We love All Inclusive Resorts and we love the perks of being Globalists in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. But do Globalists get treated any better than normal guests at a Hyatt All Inclusive resort?
Our Hyatt All Inclusive Trips
Since becoming Globalists in 2021, we’ve had free trips on points to these Hyatt All Inclusive resorts:
- Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall (it was great!)
- Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun (mostly great)
- Secrets St Martin (bad)
- Secrets Maroma Beach (Zuzu’s favorite!)
- Secrets Moxche Impressions (my favorite!)
- Secrets Cap Cana (great!)
- Hyatt Zilara Cap Cana (wonderful!)
And we’ve already booked these Hyatt Inclusive Collection resorts for future travel:
- Hyatt Ziva Cancun
As you can see, we’ve been to quite a few Hyatt All Inclusive Resorts. And the best part for us is that all of these stays have been free on Hyatt points!
Read our Comprehensive Guide to 150+ Hyatt All Inclusive Resorts!
Hyatt Globalist Benefits
When we started traveling alot in 2021, we quickly focused our stays on Hyatt. We knew that top level elite status in the World of Hyatt loyalty program is better than comparable status with other chains like Marriott or Hilton.
While this is not a comprehensive list of Globalist benefits, I see some of the main perks for Globalists to be:
- My Hyatt Concierge (available with all of Hyatt’s All Inclusive resorts)
- Room Upgrade (varies alot)
- Free parking (n/a at most All Inclusives)
- Free breakfast (n/a at All Inclusives)
- No resort fees (n/a at the All Inclusives we’ve visited)
- Early check-in & late checkout (sometimes valuable)
Free Room Upgrade
Specific to All Inclusive resorts, the most valuable Globalist benefit is the free room upgrade.
If you’re a Globalist, Hyatt’s promise is that you’ll get the “best room available,” including “Standard Suites” at the time of check-in. However, upgrades are at the resort’s discretion which means it can vary alot.
Don’t expect a guaranteed upgrade to a Presidential Suite or anything fancy like that. While we’ve had good success in getting nice room upgrades, it’s still been a mixed experience with this perk.
As a Globalist, getting a big upgrade can turn any All Inclusive resort into a much better experience. But it’s not guaranteed.
However, there is one way that Globalists can guarantee that they’ll get a Suite: the Suite Upgrade Award.
Suite Upgrade Awards
If you have a Suite Upgrade Award, that can be a game changer.
By using an SUA to guarantee a significant room upgrade, any of Hyatt’s 150+ AI properties can potentially be the best All Inclusive resort for a Globalist. Of course, that’s assuming there’s a suite available when you book.
Awarded as a milestone reward after 40 qualifying nights (or 65k base points) in a year, a Suite Night Award guarantees an upgrade to a standard suite for a stay of up to 7 nights.
I’m pretty stingy with my Suite Upgrade Awards. I want to use them when I think it’ll make a real difference. In most instances, I won’t use an SUA on less than a 4 night stay. And I won’t use them if I think we’ll be mostly away from our room.
Zuzu & I have found that an All Inclusive resort stay of 4 nights or more is a perfect use of an SUA. We tend to mostly stay on property so we’re in and out of our room alot.
But what’s the best Hyatt Inclusive brand for a Globalist if you’re not using a Suite Upgrade Award?
Best Hyatt Inclusive Brand for Globalists
Based on my experience and research, I think Secrets is the brand in the Hyatt Inclusive Collection that will most reliably have the best benefits for Globalists. That’s assuming that you’re booking standard rooms on Hyatt points or cash.
Why is Secrets the best Hyatt brand for Globalists?
The main reason is that Secrets Resorts have a Preferred Club which includes better rooms and an exclusive lounge. Some Secrets may also have an exclusive restaurant, exclusive pool and a beach area reserved for only Preferred Club Guests.
Globalists get an automatic upgrade to Secrets Preferred Club which usually means an upgraded room.
Even if there’s not a Preferred Club room available, Globalists should get access to any exclusive Preferred Club benefits.
Why Not Ziva or Zilara?
While the AMR brands like Secrets are relatively new to Hyatt (Secrets St Martin told us we were only the 2nd Globalists to visit their resort), Ziva and Zilara are the original Hyatt A.I. brands. You’d think that they would be the best for Globalists, right?
In our experience and in reading lots of data points, room upgrades are much more spotty at Ziva/Zilara vs Secrets.
What about Club Lounges? Aren’t those fancy Clubs and Lounges a great benefit for Globalists? Oh wait, they’re (practically) all closed.
So yes, you may get a nice Globalist upgrade at a Ziva or Zilara. But since every Secrets has a Preferred Club, it’s more likely you’ll get a significant Globalist benefit at a Secrets than at a Ziva/Zilara.
Our Globalist Benefits at AI’s
With just one exception, we’ve had fantastic experiences at Hyatt All Inclusive resorts. And our free Globalist room upgrades have often been worth $1,000 (or more) per trip!
Here’s a quick look at the Hyatt All Inclusive resorts that we’ve visited.
Secrets Maroma Beach
At Secrets Maroma Beach, we booked the standard tropical view room on points (cash price was $943/night) and were upgraded to a Preferred Club Ocean View room ($1249). The cash difference was $306 per night so I’d call that a pretty nice perk.
Being beach people, Zuzu & I really liked that the Preferred building was close to the beach with better views than non-Preferred Club rooms.
Secrets Maroma had a Preferred Club lounge but it wasn’t particularly interesting.
However, there was a wonderful little beachfront restaurant/bar that was only available for Preferred Club guests. Of all the bars and restaurants at Secrets Maroma, this easily had the best location. While the food and drinks were very good at every Secrets Maroma restaurant, we also valued having one more option than non-Preferred guests had.
On the beach, they also had a roped off area for Preferred Club. The exclusive beach might have been slightly better than the non-Preferred Beach but I can’t say there was any value in this to us.
Impression Moxche by Secrets
At Impression Moxche, we booked the standard tropical view room on points ($1436/night) and were upgraded to Ocean View ($1795). The cash difference was $359 per night.
If you’re staying at an Impression by Secrets, I don’t think Globalists will see any difference besides the room upgrade. The entire Impression experience is designed to be next level. And it was!
On this trip to Moxche, we also booked a Guest of Honor into Secrets Moxche (not Impression). Our friends first got a regular room with a poor view. When I asked about other available rooms, they were upgrade to a much better view in a Preferred Club room. Because of this, we were able to compare 3 levels at this resort:
- Regular Secrets Moxche
- Secrets Moxche Preferred Club
- Impression Moxche by Secrets
The 2 big differences between regular Moxche and Preferred Moxche were the rooms and the Preferred Club.
The Preferred rooms were larger and had a much better view then regular rooms.
As opposed to Secrets Maroma where the Preferred Lounge was forgettable, the Secrets Moxche Preferred Club was great with it’s own restaurant and a rooftop pool.
It was clear that Moxche Preferred Club was better than regular Secrets Moxche.
And it was also clear that there was an even greater jump from Moxche Preferred to Impression. The Impression Moxche experience was on an entirely different level than anything we had experienced before.
Globalists and a Guest of Honor will be happy with the upgrade to Preferred Club. But if money (or points) is no object, definitely do Impression by Secrets.
Secrets St Martin
While we still enjoyed ourselves, Secrets St Martin was our least favorite all inclusive resort we’ve experienced.
Oversimplified, the resort was just run down. There was a very small Preferred Club lounge with top shelf liquor but that was the only perk we got as Globalists.
My Hyatt Concierge was appalled to hear the problems we had at Secrets St Martin. Without my asking for any compensation, she gifted us with enough points to cover our 5 night stay at Impression Moxche.
Like I said, our room at Impression Moxche was $1795 per night. I’m still kinda shocked at what My Concierge did for us. Never in my life have I had such an overwhelmingly positive response to a customer service issue.
Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall
At Zilara Rose Hall, we booked the standard King room on points (cash price was $474/night) and were upgraded to Ocean View ($610). The cash difference was $134 per night.
Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun
At Ziva Riviera Cancun, we booked the standard King room on points (I think around $400/night) and were upgraded to an enormous Ocean Front Master Suite ($950). The cash difference was ~$500 per night.
Hyatt Zilara Cap Cana
While Zilara Cap Cana might be our 2nd favorite All Inclusive, the Globalist benefits were not great. We still got a room upgrade from the Resort View Suite that we booked ($568/night) to the Club Ocean View ($632/night). That’s a not-very-exciting Globalist perk of $68/night but I’d go back to Zilara Cap Cana in a heartbeat.
We also spent a good amount of time in the Club Pool and Hot Tub. The swim up bar in the Club Pool was top notch and never as busy as the regular swim up bar.
Secrets Cap Cana
We used 25,000 Hyatt points to book the Standard King Suite at Secrets Cap Can. While that room was selling for $570 per night, we got upgraded to the Preferred Club Ocean View Jr Suite which was $770/night. Our free room upgrade as a Globalist was worth $200/night at this All Inclusive resort.
Better than other All Inclusives
With close to ten All Inclusive Resort trips under our belt since 2021, I think that Hyatt All Inclusive resorts are better than the average All Inclusive.
And with the likelihood of Globalist upgrades, it’s an easy decision for us to stick with the 150+ Hyatt All Inclusive resorts when we want worry free vacations.
Outside of the Hyatt Inclusive collections, we’ve done a couple other All Inclusives when we’ve traveled with our friends.
Our Non-Hyatt All Inclusive Experience
Riu Palace Riviera Maya in Cancun was our first All Inclusive experience and we had a great time with four other couples.
Later that year, our gang spent Fall Break at Bahia Principe Luxury Ambar All Inclusive in Punta Cana. Since these were our first big trips in decades, anything would have been fun, especially since we were with a group of great friends.
But in hindsight, both the Riu and the Bahia reinforced the stereotype All Inclusive: some great but alot of “meh.”
In particular, the restaurants were disappointing at the Riu and Bahia. And there was one restaurant that was horrible.
Although it was supposed to be the fanciest dining at the resort, 9 out of 10 in our groups declared their main course inedible. We barely picked at our sides… even the desert was bad. Fortunately, we caught some decent bar food afterwards so the misery was short lived.
With the exception of Secrets St Martin, all the Hyatt brand All Inclusive resorts have been better than the non Hyatt All Inclusives.
Plus, we’ve stayed for free on Hyatt points 😉
Read our Complete Guide to Hyatt Points!
How to Become Globalist
You have to earn 60 “Elite Qualifying Nights” in a calendar year to earn Globalist status.
If you’re not going to spend 60 nights in Hyatt hotels and resorts, you can earn 2 qualifying night credits for every $5,000 in spend on The World of Hyatt Card (personal card) or 5 nights for every $10k spend on the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card.
Very few people earn Globalist without spending some nights in some Hyatt’s. And why would you care about Globalist status if you don’t stay in Hyatt properties?
There are occasionally other ways to earn Globalist status but most common is to spend alot of nights in Hyatt properties. Last year, Zuzu & I spent about 50 nights in Hyatt’s and got the other 10+ night credits thru the Hyatt credit card.
Globalist All Inclusive Summary
While some Globalist benefits don’t apply at All Inclusives, we find our World of Hyatt elite status to be icing on the cake at Inclusive Collection resorts.
Our experience has been a better suite and at least some extra benefit 80% of the time. And the other 20% led to a personal apology from our My Hyatt Concierge that we used for $7,000 of free travel!
Is WoH the best hotel loyalty program if you love All Inclusive Resorts? All I can say is that it’s been great for us so far.
What’s your experience been as a Globalist at a Hyatt All Inclusive? Let me know in the comments!
Leave a Reply