Quintuple stacking with Hyatt

☀️ Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop — today’s issue is dedicated to the world of hotels: the good, the bad, and the fees that make you wonder if the minibar really is the least offensive charge on your bill.

Let’s get into it:

• 🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

• 🥞 Quintuple stacking with Hyatt

• 💸 Hotel resort fees (and how to avoid them)

• 🏨 IHG triple points promo

• 🏝️ All-inclusives vs. standard resorts: which is better?

🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

The answer will be revealed in tomorrow’s newsletter, so don’t miss it. 😉

🥞 Quintuple stacking with Hyatt

Sometimes a deal is so wild that you don’t just plan a stay around it — you plan an entire trip around the world.

That’s exactly what I just did with World of Hyatt. Right now, I have five different promos and perks stacking on top of each other, and the result is… absurd.

So let’s break down each layer of this quintuple stack, then I’ll show you how it all plays out in a single stay (and how to tweak it for yourself).

1. Milestone rewards

I’m currently sitting at 60 Hyatt nights for the year.

Because of Hyatt’s milestone rewards, every 10 nights earns me 10,000 bonus points. That’s basically a rolling rebate of 1,000 points per night just for continuing to check in.

2. New hotels bonus

Hyatt gives you 500 bonus points per night when you stay at newly opened properties.

The list refreshes monthly, and I deliberately picked hotels in Tallinn, Nanjing, Berlin, and even just last week in Bali that qualify.

Each one is handing me thousands of “free” points just for being new.

3. Targeted offer: 10,000 points for every 5 nights

Hyatt’s also running a ton of targeted promos right now. The one I got is 10,000 bonus points for every five qualifying nights, up to 50,000 points.

That’s a whopping 2,000 points per night on top of everything else.

4. Double points in Europe

Hyatt’s current global promo doubles your base points in Europe (also valid in Africa + the Middle East).

Combine that with my Globalist bonus and the card I use to pay (earning 4x UR points that can be transferred to Hyatt), and I’m racking up 15.5 Hyatt points per dollar on cash stays in Europe — where I currently have a bunch of stays booked.

5. Brand Explorer

Hyatt’s Brand Explorer gives you a free Category 1-4 certificate for every five different Hyatt brands you stay with.

As you can see, I’m one brand away from another cert, and next month, I’ll hit two new ones. That’s one free night locked in and progress toward the next.

Case study: Berlin’s Me and All Hotel

Take my upcoming stay at the brand-new Me and All Hotel Berlin East Side. I found a window where the hotel was priced around $90 per night, which is great.

Four nights cost me $360 total — but here’s what I get back:

• 1,800 points (base points)

• 1,800 points (Europe double points promo)

• 540 points (Globalist bonus)

• 2,000 points (new hotel bonus x four nights)

• 8,000 points (targeted offer)

• 4,000 points (milestone rewards)

• 1 free Category 1–4 night (Brand Explorer)

Total haul: 19,580 Hyatt points + one free night (not even including my credit card points).

That’s about $470 in points value plus a free night award, for a $360 cash stay. Absolutely ridiculous.

Other regions to stack

Not headed to Europe? Hyatt promos are hitting everywhere right now:

• 777 bonus points per night at casino hotels (like Vegas, baby 🎰)

• Up to 20,000 bonus points at Hyatt Regency hotels in the U.S.

• Triple points earned in Central and South America

Combine those with milestones, targeted offers, Brand Explorer, and the new hotel promo (there are a bunch in the U.S. right now), and you can stack like crazy even without leaving home.

Bottom line

World of Hyatt held out for months with no promos… and now it’s gone completely off the rails.

So check your Hyatt account, register for every offer you see, and start scheming — this is as good as Hyatt gets.

💸 Hotel resort fees (and how to avoid them)

Resort fees (sometimes called “destination” or “amenity” fees) are one of the most annoying inventions in modern travel.

Hotels tack them on at checkout for things like pool towels, gym access, or the privilege of drinking tap water — all while advertising a much lower nightly rate.

And they add up fast… so let’s talk about how you can avoid them.

Elite status

Some hotel programs remove fees as a benefit to top-tier elites. For example, if you’re a Hyatt Globalist, resort fees are waived even on paid stays.

At the Rio in Las Vegas (a Hyatt property), a weekday stay might be listed at just $50… but by the time you check out, you’re staring down $113 — with $56 of that coming from the resort fee alone.

With Globalist status, that $50 nightly fee disappears — cutting your total price nearly in half.

Book with points

Both World of Hyatt and Hilton Honors waive resort fees entirely on award stays. That means your points redemption price is truly the price — no $50 nightly surprises.

For Hilton fans, this premium Hilton card is basically a resort lover’s toolkit:

• A huge welcome offer you can use to book stays and skip resort fees.

• $400 in annual Hilton resort credits (up to $200 semi-annually), perfect for when you want to pay cash but still soften the blow.

Bottom line

Resort fees are the junk drawer of hotel pricing — nobody asked for them, and nobody really knows what’s in there.

But with the right status, points, or card, you don’t have to pay them.

🏨 IHG triple points promo

IHG One Rewards is back with a new promo that runs October 1 through December 31, 2025 — and it’s a pretty simple path to earning triple points on paid stays.

Here’s the deal: After you register, your next stays will rack up the following points:

All in, you can walk away with up to 70,000 total bonus points before the year wraps up.

Why does this matter?

Because once you cross into that 3× territory, even short stays can balloon into big point hauls. That means free nights faster — whether it’s a quick airport Holiday Inn or a fancy Kimpton getaway.

So if you’ve got IHG plans this fall, make sure you’re registered and ready to triple up.

To learn more about how to maximize your points and stays, check out our guide below:

🏝️ All-inclusives vs. standard resorts: which is better?

It wouldn’t be a hotel-themed newsletter without all-inclusives…

So let’s settle the age-old debate: is it better to go all-inclusive and toss your wallet aside, or stick with a standard resort where you only pay for what you actually use?

In this week’s Daily Drop YouTube video, we break down the pros and cons of both options, share real-world examples, and help you figure out which style matches your travel personality.

That’s it for today, my friends. I hope you enjoyed today’s stack-tastic adventure and hotel tips, and we’ll see you again tomorrow.

Ciao,

6.1944° S, 106.8229° E

With contributions by Tiffany Eastham and McKay Moffitt