There are several ways to earn World of Hyatt free night award awards. In this post I wanted to talk about one of the often overlooked ways to earn Hyatt free nights, which is with World of Hyatt’s ongoing Brand Explorer promotion. This offers World of Hyatt members the opportunity to earn free night awards for exploring Hyatt’s portfolio.
In this post:
Hyatt’s Brand Explorer offer
With World of Hyatt’s Brand Explorer promotion, you can earn a Category 1-4 free night certificate for every five unique Hyatt brands you stay at:
- As of now Hyatt has 28 brands, meaning you can earn up to five free night certificates (which you’d get for staying at 25 brands); Hyatt’s number of brands continues to increase, thanks to Hyatt’s expansion in the all-inclusive resort space
- There’s no registration required, and any qualifying stay that’s tied to your World of Hyatt account will count toward this; yes, this includes when you redeem points
- This isn’t in any way tied to the calendar year or typical membership year, but rather you can earn these free night certificates for stays over several years if you’d like; for example, if you stay at one new Hyatt brand every year, you’d get a free night certificate after five years
- The free night certificate is valid for one year from when it’s issued, and you need to complete your stay by that date, rather than just having to book by then
What are Hyatt’s brands?
Hyatt currently has 28 brands, which are as follows:
- Alila
- Alua
- Andaz
- Breathless
- Caption by Hyatt
- Destination by Hyatt
- Dream Hotels
- Dreams
- Grand Hyatt
- Hyatt
- Hyatt Centric
- Hyatt House
- Hyatt Place
- Hyatt Regency
- Hyatt Residence Club
- Hyatt Zilara
- Hyatt Ziva
- Impression by Secrets
- Joie de Vivre
- Miraval
- Park Hyatt
- Secrets
- Sunscape
- Thompson
- Unbound Collection
- UrCove
- Vivid
- Zoetry
As you can see, only brands managed directly by Hyatt qualify for this offer, so stays at Small Luxury Hotels of the World properties don’t count toward the Brand Explorer offer.
How can you track how many Hyatt brands you’ve stayed at?
You can see how many Hyatt brands you’ve stayed at either through the World of Hyatt website or mobile app. Just go to the “Brand Explorer” section, and there will be a display showing how many unique brands you’ve stayed at (including which ones), and also how many free night certificates you’ve earned.
This is a fun way for Hyatt to engage members
This promotion is a fun way for World of Hyatt to engage members and try to get them to try more brands. At least in one case it impacted where I chose to stay, because I do love checking this dashboard every so often, both to see the progress that I’m making, and be reminded of all the brands I’ve stayed at.
Even though I’ve had top tier status with World of Hyatt for over a decade and have now earned lifetime Globalist status, I haven’t even stayed at half of Hyatt’s current brand portfolio.
In the past couple of years I have visited two brands for the first time — Hyatt House and Miraval. I stayed at the Hyatt House LAX, and specifically chose to stay there for the purposes of the Brand Explorer promotion. Meanwhile I also stayed at the Miraval Arizona, though that was motivated by general curiosity about the Miraval brand, rather than the Brand Explorer promotion as such.
Looking at the Hyatt brands I haven’t stayed at:
- Most of the Hyatt brands I haven’t stayed at are all-inclusives, as that’s an area where Hyatt is growing significantly; however, in general this has limited appeal to me, based on the type of travel I like to do
- I’m guessing I’ll knock out a stay at a Joie de Vivre in the not-too-distant future; this is a brand that Hyatt acquired as part of the Two Roads Hospitality takeover, and most of Hyatt’s new Lindner Hotels properties in Germany are branded as such
- Destination by Hyatt is probably the Hyatt brand I know least about, and I can’t say that any of the properties have ever tempted me, though I’d love to know if there are any I should check out
- I’m sure I’ll stay at a Hyatt Residence Club eventually, though it’s also not a brand I’d necessarily seek out
- UrCove is a new Hyatt brand in China, so it’s unlikely I’ll stay at one of those hotels anytime soon
Bottom line
With World of Hyatt’s ongoing Brand Explorer promotion, you can earn a free Category 1-4 free night awards for every five Hyatt brands you stay at. This is a way to earn up to five free nights over time, based on Hyatt’s current portfolio.
Given how easy Hyatt makes it to track this, I’m curious — how many Hyatt brands have you stayed at? Has anyone stayed at 15+? Has this promotion ever impacted where you’ve chosen to stay?
Be mindful that Hyatt stays booked through a third party will not quality as a Hyatt Brand Explorer stay (even though the stay will show up in your Hyatt account). I was fulfilling a Chase Travel "Fly and Stay" flight and hotel promotion and assumed (incorrectly) I would be able to fullfill both the Chase Travel promotion as well as my Hyatt Brand Explorer requirements.
I have found that Hyatt free-night stays and "Use...
Be mindful that Hyatt stays booked through a third party will not quality as a Hyatt Brand Explorer stay (even though the stay will show up in your Hyatt account). I was fulfilling a Chase Travel "Fly and Stay" flight and hotel promotion and assumed (incorrectly) I would be able to fullfill both the Chase Travel promotion as well as my Hyatt Brand Explorer requirements.
I have found that Hyatt free-night stays and "Use Points" stays DO COUNT towards Hyatt Brand Explorer
Does anyone know if buying a promotion timeshare package stay (with the presentation) at a Hyatt Vacation Club property will count as a visit and badge credit? Or do you need to book it with a regular cash or points stay? thanks
Is the free night certificate issued immediately after fulfilling the 5th stay or can it be delayed to extend the expiry date?
If I use the certificate to stay at. New-or-me brand, will that count towards my next certificate?
@Lucky you wouldn’t hate the Impression by Secrets. Either Moxche or Isla Mujeres. Isla is more unique, but Moxche wins for size of rooms, service, and food. My non-partying snobby SF friend is at the Moxche rn and loving it.
Have no intention of going to any AI brand. If I ever were so inclined, the only one I'd probably visit is Impressions Moxchee, as it is constantly raved about.
Dream, UrCove, and Caption are all that remain of the others. Going to Dream next month and UrCove in August. If the Caption near me hasn't opened by next year, will go to Memphis at that point (want to visit that region anyways).
There are two 7Pines resorts in Europe that are amazing. One in Ibiza and the other in Sardinia. Beautiful properties!
I’m currently at 16 brands. The only US brands I dont’ have are Dream and Miraval. To hit 20 I’ll need some all-inclusives. I didn’t really care for the Ziva Los Cabos but one night won’t hurt here and there.
Hotel Kabuki in Japantown SF is my favorite JdV property. Worth a try!
There is a Hyatt Residence in Key West that is great if you are visiting with family. All of the rooms over there are suites with 2 bedrooms. The property is right by the water (separated by the road), and is walking distance from Key West Airport). I stayed there over the holidays in the end of 2017, and I had an amazing stay. It was also pretty cheap when I stayed, as it only cost me $150 per night over Christmas and New Years when booking a little in advance
The Seabird Resort in Oceanside or its sister Mission Pacific are two great Destination Hotel options you should try. Both new.