The first part of this article talked about Hyatt’s regular hotels. You can read that here. This article will focus on Hyatt’s all-inclusive hotel brands which they’ve been building up rapidly. Some of these brands may not be familiar to most people and they each have a number of differences that you should be aware of. Besides proper vacation planning, understanding the different Hyatt brands and where they are can help you achieve a free night certificate via the Brand Explorer reward. You can learn more about that here.
Alua Hotels and Resorts
These are mid-scale AI hotels mostly in Spain with two hotels in Greece. This could be a good option to visit Spanish coastal areas and islands like Ibiza. They are some of the cheaper AI hotels you can book either with cash or points. As a result, I think you have to read reviews and set your expectations carefully.
Breathless Resorts
There are only a few of these in Mexico, Jamaica and the DR. They are adults only and you can expect more of a party atmosphere. These resorts get good reviews and you can book them off peak for around 25,000 points. That’s a pretty good value. You’ll find more nightlife at these resorts than you will at other AI resorts. If you’re looking to just chill out and relax, these might not be the best AI’s for you.
Dreams Resorts
These are upper-scale AI resorts that cater to families although couples without kids would probably still have a good time. You’ll find them in Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. According to Hyatt: “Expect limitless access to gourmet à la carte dining options without reservations required, unlimited international and domestic top-shelf spirits and unlimited natural fruit juices and soft drinks”. Another way to think about these hotels is that they are the family friendly version of Secrets. In fact, you’ll find some Dreams resorts next to Secrets which should allow you to have access to the Secrets side as long as you don’t have kids. Most get good reviews.
Hyatt Zilara
When you think luxury AI resorts that are adult only, this is what you are probably picturing. There’s only four hotels at the moment but they are consistently rated as some of the best out there. You can expect top shelf drinks, amazing food and incredible service. These are definitely wedding and honeymoon type resorts. We stayed at the Hyatt Zilara Cap Cana and it was one of our favorite hotels. It wasn’t as big and flashy as some other resorts we’ve been to but everything was great.
Hyatt Ziva
This is the other side of the Hyatt Zilara coin with these resorts featuring the same top-notch amenities but these resorts to cater to families. There are six locations at the moment. Expect a ton of activities and amenities for the entire family. Where a Ziva and Zilara are together, you should be able to go to both sides if you don’t have kids.
Secrets and Impression by Secrets
A lot of people have probably heard of Secrets and in my opinion, they provide your average, upscale AI experience. It won’t be over the top luxury, but it will still probably be pretty good. We stayed at one and I wasn’t very impressed. They’ve recently started to build out Secrets Impression which is a luxury hotel inside of a Secrets resort. We stayed at one and there were a ton of problems. The service was horrible and the drinks were bottom shelf. However, we’re in the minority here. Others have raved about Impressions and I’m not sure how they missed the dozens of issues that we ran into. Not sure how people can have such different experiences. When you stay at the Impression side, you also have access to the regular Secrets resort but it’s not the other way around obviously.
Note that Hyatt considers these as two separate brands. So if you stay at Impression, you’ll get credit for Impression. If you stay at Secrets, you’ll get credit for Secrets.
Sunscape Resorts
This is similar to Hyatt Ziva in that it caters to families but it’s more of a mid-scale resort. The reviews are certainly not the best so this is one of those you get what you pay for type of place. If you’re considering one of these resorts, read the reviews carefully and set your expectations accordingly. The food especially gets bad reviews which is a common problem with cheaper AI hotels. They gotta save money somewhere.
Vivid Hotels and Resorts
This is a new brand that a lot of people were looking forward to since it promised a good experience at a lower price point. Well, like anything else, you get what you pay for. There’s only one hotel right now but the reviews started out bad and it just keeps getting worse. Based upon the reviews, it seems like they opened too soon so that they had guests staying there while they were still building it. No one wants to go on vacation to a construction site so I can understand that. However, I did notice some people say that the hotel looks worn out already which is not something you would expect from a new hotel. Perhaps they used really cheap materials? Either way, I’d stay far away from this brand for a while until/unless they get these issues worked out.
Zoetry
This is a luxury AI hotel brand that really leans into wellness. You can expect organic food, wellness experiences, afternoon tea with plant infusions and made service three times a day. It’s one of the most luxurious AI hotels although the reviews are mixed which is frustrating since you expect the same level of service in the same brand but clearly, reviewers on Google disagree. Some are excellent and some are not that great.
Our Suggestions
It’s difficult to suggest one brand over another because Hyatt still hasn’t figured out how to really make sure that these hotel brands offer a seamless experience from one hotel to the other. They have been too busy acquiring hotels and building new ones to really make sure that these brands are cohesive. Hopefully that changes at some point. But for now, you really have to do your homework a little more than you normally would. Since this will likely be a big investment in cash or points, you’ll want to watch a lot of YouTube videos and read every review you can.
We really enjoy AI resorts but the problem is that they are expensive to run if you are going to get luxury service, food and drinks. As a result, you’ll pay a lot of money or points to stay there especially after Hyatt increased the points required in 2023. If you don’t want to spend a ton of money or points, you’ll likely sacrifice some quality. We’ve stayed at some “high end” AI resorts that had hit or miss food and horrible mixed drinks. Thankfully we were able to book two AI resorts before the points went up. Would I spend 40,000 points to stay at them now? Zilara Cap Cana, yes. Impression Moxche, no.
So do your homework carefully and ask around. Just be sure that if you are going to an AI resort, you should plan to spend most of your time at the resort. It’s pointless to spend a ton of money or points if you are going to do a bunch of tours everyday.