What is the current Commercial Services Fee for a Caption By Hyatt franchise, and how is it calculated?
Caption_By_Hyatt Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
es you actually paid us at the time of termination.
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- Commercial Services Fee. The "Commercial Services Fee" currently covers the costs for the following commercial services that the Hyatt Group makes available to the Hotel and other Participating Hotels (the "Commercial Services"):
- (a) brand-wide marketing, advertising, public relations, and guest satisfaction program management and research for the Hotel;
- (b) base Global Property and Guest Services which provide, among other things, centralized reservation services (including the services and charges for the base reservation fee, which applies regardless of channel, and certain additional reservation fees based on channels) and care professionals supporting the business by enhancing the guest experience;
- (c) revenue management technology, including the Hyatt Group's proprietary revenue management software, and advisory and support services, such as pricing strategy across channels and on-going training, support, and tools for pricing and inventory applications;
- (d) group sales support for large accounts, including lead generation from the Hyatt Group's global and regional sales offices, account management, and account development, and transient and luxury sales promotion services (including Consortia);
- (e) sales and catering system services, including account management, booking pipeline management, and analysis through our designated sales software systems, which are required in order to receive leads from the Hyatt Group's sales sources;
- (f) property management system services, including Opera PMS, web-in/web-out and hosting, and interface file, maintenance, and support;
- (g) the Hyatt Group's digital product technology and infrastructure including Hyatt.com and the mobile app; and
- (h) other technology services, including e-learning, e-mail, HyattConnect, SharePoint, identify access management, ServiceNow, in-room technology and network access.
The Hyatt Group may periodically change the benefits and services currently included as Commercial Services and the charges and fees for those benefits and services. The Hyatt Group may adopt other methodologies for fees and charges related to chain-wide programs to Participating Hotels, including segregation by brand, geographic location, or other criteria that the Hyatt Group deems appropriate in its discretion. The Hyatt Group may periodically allocate the Commercial Services Fee as a fixed charge, percentage charge, direct billback, or any other combination of multiple allocation methodologies. The Hyatt Group may spend in any year more or less than the total Commercial Services Fee contributions in that year, but will use all Commercial Services Fees collected for Commercial Services.
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- Digital Acquisition Fee. We currently charge the Hotel and other Participating Hotels the "Digital Acquisition Fee" to help drive bookings through the Hyatt Group's online direct booking channels (the "Digital Channels"). The Digital Channels currently are the Hotel System Website and any Hyatt-branded website or mobile app (such as the World of Hyatt app). You must pay the Digital Acquisition Fee on the subset of Gross Rooms Revenue resulting from reservations that are generated through the Digital Channels, whether directly or via a link from another platform, such as a search engine advertisement, social media page, or any Franchisee Organization Website.
Source: Item 6 — Other Fees (FDD pages 20–36)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to the 2025 FDD, the Commercial Services Fee for a Caption By Hyatt franchise covers the costs of various commercial services that the Hyatt Group provides to the hotel and other participating hotels. These services include brand-wide marketing, advertising, public relations, guest satisfaction program management, centralized reservation services, revenue management technology, group sales support, sales and catering system services, property management system services, digital product technology and infrastructure, and other technology services.
The Hyatt Group has the flexibility to modify the benefits and services included in Commercial Services, along with their associated charges and fees. They can also adopt different methodologies for fees and charges related to chain-wide programs, such as segregation by brand or geographic location. The Commercial Services Fee may be allocated as a fixed charge, percentage charge, direct billback, or a combination of these methods.
The FDD indicates that the Hyatt Group will use all Commercial Services Fees collected for Commercial Services, although they may spend more or less than the total contributions in any given year. This fee also covers the costs of global contact centers and GDS (Global Distribution Systems) which accept reservations. The Hyatt Group incurs a reservation fee for each reservation accepted through these supplemental reservation systems, which currently averages approximately $8.50 per reservation. This charge is passed on to the hotel at cost, without any markup or profit for the Hyatt Group.