Hyatt BRG Now Requires Booking Confirmation First

I read this morning that there have been some unannounced changes to the Hyatt Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) policy. As mentioned last month, I have had some success getting Hyatt to match (and beat!) an OTA rate for the Grand Hyatt Melbourne without having an existing reservation beforehand. There has been a lot of online chatter right now on whether the change has taken effect but it does seem that the Terms & Conditions have been changed to reflect this. 

If you find a publicly available and immediately bookable room-only rate on the Internet for a Hyatt hotel ("Competing Rate") that is lower than the room rate available for the same reservation on http://www.hyatt.com (i.e., same hotel, same type of room, same number of guests, same dates of stay and same length of stay), then within 24 hours of booking the reservation on http://www.hyatt.com, please submit your claim request online via our online claim form.

Photo Credit: Grand Hyatt Singapore

Hyatt was the only major hotel chain left that processed BRGs without the requirement of an existing reservation and it is truly a shame to see it going down this road.