Hyatt bought Mr & Mrs Smith a year ago. That’s a booking platform for independent and small chain luxury hotels. It’s larger than Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) with which Hyatt had partnered – SLH is moving over to Hilton instead – and the idea was a closer collaboration with Mr & Mrs Smith could be possible by owning the company.

A year later, World of Hyatt members can now:

• redeem points at 700 Mr & Mrs Smith properties – that’s twice as many properties as they had through SLH, and not even half of Mr & Mrs Smith is included so far
  
• earn points (including elite bonuses) as well as elite night credit when booking direct at these properties

Hyatt says this adds 20 new countries to their coverage, and Mr & Mrs Smith is now a brand for Hyatt’s ‘brand explorer’ promotion that offers a free category 1-4 free night for every 5 unique brands a member has stayed at (with each brand counting one time). Mr & Mrs Smith stays also qualifies for double dipping American AAdvantage miles with Hyatt points as well (and those miles count as loyalty points towards AAdvantage status).

Amazing Hotels

Mr & Mrs Smith includes some absolutely insane hotels for instance several Virgin Limited Edition properties – even Richard Branson’s estate on Moskito Island. That’s the home where he actually lives, merely visiting Necker Island a couple of miles away.

The portfolio includes places like the Hamptons and Martha’s Vineyard where it’s tough to use points and there’s even some Aman Resorts properties. Sadly, the Aman properties do not participate and do not intend to be added later.

Branson Estate on Moskito Island is part of Mr & Mrs Smith

Hyatt didn’t release the list of participating properties in advance but they’re available at Hyatt’s hotel explorer tool where you can filter by the Mr & Mrs Smith brand.

In addition to the initial ~ 700 properties, Hyatt will be onboarding more Mr & Mrs Smith hotels each quarter, and the Mr & Mrs Smith platform continues to add hotels at a pace of around 30 per month. However it is not anticipated that all Mr & Mrs Smith properties will join World of Hyatt – even new properties added to that portfolio may not.

How Much Will Redemptions Cost?

Hyatt is making any paid rate room at a participating Mr & Mrs Smith property available for redemption. In one sense, that’s better than some SLH properties, where availability was perennially a problem. But it suggests they’re really just using Hyatt points as a currency against prevailing room price – as opposed to offering outsized value like you can sometimes get redeeming a fixed number of points for a hotel when room rates are high.

Hyatt promoted several pricing examples, that I suspect were meant to sound like very few points to people unfamiliar with the specific hotels:

• Life House Berkshires at 8,750 points, but this is a hotel that seems to book for ~ $110
  
• No. 42 GuestHouse Margate at 16,250 points, but this is a hotel that seems to book for ~ $180
  
• Hotel Aguas Claras in Costa Rica at ‘just over 24,000 points per night’ – for a hotel that seems to book for under $400

Put another way, redemption values hover under a penny and a half apiece which isn’t terrible but also not exciting. We’re unlikely to get outsized value on these redemptions. The most expensive hotels are going to cost a large number of points, but it will be possible to redeem any room type as well – not just base rooms.

Hyatt emphasizes that this is not a broader move towards dynamic pricing within their portfolio, and that these properties are a special case. I believe that, while also remembering that the introduction of category 8 in the award chart was supposed to be only for the priciest SLH hotels – and that Hyatt’s own hotels wouldn’t be category 8. At the time I said it was inevitable that existing Hyatts would become category 8, and it turns out assurances to the contrary lasted just a year.

Elite Benefits Are Limited

Elite benefits are limited. That seems odd, in a way, because Mr & Mrs Smith has its own elite program that confers benefits on members staying at participating properties, and because the SLH Hotels partnership included some benefits like breakfast, a one category upgrade if available, and early check-in and late check-out if available.

However,

• Globalists “may receive an upgraded room upon arrival at Participating Mr & Mrs Smith Properties depending on availability.”
  
• And Smith Extras on arrival “may be available for World of Hyatt members who booked through Hyatt channels”

Redemption stays, like paid stays, will earn credit towards elite status of course – which will tend to be more rewarded at Hyatt’s more traditional full service properties.

Booking Paid Mr & Mrs Smith Stays Outside Of Hyatt May Be Better

Many hotels offer their best rates when booking direct. You’ll need to book through Hyatt to earn points and stay credit, but Hyatt’s own Best Rate Guarantee doesn’t apply so you may pay more for Hyatt benefits.

Mr & Mrs Smith has its own price guarantee where they offer to match lower prices found elsewhere within 24 hours of booking. However even though the Mr & Mrs Smith booking platform is owned by Hyatt, it is not considered a Hyatt channel for receiving points and benefits – and so the price guarantee can’t be combined with points-earning and stay credit.

Specifically, Hyatt tells me that:

If a member sees a better rate elsewhere they will be referred over to Mr & Mrs Smith to honor this rate under their BPG policy and if honored, the guest will need to cancel the booking through Hyatt direct channels and re-book this via Mr & Mrs Smith. They will therefore lose the World of Hyatt benefits.

This separation of Hyatt bookings and benefits from Mr & Mrs Smith bookings and benefits also means that you cannot combine Hyatt points-earning and stay credit with stay credit and benefits from Mr & Mrs Smith’s loyalty program.

Mr & Mrs Smith Will Continue Separately From World Of Hyatt

Mr & Mrs Smith will continue to add hotels, only some of which will be added to World of Hyatt. And Mr & Mrs Smith’s loyalty program “will continue to operate, and you can leverage its benefits when booking directly through Mr & Mrs Smith only.”

Hyatt-Mr & Mrs Smith Takeaway

It seems to me that since Hyatt owns the Mr & Mrs Smith booking platform, there’s a straightforward opportunity here that’s not yet being exploited, essentially using that platform for their own direct bookings, and guaranteeing rates. Instead, booking through Hyatt for points and elite stay credit means potentially paying a higher rate.

In order to book a paid rate, it’s worth and even necessary comparing price to see if you’re overpaying and by how much. And then you’ll need to calculate whether the Hyatt points and credit is worth benefits you’d get through other plaforms with the same hotels. In other words, it’s potentially worth booking these hotels through Hyatt – but it’s work and you have to do a calculation.

And while being able to book any room with points is great in theory, taking these hotels out of the category system (SLH Hotels were all assigned a redemption category) presumably means just using points as cash against a paid rate more or less, and that likely means not getting outsized value for your points, so redemptions are less valuable.

There are some amazing hotels in the Mr & Mrs Smith portfolio. Hopefully this is just the first step in making those accessible and attractive to Hyatt members. There needs to be more to fully realize the benefits of this acquisition, beyond Hyatt’s simply earning the commission stream that it generates and rebating some of that to customers at a higher rate than Mr & Mrs Smith’s own program had done.

Hyatt needs to offer the best available rates at these hotels, or the paid value proposition isn’t going to work. And ideally they’d negotiate the ability to offer distressed inventory to members redeeming points at discount.