Best Hyatt Category 4 Hotels

Anyone who knows me knows that I don’t at all need luxury. But if I have 1 category 4 certificate (that you get every year with the Hyatt card), I want to get the most out of it.

For example, last time we used it for the Park Hyatt Hamburg. Would we normally be able to afford a luxury hotel right in a beautiful downtown area of Hamburg? No way. But as long as your card goes past the 12 month mark and the night already deposits in your account, the free night cert is yours to keep.

Just wanted to give a few ideas of amazing hotels that you can use with your free night. I took the Complete Map of Hyatt Hotels and the above picture is from the map of just category 4 hotels.

Yes, it’s a cool experience to stay in a luxury hotel (especially when you don’t come from that), but in general nicer hotels are in nicer locations. And Carrie and I don’t have a car and travel all the time. Therefore we want to be walking distance from downtown. The Park Hyatt Hamburg was an example of being a block away from the most beautiful sites in Hamburg.

My Top 9 Hyatt Category 4 Hotels

After my research, I picked out the top hotels tempting me for a category 4 redemption. My list was inspired by a mix of location and hotel. Some people only care about Luxury. Like the Park Hyatt Tokyo is a hotel that is raved about, but we stayed and didn’t love the location. And I looked at the Park Hyatt Seoul, which looks amazing but is 50 minutes on the subway to downtown Seoul. Great if my travel goal was to visit hotels.

I also don’t like business locations as much which is why I vary from the Travel and Leisure “Top 500 Hotels” on the Cat 4 list: Park Hyatt Hamburg, Grand Hyatt Istanbul, Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok, and Park Hyatt Saigon. Or I save certs for more expensive places than Asia.

Therefore, the most tempting category 4 Hyatt hotels for a cert are:

1. Grand Hyatt Melbourne
2. Park Hyatt Toronto
3. Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui
4. Grand Hyatt Seattle
5. Park Hyatt Hamburg (if you’re already going)
6. Hyatt Regency Boston
7. Hyatt Regency Cologne
8. Park Hyatt Saigon
9. Hyatt Regency Hua Hin

I think I would rave a little more about the Park Hyatt Toronto if I knew how cool the location is, although google seems to think it’s cool. If that’s not the coolest, then defintely number 2 is, the Grand Hyatt Melbourne. I have stayed in some great Grand Hyatt hotels (like the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, Santiago, and KL), plus this location is prime. Prime location, nice hotel, a cool city and a very expensive country.

The Hong Kong hotel is also incredible. A category 4 in Kowloon. I love Hong Kong and I really love the view from the Kowloon side. My favorite hotel is the InterContinental right near it. But the draw back is that it’s across a major street and down a few blocks from a happening area. That happening area is near the Hyatt Regency. An underrated redemption for sure. Nice hotel, but great and expensive city. This could save some serious money.

The Park Hyatt Hamburg was an awesome hotel, and I like Hamburg. I didn’t love it like I thought I would, but it was beautiful. Also an expensive city where I wouldn’t have been downtown if it weren’t for a category 4 cert.

Picking the hotels

There are two ways to search for category 4 hotels. My Complete Map of Hyatt Hotels or the Hyatt list of hotels by category. One is a map, the other is a list. Of the category 4s there are 8 “Park Hyatt” hotels. Park Hyatt is the most amazing chain of hotels, in my opinion. Modern and… perfect. I still say the Park Hyatt Shanghai is my favorite hotel ever (and we’ve seen quite a few) as it is on the 87th+ floor.

Cat 4 Park Hyatts:

• Park Hyatt Toronto – $300
• Hyatt Hotel Canberra – A Park Hyatt Hotel – $300
• Park Hyatt Goa Resort and Spa – $230
• Park Hyatt Siem Reap – $260
• Park Hyatt Busan – $225
• Park Hyatt Seoul – $365
• Park Hyatt Saigon – $300
• Park Hyatt Hamburg – $300

If I could just point out how awesome some of these hotels are…

1) Some of these cities are expensive. Toronto, Seoul, Hamburg and Canberra… which, fact of the day, most people don’t know that Canberra is actually the capital of Australia.

2) These hotels are in great locations in these expensive cities. So I decided to list them with their weekday price tags with the hotel, pre taxes, and the best rate.

The next best hotels, by name/brand at least, would be “Andaz” and “Grand Hyatt” hotels.

Best Locations

These might be the creme de la creme but there are so many other nice hotels in great locations. Here are some other expensive cities with downtown locations…

North America:

• San Francisco (2 hotels)
• Seattle (2 hotels)
• Andaz Savannah
• Hyatt Regency Boston
• Hyatt Regency Chicago
• Hyatt Regency New Orleans
• Hyatt at The Bellevue (in Philly)
• Austin/San Antonio

Europe / Middle East:

• Grand Hyatt Istanbul
• Grand Hyatt Berlin
• Hyatt Regency Cologne
• Grand Hyatt Istanbul
• Hyatt Capital Gate, Abu Dhabi

Asia/Pacific:

• Grand Hyatt Melbourne
• Hyatt Regency Perth
• Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur
• Hyatt Regency Guam
• Beijing/Shanghai/Macau
• Hyatt Regency Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui

Resorts

Some of my favorite hotels, not in cities, are resorts. For the most part I prefer beach resorts (like Hua Hin), although Hyatt Escala is a lodge in Park City and the Tamaya is in the desert of New Mexico.

• Hyatt Escala Lodge at Park City
• Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa
• Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort
• Hyatt Regency Hua Hin
• Grand Hyatt at Baha Mar

The most intriguing one is the Andaz Peninsula Papagayo in Costa Rica. It looks amazing. But… 1) The hotel is far away from where you most likely fly in, and thus it is certainly not a good use for only one night. And 2) I have no idea what the water is like over there. It’s a Pacific coast hotel, and thus the beaches are much more hit/ miss than the Caribbean, in my experience. Anyone been in this area of Costa Rica?

Conclusion

The reason I only list category 4 hotels when you could redeem them for Category 1 – 4 Hyatt hotels, is because I can always use points for the lower hotels. I figure you can use points when it’s a cheaper hotel, and when you get to the big expensive city like Hong Kong, use the cert. What you don’t want to happen is that you use your cert in a cheap city and then need to shell out the 15,000 points in the expensive city, when you could have spent 5,000 or 8,000 in the cheaper city.

While I preach saving your cert for a category 4, I usually burn first chance I get. Points, miles, and certs don’t last long with me. Trust me, I’m never in danger of points expiring. Burn, and burn with a category 4 hotel.