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Hyatt Brand Explorer is one of my favorite perks of any hotel loyalty program. Through just this one perk, you can earn up to six free nights simply by staying at different Hyatt brands within the World of Hyatt program. Here's a look at how this perk works, which Hyatt brands are eligible, and how to maximize this awesome benefit.
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What Is Hyatt Brand Explorer?
Hyatt Brand Explorer offers you up to six free nights with World of Hyatt by staying at the different brands participating in World of Hyatt. Before anything else, let's first understand the various brands under the Hyatt umbrella.
Qualifying Hyatt brands
The following 29 Hyatt brands currently qualify for the Hyatt Brand Explorer perk:
- Alila (only certain participating locations)
- Andaz
- Caption by Hyatt
- Destination by Hyatt (both participating Destination by Hyatt Hotels and participating Destination by Hyatt Residences locations)
- Dream Hotels
- Grand Hyatt
- Hyatt (often referred to as “Vanilla Hyatt” to prevent confusion)
- Hyatt Centric
- Hyatt House
- Hyatt Place
- Hyatt Regency
- Hyatt Studios
- Hyatt Vacation Club (including any Vacation Ownership Property, whether or not branded as a Hyatt Vacation Club)
- Hyatt Zilara
- Hyatt Ziva
- Joie de Vivre / JdV by Hyatt
- Miraval
- Mr & Mrs Smith
- Park Hyatt
- Thompson Hotels
- The Unbound Collection by Hyatt
- UrCove
- Vivid
These all-inclusive brands also count, so long as the property you stay at has started participating in World of Hyatt before your stay:
- Alua
- Breathless
- Dreams
- Impression by Secrets
- Secrets
- Sunscape
- Zoëtry
Notice that stays with Hyatt's previous Small Luxury Hotels partnership did not count toward the Hyatt Brand Explorer perk.
Related: Hyatt Introduces New Award Chart for All-Inclusive Resorts
How to earn 6 free Hyatt nights
With the Hyatt Brand Explorer perk, you can earn a free night after staying at five brands. But it's not limited to the first five. You can earn another free night every time you stay with five more brands. Thanks to the addition of several all-inclusive resort brands and the expansion of Hyatt's portfolio in recent years, you can earn six free nights in total.
You can see all of these eligible brands listed in my Hyatt Brand Explorer progress:
As you can see, I've earned three free nights already. With upcoming stays booked at UrCove and Mr & Mrs Smith properties, I'll qualify for another free night.
What type of Hyatt Free Night Awards do you earn?
The free nights earned with Brand Explorer are the same Category 1–4 Hyatt free night awards you might be familiar with from The World of Hyatt Credit Card.
These free night awards allow you to stay at a Category 1–4 property worldwide, and the awards are valid for one year. Note that you must complete the stay by the expiration date — not just make the reservation.
For reference, Category 4 awards typically cost 15,000 points during standard pricing. Thus, if you see a property charging 15,000 points or less for an award night, you should be able to use the free night certificate. If a night costs more than 15,000 points, it might be bookable with a free night certificate. In this case, though, the property would need to be a Category 4 hotel charging 18,000 points for a peak night.
You can read more about Hyatt peak and off-peak pricing here.
How to find new brands
In addition to being a big fan of the Hyatt Brand Explorer perk, I'm also a huge fan of how easy Hyatt makes it to find the location of brands you want to stay at. Simply head to Hyatt.com. You don't even need to log in.
At the top of Hyatt's home page, click on “Hotels & Resorts.” This will take you to a map.
As indicated at the top right, click on “Filters.” This is where we can find the brands we haven't stayed at yet. And even though I haven't stayed at Mr & Mrs Smith or UrCove yet, I didn't select those filters; I have upcoming reservations and am not worried about finding properties for those brands at this point.
Here, you can filter by brands (just click on the ones you want visible on the map) and even by award category. This way, you could view only the cheapest redemptions when pursuing your free nights from the Brand Explorer Perk.
Excluding the new Mr & Mrs Smith properties, there are less than 80 hotels and resorts worldwide representing the nine other brands I haven't stayed at yet. Each blue dot represents a location, and clicking on it shows details about the property. Nearly all of my remaining brands are all-inclusive properties (as Miraval is practically all-inclusive).
Also, notice where my remaining brands aren't. There are no eligible properties in the Southern Hemisphere at this point, nothing in Asia or Oceania, and nothing on the African mainland. There's also very sparse representation in South America and the European mainland. Much of my remaining options is concentrated in the Caribbean and Mediterranean.
Which Stays Count Toward Hyatt Brand Explorer?
If you think that only paid stays count toward Hyatt Brand Explorer, I have good news. Amazingly, all Hyatt stays count: free nights, points+cash, and even points bookings. If the stay is in your name and under a qualifying rate (meaning it's not an employee discount, group rate, or similar), then it counts.
When Hyatt first launched Brand Explorer, award stays didn't count. Thus, some people had to stay at a brand again to get credit later on. In a super-customer-friendly move, Hyatt changed this. Thus, you can earn six free nights from Hyatt Brand Explorer without spending a cent out of pocket. You don't need to pay cash for the stays to get the check mark.
How To Check Your Hyatt Brand Explorer Progress
To see which brands you've stayed at, log into your World of Hyatt account. In the top right corner, click on your name and then click either “Account” or “My Awards” in the drop-down menu.
From here, select “Brand Explorer” in the menu on the left side.
From here, you'll see the image above, showing which brands you've stayed at so far — made simple with check marks next to the brand logo. At the top of the page, you'll also see your progress toward the next award and how many awards you've earned.
You'll see that I have four nights toward my current block of five and that I've earned three free nights so far. With my next stay at a new brand, I'll earn a free night (my fourth), and the “Current Progress” on the left will go back to zero as I start on my next batch of five brands.
Our Take
Hyatt's Brand Explorer is truly unique. Competing hotel brands like Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors don't offer anything similar.
In my opinion, Brand Explorer one of the best hotel perks around. By staying at different Hyatt brands, you can earn up to six free World of Hyatt nights. Best of all, you don't even need to pay for the stays to get credit for a participating brand.
Want a tip to really maximize this benefit? Do what my wife and I do. When we stay at a new brand, we book one night in her name and the remaining nights in my name. That way, we both get credit for that brand while enjoying the perks of my Globalist status during the stay.
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