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Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) launched a gift card deal this week giving a 20% bonus when buying their gift cards.
The Deal
- Get a 20% bonus when buying $50+ Small Luxury Hotels of the World gift cards.
- Direct link to offer.
Key Terms
- Expires December 18, 2022 at 23:59 GMT +8.
- Gift card value expires after 12 months.
Quick Thoughts
Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) is the collection of properties that has a partnership with Hyatt. Unfortunately it’s not very clear as to whether or not it’s possible to use these gift cards on SLH stays booked via Hyatt.
Reader Vincent gave us a heads up about this SLH gift card deal and he asked SLH if he could use the gift cards to pay for an SLH stay booked via Hyatt. The reply he received stated that SLH gift cards can only be redeemed on stays booked via SLH.com and not via Hyatt’s website. However, if you’re booking a non-prepaid rate, I’d have thought that you could book via Hyatt and ask to pay with gift cards when checking out. I guess there’s some element of risk though that SLH stays booked via Hyatt use some kind of different booking system that wouldn’t allow you to pay for those stays with gift cards at checkout, so please let us know in the comments below if you have any experience with this seeing as SLH ran a similar deal last year too.
Something else important to note is that the gift cards expire after 12 months. I’m a little surprised by that seeing as the law states that gift cards can’t expire for at least 5 years, so I don’t know if SLH has found some kind of loophole or if there’s a class action lawsuit in the making here.
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Would you be able to use these gift cards for incidentals on stays booked through hyatt (points or otherwise)?
Sale is over, but for future reference — I think I have enough data points to say that these cards cannot be used on SLH stays booked through Hyatt:
1- emailed SLH on 2 differrent occasions, same response, no
2- emailed SLH property (without mentioning Hyatt) where I have a reservation and the general manager was very clear the answer was no
3- there is at least one comment on the OMAAT post consistent with the above
So I bought one of these last year (2021) without reading the 12 month expiration small print. Got an email reminder this fall that my gift card was expiring and panic set in. Booked a somewhat “unnecessary” trip just to make sure it wouldn’t go to waste.
Following the instructions, I made sure to book on slh.com and made note of my gift card # in the reservation. But then, closer to my trip, I saw the same hotel had a pre-paid rate that was 15% cheaper than slh.com on the hotel’s direct website. I called the hotel and said: “If I book a prepaid rate directly with you, can I, once I arrive, switch the ‘prepaid’ payment method to a SLH gift card”. They said sure, but this was still a gamble.
At the hotel, I had to share my gift card info with the receptionist who said they had to verify the Gift Card with SLH. For anyone who’s used a Hyatt or Marriott gift card you know you generally share that at checkout and they immediately can verify the amount and credit it to the room charges. It took about 24 hours, but my gamble worked; they credited my original prepayment method (Credit Card) and applied the full value of GC including 20% bonus.
Although I had booked directly with the hotel, I also asked them to add my World of Hyatt number in the hope maybe I would get elite nights and/or could later ask Hyatt about crediting me for the stay. The receptionist said I wouldn’t be eligible for any WoH benefits since the stay was booked directly through hotel and not Hyatt, but I said that was fine (to be honest, I was mainly interested in the elite night credit to hit Globalist again). The elite nights/stay didn’t automatically post on my Hyatt account, but I’m going to contact Hyatt and see what happens. I will report back.
With all the benefits of booking through WoH (mainly elite night credit for me) as well as all the other programs out there that give solid benefits (Hyatt Prive, Amex FHR, Virtuoso, etc.), I don’t see this 20% bonus at full face value. I also tend to find SLH properties are somewhat limited in footprint, especially in the US. They also tend to be expensive, especially when you can sometimes book the same hotel for a reasonable amount of Hyatt points or find a decent Hyatt property nearby.
For anyone who is explicitly planning to stay at a SLH property and doesn’t need elite nights or care about WoH benefits on the stay, this is a decent deal. Some of the foreign properties look quite nice, but that requires more planning and expenses to get there. I think you can probably book directly with the hotel (both regular and prepaid rates) and get the hotel to accept and apply the SLH gift card (contrary to the scary terms), but I’d call the hotel ahead of time to verify. My stay was in the US. Not sure if foreign locations would be more stingy
If you read the terms they’re issued in the UK, different laws. Terms also state you have to present them at check-in. There’s a bunch of T&C in there that will keep me from buying them.
Might be worth buying just to get in the class action lawsuit… Kidding (just a little)
Re the 12 month expiry of GCs. This is a U.K. thing and as the terms of this sale say that the sale SLH Gift Cards “are subject to the laws of England and the courts of England…” that’s how they’re getting away with such a short expiry term.