This morning, Hilton and Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) announced their new “exclusive strategic partnership.” The word “exclusive” within the announcement was clearly intentional. We reached out to our Hyatt contact who confirmed that their breakup with SLH was mutual and coming soon. The breakup with Hyatt was no surprise given Hyatt’s purchase of Mr & Mrs Smith. Hilton though? I didn’t see that coming.
Details about Hilton’s partnership with SLH
Details to-date are scant. After removing the PR nonsense, we get this:
- When: Soon. The partnership will “ramp up in the months ahead.”
- When will we know more? Soon. “More details of this new relationship will be announced soon.”
- What:
- Redeem Hilton points for SLH stays
- Earn Hilton points for paid SLH stays booked through Hilton
- Participating SLH properties only (this was true with Hyatt’s partnership too: not all SLH properties participated)
That’s it. That’s all we know so far about the partnership between Hilton & SLH
Details about Hyatt’s partnership with SLH
Through an emailed conversation with a Hyatt contact, we learned the following:
- Hyatt’s partnership with SLH is ending “in the near future”
- The breakup was mutual
- It is still possible to book SLH properties through Hyatt for now: “At this time, World of Hyatt members can still book participating SLH Hotels on Hyatt’s booking channels, and nothing changes as of now for existing World of Hyatt member reservations.”
There are, of course, significant questions we’d like answered ASAP:
- Is there a deadline for booking SLH stays through Hyatt?
- What will happen with stays that occur after SLH is officially no longer a partner with Hyatt?
- Will the bookings be honored?
- Will guests still earn Hyatt stay credit?
- Will guests earn Hyatt points?
- Will guests get the same on-property benefits like free breakfast, etc. that are promised today?
- Is there a deadline after which stays won’t earn Hyatt points & elite nights?
Details about Hyatt & Mr. & Mrs. Smith
We previously reported that Hyatt planned to integrate Mr & Mrs Smith properties in “early 2024”. We haven’t received any new news about that. The only addition is that Hyatt promises to “share details on this exciting integration shortly.”
For more about Hyatt & Mr & Mrs Smith, see: Hyatt goes next level with Mr & Mrs Smith.
My Take
While I’m sad to see Hyatt lose SLH, I’m not at all surprised. We assumed this was coming when Hyatt first announced their purchase of Mr & Mrs Smith. Hilton would not be my first choice of an SLH partner, but I think it’s much better than Capital One (see: Capital One partners with Small Luxury Hotels of the World). With Capital One, I wouldn’t expect any opportunities for outsized value when booking rewards stays.
With Hilton, due to their dynamic award pricing, we probably won’t see many opportunities for outsized point value, but I do think there will be some since Hilton tends to set max point prices for each property. So, when prices are higher than usual, we may get better value. Also, it’s worth noting that Hyatt offered poor value when cash prices were low (due to their fixed award chart). With Hilton, maybe we’ll see lower point prices to go along with lower cash rates. Plus, if Hilton offers 5th Night Free awards with SLH, that could go a long way towards improving the value of our points on those stays.
Another reason to be optimistic about the Hilton partnership with SLH is that it may offer us a great new way to use Hilton free night certificates. Personally, I haven’t been much of a fan of those certificates in the past because it always seems like I have to go way out of my way to find a good Hilton property to use them. With SLH’s added footprint, I think it will be much easier. That assumes, though, that Hilton will let us use the certs at SLH properties. We’ll see!
I loved Hyatt’s partnership with SLH for a few reasons. One was that, thanks to Hyatt maintaining an award chart, it was sometimes possible to get fantastic value when booking very expensive properties with points. For a few examples, see my reviews of Eichardt’s Private Hotel in Queenstown and Cellars-Hohenort Hotel Cape Town; and Nick’s review of the Grand Hotel Victoria Concept & Spa on Lake Como and his return visit which was even better. Another reason I loved the partnership is that it helped me maintain my Hyatt Globalist Elite status (the best major hotel-chain elite status available in my opinon) because stays earned Hyatt elite nights. With Hilton, we might still see some opportunities for great point value, but I doubt it will be as common as with Hyatt. And, personally, I don’t care at all about earning Hilton elite nights through SLH. Hilton elite status is too easy to get simply by holding a credit card (for example, the Hilton Aspire card automatically gives you top-tier Diamond status, and a number of Amex cards give you Hilton Gold).
Bottom Line
The big news here is that Hyatt’s break up with SLH is now official and that SLH chose to hook up with Hilton instead. SLH is clearly into hotel chains that start with H. The news, though, is almost completely devoid of specifics. We don’t know when any of this will happen other than it’s all happening “soon.”
We’ll report back when soon happens.
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Got some stays at SLH in Barcelona and Madrid during late April. Booked last week. Hope they hold up.
I am not sorry to see them go at all considering how uneven their properties are. Most of them wanted Park Hyatt points but without the corresponding service. I say don’t let the Alaska door hit you in the ass as you exit!
Pour one out :(. We loved all of our SLH stays.
Huge bummer. I’ve gotten some great SLH redemptions for 21k points at Tabacon in Costa Rica, on Ios & Milos in Greece and in Rome. The Rome reservation disappeared from
my Hyatt app so keep track of your reservations elsewhere. No one notified me about it so I contacted Hyatt and the Rome hotel, Hotel Maalot, was “no longer represented by Hyatt” as of Dec 2023. So keep track of your reservation numbers. They are honoring the reservation.
SLH website is “Under Maintenace”
Crud. Heading to Greece next year and was hoping to book some SLH properties through Hyatt.
Any idea if an already booked stay using Hyatt points for end of May will still be honored?? Last thing I want is for them to cancel this.
I will miss SLH because as a non globalist I was able to stay at some very nice properties at good points rates yet still get free breakfast etc.
Same here! I hope Mr and Mrs Smith provides a similar venue for non-globalists.
Rough day for loyalty program news…
Just thinking the same thing, who is next??
Not sure why you stated that using the Amex Hilton free night certs you had to go out of your way. I guess it depends on what redemption value you expect. I have averaged about $330 per Hilton free night cert over the past 5 years and a few times have used them before expiration at lower cost properties like Home2Suites instead of letting the cert expire. In my tracking of Annual Fee vs. Benefit I count free nights at $250 a night across Hilton, Marriot and IHG (we stay at IC, Kimpton and Indigo when booking IHG).
I’m not always looking to get “outsized” value from my free night certs. Now we do have an upcoming 2 night stay at the Hilton Baker’s Key in Key Largo using 2 FNC’s and the average lowest rate I could find comes out to $937 per night including taxes and resort fee for the dates of our stay which we be our best Hilton redemption ever but in all honesty I would NEVER pay that much as a cash rate for a hotel so the points and FNC allow us to travel and stay at high end properties for a fraction of the cost.
It wasn’t about getting great value, it’s just that in the places I’ve tended to travel to it just happens that Hilton properties are rarely the ones I’d prefer to go to. It’s probably just a combination of chance (where I happen to go) and preferences
To expand on what Greg is saying there: I have often been in situations where a Home2Suites would be good enough mathematical value for a Hilton free night certificate, but I’ve never been excited to use my free night certificate at a Home2Suites. There aren’t as many “exciting” Hilton properties.
Furthermore, if that Home2Suites was otherwise available for 40,000 Hilton points, then it wouldn’t matter if the cash rate was $350 per night – since I can almost always buy Hilton points for half as cent each (they’re almost always on sale for that price), that place would have cost $200 no matter whether the actual cash rate is. So when you take into account all of that, I tend to find their certs less exciting.
All that said, since I live within driving distance of NYC, I know I can always use them at one of the Conrads there and be pretty happy about it. And if you add SLH, then I start to get excited about options like using those FNCs at places like the Grand Hotel Victoria.
I completely agree with Greg here, it comes down to preferences and individual travel habits which is why I completely disagree with Nick when he says “There aren’t as many exciting Hilton properties”. I’ve actually found the top end aspirational properties in the Hilton family to be way better than any of the Hyatt ones I’ve stayed at. Using my certs in places like the Conrad Bora Bora, Koh Samui, WAs Maldives, Dubai, Cabo I’ve gotten a pretty consistent $1000 averaged for my cert stays over the last 4 years which is why I have 2 aspire cards. I completely understand that this is just my opinion and the places I’d like to travel to and a lot of people couldn’t care less about going to the properties I mentioned above but that’s the beauty of points and miles, we can all tailor this hobby to whatever fits our needs.
I definitely agree. If I had to think of my 5 favorite hotel stays of all time, 3 of them are ones booked with the Hilton free night certs (WA Amsterdam, WA Cabo, and LXR Roku Kyoto). I have stayed at a decent number of Park Hyatts, and none would make my top 5. And I also agree–it is great that we don’t all have the same preferences.
For me, with most of the other credit card hotel certs I have, when I book a trip, I look to see if there are reasonable options to use them. For the Hilton ones, I often find myself building a trip around them.
WA Cabox2 and Conrad Rangali have been amazing for us!
“So, when prices are higher than usual, we may get better value.” Maybe, but I am not as optimistic. With Hyatt, at peak times they often just turned off redemptions. I think that could happen here too. I hope I am wrong, though!
I am also curious what benefits Hilton members might get at SLH properties. Will it be similar to Hyatt members (breakfast, upgrade pending availability, etc.)?
I’ll wait to see if ANY standard rooms are available. I could easily see SLH being Premium Rooms Only.
I think this is the key. Hilton seems good about ensuring that if a standard room is available then it is bookable at the typical points rate (or a FNC), no blackout dates or “property not accepting points during this period”. But if a property only makes a handful of rooms available as standard rooms or none at all then the point value will sit at around $0.33 cpp for premium room pricing. A majority of the old Diamond Resorts timeshares (now Hilton Grand Vacations) price out this way with no standard rooms at all.
If Hilton extends the fifth night free on award bookings to SLH that will also be a nice win.
Ooh, right! I’ll add that in.
My first reaction was “noooo”. But after reading your post, I feel better about it. I hope hilton members will get free breakfast at SLS properties the same way hyatt members do/did.
Most SLH properties I’ve stayed at (primarily in Europe) include breakfast with all rates (paid or points) as is custom in most European hotels, so I would expect that to continue.