If you've got a stack of World of Hyatt points and a New York trip on the calendar, the Hyatt Regency Times Square is one of the first properties you'll see when you start poking at award availability. It sits right on Times Square, it's bookable for somewhere between 21,000 and 29,000 points a night depending on the calendar, and the cash rates it competes with are some of the steepest in the Hyatt portfolio. That's the setup for a real points play, but it's also the setup for a "wait, is this actually the right Hyatt for my trip" question, because midtown Manhattan has options.
So let's run the math, talk about the property honestly, and figure out where this hotel fits in the World of Hyatt redemption toolkit.
What the property actually is
The Hyatt Regency Times Square is a roughly 487-room midtown Manhattan property that's been rebranded and renovated into full Hyatt Regency colors. It replaces an earlier 2014-vintage Hyatt-flagged hotel on the same block, and the relaunched version showed up under the Regency banner in early 2024 after renovations wrapped. The "this is the new Hyatt Regency in Times Square" framing is the version Hyatt is leading with now, and it's the version award-search tools surface when you punch in NYC dates.
If you've stayed at the older Hyatt that occupied this site, you should think of this as a meaningful refresh rather than a totally new building. Same neighborhood, same general bones, updated rooms and public spaces, and a Regency-tier service expectation.
The location reality (the good, the loud, the touristy)
The headline is location. The hotel sits in the literal Times Square area of midtown, which means you can walk to most Broadway theaters, to Rockefeller Center, to Bryant Park, and to the New York Public Library without ever needing a subway. Times Square-42nd Street Station is a few blocks south and gives you the 1, 2, 3, 7, N, Q, R, W, and S lines, so the rest of the city is one short ride away.
The trade-off is that Times Square is Times Square. It's crowded, it's loud, the nearest casual restaurants are tourist-priced, and a Times Square-facing room can be bright and noisy at night. Interior-facing rooms are quieter and usually cheaper. If you're a sleeper-with-a-window-open type, this is worth flagging at check-in.
For a first-time New York trip, a family with kids who want to see the lights, or a business traveler with midtown meetings, that location math is fantastic. For a romantic weekend or a "I want to feel like a local" trip, it isn't. We'll get to the comparison set in a minute.
Points pricing and the redemption math
This is where it gets interesting. The Hyatt Regency Times Square is currently listed as a World of Hyatt Category 6 property, which means the standard award chart looks like this:
- Off-peak: 21,000 points per night
- Standard: 25,000 points per night
- Peak: 29,000 points per night
The 5th-night-free benefit applies on award stays in World of Hyatt, so if you book five consecutive nights with points, you pay for four. On a five-night standard-rate stay that's 100,000 points for the whole booking instead of 125,000. For a high-cost NYC week, that's a real number.
Cash rates at this property bounce around more than the points chart does. In peak New York seasons, which is most of the second half of the year and Broadway-heavy weekends, you'll see standard rooms running roughly $400 to $700 a night before tax and fees. In shoulder windows, $250 to $400 is more typical. Holiday weeks and any Times Square event date will price even higher.
Run the redemption math at the peak end of the cash chart and you get something like this: a $500 cash room against a 25,000-point standard award is exactly 2.0 cents per point. A $600 room against the same 25,000 standard chart hits 2.4 cpp. Both numbers comfortably beat the conservative 1.7 cpp baseline I use for Hyatt redemptions, and that's before we count the value of the 5th-night-free benefit on longer stays.
When cash rates dip to the $250 shoulder, the math gets less exciting (1.0 cpp at standard award pricing isn't enough to burn 25,000 Hyatt points), and you're better off paying cash or saving your points for a better-value Hyatt property like Park Hyatt New York.
That cpp swing is the entire game. The Hyatt Regency Times Square is a great points redemption when New York is expensive and a mediocre one when it isn't.
How to actually get points into your World of Hyatt account
If you don't have a Hyatt balance yet, the two cleanest routes are Chase Ultimate Rewards and Bilt Rewards, both of which transfer to World of Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio. Chase is the workhorse here. If you carry a Sapphire Reserve, a Sapphire Preferred, or one of the Ink Business cards, your Ultimate Rewards balance is one click away from Hyatt points, and that's the path most readers take.
Bilt is the second route, and it's the one to use if you're earning Bilt points through rent or through their dining and travel categories. The transfer ratio is the same 1:1, so the math doesn't change; it's just a different earning stream feeding the same account.
The cleanest version of the play is to earn Chase or Bilt points, transfer the exact number you need for your stay (don't transfer extra; points become Hyatt points permanently once they leave), and book the award directly through Hyatt. No portal, no markup, no rebooking risk.
There's also the Chase Sapphire Reserve play if you want to mix cash and credits: the card's annual travel credit applies to Hyatt bookings made directly with the card or through Chase Travel, so a cash booking can effectively be discounted by the credit. For a one-night stay where points don't pencil out, that's a real lever.
Status benefits at this property
If you've got World of Hyatt status, the Regency Times Square is a property where the benefits actually translate to dollar value, mostly because New York food and parking are so expensive that any included amenity is worth real money.
Globalist is the headline tier. The benefits travelers care about here are free breakfast (an $80 to $100 daily value at a midtown property, easily), club lounge access where available, 4pm late checkout, suite upgrades when inventory cooperates, and complimentary parking where the property offers it. In a market where breakfast for two at the hotel restaurant is a $100 line item, the Globalist breakfast benefit alone can cover the cost of the stay.
Explorist gets you an enhanced room category at booking when one is available, plus complimentary premium internet.
Discoverist gets you late checkout and premium internet.
Worth knowing: World of Hyatt doesn't charge resort or destination fees on award stays, which is a meaningful structural advantage versus Marriott Bonvoy or IHG One Rewards properties in similar urban markets. New York mandatory hotel taxes still apply on cash stays, but you're not stacking a property-specific "destination fee" on top of an award booking the way you would at some competing brands.
How this Hyatt stacks up against the other NYC Hyatts
This is the part of the analysis that matters most, because if you're sitting on Hyatt points and looking at New York, the Regency Times Square isn't your only option. Here's how I'd think about the comparison set:
Park Hyatt New York sits near Central Park on West 57th Street and is a true luxury flagship. It's a World of Hyatt Category 8 property, which means peak award nights run 45,000 points and standard runs 40,000. You're paying significantly more points per night, but the cash rates are also higher (peak nights at the Park Hyatt routinely top $1,000), so the cpp can pencil out beautifully. This is the "I want a special-occasion New York stay" pick.
Andaz 5th Avenue, near Bryant Park, is a smaller boutique-leaning property with a different feel from the Regency. Category 6 like the Times Square Regency. The neighborhood is quieter, the rooms are bigger on average, and the vibe is less mass-tourism. If you want a Hyatt redemption that doesn't put you in the middle of the Times Square crowds, this is usually where I'd look first.
Thompson Central Park New York is a Hyatt affiliate property at a similar price tier with a Central Park-adjacent location. The brand experience is more lifestyle than business-traditional.
Grand Hyatt New York near Grand Central is in a state of flux as of writing, so check current World of Hyatt status before assuming it's bookable on points.
The decision matrix I'd hand a friend looks like this: first-time NYC visitor or family trip wanting tourist proximity, the Regency Times Square wins on location. Quieter trip, romantic getaway, or anyone who wants to feel less like a tourist, the Andaz 5th Avenue is the better Category 6 pick. Special-occasion trip with a deep points balance, the Park Hyatt is worth the extra spend. Midtown business trip with subway needs, the Regency Times Square works.
Booking-class fine print to know before you click
A few things that come up at this property and that I'd want to know going in:
Standard rooms come in queen or king configurations. Suites are bookable at higher rates or with suite upgrade awards if you've got Globalist status and inventory cooperates. Times Square-view rooms are premium-priced compared to interior rooms; the view is great for one night and gets old by night three. If you're staying multiple nights and don't care about the sign, ask for interior at check-in.
New York hotel taxes are real. On cash stays you'll see the city's hotel occupancy tax, sales tax, and a per-night fee stacked on, which can add roughly 14% to 17% plus a few dollars per night. On award stays you skip the room rate but still owe the taxes on the cash portion (very small) and any incidentals.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith integration brought a batch of additional boutique New York properties into the World of Hyatt redemption universe in the last couple of years. If you've never poked at it, the Smith side of the World of Hyatt search now surfaces independent hotels in neighborhoods like SoHo and the West Village that price out in a similar points range. It's worth running a parallel search before defaulting to the Regency.
Common mistakes I see at this property
A few patterns show up over and over when readers ask me about Times Square Hyatt bookings, and most of them are avoidable.
The first is over-transferring points. World of Hyatt is the one currency where you should transfer the exact number you need, then book immediately. Hyatt doesn't deposit miles back into your transfer partner account if you cancel, so a 100,000-point transfer for a stay you end up not taking leaves you sitting on a Hyatt balance you may not want. Move 25,000 for one night or 100,000 for five (with the 5th-night-free benefit applied), book, and move on.
The second is booking the wrong nights. The off-peak, standard, and peak designations on the Hyatt award chart are set by the property, not by you, and they shift with demand. Sometimes a Wednesday in late January is off-peak while the Thursday is standard. Always check the next-day pricing before locking in a multi-night booking; you might be able to shift your check-in by a day and save 4,000 to 8,000 points across the stay.
The third is forgetting to apply Globalist suite upgrades. If you've got the status, the upgrade nights you earn each anniversary year work on confirmed standard suites at most properties, including this one. Calling Hyatt and applying a TSU to a Times Square stay can turn a 25,000-point room into a 25,000-point suite, which is often the difference between a "fine" New York stay and a great one.
The fourth is sleeping on the Mr. and Mrs. Smith parallel inventory. New York has a lot of independent boutique properties on the Smith side of World of Hyatt now, and they price in the same general points range as a Category 6 Hyatt-branded hotel. Run both searches before you commit.
Where I'd actually start
For most readers with a Hyatt balance and a Times Square-adjacent New York trip on the books, the answer is this: book the Regency Times Square with points if the cash rate at your dates clears about $400 a night. Below that, you're better off paying cash, saving the points for a more valuable redemption (Park Hyatt New York, a Category 7 international property, or a 5th-night-free week at any Category 6 or higher resort), and putting the cash spend on a card that earns Chase or Bilt points so you're rebuilding the balance you're not using.
If your trip is shoulder-season cheap, look at the Andaz 5th Avenue or run the Mr. and Mrs. Smith inventory before defaulting to the Times Square property. If your trip is a special-occasion blowout, Park Hyatt. If your trip is "I'm taking the family to see the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center" or "I've got Broadway tickets and want to walk to the theater," the Regency Times Square is doing exactly what it should be doing.
That's the framework. The rest is the calendar.
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