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A few months ago Hyatt announced a partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH). And starting today, you can use your Hyatt points to book free nights at SLH locations for stays beginning December 6, 2018!
Hyatt already has a generous award chart and some of the most valuable hotel points out there. Plus, they’re easy to earn because you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio. So, for example, that 80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards point bonus you can earn with the Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card can easily be covered into a weekend stay at super expensive $1,000+ per night hotels.
With this change, Hyatt is also adding a category 8 to their award chart. But this category is only reserved for certain SLH locations, NOT Hyatt’s own hotels.
Hyatt & Chase Ultimate Rewards Points Are More Useful for Booking Luxury Hotels
Currently, you can use Hyatt points to book 50 SLH locations, but more will be available throughout this year and into next. Of the 50 hotels, all but 5 are located in Europe. So this news is especially useful for those planning a trip across the pond.
All World of Hyatt members will also get the following perks at participating SLH locations:
- Free WiFi
- Daily free continental breakfast
- One category room upgrade (at check-in if available)
- Early check-in (noon, based upon availability at check-in)
- Late check-out (2:00 pm, based upon availability at check-in)
That’s not a typo – all World of Hyatt members are getting these benefits. Some hotel chains don’t even give free breakfast to their top-tier elite members (I’m looking at you IHG). So this great news, especially if you don’t have Hyatt elite status!
It will be interesting to see how generous they are with the room upgrades. I’ve found that even with top-tier elite status at IHG or Marriott, I rarely get an upgrade that’s anything more than a “better” view, so I’m not counting on much from that perk. But the free WiFi and free breakfast can really add up.
You’ll also earn Hyatt points & elite night credits on your stays. You’ll get:
- 5 Hyatt Points per $1 spent on eligible SLH room spending
- World of Hyatt elite members will receive their bonus points on eligible spending (10% Discoverist, 20% Explorist, 30% Globalist)
- Qualifying nights at SLH hotels will count toward earning World of Hyatt elite-tier status
Along with this change, Hyatt is adding a new category 8 to their award chart. Hotels in this category cost 40,000 points per night. Hyatt has told us that they “have no plans for any Hyatt-branded hotels or resorts to move to the new Category 8.” But now that a category 8 is there, I’m wondering how long it will be before those plans change?
Overall, I’m excited about this news. I think you’ll still be able to get a better value for your Hyatt points compared to other hotel points, and having more options for free nights is never a bad thing. Hyatt’s award chart is especially generous when it comes to using points to upgrade into a suite. So that could be helpful at certain locations.
My biggest question is how many award nights will these new hotels make available? Generally, Hyatt is good about not playing games by limiting free night awards, but we’ll see how this partnership pans out.
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