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Hyatt Now Offers Free WiFi For VIP Guests, But Not For You

April 2, 2009 at 9:32 AM | by | Comments (0)

We've got good news and bad news. The good news: it seems Hyatt Hotels did a bit of research and they've stumbled upon the conclusion that people do not enjoy being charged for WiFi — so it's going to be coming at us for free in all Hyatt Hotels, from Hyatt Places (where the WiFi is already free for everyone) to Park Hyatts (where it is currently not so free).

The bad news: the "us" that will be getting free WiFi is not you and not us, but rather only folks who have achieved Diamond or Platinum status in Hyatt's loyalty program. So, like, not really "us" at all.

USA Today's new Check-In blog got the scoop on this free-WiFi-for-Hyatt-VIP's thing, which is being announced as one of several new perks for elite-level Hyatt Gold Passport members. Apparently, Hyatt did some asking-around and found out that "no one wants to be nickel and dimed" (yes, correct) so, with that in mind, they've added some perks to reward their VIP customers.

According to USA Today, elite-status Gold Passport members will enjoy not just free WiFi, but Hyatt is also:

· Letting diamond members secure their four, electronic suite upgrades per year at time of booking instead of waiting until they see the front-desk clerk.
· Reviving VIP check-in lines, which were eliminated a few years ago [...] Hyatt will phase lines in at all of its hotels across all brands over time, space permitting.
· Giving the best available room to platinum and diamond members upon check in. For a diamond member, that could be a club floor room. for platinum, it would best available room within the category booked.

Interesting. We don't have any major problems with the other perks, but we're sort of stuck on the WiFi thing. While we're happy that this is definitely a step in the right direction — you know, a couple inches closer to offering free WiFi to everyone — we're kind of annoyed that this is only for VIP-status members. We're pretty sure a lot of Hyatt's Diamond and Platinum guests are frequent business-traveler types who probably need WiFi to work as much as we do, so we get it — but don't expect us to be happy about paying for WiFi over and over while the dude in the next room over is scoring his Internet for free. That does not motivate us to stay with the chain frequently enough to achieve VIP status.

[Photo: mulmatsherm]

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