Plan ahead: The 50 most in-demand World of Hyatt hotels for point redemptions

The Points Guy got ahold of some fascinating new data on the World of Hyatt program.

Below are the 50 most popular Hyatt hotels for points redemptions for the 12 months ending June 30, 2021, including TPG favorites like the Hyatt Regency Maui, Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego, and the Ventana Big Sur — an Alila Resort. The list is likely different than years past, since most global borders were closed, and Americans only recently gained access to Europe again. As a result, it's a fascinating look at where members were most likely to redeem their Hyatt points during a global pandemic.

These are not in any particular order, so we grouped them by geography. We also have a table at the end with an alphabetical list of the properties.

However, we also placed the list into an Excel spreadsheet (which you can download here) — allowing you to sort by brand, category or country.

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Western United States

• Ventana Big Sur, an Alila Resort - Our review of the Ventana Big Sur
• Hyatt Regency Monterey on Del Monte Golf Course - Related: The best Hyatt Cat 4 hotels for families
• Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach
• Hyatt Place Moab - Related: Reader success story - a trip to the Southwest
• Hyatt Place St. George/Convention Center
• Hyatt Regency Newport Beach
• Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego - Related: Best things to do in San Diego
• Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe - Related: Tahoe on a budget
• Unbound Mar Monte - Our review of the Mar Monte
• Hyatt Regency Hill Country - Related: 5 things to know about Hill Country Hyatt
• Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort & Spa at Gainey Ranch
• Park Hyatt Beaver Creek - Our review of the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek
• Hyatt Regency Mission Bay
• Carmel Valley Ranch - Our review of the Carmel Valley Ranch
• Park Hyatt Aviara - Our review of the Park Hyatt Aviara
• Hyatt Place Delano
• Hyatt Regency Indian Wells - Related: Our favorite points hotels in Palm Springs
• Hyatt Regency Austin - Related: Our favorite hotels in Austin
• Hyatt Place Las Vegas at Silverton Village
• Grand Hyatt Vail - Related: Hyatt's only hotel in Vail is a Category 7
• Hyatt Palm Springs

Hawaii

• Hyatt Regency Maui - Our review of the Grand Hyatt Maui
• Hyatt Place Waikiki Beach - Related: TPG readers' favorite Hawaii redemptions
• Grand Hyatt Kauai - Our review of the Grand Hyatt Kauai
• Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach - Our review of the Hyatt Regency Waikiki

Eastern United States

• The Confidante Miami Beach - Our review of the Confidante
• Hyatt Regency Coconut Point - Our review of the Hyatt Coconut Point
• Hyatt Centric Key West Resort & Spa - Related: 9 of our favorite Florida Keys hotels
• Hyatt Place Asheville/Downtown (now a DoubleTree property)
• Hyatt Regency Orlando
• Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress
• Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach - Related: Planning a trip to Clearwater, Florida
• Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay - Our review of the Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay
• Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay
• Hyatt Place Fair Lawn/Paramus
• Andaz Savannah - Our review of the Andaz Savannah
• Hyatt Regency Sarasota

Caribbean

• Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve Puerto Rico - Our review of the Hyatt Regency Puerto Rico
• Hyatt Regency Aruba - Related: Family friendly points hotels in Aruba
• Grand Hyatt Baha Mar - Our review of the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar

Mexico

• Hyatt Ziva Cancun - Our review of the Hyatt Ziva Cancun
• Hyatt Zilara Cancun

Asia

• Grand Hyatt Changsha
• Grand Hyatt Seoul - Our review of the Grand Hyatt Seoul
• Grand Hyatt Chengdu
• Hyatt Regency Wuxi
• Grand Hyatt Sanya Haitang Bay - Our review of the Park Hyatt Sanya on Hainan Island
• Park Hyatt Hangzhou
• Hyatt Regency Liberation Square Chongqing
• Hyatt Regency Beijing Wangjing - Our review of the Park Hyatt Beijing

Additional data

There are a number of other interesting pieces of information when looking at these properties.

• 38 of the 50 are in the United States — with the remaining 12 in just five other countries.
• Over half (29) are Category 4 or lower — meaning that they're eligible for awards using the free-night certificates you can earn on the World of Hyatt Credit Card.
• Aside from Category 8 properties (which are exclusively part of Hyatt's partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World), there are at least two properties from every award category plus a pair of all-inclusive properties:
• Category 1: 3
• Category 2: 7
• Category 3: 8
• Category 4: 11
• Category 5: 7
• Category 6: 9
• Category 7: 2
• Here is a breakdown of the brands on the list:
• Hyatt Regency: 22
• Grand Hyatt: 9
• Hyatt Place: 7 (actually 6 due to the Hyatt Place Asheville/Downtown leaving the World of Hyatt program)
• Park Hyatt and The Unbound Collection: 3 each
• Alila, Andaz, Hyatt, Hyatt Centric, Hyatt Zilara and Hyatt Ziva: 1 each

Related: Your ultimate guide to Hyatt hotel brands

Our take

For starters, it's not surprising to see a heavy emphasis on properties in the United States (38 of the 50 are located there). There are many additional ways for U.S.-based travelers to earn points in the World of Hyatt program — be it through the Hyatt credit card or by transferring Ultimate Rewards points earned on cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.

In addition, the list is based on awards from July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021 — in other words, during the heart of the ongoing, COVID-19 pandemic. With international travel largely restricted during that time, many members clearly put their hard-earned points to use for domestic redemptions.

It's also fascinating to see that the list doesn't skew more to the higher end of the spectrum. In many cases, you get the most value when you redeem your points at top-tier properties like the Park Hyatt New York. However, there are more than twice as many Hyatt Place properties on the list than there are Park Hyatts, and nearly half are part of the Hyatt Regency brand.

That said, the fact that the Ventana Big Sur makes the cut tells you just how popular that resort is. With only 59 rooms (and a very limited number of "standard" rooms that price at the 30,000-point-per-night threshold), it's incredible that it's still one of the most popular spots for award stays.

Curiously, The Hyatt Place Fair Lawn/Paramus in New Jersey made this list as well. There's nothing special about this hotel that we would have thought it deserve inclusion on the top 50. It is, however, about 10 miles from the George Washington Bridge, connecting to New York City. And it's a category 2, costing only 8,000 points per night. During Hyatt's recent double elite qualifying night promotion, it is very likely that New Yorkers and those in Northern New Jersey flocked to this hotel for a mattress run.

Related: How TPG’s Chris Dong maximized World of Hyatt promotions during the pandemic

Some of our favorites that didn't make the list

The pandemic likely contributed to the fact that a lot of our favorite international and even a few domestic World of Hyatt hotels didn't make the list. Some of the ones TPG staff love best include:

• Park Hyatt New York City - Our review of the Park Hyatt NYC
• The Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme - Related: Is the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme worth the hype?
• Park Hyatt Milan - Related: Historic Hyatt hotels you can book with points
• Park Hyatt Vienna - Our review of the Park Hyatt Vienna
• Park Hyatt Tokyo - Our review of the Park Hyatt Tokyo
• Park Hyatt Sydney - Related: Our review of the Park Hyatt Sydney
• Hyatt Regency Sydney
• Andaz Mayakoba - Our review of the Andaz Mayakoba
• The new Alila in Napa Valley - Our review of the Alila Napa Valley

Of course, just because other members are choosing these locations doesn't mean they're automatically the best options for your next trip. If you're sitting on a large stash of Hyatt points, there are plenty of brands (and properties) from which to pick.

For additional information, check out the following guides:

• Everything you need to know about World of Hyatt
• 6 ways to redeem Hyatt points as travel rebounds
• How to leverage Hyatt partnerships for cruises, flights and more
• Hyatt’s best-kept secrets: 16 incredible hotels you’d never know belonged to World of Hyatt

Here's a table with the 50 properties in alphabetical order:

Additional reporting by Nick Ewen and Scott Mayerowitz.