My wife and I visited Secrets Mirabel in January 2026. It's located in Cancun's hotel zone. Secrets Mirabel was formerly branded as another UVC property called Now Emerald. Now Emerald shut down for over two years, and in that time, they built a new, 16-story tower for preferred guests and renovated all the spaces in the original buildings. It was rebranded and opened under the Secrets Mirabel name in November 2025. We got a very good pre-opening price through UVC.
We had a great time. We loved the location, the view, the food and the service. For a resort that had only been open for a couple months, they really had their act together, except for one thing.
We booked a Non-Preferred Ocean View Balcony room. As Gold+ UVC members, we get preferred benefits by contract regardless of the room we book. At our level, there's no need to book a higher-priced preferred room to use the resort's preferred amenities, so we don't. We were checked in at the preferred lounge. Even though we were early, our room was ready. As he was checking us in, Oscar, the resort employee working the preferred check-in desk, asked us if we wanted to upgrade our room to the new preferred tower. He offered to give us a key to the room so we could see it to help us make our decision.
The preferred tower was brand new. It's closer to the preferred pool and the beach and has better ocean views than the resort's other buildings. I expected Oscar to tell me this upgrade was being offered for free as a contract benefit. He didn't. Oscar told me we could upgrade for $150/night.
Wait! What?
One of the standard benefits in all UVC contracts is a free upgrade to the next higher room category. On page 16 of 44 in this UVC contract, it reads:
2. Exclusive Benefits for Members and Users.
a. Room Upgrade: As an additional benefit, a free room upgrade to the next level may be requested on arrival at any of the Participating Hotels, subject to availability.
Why didn't Oscar offer my upgrade for free?
 |
| The view from the balcony of our NP Ocean View Balcony room. That's the new preferred tower on the left. I loved our room and our view, but I paid a lot of money for my UVC membership. I want all the benefits my membership entitles me to. Hyatt's UVC won't honor that. |
Right after checking in, I met the UVC rep, Camilla. I asked her why I wasn't offered the upgrade for free. She didn't have a good answer.
At that first meeting, Camilla said that there was a room category at Mirabel called Preferred Tropical View and that would be the next level up from the Non-Preferred Ocean View Balcony room I booked. She told me that's the room category my contract entitles me to be upgraded to. I told her I didn't think any UVC member with preferred privileges in their contract would consider a preferred tropical view room an upgrade to a non-preferred ocean view room.
I checked other sources after that meeting and none of them show a room category at Secrets Mirabel called "Preferred Tropical View" -- not World of Hyatt, not the UVC members' site, not the Secrets Mirabel resort guide and not the Accommodations tab on the Inclusive Collection app. None of those sources show a room category called "Preferred Tropical View". In every source I looked at, the next room category up from the room we booked was the Preferred Ocean View room Oscar offered for $150/night.
The next time I talked to Camilla, she told me she investigated more and now had a different take. She told me the room we were given was a "little upgrade" from the room we booked. I'm not sure what that means. Either you're upgraded to a higher room category, or you get the room category you booked. We got the room category we booked. What's a "little upgrade?"
In any case, the second time we met, Camilla told me she would send me a QR code through which I could make a formal complaint that the resort would have to respond to. She did that. The QR code took me to an online form where I lodged a formal complaint that as UVC members the upgrade offered for $150/night extra should have been offered for free.
I spoke with Camilla one last time before we checked out. At that final meeting, she acknowledged receipt of my complaint and told me that the next step is for the resort to respond. The resort hadn't done that by the time we checked out.
This is the sort of benefit erosion that has become increasingly common in Hyatt's UVC. Benefits that never used to be withheld from members now are. My contract tells me I'm entitled to a free upgrade if one is available. Non-availability is the only reason why I shouldn't get upgraded. Obviously, a room was available if it was offered at $150/night. Oscar even told us he'd show us the room to help us decide if we wanted to pay the additional $150/night. The upgrade wasn't offered to me for free, UVC knows it, and refuses to honor their contractual obligation. It doesn't matter what the contract says in Hyatt's UVC. Hyatt's UVC is going to do what Hyatt's UVC is going to do and members are expected to just live with that. How many other companies do you work with that treat their loyalty customers the way Hyatt treats theirs?
The QR complaint process that Camilla initiated isn't necessary to give me my contract benefit. It's Hyatt's UVC's attempt to keep Hyatt out of the middle of a dispute and get the resort to negotiate a solution directly with me. That attitude is a big part of why so many UVC benefits are being eroded. Hyatt should be advocating with the resort on my behalf. Hyatt should step into disputes like this and demand the resort's compliance. They don't. They take a passive approach and try to get the resort and member to work out their own solution.
My UVC contract is not with any of the resorts, it's with two corporate entities: UVC Global Panama, S. de R.L., UVC Sales Panama, S. de R.L., and their representative, Erick Gilardo Jimenez Ortiz. These entities are defined as the "Mediator" in this 2019 UVC contract. In the opening paragraph on page 7 of 44, you'll read this:
MEDIATION CONTRACT (THE "CONTRACT") EXECUTED BY AND BETWEEN, ON ONE PART, UVC GLOBAL PANAMA, S. de R.L. AND UVC SALES PANAMA, S. DE R.L., REPRESENTED BY ERICK GILDARDO JIMENEZ ORTIZ (HEREINAFTER REFERRED COLLECTIVELY TO AS "MEDIATOR"), AND, ON THE OTHER PART ...
The resorts, themselves, are part of the Mediator's "network of service Suppliers," as that term is defined in the Antecedents on the same page of that 2019 contract:
Mediator has executed contracts with different suppliers of travel and other services (hereinafter "Suppliers") under which Suppliers have the obligation to offer goods and services at preferential rates and discounted prices to the members of Mediator (discounts and benefits are jointly referred to as the "Discounts").
As a result of the contracts executed with Suppliers described in the preceding paragraph, Mediator has organized a network of service Suppliers named "Unlimited Vacation Club" to ensure that its members receive the Discounts by means of a membership number given to them when they sign the Contract. (emphasis added)
My contract is with the Mediator. It's the Mediator who owes me the Discounts my contract entitles me to. I have no contract with the Mediator's Suppliers, so I have no way to demand anything from them. The Mediator, who holds contracts with both members and Suppliers must mediate disputes between members and Suppliers.
The Antecedents tells me the Mediator has separate contracts with each Supplier through which each Supplier is obligated to provide me my Discounts, but the language seems to assume that the Mediator can do no wrong in coordinating the obligations of Suppliers under its Mediator/Supplier contract with the benefits of its members under its Mediator/Member contract. What happens when the Mediator has done a poor job of coordinating the two contracts and, based on contract language, the Supplier has a reasonable argument for not providing a benefit that the UVC member, under his contract, has a reasonable expectation of receiving? On page 8 of 44, the third paragraph in the 2019 UVC contract linked above attempts to put the blame on the Supplier:
THIRD. MEDIATOR LIABILITY.
Member acknowledges and agrees that Mediator will be liable solely for the mediation activities described in this document. Any liability related to the goods and services acquired from or provided by Suppliers will rest solely on the Suppliers. Therefore, Member hereby releases Mediator from any liability that may arise from or relative to any act or omission by Suppliers in relation to the Discounts, goods and/or services it offers to Member. (emphasis added)
If only the Supplier, and never the Mediator, is responsible for providing the Discounts, and the Supplier refuses to provide what a member is entitled to, how can a member expect to ever receive a benefit? A Supplier can simply refuse to provide benefits. Regardless of what UVC is trying to do with their contract language, if a Supplier isn't providing members a benefit they're entitled to, the Mediator must step in and resolve the dispute. Hyatt, who owns 20% of the Mediator organization and manages all of it, refuses to behave like that. They want no part of dispute resolution.
Camilla's QR code process (Which is new. I haven't heard anyone in my Facebook groups talk about it) is evidence of that. The process allows a disappointed member to formally lodge a complaint but it promises no results. If a Supplier refuses to provide a benefit, the member won't get the benefit he's entitled to. Even in my case, where it's undeniable that the resort had a room available in the next room category but would not offer it as a free upgrade, Hyatt's UVC won't take an active role in resolving my complaint and get me the benefit that UVC is contractually obligated to provide.
A price matching complaint I hear frequently from members since Hyatt bought ALG is that Hyatt's UVC won't approve a price match until the resort accepts it. Even if a member follows all the contractual requirements for getting a price match (which is all they have to do), Hyatt's UVC sometimes won't approve a price match until the resort agrees to it. There's nothing in the member contract that requires resort approval of a price match request, but that's what Hyatt's UVC enforces. Hyatt's UVC will not intervene with its Suppliers to demand they provide members the benefits they're entitled to.
UVC members have no advocate with the resorts in Hyatt's UVC. Hyatt provides management services to the resorts under separate contracts with the resorts. The resort owners are a much bigger revenue source to Hyatt than any individual UVC member. In a dispute between a resort and a member, Hyatt will not alienate a resort by advocating for members. In the environment Hyatt has created, there's not a single member benefit I can count on getting any more. This is Hyatt's UVC.