The free night promotion you have literally YEARS to complete ….. Hyatt Brand Explorer

When Hyatt Gold Passport relaunched as World of Hyatt, it added an interesting new promotion which generally passes people by.  It is called Hyatt Brand Explorer.

The way that Brand Explorer works is that you receive a voucher for a free night at any Category 1-4 Hyatt property after staying at five different Hyatt brands.

What is intriguing about this promotion is that there is no time limit for completing it.

The promotion launched on 1st March 2017, so we are now almost five years in.  This is what I have achieved so far (click to enlarge):

You will find a similar image when you log in to your own personal World of Hyatt account.  It is under the ‘My Awards’ tab on the ‘My Account’ page.

As you can see, I have a ticks for Park Hyatt (multiple Hamburg stays, image below), Hyatt Place (Hyatt Place Dubai Al Rigga review), Hyatt Regency (Hyatt Regency Dubai Creek Heights review) and Hyatt Centric (Hyatt Centric Madrid review).  This only leaves me with one to go.

Getting the 5th one should be easy, because there are still three large Hyatt brands – Grand Hyatt, Hyatt and Andaz – which I haven’t done yet.  Even better, redemption stays count.

Here are the detailed terms from the Hyatt site:

Offering a Free Night Award after staying at five unique Hyatt brands is a new benefit for all members of World of Hyatt. All members will start earning toward this new benefit on March 1, 2017.

A member may earn this Free Night Award after paying an Eligible Rate for and completing a stay (of one night or more) at 5 different Hyatt brands: Park Hyatt, Miraval, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Andaz, Hyatt Centric, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Hyatt Zilara, Hyatt Ziva, or Hyatt Residence Club. No other brand counts toward earning this award. (Hotels or resorts within The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, while independently branded, will constitute a single Hyatt brand for purposes of earning a 5-Brand Free Night Award.)

For example, a member would earn this Free Night Award after paying an Eligible Rate and completing five one-night stays as follows: one at a Park Hyatt hotel, one at a Grand Hyatt hotel, one at a Hyatt Regency hotel, one at an Andaz hotel, and one at a Hyatt Centric hotel.

What do you get when you hit five brands?

Completing the Brand Explorer award gets you a voucher for a free night in any Category 1-4 Hyatt hotel.  It is valid for 12 months with the stay to be completed – not just booked – within that period.

Standard reward availability is required in order to use the voucher.

You can in theory earn the Brand Explorer free night twice by staying at 10 different Hyatt brands, but that is difficult unless you live in North America.  It is very unlikely you could earn it three times given how tiny and geographically dispersed some of the brands are.

What is the voucher worth?

I value a World of Hyatt point at 1.2p but that is based on redeeming for in-hotel credit.  A free night at a Category 4 Hyatt property is 15,000 points per night on a standard night which I would value at around £150, although you could get lucky and do better.

A free night potentially worth £150 is a decent return on five stays.  It isn’t that simple, of course, since the 12 month restriction on using your free night means that you might not maximise the return.

There are some decent hotels in Category 1-4.  Click here to see a list of Category 4 hotels.  It includes such properties, in Europe, as:

Grand Hyatt Berlin

Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf

Hyatt Regency Hesperia Madrid

Hyatt Centric Milan

Hotel Reisen Stockholm

Luton Hoo

Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile

Park Hyatt Istanbul

Hyatt Regency Kiev

There are also some decent European hotels in Category 3, including Hyatt Centric Venice, Hyatt Centric Dublin, Hyatt Regency Birmingham and Grand Hyatt Athens.

Conclusion

If you have done any Hyatt stays in the last five years, it is worth having a look at your Brand Explorer chart on the World of Hyatt home page to see how many you have ticked off.

It is a fun and long-term way to, eventually, earn a free night.

World of Hyatt update – December 2021:

Get bonus points: Hyatt is not currently running a global promotion.

New to World of Hyatt?  Read our overview of World of Hyatt here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on what we think World of Hyatt points are worth is here.

Buy points: If you need additional World of Hyatt points, you can buy them here.

Until 30th December, you will receive a 30% discount, equivalent to a 43% bonus, when you buy Hyatt points – click here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Hyatt and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.