Next month, my husband and I are flying to Hawaii from Michigan, positioning from Portland, Oregon. We needed an inexpensive hotel for our short stay.
The Hyatt Place and The Hyatt House at Portland Airport were both listed as Category 3 hotels for 12,000 points per night with a complimentary airport shuttle and free breakfast. I wanted to utilize a Hyatt Category 1-4 Free Night Certificate for our stay, so either hotel would qualify.
To decide which hotel to book, I started by checking my husband’s Hyatt Brand Explorer Tracker. He already had a Hyatt Place but did not have a Hyatt House. Each time you reach 5 new property brands under the Hyatt umbrella, you earn a Free Night Certificate. So checking off his last brand for a Free Night Certificate was the deciding factor for me.
TIP: You only need to be a World of Hyatt Member and do not need a Hyatt credit card to earn a Free Night with the Brand Explorer offer. For even more chances to earn Free Nights, have your travel partner set up an account with Hyatt so they can earn punches when you stay at properties that you already have.
When checking our dates, I noticed that The Hyatt House Portland Airport was closed for renovations until very close to our stay. Ugh! I have heard horror stories about Hyatt missing their opening date for properties, and people getting stranded without a room. I did not feel confident booking The Hyatt House until I was sure they had reopened.
In the meantime, I booked the Hyatt Place as a backup plan just to be safe. But I checked the Hyatt House regularly to monitor progress and the opening date. When I checked today (August 7), it appeared the hotel was fully open. So I called the hotel directly to be certain. They were! When I checked availability for our date, I discovered that Hyatt is also offering 500 bonus points as a “new” property promo. Heck Yeah!
It only took me a few moments on the Hyatt website to cancel the Hyatt Place reservation, verify the certificate was back in my husband’s account, then use it to book the Hyatt House.
So now, we get a punch in our Brand Explorer card to earn an extra free night, and we will also get an extra 500 bonus points. A pretty good reason to switch the booking for this short positioning stay.
Final Thoughts
Hyatt House and Hyatt Place are two of my go-to hotel brands for this type of stay because they are a good value and have what I need when choosing a hotel for a layover or positioning flight.
- They are close to Airports
- Usually a Cat 1-4 to use Free Night Certificates, low points or cheap cash rates
- Offer a Complimentary Airport Shuttle
- Have Free Breakfast
Last year at The Hyatt Place PHX we got lucky because they also offered a bonus shuttle downtown. The shuttle dropped us off for dinner, and we called them for a pickup when we were done. It worked great!
This is also one reason we will keep our $95 World of Hyatt credit card. We always get enough value from the annual Free Night Certificate to offset the cost of the annual fee. But even without a Hyatt credit card, you can still get great value and earn free nights by utilizing the Brand Explorer Promotion.
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