# Why Your Hyatt Waitlist May Not Work: IMPORTANT for Hyatt Owners



## heathpack (Nov 9, 2012)

I recently learned that there is a glitch with the Hyatt waitlist system that may result in your waitlist not working and I thought this would be helpful for other Hyatt owners to know.

How I found out: I had a waitlist set up for many months that I expected to match last Sat.  To my surprise, it did not match and then I went online and saw the unit there.  I booked it and since this is not the first time I've had this happened, I called Hyatt to report the glitch.  I was given what turned out to be an erroneous explanation for the glitch by the phone rep and requested the contact information for a "higher authority" to issue a formal written complaint; I was told to email concierge@hyattvacationclub.com.

From them, here's what I learned:  If you prepay MF, we all know those are only estimated MF.  At some point in the fall, your actual MF will be determined and if there is a balance due, Hyatt Residence Club will be notified and you will be mailed a bill.  Presumably, this should also be reflected in your account online, _but in my case it was not_.  I don't know if my online account not reflecting a balance due was a glitch in my case or a systematic problem that we would all encounter.  It appears there is a processing time for generating MF bills which results in a delay of several weeks-- during which time Hyatt Residence Club knows you have a balance due but you have not yet been notified of that information.  You thus are considered "in arrears" even though you have had zero opportunity to yet pay the underestimated portion of your MF.  If you have a waitlist match when you owe MF, it will not go through.  You will not be notified in any way, you just won't match.  In my instance, I was able to book the same unit online without needing to pay the outstanding $39 MF balance that I had (possibly b/c my online account did not reflect a MF amount due?).  Not that I was trying to get away without paying the $39, just that I had no way of knowing anything was due.

I have the contact information to escalate this complaint further and will do so.  But in the meantime, Hyatt owners who have prepaid MF and have a waitlist set up in the time period from approx. late Sept/early Oct (when it seems the next years MF are determined) until early Nov (when MF bills go out in the mail) should be aware of this glitch.  I recommend calling frequently during this time period to see if you have a MF balance due so that your waitlist does not get invalidated unbeknownst to you.  The phone reps were able to see my balance due even though they also could see that it was not reflected in my online account, so you should be able to pay your balance due by calling.

H


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## DAman (Nov 9, 2012)

H- Thanks for the information. It did not affect my ongoing II search(the reason I paid the fees early) which just matched last week.  It is curious why it would a Hyatt internal one. I would think they have more control over your reservation if you don't pay.

I am waiting for the balance owing and my online account shows I owe nothing as of now. 

I am becoming a firm believer of ongoing searches so this is good info.


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## heathpack (Nov 9, 2012)

DAman said:


> H- Thanks for the information. It did not affect my ongoing II search(the reason I paid the fees early) which just matched last week.  It is curious why it would a Hyatt internal one. I would think they have more control over your reservation if you don't pay.
> 
> I am waiting for the balance owing and my online account shows I owe nothing as of now.
> 
> I am becoming a firm believer of ongoing searches so this is good info.



I don't know why an II search is not affected & why I was able to manually book the same unit even though I was "in arrears." Hyatt Concierge says it is an known IT glitch.  They sounded like they were well aware of it but are not actively working on a fix.

H


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## suzannesimon (Nov 9, 2012)

This is really good to know.  I am in almost the same situation.  Prepaid my maintenance fees for an II search, which hasn't gone through yet, but I don't think it affected anything.  II called me a couple days ago to tell me they were still working on making the trade.  I received a bill for the balance due a couple days ago - $162.24 - and just checked my online account and it is there as well.  Do you know if you get passed over on a trade because of this, do you go to the end of the line, or keep your place in line  until you pay?


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## heathpack (Nov 9, 2012)

suzannesimon said:


> This is really good to know.  I am in almost the same situation.  Prepaid my maintenance fees for an II search, which hasn't gone through yet, but I don't think it affected anything.  II called me a couple days ago to tell me they were still working on making the trade.  I received a bill for the balance due a couple days ago - $162.24 - and just checked my online account and it is there as well.  Do you know if you get passed over on a trade because of this, do you go to the end of the line, or keep your place in line  until you pay?



I don't know what happens to your wait list status, and just to be clear, my issue was with the Hyatt wait list, not an on-going II search

H


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## ivywag (Nov 10, 2012)

*More info*

We are long-time Hyatt owners with multiple units at both High Sierra and Highlands Inn.  When we first joined, the dues would be billed in Dec. and due Jan 1.  Now, it seems that the bills are coming earlier and earlier.  I don't object to the early billing, but being locked out of internet searches is an unnecessary inconvenience. Also, we are locked out of reservations before receiving the bills and don't know that our wait list is frozen. The rules we received when purchasing have the fees due on Jan.1, yet we are locked out of reservations in October. In addition, if you own at several resorts, they are billed on different schedules and thus you can pay one when you receive the bill, only to be locked out as another becomes due but the invoice has not yet been received.  This recently happened to us. We had not yet received the bill for Highlands, but were not confirmed for a wait list unit that we expected since 
we didn't know that it had been billed.  I don't really see the reason for the lockout.  It would be easy enough to simply cancel all reservations if the dues are not paid by the Jan.1st due date. In our case, High Sierra this year is billed in Oct and Highlands Inn in Nov. If we were not to pay until the Jan.1st actual due date, we would be locked out of any confirmations for 3 months. We had a wait list unit that we expected to be confirmed today, so went online yesterday to pay the High Sierra bill that we just received and to our surprise Highlands Inn was also due (no bill received) We paid all, but think that there should be a more consistent system so that we know when everything is due and the date that we will be locked out. That would avoid surprises.


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## MaryH (Nov 25, 2012)

Yeah I was locked out end of October and could not search for a period. Finally found some time beginning of November to call and reserve some intervals I wanted and pay for the MF at the same time.  

They should not block searching on checking your existing reservations, just block you from completing reservations.


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