinced us to give the St Martin Secrets All Inclusive Resort a try.
Unfortunately, the wild range of reviews were correct.
Secrets St Martin Highs & Lows
While we had a great time (I mean, it’s a free trip to the islands, right?), the property was run down. Our room’s door needed to be repaired replaced as did every single beach umbrella (they all had major rips).
On the other hand, the beach itself was practically perfect.
The once spectacular infinity pool wasn’t working. The food & drink ranged from fantastic to just yuck.
While our room was comfortable, it wasn’t what we expected to get from applying our Suite Upgrade Award (SUA).
Did We Really Get a Suite Upgrade?
When we got back home to Nashville, I called My Hyatt Concierge and asked if we got the room that we were supposed to get. Were my expectations wrong or did the resort not upgrade us correctly?
My Hyatt Concierge promised to contact the property and let me know.
About a month went by and no news. Last week, I called in to book a free vacation to an all inclusive resort in Cancun on points. I asked if they ever heard from the St Martin Secrets management.
Hyatt Kinda Dropped the Ball
My Concierge said they had tried to contact Secrets St Martin several times and were embarrassed that they had not already resolved this. My Concierge offered to compensate me for the SUA (which seemed fair) and asked how the rest of the visit had been.
I gave an honest review of Secrets St Martin.
Wonderful beach, a few good meals & drinks and a restaurant manager that made us feel like family.
Any 5 star resort would be lucky to have Thiogene. She’s literally the best Hyatt employee we’ve ever encountered.
Unfortunately, almost everything else was disappointing. This property reflects poorly on the Hyatt brand.
Because Thimogene was so wonderful, it really pains me to say that I can’t recommend Secrets St Martin.
Hopefully, this former Riu Palace (which hosted President Bush & French President Mitterand in 1989) will get some much needed improvements now that Hyatt has taken over AMR Resorts.
I can’t recommend that anyone visit Secrets St Martin until Hyatt invests heavily to improve it.
A Gift From My Hyatt Concierge
Upon hearing about our experience, and without my asking, My Concierge fully refunded the 88,000 points that we had used to visit Secrets St Martin. And she gave me points for the SUA that may or may not have been applied correctly to upgrade our room.
In total, over 130k points were placed in my World of Hyatt account to make up for this disappointing resort stay and Hyatt’s delay in addressing it.
She said, “We normally don’t throw points at problems but this has gone on way too long. I’m so sorry that we didn’t get this resolved sooner.”
I was floored at both the generosity of the offer and how My Concierge was empowered to make this right!
While on the phone with My Concierge, I joked that she was trying to make me addicted to Hyatt. With customer service like this, why would I ever stay at a Marriott, Hilton or anything except a Hyatt property?
How Much Was this Worth?
And one final note, I’m using the points I was given to book a 5 night stay in Playa del Carmen at another Hyatt all inclusive resort. The cash price of that stay is a little over $7000.
Here’s the room that I was calling in to book when I had this entire conversation with My Hyatt Concierge:
I was prepared to spend 125k Hyatt points to book this $7,136 stay. Instead, My Hyatt Concierge had gifted me more than enough points to cover this 5 night vacation.
So I really feel like My Hyatt Concierge gave us a $7000 gift!
Have you ever had such wonderful customer service from Hyatt or any other hotel loyalty program? I’d love to hear if this is what everyone can expect from the Globalist tier of the Hyatt loyalty program.
Read About Our Travel Adventures
Ever since we learned the secrets of how to travel for free, Zuzu & I have made some incredible memories together! Check out a few of our favorites here:
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