# Hyatt Residence Club: frozen points



## Prumio (Oct 20, 2016)

We have been owners in HRC (formerly Hyatt Vacation Club) for several years.  Recently we have encountered Hyatt "locking-up" our *already-paid-for* points until our next year's dues are paid.  They do this lock-up of existing (paid for) points on the day that the bill for the NEXT YEAR'S points is _generated_, not when it is due.  Lately, this has been ~6 weeks before the actual due date.

By way of example: if points are _available_ on Oct 14, they become _locked-up_ on Oct 15 when the Dec. 1 bill is generated.  However, if we make a reservation with those points on Oct 14 for, say, Dec. 15, that reservation is still "ours" to use. Not only are we locked out of using our unused paid-for points, we are locked out of even seeing property availability for any future dates until the future dues are paid.

My question to the User Group is: how exactly is this legal?  If we have paid for the points & can use future reservations purchased with the points, how can Hyatt refuse us access to unused points that we already own?  The only real-world comparison that I can make (services that are "paid-forward") is cable companies.  We would all be pretty outraged if our cable company turned off our service between the time they generated our next month's bill and the time we paid it, right?  Hope this question makes some sense and thanks for any insight.


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## DAman (Oct 20, 2016)

I think your answer is in the rules and regulations of the Club.  

*A reservation request will only be accepted by HVGG if the Club Member has paid all Home Resort maintenance fees, Club Dues, and ad valorem taxes. In the event the Home Resort Managing Entity has not yet billed such maintenance fees, Club Dues, and ad valorem taxes, as a condition to acceptance by HVGG of the reservation request, the Club Member shall be required to remit in accordance with the Club Member's Resort Agreement, an amount equal to the estimated maintenance fees, Club Dues and ad valorem taxes which ultimately will become due, as determined by HVGG in its sole discretion after consultation with the Home Resort Managing Entity.*

If you haven't paid the (unbilled)MF's you can't make any reservations.


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## ivywag (Oct 21, 2016)

We,too, have had questions about this process. On the day they bill the maintenance fees the access to inventory is denied even though the bills for those fees sometimes don't arrive until 2 weeks later.  The dues are typically billed in October with a due date of Jan. 1.  Our complaint is that you never know what date access will be denied because you haven't received a bill.  We just check the website often to see if we're cut off and, if so, we pay them. It would be more orderly if we got a bill with a "pay by" date and had a chance to pay before just denying access especially since the dues are not delinquent until Jan. 1.  If someone made a reservation and wasn't paid by Jan 1, any reservations that they had made for the new year could be canceled.


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## heathpack (Oct 21, 2016)

Have encountered the same thing.  To me, what's 100% unacceptable is the fact that you're trying to match a search and you don't match because you haven't paid NEXT YEARS maintenance fees and you've not yet even received the bill yet.  I've noticed a match not hitting (at the time I was able to still search manually, I'm not sure if this has changed in the last few years).  When I called in to say WTF? I was told that my unpaid as-yet-unbilled MF were the issue.  To make things worse, Hyatt did not even know what I owed!  The phone rep just took an estimated payment (which was of course an over payment) and book my week for me.

Total BS.  They said then it was a "glitch" that they were working on fixing.  But obviously no fix in the past few years.

I'd be happy to participate in some kind of letter writing campaign if someone else wants to organize it.


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## DAman (Oct 21, 2016)

I agree this makes no sense but it is in the rules.

I have no similar issues with using my 2017 Marriott week or using borrowed WM credits.  

It seems like more work for Hyatt they way it is set up generating extra phone calls. 

Why not freeze the reservations once the MF's due are late?  

I love the Hyatt system but you have to know the rules.

Heathpack-Thank you for the PM a long time back about II and replacement weeks.  You were very helpful.


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