Worthlessness Continued

Although the Official UVC FB group admins wouldn't respond to, or even publish, my post of July 24, 2025 asking why Hyatt is denying me club benefits at some AMResorts properties, and despite my request to refer me to an exec rather than someone in their QA department, they did assign a UVC quality assurance rep to investigate my complaints. I got a call from Rosie on August 1, 2025.

Rosie had not seen my unpublished post to the Official UVC FB group and had no background on my complaints. We talked about why AluaSoul Sunny Beach was not available to UVC members. After insisting that it was available to UVC members but then checking and finding it wasn't, Rosie told me she would investigate more and get back to me. We talked about the five rebranded Playa properties. Rosie told me not all AMResorts brands were also UVC properties. She didn't know if these would be added to the UVC inventory or not. I told her my contract told me I could use my club benefits at all AMResorts brands, and that not giving me access to these five violated my contract. She said she'd investigate more and get back to me. I asked about the eight original Zivas and Zilaras. She didn't know if Hyatt intended to make these available to UVC members or not but would investigate.

On August 9, 2025, Rosie called back. After investigating, Rosie told me UVC will not be adding AluaSoul Sunny Beach or the rebranded Playa properties to the UVC inventory. She told me they are not "Participating Hotels." I told her the contract term "Participating Hotels" is defined in the contract as "any hotels operated by AMResorts."  I told Rosie that not giving members access to new resorts with AMResorts brands violates the contract. She had her marching orders from her superiors and was only on the call to relay their message. I asked to talk to the next higher up. She told me someone would call me within 72 hours.

Well, it wasn't a phone call, but I did get an email from Luis in UVC Quality Assurance on August 12, 2025.

It's a start, but this email and Rosie's phone call are examples of why I asked, in my original, unpublished post, to be put in touch with a Hyatt exec. Employees at Rosie's and Luis's level aren't decisionmakers. They often have a poor understanding of UVC, what benefits members are entitled to and what UVC's obligations to members are, and they have no authority to change how Hyatt is managing UVC. They're just messengers. I thought I'd be wasting my time talking to QA folks. They don't know what's going on with the club, today, let alone, in the future. The essence of my complaint is, "What's going on?"  Rosie and Luis can't answer a question like that, yet they were assigned to resolve my complaints. Luis's offer doesn't even address anything I complained about. It's simply UVC's attempt to get me to go away. The prizes Luis chose especially for me include:

1.  A VIP Week priced at $2,400. This seems to be the prize he wants me to take. He actually devotes a bunch of words to this offer, including telling me a $2,400 VIP week is worth $4,900! It's not. It's not worth even close to that. If I was evaluating an upgrade offer that included $2,400 VIP Weeks, I'd assign a $0 value those weeks.

2.  A $250 spa certificate. This is a typical gift they offer members at the resorts to get them to sit for an upgrade presentation. We've had some good massages with these, but a massage isn't sufficient compensation for the damage Hyatt is doing to UVC. I want to know where Hyatt is taking the club. I want Hyatt to stop violating my contract, and I want them to start treating members better. No massage will achieve that.

3.  Termination of my contract.  My contract is paid off. Terminating it has no value. Since it's paid off, I can just stop using it.

I formally rejected all of these offers in a long reply I sent to Luis:

My reply was sent on August 13, 2025. I haven't heard any more from Luis since then.

 

Hyatt's Stone Wall

In my unpublished post to the Official UVC FB group of July 24, 2025, I asked the group's admins why members were being denied access to seven AMResorts properties that, by contract, they were entitled to use. The Official UVC FB group wouldn't approve my post, so it was never published to the group or seen by other group members.

When it wasn't published within a day or two, I was pretty sure it wasn't ever going to be published (and I was right), so I took it upon myself to find some Hyatt execs who would give me some insight into what was happening to the club. I did some online research and found two names and titles that seemed promising:

Javier Águila, Hyatt Executive Vice President, and President, Inclusive Collection; and, 

Rodrigo Llaguno, Group President, Unlimited Vacation Club. 

I was searching for Hyatt execs who could provide me some authoritative information on what Hyatt was doing with the club, why Hyatt, suddenly and without explanation, was not allowing members to book AMResorts properties with club benefits and what members could expect in the future. I found some email addresses for the two names above, and on July 28, 2025, I sent them both this email:

Hello, gents. I’m writing to you because my complaints are falling on deaf ears at the Official UVC Facebook Group. I made comments similar to these in a post submitted to the group on 7/24/25. As of today, not only has UVC not responded to it, but they’ve chosen not to publish it to the group. Based on my past experiences with the official UVC FB group, I'm guessing it never will be posted or responded to, so I'm trying a different route. I’m going to continue to stir the pot until I get some answers. I’d like to give Hyatt a chance to respond before I try other avenues. In short, I’m troubled by how Hyatt seems actively engaged in the degradation of UVC.

I joined UVC in 2019 when it was an ALG company. At that time, it was pretty clear to me what benefits I could expect from the club. Exhibit B of my contract tells me my membership can be used at "All AMResorts Brands." I knew where I could use the club on any given day and where I could plan on using the club when new resorts opened under the flag of any AMResorts brand. I could assign a value to my UVC membership based on that knowledge. Since Hyatt bought ALG, all that has been muddled. Now, I'm not sure what new resorts will be made available to me, or what value my club membership has.

Soon after Hyatt's purchase of ALG, all the AMResorts brands: Impression, Zoetry, Secrets, Dreams, Breathless, Alua, Sunscape, and only those brands, were found in Hyatt's Inclusive Collection of resorts. Vivid, a brand that was launched as a new AMResorts brand under ALG, but which had no resorts opened at the time of the Hyatt purchase, was added to the Inclusive Collection when Hyatt Vivid Grand Island opened, but that's the last time any of this made sense. That's the last time I knew what I had with my membership. The cold, hard truth is: I no longer have access to all AMResorts branded hotels.

Hyatt has rebranded a number of resorts recently acquired in its purchase of Playa Hotels and Resorts. The rebrandings were announced in a Hyatt press release dated June 17, 2025. All the rebranded properties now have AMResorts brands: Hyatt Vivid Playa del Carmen, Sunscape Cancun, Secrets La Romana Resort & Spa, Dreams La Romana Resort & Spa and Dreams Rose Hall. Yet, more than a month later, none of these AMResorts branded properties is available to UVC members. All of them are available to WoH members. Earlier last month, Hyatt announced the opening of a new European Collection resort, AluaSoul Sunny Beach on June 2, 2025. Today, nearly two months later, it doesn't appear in the dropdown list of resorts available to UVC members in the European Collection tab on the UVC website. It is not available to UVC members, even though it's an AMResorts brand. (As an aside, on June 2, 2025, a UVC member posted in the official UVC Facebook group asking if AluaSoul Sunny Beach would be made available to UVC members for booking. As of this writing, UVC has chosen not to respond to that question either -- an all-too-common response from the moderators who run that group. Finally, just last week, Secrets Mirabel Cancun was made available to WoH members for booking. It, too, is not available to UVC members.

That's a total of seven resorts currently accepting reservations and receiving guests (except Mirabel which is accepting reservations but apparently isn't receiving guests until 10/1/25) under the flag of an AMResorts brand that UVC members don't have access to even though our contracts say we should:

1. Secrets La Romana Resort & Spa
2. Secrets Mirabel Cancun
3. Dreams La Romana Resort & Spa
4. Dreams Rose Hall
5. Hyatt Vivid Playa del Carmen
6. AluaSoul Sunny Beach
7. Sunscape Cancun

In my 6+ years of membership, there has never been a single AMResorts branded property where I couldn't use my membership. Now, all of a sudden, there are seven!

And then there's the Zivas and Zilaras. These are Hyatt's all-inclusive brands that existed before Hyatt purchased ALG and were never AMResorts properties. I guess you can make the case that UVC members should not have access to these resorts even though Hyatt has chosen to make them Inclusive Collection brands because you have no contractual obligation to do so, but members do get vague assurances from the social media managers in the official UVC Facebook group that Hyatt is working on adding these eight Ziva and Zilaras to the UVC inventory. It's been more than two years since Hyatt announced the Ziva and Zilara brands would be added to the Inclusive Collection, and still there's no access for UVC members. WoH members have never not had access to the Ziva and Zilara resorts.

Added to the 7 above, that's a total of 15 resorts that I've been told, in one way or another, I should have access to, but I don't.

Your WoH members pay nothing for their memberships. Anyone with an email address can join WoH for free. I'm a World of Hyatt member. UVC members have paid thousands of dollars for their memberships, yet Hyatt treats its free WoH members better than its paying UVC members. Why? WoH members have access, right now, to all seven AMResorts branded properties identified above as well as all of the original eight Zivas and Zilaras. UVC members have access to none of them.

I don't know what I have any more with my UVC membership. My contract tells me one thing; Hyatt's behavior says something very different. I see the club disintegrating before my eyes. I'm looking for answers, not the stonewalling I've received to date. For a start, please answer these questions:

1.  Why are WoH members given access to new AMResorts branded properties before UVC members?

2.  Why does Hyatt allow any AMResorts branded properties to open before UVC members are given access to book?

3.  What are Hyatt’s intentions for the original eight Ziva and Zilara properties with respect to UVC? Will these properties be added to the UVC inventory? Why is it taking so long?

4.  What are Hyatt’s intentions for future Ziva and Zilara openings (e.g. Punta Bergantin and Barbados now under construction)? Should UVC members expect to get access to all future Ziva and Zilara openings?

5.  Why do UVC members not have access to AluaSoul Sunny Beach? Should UVC members expect to get access to all future Alua openings?

6.  Is there a better term than “Hyatt Inclusive Collection” that I should assume has replaced the term “AMResorts Brands” in my contract? What can I count on being available to me in the future?

7. And finally, does Hyatt offer members a source for accurate, official information on the club where members can ask questions (that get answers) about how the club is being managed and what the future holds for UVC members? Unless Hyatt wants members to spend more money (you're all over that!), there is virtually no communication between Hyatt and its UVC members. Even when it seems in Hyatt's interest to communicate with members, Hyatt still doesn't do it (e.g. Dreams Cap Cana and Vivid Punta Cana both started taking bookings on the UVC website without any notice to members that they were available). The official UVC FB group is ineffective and unreliable at communicating accurate and timely information to members. They just don't know much about the club or what members are entitled to. They spend a significant amount of time and energy avoiding answering members' questions (like mine) rather than answering them. The way they operate does members, the club and Hyatt more harm than good. Why isn't there a forum for members to learn about what's going on in the club from knowledgeable Hyatt staff? Or do you not care about such things? 

Can you guess what happened?

If you guessed, "nothing," you're right!

Six months later, I have no response from Mr. Águila or Mr. Llaguno, I'm still in the dark about Hyatt's intentions for the future of the club, I've become more convinced that Hyatt's violation of my contract won't end unless there are consequences to Hyatt for behaving that way, and Hyatt's stone wall remains intact.

(Note: When I wrote to Rodrigo and Javier in July 2025, Rodrigo's title was UVC Group President. In researching this post, I noticed that his current LinkedIn page shows Rodrigo left UVC in December 2025 and now works as COO for Princess Cruises.)

Official UVC Worthlessness

I have expectations for the Official UVC FB group that they're unwilling to meet. I want them to answer my membership questions, help resolve disputes, advocate on my behalf with the resorts and keep me updated on the status of properties coming and going from the UVC inventory.  Also, it wouldn't hurt if they'd treat me more respectfully. They just want to sell me more stuff. So, I've come to think of that group like I think of $2,400 VIP Weeks. In some circumstances and under a specific set of facts, you might find a little bit of value there, but they're largely worthless. Here are some examples.

1.  Back in October 2023, there were increases to many costs members are charged for various UVC services (e.g. the transaction fee members, and the cost to deposit a week of TPUs into an RCI account). Members weren't notified by UVC of these increases, or what the new costs would be. In almost all clubs, subscriptions, memberships I'm involved with, members, especially loyalty members, get a notice in advance of cost increases. That didn't happen in Hyatt's UVC. I was hearing rumors in my FB groups of impending cost increases, so on October 30, 2023, I asked the Official UVC FB group if there would be official notification.

Their response? Nothing! 

Not only did they not answer my question, but they wouldn't even publish the question to the group. To this day, it sits in Official UVC FB group purgatory, unpublished. 

2.  In October 2024, UVC started accepting reservations for Secrets Baby Beach which was still under construction but projecting a Spring 2025 opening. I was interested in visiting. I checked pricing. I read the resort guide. It left me with some questions, so I asked them in the Official UVC FB group. They responded, but they didn't answer my question. A response that's not an answer to the question asked is a common ploy of this group. I asked them a second time to get me answers. The second time, they didn't respond at all. Really? UVC asks members to spend thousands of dollars on a week's stay at a new resort, but they refuse to tell members what they'll get for their money?

 

Having been stonewalled by the Official UVC FB group, I emailed the resort directly and got my answers. This is something UVC should have done. It would have been useful to all members for UVC to get answers to my questions and then provide those answers to the entire group membership. Serving member interests is not what the Official UVC FB group is about. I had to get the answers for myself.  When I did, I posted the answers to my own questions in a comment on my original post. That comment was deleted by the moderators. Eventually, the whole post was deleted. This is Hyatt's UVC.

Does UVC work for its members? If they did, they would have pursued answers for me. All members would benefit from a UVC that works as our advocate with the resorts. Hyatt's UVC doesn't work for the benefit of members. Hyatt's UVC works for the benefit of Hyatt.

3.  In June of 2025, Hyatt announced they had closed on the purchase of Playa Hotels and Resorts. By June 12, 2025, I noticed all of the former Playa properties acquired in the purchase already appeared on hyattinclusivecollection.com and could be booked by World of Hyatt members with their discount. Eight of the former Playa properties were the original Ziva and Zilara properties that remained as Zivas and Zilaras but with Hyatt now as their management firm. UVC members weren't given access to these Zivas and Zilaras, but Hyatt does include them in their Inclusive Collection with all other properties in the UVC inventory. Five of the former Playa properties were rebranded by Hyatt to AMResorts brands, yet not even these appeared on the UVC members' website for members to book. Hyatt was denying members access to five AMResorts-branded properties despite contract language that tells me I can use my club benefits at all AMResorts properties.

By July 24, 2025, I realized that in addition to the five rebranded Playa resorts, there was Alua Soul Sunny Beach from the European Collection and a new resort, Secrets Mirabel, that Hyatt was denying to its UVC members. That's a total of seven AMResorts properties, all open, all taking reservations and all available to World of Hyatt members that UVC members didn't have access to. I wanted some clarification from official Hyatt sources about what Hyatt was doing to the club.  I attempted to post my concerns to the Official UVC FB group and asked for contact information for a Hyatt executive who could explain to me what was going on.

Again, the Official UVC FB group didn't respond and wouldn't publish my post to the group. It, too, sits in Official UVC FB group purgatory keeping my October 2023 post company. 

How many other memberships or subscriptions do you have that treat their customers the way Hyatt treats its UVC members? Costco? Netflix? Your local newspaper? Your gym? Most businesses treat their loyalty customers very well. They want to keep them as customers. That's not Hyatt's UVC. In Hyatt's UVC, I'm often treated like I'm the enemy. Instead of an honest response to some basic questions, this UVC member got ignored. Who is UVC serving with this behavior? Not members.

UVC's Communication, or Lack of It, Part IV

In a news release dated December 4, 2024, Hyatt announced that it was expanding its portfolio of "Collections," adding a Luxury Collection as well as a Lifestyle Collection. Soon after, without any fanfare or background, and naturally, without any communication to UVC members, I noticed a reorganization of Hyatt brands within its new slate of "Collections." Among other places within Hyatt's marketing materials, there's an image of the brand reorganization at the bottom of hyatt.com

Notably to UVC members, the Impression by Secrets brand is no longer an Inclusive Collection brand; it's been recast as a Luxury Collection brand. Similarly, Breathless is no longer an Inclusive Collection brand; it's now a Lifestyle Collection brand. 

It's hard to tell how much of Hyatt's reformulations of its Collections to believe, though. Their marketing group is circulating the image above, but if you click the dropdown arrow at the top of the home page at hyattinclusivecollection.com, you'll get a menu of Inclusive Collection brands from their IT guys that includes both Impression and Breathless.

Even Hyatt employees seem confused about what brands go where, but irrespective of Hyatt's internal confusion, these brand reformulations add more concern for the future of UVC.

In May 2022, only five months after Hyatt's purchase of ALG, the AMResorts Collection was rebranded as the Hyatt Inclusive Collection. The change was significant to club members because UVC was developed as a loyalty program for AMResorts properties. In ALG's UVC, the scope of a UVC contract was defined by the term "AMResorts."  In the 2019 UVC contract here, you'll read in paragraph 1 of Exhibit B:

1. AMResorts Hotels.
1.1. "Participating Hotels" Member may book their reservations with a preferential rate at any of the hotels operated by AMResorts ("Participating Hotels") available at www.unlimitedvacationclub.com at the applicable rates. Such reservations must be booked using the process described in the Contract and in the Operating Rules. Participating Hotels may be added or removed unilaterally by AMResorts. 

Conditions of use for Membership type:

ALG wanted a loyalty program for their AMResorts brands. They honored that contract language. There was never a time in ALG's UVC when I didn't have access to all properties operating with an AMResorts brand. And when a new property opened with an AMResorts brand, I knew I'd be able to use my club benefits at that new property.  In Hyatt's UVC, that's no longer the case. When Hyatt bought ALG, they already had a loyalty program called World of Hyatt. World of Hyatt encompasses all Hyatt properties, not just their all-inclusives. That's the program that Hyatt devotes time and energy to.  Hyatt doesn't need a second loyalty program, especially one that rewards loyalty to only a portion of the properties they manage. Hyatt doesn't honor UVC contract language.

I inferred from Hyatt's rebranding of the AMR Collection that the term "AMResorts Brands" in my UVC contract was being replaced with the new term "Inclusive Collection Brands," and that my membership was now a loyalty program for Hyatt's Inclusive Collection. Except Hyatt included its own Ziva and Zilara brands in the Inclusive Collection without giving UVC members access to those properties. The rebranding made it only partially true that my membership was connected to the Inclusive Collection. Hyatt's behavior with its Zivas and Zilaras began me questioning what I really had with my UVC membership. Eventually, members were given access to one Ziva (which has since rebranded as a Dreams) and one Zilara, but we still don't have access to the other eight Zivas and Zilaras more than three years after Hyatt added the Ziva and Zilara brands to the Inclusive Collection. Just as importantly to me, there are several other Zivas and Zilaras currently in development in the Hyatt pipeline. Can members expect access to those? There's been no  communication from Hyatt of their intentions for the Ziva and Zilara brands with respect to UVC.

In rebranding five Playa Resorts properties to AMResorts brands without giving UVC members access to them, Hyatt has altered the entire concept of UVC as a loyalty program for a collection of brands. There's no coherence anymore. What members get from UVC has become vague and confused. Yet, Hyatt is silent about what's going on. Is Hyatt's manipulation of the UVC inventory by resort rather than by brand a temporary aberration or a permanent sea change to the club that longtime members used to know? Is there any brand where UVC members can feel confident they'll be able to use club benefits in the future, or will future decisions to bring new resorts into the UVC inventory be made on a resort-by-resort basis irrespective of brand?

Hyatt behaves as if they can change the club's inventory unilaterally. Reread the contract language quoted above. Is the inventory of brands available to club members supposed to be fluid? That's not how I read it. If a property has an AMResorts brand, UVC members should be able to book it with club benefits.  In violation of member contracts, Hyatt has usurped the right to manipulate the inventory of properties available to UVC members. 

What does it suggest about Hyatt's intentions for the future of UVC if they remove entire brands from the Inclusive Collection?  Can members still count on being able to book brands relocated from the Inclusive Collection in the future? Conceivably, Hyatt's plan is to eliminate all resorts with a Breathless or Impression brand from the UVC inventory. How can UVC members be assured of the club's future and a membership's value if no one from Hyatt tells us what the long-term plan is for the club? 

How does a prospective member sitting in a UVC sales offices know he's getting sufficient value for the tens of thousands of dollars he's being asked to pay for a new UVC membership if he can't be sure of where he can use club benefits or how Hyatt will unilaterally alter those benefits in the future? I'm sure UVC sales staffs are making the club sound as fabulous as ever, but the reality is, the way Hyatt manages the club, members don't know what they can count on any more. What a new member gets for his money is a moving target, and only Hyatt knows where the target will move.

This is why, today, when I'm chatting up prospective members while on vacation, I discourage them from joining UVC. If you like the Inclusive Collection resorts, save your thousands of dollars. Don't join UVC. It's no longer a stable and reliable organization. Join World of Hyatt. Hyatt treats its WoH members better than its UVC members, and since WoH is free, you'll feel no compunction about abandoning Hyatt brands when you tire of the way Hyatt treats you.

I would welcome something unequivocal from an authoritative Hyatt official on what members can expect for Impression and Breathless, specifically, and UVC, in general. Are there any resorts members can assume will be added to the UVC inventory when one opens with a specific brand? If so, which brands?

And why do I have to ask? 

UVC's Communication, or Lack of It, Part III

On June 2, 2025, Hyatt announced the opening of AluaSoul Sunny Beach. The press release specifically stated that the new AluaSoul is available to World of Hyatt members. The press release did not say the resort was available to UVC members, and it isn't. I went to the European Collection tab on the members' website the day the opening was announced, and sure enough, AluaSoul Sunny Beach is not an option for UVC members to book. Alua is an AMResorts brand. My UVC contract entitles me to UVC benefits at all AMResorts properties. Hyatt's UVC is violating my contract by not allowing me to book this property.

The same day of the press release, a UVC member asked in the Official UVC FB group if AluaSoul Sunny Beach would be made available to UVC members for booking. 

 

The moderators published it to the group, but seven months later, there's been no response. At this point, I think it's likely there never will be a response. My question asking if UVC would notify members of impending rate increases the Official UVC FB group deemed too sensitive to even approve for the group. This one they figure is okay to approve, but they won't answer it. I don't get those guys. Who does UVC serve by this behavior? It certainly isn't members.

In December 2025, I noticed a redesign of the dropdown list for European Collection resorts on the members' website. I checked to see if AluaSoul Sunny Beach was added for members to book. Nope. It's still not there. Worse, I discovered there are two other Alua resorts, Alua Calas de Mallorca Resort and AluaSoul Costa Adeje, that aren't included in the redesigned dropdown list, and so aren't available to members for booking. 

All three of these Aluas: AluaSoul Sunny Beach, Alua Calas de Mallorca Resort and AluaSoul Costa Adeje are available to World of Hyatt members to book. None of them is available to UVC members. 

Further, there are three properties that are included in the redesigned dropdown list on the UVC members' website that aren't operating under Inclusive Collection brands and probably shouldn't be there: Aluasoul Alcudia Bay appears to have been rebranded as Bordoy Alcudia Bay; Hotel Oberoy is an independent property with no brand at all, and Zoetry Halkidiki which Hyatt announced as a new construction project, but which never opened under that brand, and is currently operating as Zelia Resort Halkidiki. None of these three can be booked through the members' website. My attempt to book shows no availability at all three resorts. They do, however, appear as booking options.

In Hyatt's UVC, because of their shenanigans manipulating the UVC inventory by resort rather than by brand, it's hard enough for members to keep up with which resorts are and aren't available to them. UVC shouldn't be adding to members' confusion by including non-UVC resorts in the dropdown list of European Collection resorts.

Alua was an AMResorts brand before Hyatt's purchase of ALG.  Currently, it is identified in Hyatt marketing materials as an Inclusive Collection brand. Why aren't all Aluas available to UVC members? UVC has a contractual obligation to its members to make all AMResorts properties available for booking with club benefits. They're not honoring that obligation. 

Communication from Hyatt of its intent for Aluas, Zivas, Zilaras and the former Playa properties rebranded to AMResorts brands is needed. What's going on?

And why do I have to ask?