TLDR: Category 1 Hyatts are the cheapest hotel stays around, starting at just 3,500 points/night. However, that doesn't mean you're sacrificing quality—there are some excellent redemptions in intriguing locations with these cheaper properties.
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Category 1 Hyatts may be on the “bottom” tier of Hyatt categories, but that doesn’t mean you are sacrificing your quality of stay. These hotels are often in areas that do not have peak desirability and may have fewer amenities. However, they will still live up to that excellent Hyatt standard.
These hotels are often less costly than Hyatts in other categories with points OR cash. You can get a Category 1 Hyatt on an off-peak booking time for 3,500 points. For a standard booking time you can get it for 5,000 points and for peak booking times at 6,500 points.
Category 1 Hyatts can be great value depending on what you are looking for. There are many Category 1 Hyatts in major cities in the US as well as in the suburbs. A lot of these hotels that are in Category 1 are Hyatt Places or Hyatt Houses which means they have complimentary free breakfast. Hyatt Places and Hyatt Houses are certain types of hotels that Hyatt offers under the Hyatt brand name. And you are receiving free breakfast for an amazing cost with points OR cash. Points prices range usually between 3,500 to 6,500 points while cash prices usually are about $50-200/night.
If you are looking for an extended hotel stay, these Category 1 Hyatts are great. Let’s say you have 32,500 Hyatt points (or 32,500 points transferable to Hyatt), you could book a 5 night stay during peak booking times at any Category 1 Hyatt in the US.
Now it's all well and good to talk about this generally but I’ll give you a couple of examples. If you are looking for a wintertime getaway or just looking for some warmer weather, then the Hyatt Place Tucson-Central in Tucson Arizona could be the spot for you. You could book this hotel from December 10th to the 17th for $90 a night (before taxes). You could also book the same dates for points at 5,000 points a night. The Hyatt Place Tucson-Central is just a 5 minute drive to the city while you also have access to places like Saguaro National Park (just 20 mins away) and Tucson’s historic downtown (just 10 mins away).
As for the hotel room, you can get a king bed and a sofa bed or two queen beds. Great for a group of three or four. And as a reminder you can get the points or cash rates whether there are 1, 2, 3 or 4 staying in the room.
You may not be a warm weather person or you might be looking for a different type of getaway. So I’m going to showcase the Hyatt Place Sterling-Dulles Airport-North right outside of Washington D.C. It's a nice switchup from the hotel in Tucson as it's on the east coast with some different offerings and vibe. A great time to visit DC is during the Cherry Blossom blooming season. So let’s look into booking next year, April 1st to the 6th, 2026. You could book this stay at the Hyatt Place Sterling-Dulles Airport-North for $133 a night for 4 people or $118 a night for 2 people. As for points, you can book for 6,500 points for 1, 2, 3 or 4 people. This hotel can be nice for business and leisure travelers alike.
The hotel is near Dulles airport so as a business traveler you don’t have to worry about a long commute to and from the airport. And it's only a 35 minute drive to the heart of DC which makes it easy for leisure travelers to spend the day in DC or for a business traveler heading to the city for a conference.
There are absolutely fantastic things to do in DC as well. You can visit the White House, the Capitol building, or the Supreme Court building. You can also visit all the Smithsonian museums and take a stroll on the National Mall. Or if you are into sporting events, you could check out the Nationals (baseball) or the Capitals (hockey).
For the hotel room, you can choose a king bed and a sofa bed or two double beds depending on your preferences.
These two hotels should serve as two great examples for you to start thinking about if booking a Category 1 Hyatt hotel is right for you. Hyatt has Category 1 hotels down the East Coast, in the Midwest, and many in the South. You can explore Category 1 Hyatt hotels using the map search tool for their hotels. Here’s a link for the map filtered for Category 1 hotels: https://www.hyatt.com/explore-hotels/map?categories=1
There are many ways to accrue Hyatt points to help you book your next Category 1 Hyatt stay. My favorite way is with Chase points.
In order to get Chase points, you would need to get a Chase branded credit card like the Chase Freedom Unlimited® or Ink Business Cash® Credit Card. With cards like these, you will first earn cash back which you can then convert into Chase points. For instance, every $100 you earn in cash back can be converted to 10,000 Chase points.
Once you get these Chase points, you can transfer the points to Hyatt as long as you have a premium Chase card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. The Chase points would transfer at a 1:1 rate.
You could book the Hyatt Regency Sydney in Sydney, Australia for just 15,000 Hyatt points. An excellent deal. And with the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you can earn 100,000 Chase points with the welcome bonus after spending $6,000 in the first three months from the account opening.
Another way to get Hyatt points is with the World of Hyatt Credit Card. You can earn 30,000 Hyatt points after spending $3,000 in your first three months from the account opening. Plus, you can get up to 30,000 more Bonus Points by earning 2 Bonus Points total per $1 spent in the first 6 months from account opening on purchases that normally earn 1 Bonus Point, on up to $15,000 spent
As a Hyatt member, you can earn 5 points per $1 spent at Hyatt hotels. And your earnings only increase with your Hyatt status:
I mentioned one hotel that could be great for business travelers—the Hyatt Place Sterling-Dulles Airport-North in Washington D.C. There’s many others that could be convenient for business travelers.
The Hyatt House Dallas-Las Colinas and the Hyatt Place Dallas-Las Colinas are excellent options for those going to Dallas for business travel. Both hotels are near the Dallas airport (5-10 minute drive). If you’re planning on hosting a conference, both hotels offer amazing meeting spaces. My preference is the Hyatt House as its meeting spaces have big ceilings and great lighting. And if you need to head to downtown Dallas it's a 15-20 minute drive. Being so close to the airport has its perks where you can rent a car conveniently for all your travel for the work trip.
Another two great options are the Hyatt Place Cincinnati-Sharonville Convention Center or the Hyatt Place Cincinnati Airport-Florence. One is a 10 minute drive to the Cincinnati airport while the other is steps away from a convention center. As a business traveler you may want to host a massive convention but are looking for the right place to do it. With Cincinnati being in the heart of the US, it might be the perfect place to congregate everyone across the US. In both places, you don’t have to worry about breakfast as it is complimentary.
Category 1 Hyatts can be great for a whole host of travelers. It can be great for business travelers looking for a convenient and cost efficient stay without sacrificing quality. It can also be great for a family looking for an extended stay with a Hyatt hotel without breaking the bank. Easy and decent free breakfast every morning. Or you could even go for a romantic getaway in a place like Washington DC to check out the Cherry Blossoms.
And if you are looking for something more extravagant or a vacation in a popular area, then you can check out the 7 other categories of Hyatts up to Category 8.