Hyatt Just Reportedly Fired Nearly Hundreds Of US Call Center Agents Overnight - Now Your Calls Are Answered For $400/Month In El Salvador
by Gary Leff on June 22, 2025
Hyatt has reportedly laid off hundreds of remaining U.S. phone customer service agents. Last week, it appears that roughly 300 U.S. agents were terminated, and there’s a report that only about 35 remain. The hotel chain is also said to have dismissed 18 managers and most of the U.S. chat team, leaving around 36 chat agents in the U.S.
Employees apparently received 24 hours’ notice before termination. There are no more physical U.S. call centers; the remaining agents are working remotely.
Hyatt’s front-line call work is now handled out of El Salvador and the Philippines. El Salvador has been identified as the location for the newest wave of call center work, while the Philippines still hosts the larger team. Wages at the El Salvador center have been reported to be around $400 per month for full-time, six-day-a-week work — higher than local averages but a significant cost saving for the company.
The My Hyatt Concierge team remains intact, though reports suggest their managers were let go. Without U.S. phone customer service, it’s unclear where their replacements will come from.
In November 2023, subpar service from Hyatt concierges was cited as the number one concern among elites during a meeting with Hyatt’s Chief Commercial Officer, Mark Vondrasek. He expressed concern and a desire to improve the program, but no changes have materialized, and the pipeline for growth appears to be drying up.
## Employee Reactions
Several self-identified former call center employees shared their layoff experiences:
I went from joining a Zoom call with the director of my team, to being forced to turn on my camera, to being told I was laid off effective literally immediately, to then having an HR rep say “you’re going to need to take notes now,” to me just saying, “I’m sure all of this info is going to be in an email you’ll be sending to my personal address, so please can I get off this call now?”
They literally shoved me out the door, sat there staring at me as I was crying and humiliated and confused. Then the realization hit me — how am I going to pay for my mortgage? Health insurance? Etc. All while the HR rep and the temporary director of my team sat there in silence.
A 5-minute Zoom to lay us off with literally no advance warning or foreshadowing. They literally said your Hyatt email is going to deactivate in about an hour.
It’s incredibly annoying to be constantly told how much Hyatt cares, then to be faced with this. At the summit meetings a few months ago we were assured our positions were safe and that we would be working with the foreign call centers. They would work the hours that we were closed.
However, checking my emails on the way out, I noticed one mentioning Teleperformance and plans to open up a team in El Salvador on November 18th. Seems like that worked out fine for them — they sent out the emails and meeting invites by the end of the day to fire us.
During my shift I got a notice of an “important meeting” the next day (my day off) at 9:00 am and was told not to share this info. That’s when the panic set in.
The meeting was so unprofessional. People couldn’t get in or didn’t even know they were scheduled. One person called me on Teams to find out what was going on. It was just them blandly telling us “how hard this is for them” and that we no longer had jobs. I’m sorry, but the alligator tears are just too much.
I don’t know about y’all, but every day I had at least one person thank me for being a native English speaker or for not being AI — usually in less kind words. I get that moving call centers may benefit shareholders, but it’s not in the best interest of the guests.
I feel misled about the security of my job. At an in-person summit, my fears were directly addressed and I was told not to worry. I received a promotion and consistently had fantastic scores. One guest said “her kindness almost made me cry.” I thought I was working for a company that would care enough to at least fire me with compassion, instead of a bungled Teams meeting.
## Bigger Picture
Now, there’s less need than ever to call. Hyatt has improved its digital functionality:
- Awards can be transferred between members online
- Confirmed suite upgrades can be applied online (unless on a discounted rate)
- Artificial intelligence may eventually displace more customer service roles — but we’re not there yet
There’s no inherent issue with offshore call centers, but:
- Offshoring is typically about cutting costs — which can also mean cutting training and tech
- Customers may experience inconsistent call quality (e.g., background noise like roosters)
- Inexperienced agents not empowered to act can lead to longer calls — shifting the time burden to guests
In the days since the layoffs, Hyatt’s Twitter DM team has provided good service. Personally, I’ve rarely needed to call Hyatt, though agents were always helpful in the past — for instance, when cancelling reservations due to illness or flight cancellations.
## Industry Context
With Marriott also engaging in mass layoffs and Hyatt undergoing several acquisitions, this may be part of a broader corporate downsizing.
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