Hyatt Launches Small Luxury Hotels Partnership With 54 Hotels

Hyatt has been making some noise lately as they increase the size of their global footprint.  They announced the acquisition of Two Roads Hospitality, which is due to add about 70 properties worldwide.  Most of those hotels fall under “luxury” or “interesting”, great additions to the family.  Hyatt also announced this summer a partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World.  At the time of the announcement, it wasn’t clear how many hotels would be included, nor what the integration timeline would look like.  We now have more details.

Small Luxury Hotels Benefits

The partnership between Hyatt and SLH officially starts today.  Here’s what members can expect:

Earning and Redemption:

• World of Hyatt members earn 5 Base Points per $1 USD spent on eligible room revenue
• World of Hyatt members will receive their standard tier Bonus Points on eligible room revenue spend (10% Discoverist, 20% Explorist, 30% Globalist)
• Qualifying nights at SLH hotels will count toward earning World of Hyatt elite-tier status
• World of Hyatt members can redeem points to use for free night awards on SLH hotel reservations; each SLH property has been categorized into Hyatt’s existing hotel award chart, which includes a new Category 8 at 40,000 points

On the earning and redemption side, this matches existing expectations for members.  They’ll earn the same number of points they would normally earn and be able to redeem at roughly 50 hotels at the outset.  Stays at participating SLH hotels will count towards elite status qualification.  Hyatt confirmed that some hotels will start in a new Category 8, costing 40,000 points per night for award redemptions.  We knew that a category 8 was coming.  Many folks think there will be category creep from existing category 7 Hyatt hotels into this new category.  I haven’t been able to dig into all the SLH properties yet to see how much award redemptions will cost. Stay tuned for that.

Member Benefits:

Participating SLH properties will provide the following on-property benefits to all World of Hyatt members:

• Complimentary Wi-Fi
• Daily Complimentary Continental Breakfast
• Room Upgrade (one category at check-in if available)
• Early check-in (noon, based upon availability at check-in)
• Late check-out (2:00pm, based upon availability at check-in)

Not too many surprises here.  The breakfast benefit is less valuable than at some Hyatt hotels now, and the late check-out benefit is as well.  All in all, a reasonable slate of benefits for hotels that aren’t officially part of the Hyatt program.

List of Participating Hotels

Here’s a screenshot of the first batch of SLH participating hotels:

The (First) Final Two Pennies

The thing I love most about this announcement is how it fills in the map.  Italy has been a big sore spot on Hyatt’s map.  It also happens to be my favorite country.  Up until now, you could stay in Milan and….Milan.  Now, popular spots like Rome and Venice are added to the list, as well as Verona, Naples, Monza and Florence.  We also pick up some Greek islands and desirable locations in Spain and France.

Surely, there will be some people who will gnash their teeth about 40,000 points a night.  But, some of these hotels look pretty darn awesome.

The nuts and bolts of the relationship are actually just a bit better than I would have expected at the outset.  Earning and redeeming is just like a normal Hyatt, including elite status credit.  That’s probably a bit better than I was expecting.  And, if I think about it, I probably didn’t expect guaranteed late check-out.  Free continental breakfast for all members is a nice touch.

All in all, there’s plenty to be pleased about with today’s announcement.  We need to dig into the hotels a bit more to see how much they award redemptions will be.  And, I’m eager to find out when we’ll see more hotels added.  SLH has over 500, so there are plenty more opportunities to fill in the map!  Stay tuned for more breakdown on the properties.

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