In December 2018 the rewards program of Hyatt hotels and resorts, World of Hyatt, embarked on a fabulous new partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH). SLH is a collection of 520 independent—and often highly coveted—boutique hotels across 80 countries, some of which command over $1,000 per night.
Through a collaboration with SLH, World of Hyatt has made select SLH properties attainable as award bookings. In addition, when booking SLH hotels through the Hyatt website, all World of Hyatt members receive perks like free breakfast, unlimited Wi-Fi, and availability-based room upgrades.
Over the course of 2019, a growing number of SLH properties, many bucket-list worthy, became bookable with World of Hyatt points. Think: Le Barthélemy Hotel and Spa in St. Barths, Le Pavillon de la Reine in Paris, France, Keemala Resort in Thailand, and The Liming Bequia in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. And now, we’re excited to report that as of this month 50 more SLH properties have been brought into the World of Hyatt fold, reaching a milestone 250 for the brands’ partnership. Highlights of the new additions include: The Merchant House in Bahrain; Ka’ana Resort in Belize; Hotel ai Reali, Mont Blanc Hotel Village, and Il Salviatino in Italy; Inverlochy Castle in Scotand; Le Grand Bellevue in Switzerland; and Canaves Oia Epitome and Canaves Oia Hotel in Santorini, Greece.
One of the many things we love about these new additions and the partnership is that SLH properties are available for award redemptions through a highly reasonable, eight-category system, with year-round pricing in World of Hyatt points (meaning no peak vs. off-peak pricing nonsense):
- Category 1: 5,000 points
- Category 2: 8,000 points
- Category 3: 12,000 points
- Category 4: 15,000 points
- Category 5: 20,000 points
- Category 6: 25,000 points
- Category 7: 30,000 points
- Category 8: 40,000 points
Considering how much other programs like Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors charge for award redemptions, these SLH properties are real point steals!
And booking award reservations is easy. Just log on to World of Hyatt as you normally would to book an award stay for a Hyatt-branded property. Then, search for hotels by destination and all availability across all brands, including SLH, will populate. Check the box Use Points and you’re good to go!
On the flip side, if you are looking to do a cash booking at an SLH hotel, we suggest doing it through the World of Hyatt website rather than SLH’s direct website. In addition to five base Hyatt points per $1 (USD) spent at participating hotels, members also get the following perks:
- Complimentary continental breakfast for two
- Complimentary Wi-Fi
- Early check-in of 12:00 p.m. and late check-out up to 2:00 p.m. (based on availability at check-in)
- One category room upgrade (based on availability at check-in)
You’ll rack up points fast, but if you want to rack them up faster, consider this. Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Sapphire Preferred cardmembers can transfer to World of Hyatt from Ultimate Rewards at a 1:1 ratio. Additionally, for a sweet initial bonus, the World of Hyatt Credit Card currently offers a 50,000-point bonus (25,000 bonus points after $3,000 spend within the first three months of account opening, and 25,000 additional bonus points after $6,000 total spend within the first six months of account opening). And knowing that it’s just a matter of time until everyone catches on to these SLH steals (and redemption values go up or points’ availability goes down), we suggest collecting and redeeming points through this partnership ASAP!
