It’s not worth mattress running for the new Hyatt promotion.

Just the other day, Hyatt announced their Stay More Play More promotion where Hyatt Gold Passport members are targeted for earning a different amount of bonus points depending on how many nights they stay in the coming months. I wanted to take a look at whether it would be worth mattress running for this promotion, and how much that would cost.

I was targeted for what’s believed to be the highest point offer – stay 25 nights, receive a total of 65,000 Gold Passport points.

 

So, is it worth it to “mattress run” in order to get these points?

First, let me define “mattress run” – it’s where you book a hotel room with either no intention of staying there (and checking in remotely or personally, but never staying in the room), or booking a room without any other purpose other than to accumulate points.

As a note, for the purposes of easy explanation, I’ll be assuming that you don’t have any Hyatt status and won’t be accumulating any additional bonus points for your stay.

Let’s look at the Excalibur in Las Vegas, which traditionally has cheap rates – and, because it’s an MLife hotel, will count for this new Hyatt promotion. I searched a random date in January.

Rates are $34 USD. When you add in the taxes, fees and resort fee, you have a total at approximately $60, which, by most accounts, is one of the cheapest rates you’ll find at any Hyatt property.

 

So, with the offer in the promotion, I’d need to stay 25 nights to earn 65,000 points. Staying 25 nights at $60 a night, would be a cost of $1500. 65,000 points would get me 2 nights at a Category 7 property and 1 night at a Category 1 hotel.

Probably the most famous Category 7 hotel is the Park Hyatt Paris, which I’ve reviewed before. For a random date in February, it prices out at $749 USD, which is a typical rate. With taxes and fees, it comes to $753.

 

 

So, because I’d be eligible for 2 Category 7 nights, let’s assume I’d want to spend 2 nights here – the grand total would be $1506. Keep in mind, that to earn 65,000 points, I’d need to spend $1500. Even with an additional Category 1 night thrown in at an average daily rate of $100, I’d be – at most – saving $100. Staying $25 nights, would yield a savings of a mere $100, which I would never do. The savings aren’t great enough to make this worth it.

So, what is worth it? What is worth it is staying 25 nights at Hyatt properties you would have otherwise stayed in without the promotion. Here, you’re visiting places you want to visit, and earning points at the same time which is a win-win situation.

So, in my opinion, it’s not worth it to mattress run to earn points with the new Hyatt promotion.