I was reading Mommy Points’s blog post about the new Park Hyatt St. Kitts just the other day – it looks amazing and on my list of places to check out. So I was intrigued when I just recently got this email from the World of Hyatt advertising a 4th night free and $300 airline credit for the Park Hyatt St. Kitts.
Did you get it? It looked like this:
I did a little investigating and digging to see what a four night stay would run. Here’s what I found:
I randomly picked a long weekend next month in February. A four night stay from 2/22 through 2/26 with this promotion in a Beachside King room is quoted at $4758. As you can see Sunday 2/25 is $0:
But if I break up the reservation into two items separate 2-day stays, I got the following:
2/22 – 2/24 – $2194
2/24-2/26 – $1708
A total of $3902.
So it’s $856 ($4758 – $3902) less to book two 2-night stays than booking the ‘4th Night Free’ promotion.
Now the 4th free night promotion according to the email includes a $300 per person airline credit. On the website though it lists the $300 credit as a resort credit when you go to the details of the booking. I’m not sure it matters much but we have to include that value in the calculations above.
If you were traveling as a couple, you should receive $600 in resort/airline credits. So you would still be ahead by $256 ($856-$600) by booking two 2-night reservations instead of the 4th night free promotion.
I also checked the previous weekend to see if this was the same case and got savings, but not as much, by booking multiple reservations:
2/15 – 2/19 with 4th Night Free promotion – $4022 (but includes $300 per person credit)
2/15 – 2/18 three night reservation ($2562) + 2/18 – 2/19 one night reservation ($1097) totals – $3659
Need to Knows
- Always check the cost per night each day for longer stays – you can save money booking multiple reservations instead of one
- Hotel promotions such as ‘4th night free’ don’t typically the savings you would expect
- Multiple reservations can also be useful if you haven’t finalized your plans yet – it’s easy to cancel/change a single reservation at the beginning or end of a trip
- Hotels can usually easily merge/link multiple reservations into one when you arrive to avoid changing rooms and checking in/out
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