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 three 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), 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:

“Earning a 5-Brand Free Night Award. Measurement of qualifying stays for a 5-Brand 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 “5-Brand 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), Joie de Vivre (some locations only), Destination (both participating Destination Hotels and participating Destination Residences locations, but only once the applicable location begins participating in the Program), Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Hyatt Zilara, Hyatt Ziva, or Hyatt Residence Club. No other brand counts toward earning this award. Properties 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 a 5-Brand Free Night Award after paying an Eligible Rate or redeeming a Free Night Award for five (5) total 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. A Member who previously earned a 5-Brand Free Night Award may earn an additional award only upon completing qualifying stays at another group of five (5) different participating Hyatt hotel brands. (That is, if you stay at a Park Hyatt hotel and that stay counts towards your first 5-brand Free Night Award, future stays at any Park Hyatt hotel or resort will not count towards a second 5-brand Free Night Award.) If accounts are merged, stay and award history will be consolidated for the purposes of calculating 5-brand Free Night Awards.”

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.

What is the voucher worth?

I tend to value a World of Hyatt point at 1p.  A free night at a Category 4 Hyatt property is 15,000 points per night so you are looking at around £150 of value at best.

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

Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile

Park Hyatt Istanbul

Hyatt Regency Kiev

There are also some decent European hotels in Category 3, including Hyatt Centric Venice.

There are also a lot of independent hotels such as Luton Hoo which are available as part of the ‘Small Luxury Hotels’ partnership with Hyatt.

Conclusion

If you have done any Hyatt stays in the last three 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 earn a free night.

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World of Hyatt update – January 2021:

Get bonus points: Hyatt’s current promotion is ‘Bonus Journeys’, which is now extended to 28th February 2021. You can learn more in our article here.

New to World of Hyatt?  Read our two-part overview of World of Hyatt here and here and our article on expiry rules here.

Buy points: If you need additional World of Hyatt points, you can buy them here. There is a 30% bonus on points purchases until 23rd February.

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.