I love a bougie flight as much as the next person, but once you get to your destination, you need a place to stay! Beloved in the award travel community, World of Hyatt is the only hotel loyalty program I’ll transfer my points to, and in this post, I’m going to tell you why.
Hyatt is the last hotel chain to maintain an award chart, while the others have all gone to dynamic pricing. With dynamic pricing, the cost fluctuates based on demand; the price of an award night can change from one day to the next. Conversely, an award chart means reliable and predictable redemption costs.
Here’s how this works. Most Hyatt hotels (there are some exceptions) are classified into a category, 1 through 8. Each category has three fixed prices for award redemption nights: an off-peak price, a standard price, and a peak price. Here’s the chart:
As you can see, a standard room in a category 4 Hyatt is always going to cost between 12,000 and 18,000 points per night, allowing you to plan and budget for your stay. This also means you can get outsized value for your points if you book during times when the cash rate is high.
(Exceptions include all-inclusive properties, which have their own award chart, and properties from partners like Under Canvas and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which are dynamically priced.)
Here’s an example to show why this is so powerful. The Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego is a category 5. For the night of Saturday, June 20th, 2025, cash rates start at $343. For award redemptions, this is designated as a standard night, so the price is 20,000 points. If you divide the cash price by the points price, you can see that this yields a value of 1.7 cents per point.
This is pretty typical for Hyatt stays; I usually get between 2 and 3 cents per point on my Hyatt redemptions. But how does this measure up to the other hotel chains?
To find out, I pulled up comparable San Diego hotels from the Hilton, IHG, and Marriott loyalty programs for the same date and compared the cash prices and redemption values. Let’s see how they stack up.
| Chain | Hotel | Cash Price | Points | Cents Per Point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyatt | Manchester Grand Hyatt | $343 | 20,000 | 1.7 |
| Marriott | Westin San Diego Gaslamp Quarter | $322 | 45,000 | 0.7 |
| Hilton | Embassy Suites San Diego Downtown | $374 | 70,000 | 0.5 |
| IHG | InterContinental San Diego | $388 | 73,000 | 0.5 |
In this scenario, Hyatt points are worth more than double points from any of the other hotel chains. When you consider that the two transferable currencies that one might transfer into these programs–Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards–can redeemed for flights at values of two cents per point or more, the Marriott and IHG values are especially hard to stomach.
I should point out that American Express points actually transfer to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio: one Membership Rewards point becomes two Hilton Honors points. This means that in this scenario, MRs transferred to Hilton would be redeemed at a value of 1 cent per point. This is better, but still not great.
Hyatt also charges no resort or destination fees on award bookings, which makes these stays truly free. (You do, however, have to pay for parking, if you are traveling with a car.) IHG and Marriott both charge these fees even when you book with points.
One point in favor of IHG, Marriott, and Hilton is that they all offer the fourth or fifth night free when booking with points. This improves the value of these redemptions for longer stays. Also, Hyatt has the smallest footprint of all these chains, so there may not be a Hyatt in every place you want to go.
Of course, cents per point is not the only metric that matters; however, the Hyatt in this scenario also requires significantly fewer points than of the other redemptions. And this is usually true–Hyatts are objectively the cheapest redemption option, no matter how you slice it. If you had the choice to transfer 20,000 of your Chase Ultimate Rewards for a single hotel night, or 45,000 points, which would you choose?
That’s what I thought.
This is why these days, I hoard all of my Ultimate Rewards points for Hyatt. The best way to accumulate these points is by opening the Chase Ink Business cards. These cards:
- Don’t count toward 5/24
- Have generous welcome offers
- Have low or no annual fees
If you’re curious about getting started with business cards, I can help!
Will you be planning your next trip around a Hyatt stay? Let me know in the comments!
Kate's on a Plane 
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