Does Hyatt Hotels require a non-disclosure agreement before depositing compensation points?

A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a message about how Hyatt Hotel required a non-disclosure agreement before they would issue compensation points for all the spenders they had dealt with at the hotel.

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Here you will find access to Hyatt Vivid Grand Island.

READ MORE: World of Hyatt Rate & Bonus Points Offers

Message from the reader:

We have a Hyatt hotel in Cancun that wants us to sign a legal agreement, to give us 44,000 points for our problems, the food poisoning. Also a copy of the passport.

May I ask if you have ever seen anything like this, just to earn points?

The hotel had a blackout the first day and night. No security lights, no flashlights for the staff. It was chaos.

Furthermore we both had terrible food poisoning, we left the hotel very sick. A waiter coughed everywhere in the restaurant and also on our table. But we got very sick, from him or from the food.

They were the most aggressive hotels we’ve ever dealt with. In our follow-ups they lied a lot, but we thought about things you said about the mafia owning the hotels.

But now they seemed concerned that we would sue, although we never thought about that, certainly not on our part.

Attached is a copy of their agreement. How can someone in Mexico file a lawsuit against a Mexican hotel, especially in Cancun.

Even before I opened the attachment above, I knew which hotel it was. We’ve talked about it before:

Reader Email: Hyatt Vivid Grand Island Cancun Nightmare and Unresponsive Company

Another Hyatt all-inclusive resort in Latin America also provided me with a somewhat similar document to compensate for the problems:

Compensation Clinic: Dreams Playa Bonita Panama

You should consider getting a good life insurance policy if you plan to visit these Hyatt properties in Mexico, as it seems guests are running into issues regarding their accommodations en masse:

• An American couple died at the Hyatt Resort in Baja, California, from carbon monoxide poisoning (read more here). (The hotel has since reopened as the Kimpton.)
• A toddler fell from a ninth-floor window at the Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta, which had a missing panel (read more here).
• Then, a major gang shooting, believed to be drug-related, left two people dead at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun (read more here).

It appears that hotel lies and unresponsiveness are similar to what you can expect when visiting one of Hyatt’s all-inclusive hotels in Latin America.

I would NOT sign an agreement as presented to the reader, but I would leave appropriate reviews on Google Maps and TripAdvisor. The reader should also contact Hyatt’s Consumer Affairs and ask them to resolve the issue.

Conclusion

Hyatt should investigate the quality (or lack thereof) of these all-inclusive properties offered under their brand in Latin America.

I have been to four of them now (Hyatt Ziva Cancun & Puerto Vallarta, Zilara Cancun & Dreams Panama) and they have all been either average or terrible. It is absolutely nothing compared to what is advertised on the Hyatt and hotel websites.

It seems like these hotels are trying to suppress negative reviews and publicity by presenting these “NDAs” in case of compensation, and I would not sign them.

For these hotels, a critical review on the right forums is much more expensive than awarding 44,000 points and doing other potential guests a favor by recommending them to stay elsewhere.

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