With Hyatt acquiring the Mr. and Mrs. Smith booking platform of independent luxury hotels (which meant IHG losing its Mr. and Mrs. Smith tie-in), their partnership with competitor SLH Hotels was always going to end. And in fact it terminates May 15, with SLH transitioning over to a partnership with Hilton.
Frequent Miler spoke with Hilton Chief Marketing Officer Mark Weinstein about bringing Small Luxury Hotels properties online for earning and redemption in the Hilton Honors portfolio.
- Hilton will integrate SLH Hotels in tranches, with just 100 expected to go online this year (with the first ones expected to go live this summer)
- Redemption pricing will follow Hilton’s current model, with the most expensive costing 150,000 points per night
- 5th night free for elites will apply and these hotels will be eligible for free night certificate redemption
- Status benefits like free breakfast or food and beverage credits will apply, though many of these properties provide breakfast to all guests to begin with.
I’ve taken advantage of redemptions at places like Point Grace Resort in Turks and Caicos and Wentworth Mansion in Charleston through World of Hyatt.
Grace Bay Beach, Turks and Caicos
Wentworth Mansion
The Mr. and Mrs. Smith deal is big for Hyatt members (some of those properties are just insane, and it’s a bigger portfolio than SLH), while picking up a partnership with SLH is big for Hilton members.
Fun news! Nice to see Hilton will have a property in T&C now. Looking forward to looking atwhat other properties are under the SLH umbrella
“Scorecards…scorecards. Can’t tell the players apart without a scorecard.”
Far too many brands with negligible differentiation.
I took a browse, and it’s a hugely mixed bag. Relatively modest locations in Central America for instance, for like $150/night. Then there are middling locations in the South Pacific that look really nice but maybe rundown/past their prime, or the locations are too urban, so prices are more like $250/night. Finally, I found the gems in the Maldives, and these are both plentiful and very expensive; potentially good redemptions to be found here.