Hyatt

Hyatt Hotels Corporation
	; 1990-present logo.
Company type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: H
Industry	Hospitality
Headquarters	Hyatt Center; Chicago, Illinois; United States
Key people	Thomas J. Pritzker; (Executive chairman); Mark S. Hoplamazian; (President and CEO)
Products	Hotels
Revenue	US$3.95 billion (2012)
Net income	US$88 million (2012)
Number of employees	75,008 (2013)
Website	Hyatt Hotels & Resorts
	Footnotes / references;

Hyatt Hotels Corporation is an American international company and operator of hotels. The Hyatt Corporation was born upon purchase of the Hyatt House, at Los Angeles International Airport on September 27, 1957. In 2014, Hyatt was named one of the best 100 companies to work for (placing 95th), according to Fortune.^[5]

History

The original owners were entrepreneurs, Hyatt Robert von Dehn and Jack Dyer Crouch. Von Dehn was eager to get out of the hotel business after a few years, so he sold his share in the hotel to Jay Pritzker. Jay's younger brother Donald Pritzker, under Jack Crouch's mentorship and along with his brother Jay, took over day-to-day operations of the company and acquired motels and hotels.^[6]

Over the following decade, Donald's handling of the day-to-day operations and Jay's leadership and deal-making abilities helped drive acquisitions and financial strategy, making Hyatt the fastest-growing hotel chain in the United States. After Donald's death in 1972, Jay remained at the helm, helping to shape Hyatt into a major competitor in the hospitality industry.^[7]

In 1969, Hyatt opened its first overseas hotel, the Hyatt Regency Hong Kong (which closed at the end of 2005 and was demolished; a new facility replacing the old opened in 2009.^[8] In 1980, the Grand Hyatt and Park Hyatt brands were introduced. Hyatt has become known for its resorts after the opening of Hyatt Regency Maui^[9] in 1980. Today Hyatt has over 490 hotels worldwide.^[10]

In 1972, Hyatt formed Elsinore Corporation, a subsidiary to operate the Four Queens Hotel and Casino and the Hyatt Lake Tahoe. After Hyatt became a private company in 1979, Elsinore was spun off into a public company. The company opened the Playboy Hotel and Casino as a joint venture with Playboy Enterprises.^[11]^[12]

In June 2004, substantially all of the hospitality assets owned by Pritzker family business interests, including Hyatt Corporation and Hyatt International Corporation were consolidated under a single entity called Global Hyatt Corporation. This created a hospitality company with a single balance sheet, a single organization and a single focus. On June 30, 2009, Global Hyatt Corporation changed its name to Hyatt Hotels Corporation.^[13]

In December 2004, Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced it would acquire AmeriSuites, an upscale chain of all suite business class hotels from affiliates of the Blackstone Group, a New York based private equity investment firm. Blackstone had inherited AmeriSuites from its 2004 acquisition of Prime Hospitality. The AmeriSuites chain was rebranded and converted to a new concept called Hyatt Place. With Hyatt Place, Hyatt Hotels Corporation was better able to compete with the limited service products Courtyard by Marriott and Hilton Garden Inn offered by industry leaders Marriott International and Hilton Worldwide, respectively.

In December 2005, Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced a second limited service acquisition, Summerfield Suites. Again the seller was the Blackstone Group. Blackstone had inherited Summerfield Suites from its purchase of Wyndham International. In January 2012, Hyatt Summerfield Suites were rebranded as Hyatt House and positioned to compete in the upscale extended stay market against brands such as Residence Inn, Homewood Suites and Staybridge Suites.^[14]

On August 6, 2009, it was reported that Hyatt Hotels Corporation filed plans to raise up to $1.15 billion in an initial share sale. On November 4, 2009, Hyatt completed an initial public offering and began trading publicly on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol H.^[15] According to the filing, Mark S. Hoplamazian will serve as CEO and Thomas Pritzker will serve as Executive Chairman.^[16] The public offering is a result of the breakup of the Pritzker family empire. Accused of looting family trusts, Thomas and cousins Penny and Nicholas were forced to wrest control of the family businesses when she and other family members were sued by cousin Liesel Pritzker claiming fraud and seeking damages in excess of $6 billion.^[17]

On August 31, 2009, three Hyatt hotels in Boston laid off their entire housekeeping staffs, outsourcing the work to a Georgia-based company creating strong public backlash.^[18] Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick threatened a boycott of the hotels by state employees traveling on official business.^[19]^[20] The housekeepers, who were fired without previous notice although some of them had worked for the Hyatt for over 20 years, became collectively known as the Hyatt 100. Hyatt offered a Job Assurance Program, which arranged for a new job with another employer for any employee who wanted one or job retraining at their previous Hyatt rate of pay, as well as extended healthcare benefits.^[21] In December 2009, Hyatt was named the "Massachusetts Scrooge of the Year" by Jobs with Justice.

As of March 31, 2013, Hyatt Corporation's worldwide portfolio consisted of 508 properties.^[10] On September 1, 2011, Hyatt acquired Hotel Sierra which has 18 properties in 10 states. Along with Hyatt Summerfield Suites hotels, several of these properties were rebranded as HYATT house in January 2012.^[22]

Hyatt Hotels Corporation operations several chains, and the company and its people have been recognized from publications including Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, Latina Style and DiversityInc Magazine. The Human Rights Campaign has awarded the company 100% in the HRC Equality Index for eight consecutive years.^[23] The Hyatt Regency brand is the oldest brand in the company, with the Grand Hyatt and Park Hyatt brands being introduced in 1980. Of these properties, some are styled as "resort" properties, and may feature spas or other recreational facilities. Other brands include Hyatt Place, designed as a limited service offering targeted to the business traveler. An extended stay chain, Summerfield Suites, was acquired by Hyatt in 2005, and was renamed Hyatt House in January 2012. Hyatt also launched a new brand, Andaz, in April 2007.^[24] The first hotel to bear this brand was The Great Eastern Hotel in London, with additional properties now open in San Diego, West Hollywood, Shanghai^[25] and New York City (Andaz Wall Street & Andaz 5th Avenue).

Brands

Full-service lodging

Park Hyatt is Hyatt's luxury brand. Park Hyatt hotels are mid-sized properties located only in premier destinations and cater to affluent individuals.
Andaz hotels are upscale, boutique-inspired lifestyle properties.
Grand Hyatt hotels are large-scale hotels that provide upscale accommodations in major cities.
Hyatt Regency hotels are aimed at convention and business travelers as well as leisure travelers and are located in urban, suburban, airport, convention and resort destinations around the world.
Hyatt hotels are upscale, full-service hotels that have between 200-600 rooms. This brand competes with mid-sized, full-service hotels and independent boutique hotels in major cities.

Hyatt owns several resorts which are vacation destination properties, including beach, mountain, desert, golf and spa properties across the Park Hyatt, Andaz, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, and Hyatt brands.

Select-service lodging

Hyatt Place hotels are mid-sized properties designed for families and business travelers; they are located in urban, airport and suburban areas.

Extended-stay lodging

HYATT house (formerly known as Hyatt Summerfield Suites (also known as Summerfield Suites by Wyndam). and Hotel Sierra) properties are extended-stay, residential-style hotels and smaller-to-mid-sized upscale properties with modern style located in urban and suburban locations across the United States.

Timeshare

Hyatt Residence Club properties provide members with timeshare ownership in residential-style properties with the same service of the Hyatt brand.

Other business activities

In addition to hotels, Hyatt also operates an upscale timeshare program through Hyatt Vacation Ownership, Inc. The program is known as Hyatt Residence Club. It currently has over a dozen locations, some of which are located within or connected to Hyatt hotels.^[26] Additionally, the group runs a chain of upscale retirement homes known as Vi Living by Hyatt^[27] and offers retail home décor and furnishings through Hyatt at Home, an online store featuring luxury products.^[28]

Notable properties

Atlanta: The Hyatt Regency Atlanta was built in 1967 and was the first contemporary atrium hotel in the world. The hotel is also notable for being the first Regency hotel in the Hyatt brand. To this day it remains the only major downtown Atlanta hotel with a front drive on the famed Peachtree Street. Architect John Portman designed the building.
Boston: The 502-room Hyatt Regency Boston is located in the original hotel component of the former Lafayette Place Mall in Boston's Downtown Crossing retail/office district.^[29]
Buenos Aires: Hyatt Hotels acquired the Duhau Palace, a Neoclassical former residence inspired in the Château du Marais, in 2002, and following the addition of a 13-story annex at the other end of the property, opened the Park Hyatt Buenos Aires in 2006.^[30]
Chicago: At 2019 rooms, The Hyatt Regency Chicago is the 7th largest non-gaming hotel in the world. Big Bar (located on the green level of the east tower) holds the record for the largest freestanding bar in the world.
Cleveland: The Hyatt Regency Cleveland, is located in the 1890s-built Cleveland Arcade. The Cleveland Arcade was a shopping center, but between 1998–2002 was renovated as the Hyatt Regency Hotel. There is some retail on the first two stories, with the hotel rooms occupying the floors above. In addition there is a five-star restaurant named 1890, a reference to the year the Cleveland Arcade opened.
Hollywood: The Continental Hyatt Hotel (now Andaz West Hollywood) was in the movie Almost Famous starring Kate Hudson (2000), and its pool has featured in several films including This is Spinal Tap (1984), and the Park Hyatt Hotel in Century City (now rebranded as InterContinental Hotel) was the scene of the "6th floor into swimming pool" scene in the 1989 movie Lethal Weapon 2 starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.
Kansas City, Missouri: Initially named the Hyatt Regency Kansas City, the atrium walkways collapsed in 1981 killing 114. The hotel was since renamed Sheraton Kansas City at Crown Center and remains in operation.
Los Angeles: Century Plaza Hotel, one of the 11 endangered historic sites
San Francisco: The Hyatt Regency San Francisco formerly provided a rooftop revolving restaurant called Equinox, offering 360-degree views of the city and the bay – the restaurant is now an elite club for certain hotel guests only and it no longer rotates. This hotel was sold for close to $200 million to Dune Capital Management and DiNapoli Capital Partners in January 2007 – roughly $250,000 for each of the hotel's 802 rooms.^[31] The property has been used several times as a filming location, featured most prominently in producer Irwin Allen's 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno, the 1977 Mel Brooks comedy High Anxiety, Don Siegel's spy thriller Telefon of the same year, and the 1979 sci-fi thriller Time After Time.
Tokyo: The Park Hyatt Tokyo was featured prominently in the movie Lost in Translation, and also in an episode of I Survived a Japanese Game Show where that episode's winning team stayed in the suite featured in that movie worth $12,000/night, plus a personal chef.
Beijing: The Grand Hyatt Beijing opened in 2001, located at the heart of the Beijing city. The fountain in front of the hotel featured in the movie Love is not blind. Hyatt opened the Park Hyatt Beijing in 2008. It locates at CBD of the city.

World events and Hyatt

India - The Hyatt Regency Chennai was the venue for the World Chess Championship 2013, held for the first time in India, from 9 to 28 November 2013.^[32]
New York City - In May 2010, the Grand Hyatt near Grand Central Station in New York City was used as the conference center for the 2010 Model United Nations Conference, because of construction at the UN Headquarters, where it is usually held.
Trinidad & Tobago – The Hyatt Regency Trinidad was used for the 2009 5th Summit of the Americas from April 17 to 19, 2009.
Australia
- The 2002 Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) was held at the former Hyatt Regency Coolum (now Palmer Coolum Resort) on the Sunshine Coast at Coolum . CHOGM was held 2-5 March, 2002. | http://www.chogm2002.org/
- The 2006 G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was held at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne between November 18 and November 19, 2006.
Israel – On October 17, 2001, Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Ze'evi was assassinated in the Jerusalem Hyatt Regency on Mount Scopus.
Jordan – On November 9, 2005, the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Amman, Jordan was targeted by a series of coordinated terrorist attacks along with a Radisson SAS and a Days Inn hotel.
Philippines – The Hyatt Terraces Baguio in the northern city of Baguio collapsed after a July 16, 1990 earthquake.
United States
- During Hurricane Katrina, the Hyatt Regency New Orleans received significant damage as almost all of its windows were blown out and the bottom floor was torn apart by flood damage. The hotel is located in the Central Business District and reopened October 19, 2011.^[33]
- The Hyatt Regency Kansas City in Kansas City, Missouri, was the site of one of the worst hotel disasters in U.S. history. On July 17, 1981, two of the three skybridges that traversed the hotel's lobby collapsed during a tea dance. The walkways were packed with people when a structural failure occurred causing one bridge, which was hung from the bridge above it, to pull both bridges loose from the ceiling and collapse. The accident killed 114 people and injured over 200. The hotel was later renamed the Hyatt Regency Crown Center.

Hyatt Gold Passport

Hyatt Gold Passport is Hyatt hotel's rewards or loyalty program. Membership is free and can be completed either online or with the assistance of a hotel representative. Points can be accumulated and used for redemption nights, upgrades or redeeming for the meal in any of the restaurants which are associated with Hyatt. It can also be converted into airline miles with partnering airlines. The program offers three membership tiers: Gold, Platinum, and Diamond.