Hyatt has been on a tear for the last year, figuring out how to add more value for members, especially elite members and frequent guests. Honestly, I haven’t seen anything like it in years.

Last year they pioneered free internet for elites, at the same time they (1) lifted capacity controls on award nights — if there’s a standard room available, it’s available on points, matching Starwood’s redemption proposition and (2) offered confirmed at booking suite upgrades for their Diamond members four times a year.

I wish there were more Hyatt properties, because over the last 12 months they’ve clearly been offering the best value proposition of any hotel chain.

They also continue to bring back the richest bonus promotion in the hotel industry. I will always call it “Faster Free Nights” but thehy call it The Big Welcome Back: a free night anywhere in the world for every two Hyatt stays made by June 30, with free nights valid for use by August 31.

Starwood and Hilton have their own free night promos, Hilton takes 4 stays or 10 nights for a freebie though they offer a longer redemption period, and Starwood takes 3 stays rather than two and only lets you use the award nights on the weekend.  I do consider Hyatt’s to be the benchmark bonus in the industry.

For about 12 months I’ve been saying that it’s time to tkae a hard look at Hyatt to see if you can make it work for your stay pattern. And they’re making it especially easy to do that, since for all of 2010 they’re offering instant platinum status and fast track to Diamond status — just 15 nights in 2010 for Diamond status through February 2012.

So I was thrilled when Hyatt offered to let me give away two sets of Hyatt Place free night packages. They offered me a package as well for myself but instead of keeping it I decided to give it away on Twitter instead. (I admit, I’m more of a luxury hotels guy than a Hyatt Place, though I don’t mind accruing Big Welcome Back nights with mattress runs at Hyatt Place properties or Summerfield Suites and redeeming them at Park Hyatts…)

And now it gets even better: my contact has now offered me two sets of two free Big Welcome Back nights to give away! So here it is.

Two chances to win:

1. Leave a comment in this thread, ne comment entry per person. Preferably your comment would speculate on which Hyatt you’d like to redeem your nights at if you win.

2. You can also follow me on Twitter.

I will draw two winners at random from the pool made up of Twitter followers and people who leave a comment on this post. You can enter via either method or both.

The free nights, being Big Welcome Back nights, expire August 31.

Comment here, follow me, or both by noon Eastern time on Sunday, April 25 for a chance to win!

By way of full disclosure, like with the Hyatt Place night giveaway, they’ve offered me a couple of nights for myself. Guess what? Those I’m not offering up, I plan to use them though I will probably need to top off with a few more to make a really nice redemption trip.