The hotel 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 six years in.  This is what I have achieved so far:

I am seven brands down as you can see.

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.

Here are the detailed terms from the Hyatt site:

Measurement of qualifying stays for a Brand Explorer Free Night Award began on March 1, 2017, for stays where a Member pays an Eligible Rate and on January 1, 2018, for stays where a Member redeems a Free Night Award. Measurement continues over the life of a Member’s Program membership.

A Member may earn a “Brand Explorer Free Night Award” after paying an Eligible Rate or redeeming a Free Night Award for a completed stay of one (1) night or more at a participating hotel or resort from five (5) different Hyatt brands, namely: Park Hyatt, Miraval, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Andaz, Hyatt Centric, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Thompson Hotels, Alila (some locations only), JdV by Hyatt, Dream (some locations only), Destination by Hyatt (both participating Destination by Hyatt Hotels and participating Destination by Hyatt Residences locations), Caption by Hyatt, Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Hyatt Zilara, Hyatt Ziva, Hyatt Vivid, Secrets (only once the location has begun participating), Dreams (only once the location has begun participating), Breathless (only once the applicable location has begun participating), Zoëtry (only once the location has begun participating), Alua (only once the applicable location has begun participating), Sunscape (only once the applicable location has begun participating), or Hyatt Residence Club (which, for purposes of this award only, includes any Vacation Ownership Property, whether or not branded as a Hyatt Residence Club). No other brand counts toward earning this award.

Properties from the Legacy AMR Collection that participate in the Program, but do not operate under one of the brands identified above, will be deemed part of the “Hyatt” brand for purposes of earning a Brand Explorer Free Night Award (unless and until such property either (a) is subsequently rebranded and begins operating under one of the brands expressly identified above, (b) is expressly designated by Hyatt as part of another brand for the specific purpose of this award, or (c) leaves the Program).

Properties within each of The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, JdV by Hyatt, and Destination by Hyatt, while independently branded, will each constitute a single Hyatt brand for purposes of earning a Brand Explorer Free Night Award (i.e., stays at two different hotels in the JdV by Hyatt brand will count as one brand, and a stay at a hotel in the Destination by Hyatt brand will count as another brand). The foregoing also applies to hotels within other Hyatt brands where such hotels may also have an independent name.

One interesting quirk, as it says above, is that all inclusive hotels inherited via the AMR acquisition which have not been placed into one of the brands listed will count as ‘Hyatt’. There are, surprisingly, very few hotels globally branded as ‘Hyatt’ instead of ‘Grand Hyatt’, ‘Park Hyatt’ etc and this is typically a hard one to tick off.

What do you get when you hit another 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.

As you can see, I have managed seven brands so far. I used the first free night, triggered at five brands, to stay at the Hyatt Regency Amsterdam last year, reviewed here.

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

I thought it would be impossible to hit 10, but Hyatt has been adding brands so quickly that it is now a matter of ‘when’ and not ‘if’. Remember that redemption stays count, not just cash nights. I’m pretty certain that I will hit 10 by adding the three ‘Independent Collection’ brands – Unbound Collection, JdV and Destination by Hyatt.

What is the voucher worth?

I value a World of Hyatt point at 1.3p 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-£200, although you could get lucky and do better.

A free night potentially worth £150-£200 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 (review here)
• Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf (review here)
• Grand Hyatt La Manga Club (news story here)
• Hyatt Regency Hesperia Madrid
• Hyatt Centric Milan
• Hotel Reisen Stockholm (review here)
• Ashdown Park Hotel
• Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile (review here)
• Hyatt Centric Dublin (review here)

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

Conclusion

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

If you travel with a partner, it may be worth putting a Hyatt stay into their name instead of yours if it ticks off a Brand Explorer brand that you have but they don’t. You can transfer Hyatt points for free from one member to another (albeit via a paper form you need to email in) so you can still keep all the points in your account if you wish.

Brand Explorer is a fun and long-term way to, eventually, earn a valuable free night.

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World of Hyatt update – January 2024:

Get bonus points: World of 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.

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.