Hotels have to be called out for behavior like this, because it’s not only inhospitable, but also highly unethical…
Hyatt hotel makes up reason for canceling reservation
OMAAT reader Christophe booked three stays at the Hyatt Centric South Beach for next summer, in June 2026. The dates of his stay coincide with when World Cup matches are supposed to take place in Miami, and it seems the hotel’s revenue management forgot to raise pricing to account for this.
That’s hardly the first time this has happened — for example, I just recently covered a story like this regarding Coachella. Sometimes we’ll see hotels basically send an email along the lines of “oops, we forgot to raise our prices, and we won’t honor your rate.” That’s bad enough, but here’s what’s even worse.
Christophe received an email today from the hotel’s front office manager, informing him that his reservations had all been canceled:
Thank you for choosing Hyatt Centric South Beach. We regret to inform you that your recent reservation attempt has been cancelled, for three different reservations as we were unable to process the required 1-night deposit at the time of booking.
Unfortunately, the card provided was declined, and in accordance with our reservation policy, we are unable to hold the booking without successful payment.
If you are still interested in staying with us, we would be happy to welcome you. Please feel free to rebook your stay at the current available rate on our website or by contacting our reservations team directly.
So, a few points:
- Christophe’s reservation confirmation makes no mention of a one-night deposit, so the hotel retroactively decided a one-night deposit was required
- Christophe explains that he used a valid credit card and there’s no sign of an attempt for this to be charged, so the hotel seemingly made that up in order to have justification for canceling the reservation
- The stay is only a year from now, so even if the hotel had a one-night deposit required, and even if he hadn’t used a valid credit card, the hotel could’ve reached out to him to ask for those details
- I also love how the hotel describes a confirmed reservation as a “reservation attempt”
Go figure that the rate has since quadrupled, so how convenient that the hotel is still willing to welcome him, and just encourages him to make a new booking!
Here’s the positive update, though — Christophe reached out to the Hyatt Globalist line, and a supervisor helped reinstate the booking. Funny enough, that supervisor reportedly spoke with the same front office manager who signed the email, and the front office manager claimed that she was just following instructions from revenue management when unilaterally canceling the reservation.
This kind of unethical behavior really irks me
Maybe this bothers me more than it should, but it makes my blood boil to see hotels acting this way. This guest has top tier status with Hyatt, so is a loyal member. Not only did the hotel try to not honor his reservation, but the hotel also tried to lie about the reason for the cancellation.
If you’re going to cancel a confirmed reservation, at least be honest. Admit that the wrong rate was published, and that the hotel doesn’t want to honor it. That’s bad. But it’s not as bad as not honoring a reservation while also completely lying about the reason, retroactively making up terms, and then lying about a credit card not working.
I feel like Hyatt has grown too much in recent years. Among the major hotel groups, Hyatt used to be the one that seemed to have a commitment to do the right thing, and taking care of customers. But as it has grown, I think that part of the culture has gone out the window.
Look, I don’t totally blame the front office manager here. But I also wonder, if these are the instructions she was given and she just went along with them, what does that say about her ethics, and her desire to take care of guests?
“Hey, just make up a lie for why we have to cancel the reservation, it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not.” And she’s like “yep, sounds good?” If I were her, I’d go to the general manager and demand he intervene, and not force me to do that. I wouldn’t put my name on an email like this.
Bottom line
Hotels try to get out of honoring confirmed reservations far too often. But if you’re going to do that, at least be honest. In the case of the Hyatt Centric South Beach, the front office manager contacted a guest with confirmed reservations, claiming that a one-night deposit was required, and that his credit card was declined because his card was declined. Neither of those details are true, never mind that the stay is for a year from now.
What do you make of this Hyatt reservation situation?
