Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
The Pillars Hotel, located in Fort Lauderdale Florida, is a SLH (Small Luxury Hotels of the World) property which is bookable through Hyatt with points or cash. When booking an SLH property through Hyatt, your room rate includes the following:
- Complimentary wifi
- Daily complimentary continental breakfast
- Room Upgrade (one category at check-in, if available)
- Early check-in (noon, based upon availability at check-in)
- Late check-out (2:00PM, based upon availability at check-in)
Pillars Hotel Fort Lauderdale Bottom Line Review
My wife and I stayed here for only one night, but we’re eager to return. We liked everything about this hotel.
- Price: 20,000 Hyatt points per night (vs. about $380 per night at the time)
- Value: Good. In my opinion, this boutique hotel is worth the price.
- Location: Very good. This boutique hotel is on the west side of the island of Fort Lauderdale beach right near the Ritz Carlton. The hotel has beautiful views of the Intracoastal Waterway from the property, but if you want a beach view you’ll have to stay elsewhere. That said, this section of the island is very narrow and so it is a very short walk across the island to the beach (Google Maps says that the walk is only 0.1 miles). This hotel is also conveniently close to the Fort Lauderdale airport (FLL).
- Breakfast: Good. If memory serves, the included breakfast options were a full American breakfast, a healthy breakfast, or… something else (memory fails me here). There is a mandatory 18% tip based on the retail breakfast price. I actually like that because I always find it confusing with free breakfasts whether tip is expected or not.
- Room: Very good. Our room was big and beautiful, and the bed was comfortable. There were two downsides to the room: we did not have a direct water view (I believe this is true for most rooms here), and the bathroom was laughably small (but still somehow very functional).
- Parking: Free self parking.
- Service: Awesome. The staff were uniformly attentive, cheerful, and eager to help.
- Turndown service: Good. We found cool little chocolate coins in our room.
- Extra:
- Welcome drinks: Upon check in we learned that guests are entitled to free welcome drinks at the bar.
- Restaurant: The hotel has a very nice restaurant with tables lined up along the waterway. We enjoyed an excellent dinner there.
- Hyatt Benefits: Good. The free breakfast was automatic and they offered more than the required continental breakfast (my wife and I each ordered full American breakfasts). On the other hand, they said that no room upgrades were available despite the fact that we were there at a very slow time for the hotel.
- Would I stay again? Definitely.
Photos and captions follow…
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Just an update. Spent one night here last Thursday, points. You receive the healthy or continental breakfast for free or you can pay $5 per person for the American breakfast. We did the latter and with the service charge in taxes and amounted to $20.
Thanks Linda
[…] The Pillars Hotel Fort Lauderdale (a SLH property). Read our bottom-line review, here. […]
[…] really liked The Pillars in Miami. If you’re interested, book it now — it’s going up to Cat 6 in March […]
Thank you for this information! I’ve been looking for a nice place to stay for one night next month, and snagged a great deal using 20,000 points that I transferred to Hyatt from my Chase Sapphire card. The room would have cost $496.07 for one night, taxes included.
Looking forward to having dinner at The Secret Garden as well! Has great reviews. Thank you for the heads up on this hotel and the connection to Hyatt.
@ Susan, is Secret Garden the hotel’s private dining club? Or is this the name of the restaurant reviewed by Greg? If a separate restaurant, can hotel guests book, & if so what is the best method of booking? Thank you!
The Secret Garden Dining is available only to hotel guests or to people who sign up and pay to be members of the Secret Garden Dining Club. I called to make our reservation for dinner.
Love the new review format and enjoy traveling to FT Lauderdale, a favorite spot!
Hi Greg, am staying here in a few months. What room type did you book (& receive) with 20k points? I booked Superior Poolside for instance with points.
Did you pay a resort fee? Confirming ree breakfast even if not Globalist?
Thank you for the review & pics, definitely doing the outdoor dinner! Glad it was a hit!
Same: I booked superior poolside according to my email confirmation. No resort fee. Yes, free breakfast is for anyone with a Hyatt account that books through Hyatt. You don’t need to be Globalist (I’m not Globalist… yet)
Thx, Greg. I question if the tremendous effort involved to achieve Globalist (either thru spend, stays, or both) is even really necessary with perks available from SLH & Prive, for instance. With so few properties (& most of those are Place/House) & your seeming to seek out a more boutique experience, is Globalist even worth pursuing?
Great question. I’m sure that, in my case, going for Globalist is not worth pursuing based on any dollar and cents analysis. But I enjoy the pursuit so I’ll probably do it anyway.
Please keep us posted on any shortcuts along the way (I know you’ll find them!)
Intracoastal Waterway
Thanks. Fixed.