Hyatt Adds Another 57 Luxury Hotels and Resorts to Its Award Chart

Hyatt has long held a reputation for running a rewarding program with a limited footprint, but the program is rapidly taking steps to bolster the former and address the latter. One of the biggest steps it’s taken was to ink a new partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World. After launching points earning and redemption options at over 100 of these properties in December and January, the program is back with another round of additions.

Starting of today, World of Hyatt members can earn and redeem points at an additional 57 SLH properties. If you’re keeping track, that brings the total number of integrated resorts up to 167. However, this particular round of additions is mainly focused on Europe, with 37 located on the continent (roughly 65% of the new locations).

That being said, the expansion does include a few new countries in which Hyatt doesn’t currently have a property:

• Iceland: Hotel Rangá (in Sudurland)
• Kenya: Diamonds Dream of Africa Kenya (in Malindi)
• Mozambique: Diamonds Mequfi Beach Resort
• St. Vincent & the Grenadines: The Liming Bequia

This round also adds a slew of additional resorts in Greece. Hyatt has two of its own properties (one in Athens, one in Thessaloniki) and already had 12 SLH locations integrated before today across the mainland and Greek Isles. You now have ten additional properties, including some fantastic-looking ones in the program’s new, top-tier Category 8.

You can find a full list of the new properties at this link, and we’ve also listed them in a table below, including the respective award rates for each one.

All 57 of these properties will follow the same earning and redemption scheme as those that have already been integrated into the World of Hyatt program. You’ll earn 5 points per dollar spent on paid stays, and if you hold Hyatt elite status, your standard bonuses will apply. However, all World of Hyatt members can utilize some nice on-property perks on stays, including daily complimentary continental breakfast for two, a space-available, one-category upgrade at check-in and early check-in/late check-out (subject to availability).

As you’ll see below in the chart, all of these new properties have been slotted into the program’s award chart, and here’s a breakdown of where they fall:

• Category 3 (12,000 points per night): 8 hotels
• Category 4 (15,000 points): 6 hotels
• Category 5 (20,000 points): 12 hotels
• Category 6 (25,000 points): 16 hotels
• Category 7 (30,000 points): 7 hotels
• Category 8 (40,000 points): 8 hotels

While there are clearly some high-end resorts included, there are also a decent number at the lower end of the luxury spectrum. In fact, 14 of them fall into Category 3 or 4 in the program, which should allow you to book them with the free night certificates you can earn on the World of Hyatt Credit Card.

Even though this expansion wasn’t official until 1pm ET today (Feb. 27, 2019), we’re already seeing award availability loaded, and there are some spectacular options. One of the new Category 8 hotels is the Diamonds Star of the East on the northern tip of the island of Zanzibar in Tanzania. 40,000 Hyatt points seems like a lot to spend on a single night, but it’ll get you a 2,500-square-foot villa:

This room would set you back $1,265 per night on the random date I checked, giving you an incredible 3.16 cents per point in value (well above TPG’s most recent valuations). It helps that this particular property looks incredible.

However, as with previous launches, it appears that inventory is still being loaded at this time, so you may not see any rooms at some of the new properties. If nothing comes up for you, also try testing a longer stay. Previous integrations appeared to have minimum-stay requirements for select properties, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see similar restrictions at some of the more luxurious resorts on this list.

This newest round also includes an updated list of the most popular cities for World of Hyatt member bookings at SLH hotels, and this has changed quite a bit since the last launch just a few weeks ago. Here’s the current list (with the old rankings in (parentheses):

1. Rome, Italy (previously London)
2. London, England (previously Rome)
3. Venice, Italy (Shanghai)
4. Shanghai, China (previously Florence)
5. Santorini, Greece (previously Edinburgh)

It’s not surprising at all to see Rome take over the top spot, as three additional properties were added in January. I’d bet we’ll see further changes by the next launch.

Speaking of which, we’re nowhere near done with this partnership expansion, as the Small Luxury Hotels of the World umbrella includes over 500 properties. That means that Hyatt has only added roughly 30% of them at this point. A Hyatt spokesperson confirmed that there’s more to come in an email to TPG:

“We continue to work closely with SLH to ensure this alliance rolls out as seamlessly as possible at hundreds of locations all over the world. We expect for additional properties to be added throughout the year, and we’ll be sure to share more details as they become available.”

Bottom Line

I’m excited by the further expansion of Hyatt’s partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World, and color me impressed that they’re rolling these out progressively (and rather quickly). The program’s leaders could’ve easily waited until all eligible properties were ready for integration, but they clearly wanted to deliver added value to members sooner rather than later. With a total of 167 SLH hotels and resorts now available to World of Hyatt members, they’ve clearly accomplished that goal.

Here’s hoping the monthly cadence continues!

Featured photo of Diamonds Mequfi Beach Resort courtesy of Diamonds Resorts.

Full list of new SLH properties, sorted by region (Asia, Africa, Europe and The Americas):