Hyatt Brand Explorer Challenge
Among all of the World of Hyatt program's great extra benefits, one of my favorite perks is its Brand Explorer Award feature. These awards reward you for exploring and “checking off” Hyatt's different hotel brands. Depending on your travel habits, though, this can get more challenging the farther you get on the chart. I recently decided to give myself a new Hyatt Brand Explorer challenge and dive deeper into the chart. This might go a little more slowly than my quest for Globalist status, but it has the potential to be rewarding.
What Is Hyatt Brand Explorer?
For every five different Hyatt brands you stay at for the first time, you earn a Category 1–4 free night certificate. We break down all the great things about the Brand Explorer Award program in our guide. The biggest question we always get in the group is: “Will my Brand Explorer chart reset? Can I do it again?” The answer, unfortunately, is no. But the good news is Hyatt keeps adding brands. It now has 38, which means you can earn seven free night awards. However, hitting those becomes much more difficult over time. Hyatt has such a diverse set of brands that appeal to different types of travel, and some brands still have limited locations. How many you can realistically check off with your own Hyatt Brand Explorer challenge really depends on your travel habits.
Why I'm Doing This Challenge
I always love to challenge myself, and I thought a Hyatt Brand Explorer challenge could be a fun one. It's inspiring me to look at different travel locations. Getting one free night for every five brands you stay with is really not a bad deal at all, either. Earning the free night certificates is such a great way to travel on the cheap.
My Travel Habits
As you get farther along on the Brand Explorer chart, you might have to start going out of your way a bit to fit in stays at some of these properties. So, each person has to decide how far they want to go to check off these brands and what completing a Hyatt Brand Explorer challenge would be worth to them. Personally, much of my travel currently focuses on Asia and Mexico. My domestic travel and European travel have both dropped quite a bit over the last few years. Looking at my current Brand Explorer tracking, you may also get some insight into my travel habits and trends. You'll see that I am not an all inclusive person at all. And although I love some luxury travel, I rarely spend my Hyatt points on it.
My Current Status
I have all the Classics, the two most popular Essentials and recently added a third. (More on that below.) Luckily, I have been better at the Lifestyle brands and am almost over halfway through those. As I hinted above, I haven't tried any Inclusive options and have only stayed at two of the five Luxury brands. I have earned three out of the seven awards possible. So, I need a plan to figure out what might be possible next for my Hyatt Brand Explorer challenge.
My Plan
I will walk you through my thought process for my Hyatt Brand Explorer challenge. I decided to work from the bottom up as I looked through the brands. When it comes to searching for certain brands, I like to use the Hyatt “Explore” map as well as our Hyatt search tips.
More to Explore
Ideally, the Vegas option should be easy for me. While I am not going to Las Vegas as much lately, the city has some good Hyatt mattress run possibilities with the Rio Hotel & Casino, too. So this should be high on my priority list. Mr & Mrs Smith can be tricky, because you can usually get better value for a cash stay. There is a Mr & Mrs Smith property in one of my favorite Mexico destinations and some Asia options, too, so I will keep my eye on that.
Essentials
This gets tougher, with the majority of the remaining options far away in China and some other locations throughout Asia. I am counting 24 options in the U.S., with the closest possibility in Phoenix. With less domestic travel, this one is achievable—but will probably require a specific trip.
Inclusive
As I have mentioned, I am not an all inclusive person. It's just not my travel style normally, but I am open to exploring this category and have considered many of these previously. The award chart changes have made this one more difficult, especially if you are frugal with your Hyatt points like me. I have previously considered reviewing more than one Hyatt all inclusive in my favorite Mexico destination. And while I usually stay with Marriott there, the location is being decimated with changes. I really want to stay at one of these horribly reviewed Sunscape resorts and take one for the team. Not sure I can earn more than a couple in this category, though.
Lifestyle
There aren't many options for the brands I have left. I am counting around 30 properties worldwide. Some domestic locations might be possibilities. I also have my eye on The StandardX brand in Bangkok, if I return to the city.
Luxury
I think Alila is the one I could potentially grab. But again, these luxury-brand stays are not usually on my radar.
My Progress
I was stuck on two badges (awards earned) for a long time. And as I began to plot this Hyatt Brand Explorer challenge, I was able to finally achieve the third award. It just took thinking a bit outside the box. I took AAdvantage of being stuck in Philly on American Airlines due to weather. Knowing I had travel insurance protection via my credit card and an annual travel plan, I booked a cash hotel stay at a Hyatt Select. There are not many of these, so I thought I would take advantage of the circumstances and book it. That earned me my fifth stay toward a Brand Explorer Award—and a Category 1-4 free night certificate! Now, I am looking toward the next five brands.
Hyatt Brand Explorer Challenge: ToP Thoughts
I am off on a new adventure, working on the fourth award for my Hyatt Brand Explorer challenge. I hope this has helped you dive deeper into the Brand Explorer feature—and perhaps start thinking about your own future trips where you can try to check off a brand. I will update this post as I check off each new brand. And while I may not have monthly progress to share like with my Globalist journey, I hope to get a closer look at Hyatt's global portfolio in my upcoming travels. Where are you on the Brand Explorer chart? How many have you checked off, and what is your strategy going forward? Come over to the Facebook group and share your thoughts.
