Widespread Hyatt Award Availability for Alila Ventana Big Sur

We’ve all heard the rumblings about the Alila Ventana Big Sur — the idyllic, all-inclusive resort nestled along California’s famous Pacific coastline. We’ve also heard about how hard it is to get award rooms at this property. Well, act fast, because the calendar is wide open for later 2023 and into 2024, thanks to a tip from Thrifty Traveler. Let’s take a look.

Alila Ventana Big Sur

There isn’t a whole lot of choice when it comes to all-inclusive chain properties within the U.S. And unless you’re looking for health-oriented options such as Miraval, your options are extremely limited when redeeming World of Hyatt points. The Alila Ventana Big Sur is an exception to this; although alcohol isn’t included with your booking, basically everything else is.

Historically, finding standard room rewards at this hotel has been difficult. It’s a highly desirable property, especially since you can use your suite upgrade awards to nab yourself a suite.

Currently, however, we’re seeing award availability from November 2023 through July 2024. This is true for standard room awards, standard suites, and even premium suites.

Cash rates at this hotel hover around $1,500 per night for a base room, though you can expect to pay more for a suite. Here’s an example of the per night cost for a 4-night stay over Valentine’s Day 2024 in a standard king room, compared to a whopping $2,175 a night:

At this rate of 45,000 points per night, you’re redeeming your Hyatt points at a rate of 5.4 cents each, more than triple our own valuation of Hyatt points of 1.5 cents each.

Finding Award Availability

It can be annoying trying to find award availability for these types of hotels, especially since they tend to be pretty limited across dates. Although you won’t have this problem right now (because rooms are wide open), the easiest and best method for finding rooms comes courtesy of Max My Point.

This website allows you to search a year’s worth of availability all at once — and it’s free to use. Note that there is a cap on the number of free searches per day that you’ll receive, but that’s more than enough for this prospect.

The website is fairly reliable, though it does miss out on availability for weekends due to (presumably) the resort instituting a minimum stay requirement. That doesn’t mean they aren’t available, they just don’t show on here.

Hot Tip: Need to pick up some more World of Hyatt points? Check out our guide to the best ways to earn lots of World of Hyatt points!

Final Thoughts

The Alila Ventana Big Sur is a highly desirable property, and it’s not often that we see award availability for multiple dates. If you’re interested, run — don’t walk — to get yourself a booking.