When World of Hyatt emerged as a new program structure they introduced brand badges that members have to earn by staying at least once at each particular brand, earning a free night for every 5 brands.
Many brands are rather difficult to obtain but since Hyatt has established a larger footprint by acquiring more hotels things have gotten slightly easier.
With the current number of brands (18) available and the geographic distribution around the globe it should be possible for most members with decent travel frequency to earn at least one but in many cases two free nights. Three free nights would require 15 badges and that’s really a challenge.
Here is the entire portfolio of different brands offered by Hyatt:
You can search for specific brands and locations through the map exploration tool and narrow down destinations in case you’re still on the hunt for some of these badges.
Especially the standalone “Hyatt” brand is very scarce and almost impossible to get. They did add a few more though in the last year or so. Now you have three “Hyatt” hotels in New York City and another one in San Francisco where I tried to stay in August but which turned out to be a total disaster. I wanted to stay at the Hyatt Olive 8 in Seattle but it was sold out.
I can say of myself that I get around quite a bit but even now I have only managed to check off 9 brands. Could have probably done 1-2 more but some of these hotels are so bad I don’t want to stay there. My next one might be an Unbound Collection in Miami or Los Angeles if the rates are reasonable.
Conclusion
Right now you can earn up to three free night certificates (Cat 1-4) by earning World of Hyatt brand badges. You will get one free night for every 5 brands checked off the list (18 brands are currently available).
In the end, these badges are a nice game to play but I wouldn’t go out of my way with an expensive stay just to get the badge as that pretty much negates the benefit of getting a free night certificate once you overpay for the night(s) needed to get the badges.