Hotel companies are always thinking of ways to win over customers and make them feel special and valued. Yes hotels physically appear like they’re trying to impress but what about components deeper than an actual property? Hotel chains are always changing and tweaking their loyalty programs, sometimes good changes are made and new benefits are introduced but sadly most of the time there’s something being taken away or devalued, we’ve seen this a lot in the past few years. But when a chain introduces a new benefit/scheme, it’s always great to talk about because it’s usually a step in the right direction and it’s positive.

One thing hotel chains have been working on quite a bit lately is allowing people to use their points more and more. Yes you can use your points for a free night, cash and points rate or even an upgrade, but some people aren’t after that and want to use their points for something a little more ‘valuable’. Luckily, there’s a few companies that allow members to use their points for experiences and once-in-a-lifetime events. Two chains that come to mind are Starwood and Hilton.

Starwood has their version called SPG Moments where you can either pay a full amount of points for a certain event or you can also bid.

Hilton also has their program but they don’t really have a name for it. Like SPG, you’re able to redeem a large sum of points or bid on events.

I always found it interesting that Hyatt never had anything like the two schemes above, however, that’s now changed. Hyatt has partnered with experience company ‘IfOnly’ which allows you to redeem World of Hyatt points for experiences or earn points when paying for an experience with cash. 

The website has a large variety of experiences to choose from and range from $25 or less all the way up to the high thousands. All of the experiences are based either in the United States or Europe.

Hyatt stated that the new scheme is intended for ‘high-end’ travellers which makes sense considering some of the prices.

If you are interested in one of these experiences it’s good to note that from now until January 31st, 2018 you’ll earn 3 World of Hyatt points for every $1 you spend which is quite a nice incentive.

If you’d like to book an experience or learn more, here’s the website.