World of Hyatt members frequently hear about category 1-4 free night awards. There are several ways to get them, and you can get some sweet deals by putting some thought into how you redeem them.
Before you immediately book your next Hyatt stay using this award, let’s take a step back and discuss some of the best ways to use them.
Getting a Hyatt Category 1-4 Free Night Award
To start, here’s a brief look at the ways you can get yourself a category 1-4 free night award:
- The World of Hyatt Credit Card. Get a category 1-4 free night award when you renew your annual $95 membership every year. Get another free night award when you spend $15,000 or more on the card in a year.
- Hyatt Brand Explorer. Get a free category 1-4 award for staying at 5 different Hyatt brands. No spending or elite status requirements.
- Milestone Rewards. Get a free category 1-4 award once you hit 30 nights, or 50,000 base points, in the year (Explorist status).
World of Hyatt is quite generous with this reward, particularly with the Hyatt Brand Explorer promotion. As long as you book directly through Hyatt, this is the most straightforward way to earn a free night.
The credit card can also be good value. Given the annual fee of $95, you can easily recoup the value of the fee from the free night earned every card anniversary.
You’ll also occasionally see a welcome offer with a certain number of category 1-4 free night awards after you meet certain spending requirements, though I do recommend waiting for a better welcome offer with a certain number of points.
Related: How Hyatt Determines Hotel Categories, Reevaluating the Category 1-4 Free Night Award
Redeeming a Category 1-4 Award
My take on this reward is that it’s more about when you book instead of where you book. Because this award is available for use as long as a hotel has availability, you’ll get much more value out of your free night booking during a peak season instead of a quiet time of the year.
For example, let’s say that I want to book a stay at the Thompson Washington D.C. to take a trip and see the cherry blossoms during the spring season. The bad news for me is that seasonal events tend to increase hotel prices. As you can see in the above photo, a night in the beginning of April is going for almost $600.
However, this would be a perfect time to utilize my category 1-4 free night award. The Thompson Washington D.C. is a category 4; I’ll be getting a lot of worth out of my award. I can enjoy my cherry blossoms trip to D.C. without hurting my wallet.
Scenarios like this are when it’s perfect to take advantage of this reward. Seasonal events, large conventions, concerts, sports games, and last-minute airport stays are all great times to use them when hotel prices can be higher than usual.
That said, it’s important to note that these free nights are subject to availability, just like points bookings.
Hyatt Pay My Way
Hyatt Pay My Way is a good way to pay for a stay that is more than 1 night. This easily allows guests to pay for a multi-night stay with different methods, including cash, points, points + cash, and a free night award.
I don’t have a free night award on my account right now, but if I did, it would show up as an option on the following screen:
This allows you to pay cash for a cheaper night, and use a different method for the other night that is more expensive. In the example above, I would pay $165 for my first night, and redeem 12,000 points for the second night.
The same logic applies to the category 1-4 free night award. For a multi-night stay, you can choose to pay cash for the cheaper night and use the free night award on the more expensive night. I did this in the past for multiple Hyatt stays, including for a stay at the Thompson Washington D.C, which is a category 4.
Utilize the “Find Your Hyatt” page
The Find Your Hyatt page is a useful place to search for potential hotel stays based on category. Since we’re restricted up to a category 4 with this award, it’s helpful to be able to see based on location, and think about potential properties you could go to using this award.
Although Hyatt has increased hotel categories for various properties over the years, there is still a solid selection of destinations that can be redeemed with a category 1-4 award.
Bottom Line
The category 1-4 free night award from Hyatt can offer great value when used correctly. I ultimately recommend using it for convenience during peak periods when cash rates are high, like when you have a concert, a seasonal event, or other peak periods. At the same time, there is still a solid selection of hotels that are category 4 and below, despite Hyatt increasing property categories for various hotels in recent years.
Featured image by Hyatt.
