If you are a member of the World of Hyatt hotel loyalty programme, you will have had an email last week outlining some changes to the scheme for 2024.

The changes are a little complicated so I thought I’d run through them today.

The good news is that the changes are broadly positive and there is no devaluation at all. How often do I get to write that?

You can see details of the changes on the Hyatt website here.

The changes can be summed up like this: the ‘Guest of Honor’ benefit will no longer be a top-tier Globalist benefit but will be available to all members as a ‘Milestone Reward’, starting at 40 nights, will be transferable and will now be usable on cash stays.

What is ‘Guest of Honor’?

At present, ‘Guest of Honor’ is a perk which is exclusively for top-tier (60 nights per year) Globalist members.

It allows a Globalist to use their World of Hyatt points to make a booking for anyone they choose. The person who stays is treated as if they were a Globalist themselves – free breakfast, club access, upgrade to the best available room, free parking, guaranteed 4pm check-out etc.

Since Hyatt points can be transferred freely between members, albeit via a paper form, a non-Globalist who knew a Globalist could benefit from Globalist perks on their own redemptions. You could transfer points to the Globalist who would then make your booking.

What is changing from 2024?

‘Guest of Honor’ is no longer a Globalist perk

Instead, you can earn ‘Guest of Honor’ certificates as Milestone Rewards:

• you can earn one Guest of Honor voucher at 40 elite nights or 65,000 base points
• you can earn two Guest of Honor vouchers at 60 elite nights or 100,000 base points
• you can earn one Guest of Honor voucher at each of 70, 80, 90, 110, 120, 130 and 140 elite nights

This is good news for anyone who does 40 nights per year but doesn’t reach the 60 nights required for Globalist. It is bad news for Globalists who made huge numbers of ‘Guest of Honor’ redemptions as there is now a cap, based on how many certificates you choose as Milestone Rewards.

Certificates will be valid for the current year plus an additional 14 months. If you currently have Globalist status you will receive five Guest of Honor certificates as a one-off gift at the end of 2023, valid to February 2025.

My reading of the T&C is that even Globalists who are being downgraded in February 2024 will receive these five certificates. This will allow the ex-Globalist to effectively make themselves Globalist again on five stays in 2024 or early 2025.

You can pretend to be Globalist even when you’re not

From January you can apply a ‘Guest of Honor’ certificate to yourself. You would do this if you had earned one as a Milestone Reward for completing 40 nights, which isn’t enough to make you Globalist. Despite this, you could still get Globalist benefits on your next stay.

You can transfer ‘Guest of Honor’ certificates to others

In fact, from January 2024 you can transfer ALL Hyatt certificates, such as Suite Upgrade Award vouchers, to other members via hyatt.com.

If you have a friend who wants to get Globalist benefits on a stay, you can simply send them a ‘Guest of Honor’ certificate online and they can handle all the paperwork themselves.

‘Guest of Honor’ now works on cash stays as well as rewards

This is a big change. You don’t need to be making a redemption to give someone ‘Guest of Honor’ benefits. It’s useful if you want to treat a friend who is planning a cash stay at a Hyatt hotel but doesn’t have any World of Hyatt points.

You will be rewarded for letting your friends use your ‘Guest of Honor’ certificates

Here’s an interesting one. When someone else uses one of your ‘Guest of Honor’ certificates, you will receive one elite night credit per STAY (note stay, not night). The person who actually stays will receive their points and elite night credit as usual.

This means that it is in your best interests to ensure that your certificates are used. Oddly, we may find the HfP forum full of Globalists who are desperate to find people who want a suite upgrade, free breakfast and a 4pm check-out on their next stay, because they want the elite credit towards requalification!

‘Guest of Honor’ stays will be bookable online

One block to making a ‘Guest of Honor’ reservation at the moment is the need to do it over the phone. This will change in early 2024.

How will Milestone Rewards look in 2024?

Here is a summary of how Hyatt’s Milestone Rewards will look in 2024 (click to enlarge):

As well as adding ‘Guest of Honor’ options from 40 nights, you will see other changes:

• additional options are available from 20 nights, including a ‘double points on your next stay’ award valid at the ‘limited service’ brands

• rewards can be earned up to 150 nights per year – although given Hyatt’s small footprint, the number of people doing 150 nights per year must be tiny

• if you do get to 150 nights you can select a new ‘Ultimate Free Night’ award, valid at any Hyatt property

As I mentioned above, you will be able to gift these Milestone Rewards online. This means that some the options which previously had little value, such as club lounge access (which a Globalist would get anyway) can be shared with others.

Conclusion

This is an impressive set of changes by Hyatt which, taken together, will genuinely benefit those doing enough nights to trigger Milestone Rewards.

Some may have gone too far. Are we going to see a lot of backdoor selling of Suite Upgrade Awards, now they can be electronically transferred? After all, they have a LOT of value – you are upgraded to a suite at the time of booking, and one certificate covers up to seven consecutive nights.

We are also likely to see Globalist members desperate to give away their ‘Guest of Honor’ certificates in 2024, because each one used earns the giver one elite night credit. This is one fewer night that the giver needs to stay to retain status for the following year. For 2025+ this will be rarer as members could choose more valuable Milestone Rewards instead.

You can find out more about the changes on the Hyatt website here.

News in brief:

Norse Atlantic announces sharp cuts to winter sun routes

Norse Atlantic had a plan. It would offer low cost flights between London Gatwick and the United States (with easily the best Premium Economy cabin in the sky) during the summer, and then trim schedules in the winter. The aircraft freed up were to be reallocated to ‘winter sun’ routes such as the Caribbean.

It hasn’t worked well so far. As we have covered in multiple articles, Winter 2023 routes from Gatwick were delayed and in some cases cancelled before they even launched.

Norse Atlantic has now announced its 2024/25 winter schedule from Gatwick on its existing ‘sun’ routes. It’s a thin one:

• Barbados will be cut to one flight per week (currently five)

• Montego Bay will be cut to one flight per week (currently four)

• The season will only run from December to March

We understand that there will be new winter routes added later but this is it as far as the Caribbean goes.

What intrigues me is why Norse doesn’t launch Gatwick to Bangkok. Is it a ‘flying rights’ issue? It has Oslo to Bangkok which will operate three times per week in winter 2024.

Gatwick to Bangkok would have minimal competition (neither British Airways or Virgin Atlantic offer it, so you are down to Thai Airways and EVA Air) and the low cost Norwegian operating model seems well suited to the backpacker market.

Eurowings launches Manchester to Hamburg

Following yesterday’s Edinburgh to Stuttgart announcement, the airline has launched Manchester to Hamburg.

Flights will start on 31st March and operate on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.

Eurowings is part of Lufthansa, and you can earn and spend Miles & More miles on these flights. Comments under our article yesterday suggested that United and Air Canada miles can also be earned / spent. Eurowings, unlike its parent, is not a broader Star Alliance member.

Hat-trip @SeanM1997 on Twitter / X.

Hyatt opens in Davos

If you are planning a Swiss trip, it is worth flagging that Hyatt is now present in Davos.

Hotel Flüela Davos has just been added as part of Hyatt’s Unbound Collection. This is Hyatt’s equivalent of Hilton’s Curio or Marriott’s Autograph and is for independent hotels which want to retain more autonomy whilst also being part of a larger group for marketing purposes.

Hotel Flüela Davos originally opened in 1868 and the images do give the impression of a typical historical ski hotel. It has just 51 rooms and suites, with each room having access to a state-of-the-art private ski locker, access to the Flüela Soul Spa, a ski butler and a discount on ski rental equipment.

The wellness area includes two saunas, two steam rooms, a relaxation room, two treatment rooms, an indoor swimming pool and an outdoor hot tub.

Redemptions could well be a bargain at peak times, especially for suites. Over February half term, for example, a suite is 43,000 Hyatt points per night or £840 in cash. It’s worth keeping an eye on future Hyatt ‘buy points’ promotions, although there isn’t one running at the moment. The page to buy Hyatt points is here.

Just because it’s tricky to earn Hyatt points in the UK (there are no credit card partners) doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of buying points cheaply. I did this to get a bargain at Park Hyatt New York this autumn and saved 55% on the cash rate.

You can find out more on the hotel website here.

American Express and the Hyatt hotel group have launched a new bonus promotion. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it is nowhere near as generous as the ‘spend £250 and get £100’ back offers we saw in 2022 and 2023.

We’ve only seen this new offer on British Airways American Express cards although that’s not to say that it isn’t on any others.

You will receive 3,000 bonus Avios when you spend £300 in a participating Hyatt hotel in Europe by 15th March.

The hotel list is here.

As usual, there are gaps in countries where Amex isn’t active – no Ireland, no Portugal etc. The biggest chunk of properties is in Germany following Hyatt’s absorption of the Lindner chain.

3,000 Avios isn’t huge attractive, especially as you will be paying a 2.99% FX fee for using your British Airways American Express outside the UK.

If this means the end of generous hotel cashback deals via American Express then it will undermine the value proposition of the cards – I’ve earned well over £500 from these offers this year.

World of Hyatt update – January 2024:

Get bonus points: World of Hyatt is not currently running a global promotion

New to World of Hyatt?  Read our overview of World of Hyatt here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on what we think World of Hyatt points are worth is here.

Buy points: If you need additional World of Hyatt points, you can buy them here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Hyatt and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

I thought it was about time to revise and update the lists I first published in 2012 about the best way to use up small amounts of miles and points.

What I want to explore is ‘What is the smallest or most optimum small reward, and how can you ‘top-off’ an account?’.  Please join in the discussion with your ideas in the Comments section, and I will add in any additional ideas.

Today I will look at hotel loyalty schemes.  Part 2 – coming in a day or so – will focus on some airline and shopping schemes.  Click on the links to read relevant Head for Points articles on the topic mentioned.

In all cases below except Accor, there is a formal ‘buy points’ option you can use to get to the level you need for a redemption.  This page (click) has links to the ‘buy points’ pages of the major airline and hotel schemes.  However, I try to find more creative ideas that don’t involve spending money.

How to use up Accor Live Limitless points

Our article on what Accor Live Limitless points are worth is here.

• EXPIRY RULES – You can check the Accor Live Limitless expiry rules here
• SPEND – You require 2,000 points before you can redeem Accor points for credit towards a future booking.  2,000 points get you a €40 saving.  Transfers to airline miles require a minimum of 2,000 points but for Avios you need 3,000 points (Iberia, at 1:1) or 4,000 points (BA, at 2:1).
• SPEND – Accor’s ‘Experiences’ rewards have some low cost redemptions although there is nothing available in the UK at the moment
• TOP-UP – You can earn points from the ClubOpinions market research scheme
• TOP-UP – Various airlines allow you to transfer your miles INTO Accor Live Limitless, including Finnair and Qatar Airways
• TOP-UP – You can earn Accor points when flying on Air France KLM as well as transferring Flying Blue frequent flyer miles into Accor
• TOP-UP – You can transfer Club Eurostar points into Accor Live Limitless
• TOP-UP – You can credit a Europcar car rental to Accor
• TOP-UP – You can earn Accor points by crediting Bicester Village shopping
• TOP-UP – You can book a taxi or rideshare via the Accor app and earn points
• TOP-UP – Note that there is no Accor UK credit card

How to use up Hilton Honors points

Our article on what Hilton Honors points are worth is here.

• EXPIRY RULES – You can check the expiry rules of Hilton Honors points in this article
• SPEND – Remember that ‘Points & Money’ bookings can be booked from as few as 5,000 points, so you can use up a small number of points to save money on your next stay. You get just over 0.2p per point.
• SPEND – Transfers to airline miles are available from 10,000 Hilton points
• SPEND – You can transfer points to another person for free, using the points pooling option
• SPEND – You can donate points to charity
• TOP-UP – Remember you can top-up from American Express Membership Rewards (1:2).  The 20,000 Amex points sign-up bonus offered with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (30,000 points to 9th January) would get you 40,000 Hilton Honors points.
• TOP-UP – You can top-up from Virgin Flying Club (2:3) transfers
• TOP-UP – You can credit a car rental
• TOP-UP – You can top-off an account by turning Marriott Bonvoy points into Hilton by transferring via Virgin Flying Club, although there is a big loss of value on the way.  For example, 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points gets you 25,000 Virgin Points which gets you 37,500 Hilton points.
• TOP-UP – You can top-off an account by turning Tesco Clubcard points into Hilton Honors points by transferring via Virgin Flying Club
• TOP-UP – Note that there is no current Hilton Honors UK credit card which is open to new applications

How to use up IHG One Rewards points

Our article on what IHG One Rewards points are worth is here.

• EXPIRY RULES – You can check the expiry rules for IHG One Rewards points in this article
• SPEND – ‘Cash and Points’ means that you need fewer miles than you think to book an award – you can buy additional points during the booking process
• SPEND – Airline mile redemptions are available from 10,000 points
• SPEND – Plenty of UK High Street retailer gift cards are on offer from £5 per 4,500 points
• SPEND –  The IHG Digital Rewards catalogue has downloadable magazines, newspapers, books, games and movies from 600 points
• SPEND – You can pay $5 per 1,000 to transfer orphan IHG One Rewards points to a third party – this is not a bad deal compared to the cost of buying points outright. Diamond members can transfer IHG points for free in a recent rule change.
• TOP-UP – You can top-up with Virgin Flying Club points (10,000 miles minimum, 1:1 rate)
• TOP-UP – You can top-up with Finnair miles (20,000 minimum, 2:1 rate)
• TOP-UP – You earn points by booking restaurants via the IHG / OpenTable portal
• TOP-UP – Note that there is no current IHG One Rewards UK credit card

How to use up Marriott Bonvoy points

Our article on what Marriott Bonvoy points are worth is here.

• EXPIRY RULES – You can check the expiry rules for Marriott Bonvoy in this article
• SPEND – Marriott Moments lets you redeem points tickets to cultural and sporting events
• SPEND – You can transfer up to 100,000 Marriott Bonvoy points for FREE to another person each year – this can now be done online
• SPEND – You can donate 2,500+ points to charity
• SPEND – You can transfer Marriott points to Hilton Honors or IHG One Rewards by routing via Virgin Flying Club, albeit with a loss of value
• SPEND – PointSaver awards and ‘cash and points’ awards mean that you may need fewer than you think for a redemption – although there are very few of these on offer
• SPEND – You can get Marriott to book a cash flight ticket for you via their flight booking service
• SPEND – You can redeem points for a cash credit when staying at a Marriott hotel
• TOP-UP – You can convert Amex Membership Rewards points to Marriott Bonvoy at 2:3.  The 20,000 Amex points sign-up bonus offered with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (30,000 points to 9th January) would get you 30,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.
• TOP-UP – You could get the Marriott Bonvoy American Express credit card which comes with a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Marriott Bonvoy points and earns 2 points per £1 spent (you also get 15 elite nights each year towards Bonvoy status)
• TOP-UP – You can credit a Hertz car rental to Marriott
• TOP-UP – United Airlines Silver card holders can transfer their United Airlines MileagePlus miles to Marriott at 1:1. If you are a Bonvoy Titanium member you can get an automatic status match to United’s Silver status.
• TOP-UP – Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer members can transfer their miles to Marriott at 2:1

How to use up Radisson Rewards points

Our article on what Radisson Rewards points are worth is here.

• EXPIRY RULES – You can check the Radisson Rewards expiry rules in this article
• SPEND – Airline transfers are available from just 2,000 points (200 miles)
• SPEND – following the 2022 changes, you can redeem points for a cash discount off your next stay (roughly 0.15p per point)
• SPEND – Radisson Rewards has a number of charity partners on their website who accept donations of points.  The minimum donation is 3,000 points.
• SPEND – You can transfer your Radisson Rewards points for free to another person
• TOP-UP – You can top-off an account with American Express Membership Rewards points at 1:3, with no minimum transfer.  The 20,000 Amex points sign-up bonus offered with American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (30,000 points to 9th January) would get you 60,000 Radisson Rewards points.
• TOP-UP – You can credit car rentals from SIXT to Radisson Rewards
• TOP-UP – Note that there is no Radisson Rewards UK credit card

How to use up World of Hyatt points

Our article on what World of Hyatt points are worth is here.

My preferred small Hyatt reward is the 6,000 points per night suite upgrade.  You can also upgrade to Club rooms using points for a small premium.

Hyatt has ‘cash and points’ awards at half of the usual points price so you may have enough for a reward after all.  You can also buy Hyatt points.  Airline transfers are from 5,000 points.

You can use 1,000 points for a $10 dining or spa credit at a Hyatt hotel – you do not need to be a guest to do this.  This is surprisingly good value at the higher levels, eg $1,000 of credit for 65,000 Hyatt points. Another option is to use 6,000 points for a one-day Avis car hire redemption.

You can use points for the new FIND ‘experiences’ redemptions although the UK selection is weak.

Accounts can be topped up by crediting an Avis car rental to Hyatt.

You can merge your Hyatt points with those of your partner but both accounts need to have had a cash stay in the previous 12 months.

Hyatt is not an American Express Membership Rewards partner.

The World of Hyatt expiry rules are summarised here.

In Part 2 of this article, which will appear in a day or so, I will look at how to use small amounts of points in some airline and shopping programmes.

What is Hyatt Prive and how does it work?

With Hyatt just launching a new British Airways American Express offer of 3,000 Avios for a £300 Hyatt spend at selected hotels, I thought it was worth another look.

What is Hyatt Prive?

Hyatt Prive is, like Four Seasons Preferred Partner, Hilton Impresario, Mandarin Oriental Fan Club and IHG Luxury & Lifestyle, a special benefits programme which can only be accessed by selected luxury travel agents.

These schemes are driven by the US travel market. Whilst virtually unheard of in the UK, most wealthy Americans will use a personal travel advisor. These tend to be self employed individuals who contract with a bigger travel group to provide access to deals and back-end support. It’s similar to how, in finance, St James’s Place works in the UK.

In order to keep ‘front of mind’ with travel advisors, the big hotel groups offer access to special benefits. The travel advisors can offer their clients these exclusive privileges for booking with them, which guarantees the booking and their future loyalty. Everyone wins.

Well, everyone wins except people who don’t have access to a luxury travel advisor. Don’t worry, however, as our hotel booking partner, details below, is a Hyatt Prive agent.

Are Hyatt Prive rates the same as online rates?

Yes. You will pay the Best Flexible Rate shown online.

There are likely to be cheaper Advanced Purchase rates are available, so if you are happy to commit in advance and don’t need a refundable rate then you need to do the maths.

You will pay at check-out as usual.

What benefits does Hyatt Prive offer?

Hyatt Prive gets you the following benefits:

• $25 to $100 hotel credit per stay, depending on brand (majority are $100)
• One category room upgrade confirmed within 24 hours of booking
• Daily full breakfast for two
• Early check-in (from 9am) and late check-out (to 4pm) subject to availability
• Welcome gift and letter

Clearly, if you would otherwise book an Advanced Purchase rate, then you are paying a small premium to lock in these benefits.  The free breakfast, upgrade and $100 hotel credit should easily put you into ‘profit’ though on the price difference.  If you would usually book a flexible rate, these extra benefits are genuinely free.

(Let’s be clear. Getting a $100 hotel credit AND free breakfast on a 1-night stay is an exceptional return.)

For clarity, you will earn World of Hyatt points and elite night credits on top and you pay on departure. If you have Hyatt status, the benefits will stack as best they can. Our article on what World of Hyatt points are worth is here.

The real value is in the guaranteed upgrade

The real value here is from the guaranteed upgrade.  If you want a specific room category, you can book a cheaper one, one category lower. 

I have done this multiple times to make a big saving on suites which sleep four. I book the room one category lower than I need, which can be considerably cheaper depending on how the hotel prices its different room types, and wait for the upgrade to clear.

The upgrade benefit has been slightly degraded in recent years. It used to confirm instantly with no exceptions. It now takes 24 hours to clear and a hotel is allowed to block it if it believes that it will be full on the night of your stay.

This isn’t a huge problem. If your upgrade doesn’t clear, you simply cancel the booking. It is possible that moving to cancel the booking may prompt a rethink anyway.

Which Hyatt brands take part in Hyatt Prive?

All hotels from the following brands participate:

• Park Hyatt
• Andaz (some cheaper Andaz hotels require a two night minimum stay)
• Alila
• Thompson Hotels
• Miraval Resorts

Selected hotels from the following brands:

• The Unbound Collection
• Grand Hyatt
• Hyatt Regency
• Destination Hotels
• Hyatt Centric
• Joie de Vivre

Park Hyatt, Miraval, Andaz and Thompson Hotels guarantee $100 of hotel credit. It may be lower at other hotels.

Park Hyatt, Miraval, Thompson Hotels and some Andaz hotels give these benefits on a one night stay. Other brands have a two night minimum stay and the credit will vary between $25 and $100.

To book

If you want to make a Hyatt booking with Hyatt Prive benefits, Emyr Thomas of Bon Vivant, who we partner with, is a Hyatt Prive agent.  You can drop him a note via the form here.  Emyr has worked with us for a couple of years and readers have booked well over £1.7 million of rooms through him.

I also use him for my personal travel when I can – he booked our recent stay at Hyatt’s Alila Jabal Akhdar in Oman which I reviewed here.

We have been working with Hyatt to bring you details of 10 new World of Hyatt hotels opening in 2024 which would resonate with a UK audience. They chose well, and I think that most of you will find at least a couple of these properties tempting.

We ran similar articles earlier this week on 10 intriguing new Hilton hotels coming in 2024 and 10 intriguing new Marriott hotels coming in 2024.

To learn more about the World of Hyatt loyalty programme, have a look at this article.

UK

Park Hyatt London River Thames

It’s finally happening. London is to get its first Park Hyatt. Located in Nine Elms / Vauxhall, this isn’t a neighbourhood that will be familiar for most tourists, although the new US Embassy and redevelopment of Battersea Power Station is certainly changing that. The Park Hyatt London River Thames will take up the lower 18 floors of a 42-storey tower currently under construction. An unconventional location and new build development suggest its success will all come down to the quality of the fit and finish, although I’m confident that Hyatt will be able to pull it off given my experience at other Park Hyatt hotels. Opening mid 2024. The hotel website is here.

Hyatt House, Leeds

Hyatt Place Leeds

Hyatt’s regional UK portfolio is a little thin, so it’s good to see it invest in a 305-room, dual-brand Hyatt House and Hyatt Place hotel in the Sovereign Square development in Leeds. Split between the short stay and long stay brands, the hotel is 12 storeys high and features a rooftop bar. Opening late 2024.

Greece

Zoëtry Halkidiki

Hyatt’s footprint of all-inclusive resorts is gaining Zoëtry Halkidiki in Greece. The radial 105-room resort sits atop a cliff with views of Mount Olympus and the Aegean Sea on the Halkidiki peninsula with access via a “panoramic lift” (funicular?) to the beach below. It is only the second of Hyatt’s Zoëtry all-inclusive resorts in Europe, with the first having opened in 2021 in Mallorca (the old Hilton site). Two restaurants, a buffet and three bars and lounges will keep fed and watered. Opening mid 2024. The hotel website is here.

The Netherlands

Andaz Amsterdam Prinsengracht

Although not a new hotel, Andaz Amsterdam Prinsgengracht, which I reviewed in 2022, is in the process of getting a full refurbishment. It was an excellent hotel when I stayed, with lovely rooms and a gorgeous courtyard connecting the old Dutch buildings with a newer extension at the rear. We will have to wait and see what direction the refurbishment takes, but in the meantime you can read my review here.

Morocco

Park Hyatt Marrakech

Better late than never …. the Park Hyatt is a holdover from our list last year, but has just opened in the last few days.

Part of the Al Maaden development outside of the Medina, the Park Hyatt offers a resort-style retreat 10-15 minutes away from the hustle and bustle of the city. True to its name, the resort will be surrounded by landscaping and what appears to be a large lake with a dramatic setting against the Atlas mountains. There are 181 rooms, built in clusters around common courtyards, as well as 45 private villas with private pools. Open now. The hotel website is here.

USA

Thompson Palm Springs

At least seven new Thompson hotels are expected to open in the next two years, and one of them will be the Thompson Palm Springs. Perched in the heart of the Design District in downtown Palm Springs, the hotel hopes to embrace the laid-back Palm Springs lifestyle with its own urban oasis. 168 rooms, of which 18 are suites, will look out towards the mountains, a view shared by the rooftop pool. Opening mid 2024. The hotel website is here.

Andaz Miami Beach

A 1940s icon, the Confidante Hotel Miami Beach is currently undergoing a $60m renovation that will see it emerge as Florida’s first Andaz. A new lobby will offer an ocean-view check-in experience whilst all guestrooms and public spaces are getting a full transformation. Located in mid beach, the hotel is easily accessible from the airport and a gateway to South Beach. Opening late 2024.

Japan

Hotel Toranomon Hills, The Unbound Collection

Part of Hyatt’s Unbound Collection of boutique hotels, Hotel Toranomon is located in one of Tokyo’s newest business districts and within walking distance of the Imperial Palace. The 205 rooms are designed by Danish studio Space Copenhagen, fusing Danish and Japanese minimalism. 30 suites suites feature their own private Japanese onsens whilst the two duplex suites spread across two floors. Opened in December 2023. The hotel website is here.

Shanghai

Alila Shanghai

Having recently come back from a three night trip to Shanghai, and having read our review of Alila Jabal Akhdar in Oman, I’m intrigued by the Alila Shanghai. This will be a 188-room hotel in the Jing’an District of Shanghai. Alila is one of Hyatt’s smallest brands with just 18 hotels in seven countries currently operating; the hotel will be an “urban utopia” through its use of “natural materials, earth tones and charming city views”. Opens late 2024.

Welcome to our regular round-up of the best hotel promotions currently running.

All of the information in this article can also be found on our ‘Hotel Offers’ page which contains details of all of the current offers, together with links to our major articles on each hotel scheme.  However, a positive response from readers – especially our 18,000 email subscribers – means we run this monthly article as a handy summary.

I should warn you that it is a surprisingly thin selection this month. All parts of the market (bonus points offers, promotions for buying points and American Express cashback offers) are at historically low levels.

Here are quick summaries and links to the registration pages you need for each offer – do it before you forget. (I apologise to email readers if this block is mangled – scroll down to the main text area.)

For clarity, Accor, Marriott, Hyatt and Radisson are not running any global promotions at the moment.

Current offers for buying hotel points

There are no ‘buy points’ offers running at the moment. I think this is the first time this has ever happened in all the time we’ve been running this feature.

Current American Express cashback offers

It’s also worth noting the current American Express cashback offers with the big chains. These may be showing on one or more of your cards and may influence which hotels you book this month:

• Get 3,000 bonus Avios when you spend £300 at selected European Hyatt hotels (only available to British Airways American Express cardholders, expires 15th March)

• Get 7% cashback at Radisson Blu Edwardian hotels (10 hotels – nine in London / Heathrow and one in Manchester, expires 10th April)

• Get £100 back on a £500 spend at The Londoner hotel in Leicester Square (expires 10th April)

• Get £100 back on a £400 spend at The May Fair Hotel (expires 10th April, part of Radisson Rewards, website here)

Where should you credit your stays for January 2024?

Remember that, irrespective of the offers below, there is never a single ‘best’ offer.

Some offers require multiple stays to maximise the bonus, which you might not do. Some require stays to be a minimum number of nights before a bonus is earned.

You need to factor in any elite status you have, which will earn you additional status bonuses.

More importantly, you need to be able to use the points. There is no value in earning a large bonus in a scheme where you will never go on to earn enough points to get a free night.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc)

Hilton has a promotion called ‘Points Plus’.

You can register here.  Our full article is here. It runs until 1st May.

You will earn 2,000 bonus points on all stays, plus an additional 500 boints if you select a Digital Key in the Hilton app.

You need to register in advance of your first stay during the period via the Hilton website here.  Existing bookings count and all Hilton Honors hotels are taking part.

The Hilton booking page is here.

IHG One Rewards is, slightly oddly, running a promotion for one month only.

You will earn double base IHG One Rewards points for every stay during January. There is no minimum stay requirement.

Only cash stays count. Reward and ‘points and cash’ nights do not count – you won’t get double base points on your food and drink spending on a reward night.

You need to register here. Our full article on the deal is here.

You can book your IHG stays here.

And finally …..

If you booking a luxury hotel, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  

Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.  Feedback from readers who have used this service so far has been excellent and we have booked over £1.7 million of rooms so far.

Hyatt announced some changes to its ‘Guest of Honour’ benefit last month. I won’t go into it again but our full article is here.

Put very simply, the ‘Guest of Honour’ benefit – where a Globalist member can book for a third party who will receive full Globalist benefits – has changed. It is now a Milestone Reward, available from 40 nights, so even a non-Globalist can access it and use it to have their own stay treated as a Globalist.

‘Guest of Honour’ is now available on both cash and points stays, not just redemptions. ‘Guest of Honour’ certificates, and indeed all other Hyatt certificate benefits such as club lounge access, are now freely transferable online.

There is one little quirk which I thought would happen and indeed has.

Hyatt agreed to give all Globalist members a one-off benefit of 5 x ‘Guest of Honour’ certificates to make up for any perceived loss. These are now showing on your World of Hyatt account.

Importantly, even people who will lose their Globalist status on 29th February have received these. This means that, after February, an ex-Globalist will still be able to receive Globalist benefits on five stays before the end of February 2025.

World of Hyatt update – January 2024:

Get bonus points: World of Hyatt is not currently running a global promotion

New to World of Hyatt?  Read our overview of World of Hyatt here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on what we think World of Hyatt points are worth is here.

Buy points: If you need additional World of Hyatt points, you can buy them here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Hyatt and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

The general consensus about hotel loyalty programmes is that Marriott Bonvoy is the only scheme where it is is worthwhile trading your points for airline miles.

There are a couple of reasons for this.  The first is that – since the conversion rate for most airlines including British Airways is 3:1 – it feels more generous than the competition.  IHG One Rewards is 5:1 into Avios.  Hilton Honors is 10:1.  Points are not all created equal, however, so you shouldn’t read too much into these ratios.

Secondly, Marriott Bonvoy adds an extra 5,000 miles to your pot if you convert 60,000 points at once.  This means that you are getting 1.25 airline miles for every three Bonvoy points if you convert in chunks of 60,000.

Is the ‘Marriott is best’ view born out by the maths?  I thought I would run the numbers.

The question I asked myself was …..

How much do you need to spend with the major hotel schemes to earn 10,000 Avios?

I am assuming that the reader has whatever status in a particular comes with staying 20 nights via one-night stays per year in the relevant loyalty programme.  Given the amount of money you need to spend to earn 10,000 Avios this is a logical assumption.

I have ranked the results by lowest spend to highest spend needed to earn 10,000 Avios.  These numbers are all based on net spend, ie without VAT, and assume you have whatever status comes with doing 20 one-night stays per year.

Marriott Bonvoy – $2,727 but could be as low as $2,182

10,000 Avios requires 30,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.  You earn 10 points per $1 at most full service brands plus a 10% bonus for being Silver Elite (requires 10 nights) so 11 points per $1 in total. You need to spend $2,727 to earn 30,000 points.

However …. if you transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to Avios in chunks of 60,000 points, you receive a bonus 5,000 Avios. This means, pro rata, you’d only need 24,000 Bonvoy points to earn 10,000 Avios. At 11 points per $1, this would require spend of $2,182.

Accor Live Limitless – $3,508  (€3,225), but could be as low as $2,653 (€2,439)

10,000 Iberia Plus Avios requires 10,000 Accor points (the conversion rate to BA is worse so you should credit stays to Iberia and move them across via ‘Combine My Avios’).  At most midscale brands, eg Novotel, you earn 3.1 points per €1 as a Silver member (requires 10 nights). Earning 10,000 points means that you need to spend €3,225.

However …. if you register for the Qatar Airways / Accor Live Limitless partnership, you earn an extra 1 Avios per €1 spent, deposited into your Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios account after every stay. You can easily move these across to your BA account. This improves the earning to the equivalent of 4.1 Avios per €1 and means that 10,000 Avios needs just €2,439 of spend.

IHG One Rewards – $3,571

10,000 Avios requires 50,000 IHG One Rewards points.  You earn 10 points per $1 plus a 40% bonus for being Gold Elite (requires 20 nights) for a total of 14 points per $1. Earning 50,000 points requires spending pre-taxes of $3,571.

Radisson Rewards – $3,703

10,000 Avios requires 100,000 Radisson Rewards points.  You earn 27 points per $1 for being Premium (requires just 3 stays or 5 nights). 100,000 points will require spending of $

World of Hyatt – $4,545

10,000 Avios requires 25,000 World of Hyatt points.  You earn 5.5 points per $1 for being Discoverist (requires 10 nights). This means that 25,000 points requires you to spend $4,545 pre-tax.

Hilton Honors – $5,555

10,000 Avios requires 100,000 Hilton Honors points.  You earn 18 points per $1 being Gold (requires 20 stays) which means that you need to spend $5,555 to earn 100,000 points.

This analysis does not consider the fact that some chains let you earn miles directly if you agree not to earn points.  Because these are generally fixed amounts such as 500 Avios per stay they may work out better for you if you do lots of cheap one-night stays.

Conclusion

Marriott Bonvoy remains the most rewarding programme for earning hotel points if your ultimate aim is to convert them into airline miles.

The only caveat – and it is a large one – is that Hilton Honors and IHG One Rewards are more aggressive than the other chains in terms of running bonus point promotions.  It is worth noting that, as of today, the only chains running promotions are Hilton and IHG (click for our list of all current promos). Earning promotional points will allow you to earn more Avios from a stay.

I would also encourage you to think twice before converting hotel points into Avios.  If you will never earn enough for a free night then it is obviously a good idea to transfer them, but in general you will maximise value by using hotel points for free hotel nights.

The one exception is Marriott Bonvoy where the conversion maths just about works. I value a Bonvoy point at 0.5p and an Avios at 1p. 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points converts into 25,000 Avios, because it triggers the extra 5,000 Avios for converting in chunks of 60,000. Plugging in my valuations, you are swapping £300 of Marriott points for £250 of Avios. This is close enough to make it a fair deal.

PS.  Take a look at this article if you are interested in using your Avios points to book hotel rooms, instead of earning Avios from them. This should always be done via Nectar Hotels (0.67p per Avios) and never via the British Airways hotel booking portal (0.55p per Avios).

Here’s an interesting promotion with no real downside.

World of Hyatt will give you 1,000 Etihad Guest miles for every Hyatt stay you complete in February and March 2024.

This is ON TOP of the World of Hyatt points that you would usually earn. You are not giving anything up, and will earn 1,000 Etihad Guest miles in return.

You must register for the offer here.

The offer is valid on cash or reward stays.

All Hyatt properties are taking part, including Small Luxury Hotels of the World properties booked via Hyatt. Existing bookings count.

If you currently earn Etihad Guest miles at Hyatt instead of taking World of Hyatt points, you can also take part. You will receive the usual 500 Etihad Guest miles per stay, in lieu of points, plus the bonus 1,000 Etihad Guest miles on top.

There is a reason why this is more interesting than you think

I know what you’re thinking. You don’t have any Etihad Guest miles at the moment and, as a predominantly long haul airline, you can’t do much with the small amount you might earn in February and March via this offer.

The flippant answer is, of course, ‘Why not take them?’. The miles are free, a reason to have some Etihad Guest miles may turn up before they expire (any activity every 18 months preserves them) and signing up for the offer is not tricky.

The smarter answer is this – you can redeem Etihad Guest miles for cash.

The Etihad Guest Reward Card is explained on the Etihad website here. It is a virtual Visa card that you can operate via your phone. It links to your Etihad Guest account and you can transfer points from Etihad Guest onto it and then spend the money wherever you wish.

I will update our main article on how the Etihad Guest Reward Card works in a few days. However, last time we looked at it you got 0.55p per mile.

This means that you’d be earning £5.50 in virtual Visa cash for every Hyatt stay you complete in February and March. Not a fortune, of course, but you might as well sign up for it.

You can register for this Hyatt / Etihad promotion here.

Note that registration closes on 29th February even though the offer runs to 30th March.

How to earn Etihad Guest miles from UK credit cards (February 2024)

Etihad Guest does not have a UK credit card.  However, you can earn Etihad Guest miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

Cards earning Membership Rewards points include:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Etihad Guest miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 40,000 Etihad Guest miles.

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 10,000 Etihad Guest miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Etihad Guest miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Etihad Guest mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.

Here’s some surprising news. Hilton and Small Luxury Hotels of the World have announced a partnership.

This implies that the existing deal between Hyatt and SLH has been cancelled.

We don’t know much at the moment, but we can assume a few things.

Here is the official announcement.

Hard facts are thin on the ground. What we do know is that some of the 560 Small Luxury Hotels properties will soon be featured on the Hilton website.

These properties will be bookable for cash or Hilton Honors points.

This is literally the extent of what is announced so far. We don’t know:

• how many SLH hotels will take part (the release says ‘hundreds’)

• when the partnership will start

• what benefits will be given to Hilton Honors members, and especially elite members, when staying at an SLH hotel

• what reward pricing will look like

We have not been told officially that SLH and Hyatt are breaking up, although it is inconceivable that SLH could work with Hilton and Hyatt at the same time.

Hyatt, of course, is beginning to integrate Mr & Mrs Smith into its platform after acquiring the booking agency last year. Owning Mr & Mrs Smith won’t necessarily solve the biggest issue with the SLH partnership though – that the participating hotels are fully independent of Hyatt (and now Hilton) and are not hugely bothered about supporting members.

I never booked an SLH hotel via Hyatt

It’s worth noting that I never booked a Small Luxury Hotels property via Hyatt.

It is usually very easy to find cheaper rates by booking direct on the hotel’s own website, or even on the Small Luxury Hotels site. You could also join the SLH ‘Invited’ loyalty programme for even better rates.

SLH also has its own ‘preferred partner’ programme which our luxury hotel partner Emyr Thomas can access for you.

Redemptions using Hyatt points at Small Luxury Hotels were not terrible value, I admit. The biggest issue was that only standard rooms were available, and the nature of the boutique hotels in SLH meant that the rooms in the lowest category were often very small indeed.

Be wary of booking an SLH hotel via Hyatt

As of today, Small Luxury Hotels properties are still on the Hyatt website. It is likely that they will disappear at some point soon.

If you only booked an SLH hotel via Hyatt to earn World of Hyatt elite night credits or because you were getting free breakfast, I would be wary. If SLH and Hyatt split before the date of your stay you are very unlikely to receive these benefits.

More information to follow ….

The press release states that “More details of this new relationship will be announced soon.”

In the meantime, I leave you with a quote from the SLH chairman:

“We’re thrilled to begin this win-win relationship with Hilton as it brings exciting possibilities for both brands. Hilton customers, including Hilton Honors members, gain access to our unrivalled collection of exceptional boutique hotels, while our properties enjoy amplified reach to a loyal and discerning audience. It’s a game changer for independently owned hotels on a global scale.”

PS. Whilst we didn’t cover it, Hilton is reported to be on the verge of acquiring Graduate Hotels. This is a 33-hotel chain (31 hotels in the US, two in the UK – we reviewed The Randolph hotel in Oxford here) with upscale hotels in ‘university towns’. Ironically the Cambridge hotel is the old DoubleTree by Hilton. I can imagine Hilton using it to create its own version of IHG’s Hotel Indigo.

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (February 2024)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Did you know that the Virgin Atlantic credit cards are a great way of earning Hilton Honors points? Two Virgin Points can be converted into three Hilton Honors points. The Virgin Atlantic cards are the only Visa or Mastercard products in the UK which can indirectly earn Hilton Honors points. You can apply here.

Virgin Money is offering double points on spending until 14th April (£5,000 cap) to new customers when you apply for the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard. Click here to learn more.

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with:

• American Express Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Rewards Credit Card (10,000 bonus Amex points)

and for small business owners:

• American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Business Platinum (40,000 bonus Amex points)

The conversion rate from American Express to Hilton points is 1:2.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points. 

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Welcome to our regular round-up of the best hotel promotions currently running.

All of the information in this article can also be found on our ‘Hotel Offers’ page which contains details of all of the current offers, together with links to our major articles on each hotel scheme.  However, a positive response from readers – especially our 18,000 email subscribers – means we run this monthly article as a handy summary.

We’ve seen a bounce back in the number of offers this month BUT big American Express cashback deals are noticeably absent. Are these now over? American Express was heavily subsidising them, and as they have all stopped (Hilton, Marriott, IHG and Marriott all ran them multiple times) it is possible that Amex has turned off the tap.

Here are quick summaries and links to the registration pages you need for each offer – do it before you forget. (I apologise to email readers if this block is mangled – scroll down to the main text area.)

Current offers for buying hotel points

Here are the ‘buy points’ offers running at the moment:

Current American Express cashback offers

It’s also worth noting the current American Express cashback offers with the big chains. These may be showing on one or more of your cards and may influence which hotels you book this month:

• Get 3,000 bonus Avios when you spend £300 at selected European Hyatt hotels (only available to British Airways American Express cardholders, expires 15th March)

• Get 7% cashback at Radisson Blu Edwardian hotels (10 hotels – nine in London / Heathrow and one in Manchester, expires 10th April)

• Get £100 back on a £500 spend at The Londoner hotel in Leicester Square (expires 10th April)

• Get £100 back on a £400 spend at The May Fair Hotel (expires 10th April, part of Radisson Rewards, website here)

Where should you credit your stays for February 2024?

Remember that, irrespective of the offers below, there is never a single ‘best’ offer.

Some offers require multiple stays to maximise the bonus, which you might not do. Some require stays to be a minimum number of nights before a bonus is earned.

You need to factor in any elite status you have, which will earn you additional status bonuses.

More importantly, you need to be able to use the points. There is no value in earning a large bonus in a scheme where you will never go on to earn enough points to get a free night.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc)

Hilton has a promotion called ‘Points Plus’.

You can register here.  Our full article is here. It runs until 1st May.

You will earn 2,000 bonus points on all stays, plus an additional 500 boints if you select a Digital Key in the Hilton app.

You need to register in advance of your first stay during the period via the Hilton website here.  Existing bookings count and all Hilton Honors hotels are taking part.

The Hilton booking page is here.

IHG One Rewards is running two targeted promotions across February and March.

If you got an email inviting you to register for one of them, great. If not, tough!

You can read about the two deals here. The registration links were personalised and ‘one click’ so there is no page where you can try to register just in case.

You can book your IHG stays here.

Marriott Bonvoy (Renaissance, The Ritz-Carlton, Sheraton, Westin, W, Aloft, St Regis, Luxury Collection, Moxy etc)

Between 13th February and 29th April, you will earn 1,000 bonus points per NIGHT and double elite night credits on every cash stay at a Marriott hotel.

I value a Bonvoy point at 0.5p so this is equivalent to a £5 bonus per night.  It is clearly a better deal on cheap one-night stays than expensive week-long holidays.

For many readers, the double elite night credits will be more important, allowing you to get a head start on status requalification for next year.

Our full article is here. You can register here. Note that registration closes early on 9th April.

The home page for bookings is here.

Radisson Rewards (Park Plaza, Park Inn etc)

Until 26th March, you can earn up to 7,000 bonus Radisson Rewards points.

The snag is that existing bookings do not count. You need to register here and then make your bookings.

You earn 500 bonus points on your first stay, 3,000 on your second stay and 3,500 on your third stay.

Following the Radisson devaluation of 2022, we now value Radisson Rewards points at 0.2p and potentially even lower. Remember that Radisson hotels in North America are no longer part of the program.

Our full article is here. You can register here.

The home page for bookings is here.

And finally …..

If you booking a luxury hotel, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  

Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.  Feedback from readers who have used this service so far has been excellent and we have booked over £1.7 million of rooms so far.

This is the sixth and last of our overview series of the main hotel loyalty schemes.  Each scheme will be covered over two articles.  One will list the basic facts of the scheme – basically “How does World of Hyatt work?” – whilst the other will be my subjective view of what is of particular merit.

The full series of articles can be found here:

• Review: Is Accor Live Limitless the best hotel loyalty scheme?
• Review: Is Hilton Honors the best hotel loyalty scheme?
• Review: Is IHG One Rewards the best hotel loyalty scheme?
• Review: Is Marriott Bonvoy the best hotel loyalty scheme?
• Review: Is Radisson Rewards the best hotel loyalty scheme?

World of Hyatt is the smallest of the global hotel loyalty schemes. Launched in early 2017 to replace Hyatt Gold Passport, it covers 1,350 hotels globally under brands including Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt House, Hyatt Place, Hyatt Centric, Hyatt Vacation Club, Hyatt Zilara, Hyatt Ziva, Caption, Alila, Thompson Hotels, Miraval, Destination By Hyatt, jdv, The Unbound Collection and Andaz. The World of Hyatt home page is here.

Recent acquisitions include a number of mass-market all-inclusive hotels in 2021, including the Zoetry, Breathless and Secrets brands, and the small Dream group in 2022.

The Mr & Mrs Smith marketing group was acquired in 2023, which will see some ‘Smith’ hotels bookable via Hyatt from mid 2024. This has come at the cost of losing the partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World.

What is the geographic spread?  Historically you used to struggle to find a Hyatt in the UK, but the situation has changed a lot.

In recent years the two established London hotels (Andaz, The Churchill) have been joined by Hyatt Place properties (one at Heathrow, one at Aldgate reviewed here) and the upmarket Great Scotland Yard, part of The Unbound Collection (review here).

It has also taken a number of hotels from IHG, including two hotels in the Westfield Stratford complex (now Hyatt Regency and Hyatt House), the Crowne Plaza at Albert Embankment (now Hyatt Regency) and the Crowne Plaza opposite Blackfriars station (now Hyatt Regency).

The London pipeline includes a Hyatt Place near Paddington and a Park Hyatt in Battersea (both 2024) and a Hyatt Regency at Olympia.

The brand also gained two hotels in Manchester which defected from IHG (Hyatt Regency, Hyatt House) and has recently added SCHLOSS Roxburghe, a resort in Scotland (review coming next month). The pipeline includes two hotels in Leeds (2024) and Edinburgh.

The chain is also expanding in Europe.  Recent openings have included Lisbon, Prague (reviewed here, it’s great), Ibiza, Santorini, Sardinia, Madrid (reviewed here), Krakow, Malaga and Bordeaux. It returned to the La Manga Club in Murcia in 2023. The acquisition of the Lindner chain led to a huge jump in the number of hotels in Germany.

More importantly, the hotels Hyatt has are generally excellent. Park Hyatt is arguably the most luxurious hotel chain that is run by a multi-brand group.

Do I use them?  Yes I do, because they are very good hotels.  I spent probably 20 nights at Park Hyatt Hamburg over the years visiting family there, although this hotel closed at the end of 2022.  I stayed at the Grand Hyatt Berlin (review), Hyatt Regency Amsterdam (review), Hyatt Regency Nice (review) and Andaz Prague (review) in the last couple of years and all were uniformly excellent. Last October I finally made it to Alila in Oman after my 2020 plans got postponed, and returned to Park Hyatt New York.

(Rhys covered Andaz Bali and Grand Hyatt La Manga last year, click for those reviews, and will be heading to the new Montenegro property on Kotor Bay in a few weeks.)

If they had more properties, I would use them more.  If it were easier to earn Hyatt points in the UK, I would use them a lot more.  I constantly plead with them to become an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner in Europe, where there are no dedicated Hyatt credit cards.

Elite membership levels

Whilst the bizarre elite tier names were very confusing when first launched, people seem to have got used to them – although I’m still not sure what percentage of casual members could tell you that the top tier is called Globalist!

The tiers are:

• Discoverist – requires 10 nights or 25,000 base points. Benefits are premium internet, a free bottle of water daily and a 10% bonus on base points.

• Explorist – requires 30 nights or 50,000 base points. Additional benefits are 20% bonus on base points, two vouchers for free Club Lounge access and a free night voucher for a Category 1-4 hotel (valid for 180 days) when hitting or re-qualifying for Explorist.

• Globalist – requires 60 nights or 100,000 base points. Additional benefits are room upgrades, including standard suites, and guaranteed Club Lounge access or free breakfast where no lounge is available. Resort fees are waived where charged.

Hyatt also has attractive ‘Milestone Rewards’

Hyatt has additional ‘Milestone Rewards’ which you pick up as you go, based on the number of nights you do each year. If you received free or matched World of Hyatt status then you would NOT receive these and would miss out on suite upgrade vouchers, bonus points and lounge passes.

Milestone Rewards starts at 20 nights. Free night vouchers kick in from 30 nights and suite upgrade vouchers, valid on paid or reward stays, start from 40 nights. Suite upgrade vouchers are confirmed at the time of booking and are valid for stays of up to seven nights making it the most generous suite upgrade benefit in the industry.

Following recent changes, you can keep earning Milestone Rewards on up to 150 nights per year.

Hyatt Brand Explorer is also worthwhile

All members can earn a free night voucher for a Category 1-4 hotel via ‘Hyatt Brand Explorer’ when staying at five different brands.  This is a lifelong promotion which began on 1st March 2017 – I have triggered one free night so far and am working towards my second. It’s a worthwhile little extra which many people ignore.

Reward nights count towards elite status.

The full list of elite benefits is here.

World of Hyatt does offer lifetime Globalist status. However, the target of 1m base points – requiring $200,000 of hotel spend – is exceptionally high.

How do you earn World of Hyatt points?

World of Hyatt gives 5 points per $1 spent, plus an elite bonus if applicable.  See the Hyatt site here.

Hyatt runs regular promotions although they do NOT offer ‘back to back’ offers as you get from Hilton Honors, IHG One Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy.  See our ‘Hotel Offers‘ page for any current offers.

Hyatt has a partnership with American Airlines for its elite members, launched in 2019.  AAdvantage Gold, Platinum, Platinum Pro, Executive Platinum and ConciergeKey members will earn one AAdvantage bonus mile for every $1 spent at Hyatt.  World of Hyatt Discoverist, Explorist and Globalist members will earn one World of Hyatt bonus point for every eligible $1 spent on qualifying American flights.  If you fly American Airlines transatlantic on expensive premium tickets, you could do very nicely from this partnership. You can learn more here.

What are World of Hyatt points worth?

We have an article dedicated to working out what World of Hyatt points are worth which you can find here.

Our mid-point valuation is 1.2p per point although you can easily beat this.

How do you spend World of Hyatt points?

Hyatt retains a reward chart, unlike most of its peers. You can see it here.

Redemption rates for hotels run from 3,500 points in Category 1 at off-peak periods (the cheapest properties, mainly old US hotels) to 45,000 points in Category 8 at peak periods.

Category 8 is only used for a handful of premium hotels such as Park Hyatt New York. Some Small Luxury Hotels were also Category 8 and it is possible that top Mr & Mrs Smith hotels will sit here too.

Apart from the handful of Category 8 hotels, you won’t pay more than 35,000 points for any Hyatt-operated property. There are separate rules for the new all-inclusive hotels.

There are no discounts for extended redemptions, unlike the ‘five for four’ deals run by Hilton and Marriott.

Hyatt lets you book suites and club rooms online for points. This is a substantial improvement since you previously had to call with no idea if rooms may be available or not. The number of additional points required is usually modest. Here is an example of how I used a small number of points for a suite upgrade in Paris, which also got me lounge access.

There are no blackout dates. If a standard room can be bought for cash, it is available for points.

A 5-star 25,000 point Category 6 redemption would typically require an Explorist (base) member to spend $4,150. Unlike Hilton, which has a similar premium, Hyatt promotions tend to be less generous so it is harder to reduce this spending target.

It is worth noting that Hyatt has a very generous offer for redeeming points for in-hotel spend. 65,000 points gets you $1,000 of credit, which is 1.2p per point. This is better than many room redemptions.

Do World of Hyatt points expire?

Hyatt points will expire after two years of total inactivity on your account. I wrote a full article on Hyatt’s expiry policies, and ways to stop it happening, here.

Can you upgrade Hyatt stays using points?

Yes. Hyatt allows you to upgrade to a suite or club room using points. A ‘premium’ suite will cost 9,000 points per night, a ‘standard’ suite will cost 6,000 points per night whilst a club room is 3,000 points per night. You need to book a room at Best Flexible Rate to upgrade and a lot of top hotels do not participate.  If a hotel has made suites available for this offer it can represent excellent value.

Are ‘cash and points’ redemptions available?

Yes, Hyatt offers ‘cash and points’ rooms. However, these do not generally offer good value.

You pay 50% of the standard points rate and 50% of the flexible room rate. This makes ‘cash and points’ disproportionately expensive because most hotels have discounted cash deals priced well below the flexible rate.

Can you transfer World of Hyatt points into airline miles?

World of Hyatt points can be transferred to a large number of airlines including Avios. The transfer ratio of 2.5 : 1 is not bad. However, given that you can get a one-night upgrade to a suite for just 6,000 Hyatt points, I would use them for that.

Hyatt points are tough to earn if you are UK based and should not be transferred to airline miles unless you are sure you will never use them for a room.

Can I earn Avios directly without collecting points?

No. You need to earn points and then convert them when you hit the minimum threshold.

Credit card partnerships

Can you get elite status with a UK credit card? No

Is there a World of Hyatt credit card in the UK? No

Is Hyatt an Amex Membership Rewards partner? No

Bottom line – virtually the only way for a UK resident to obtain Hyatt points is to stay in their hotels. That is a very radical approach in 2024!

Purchasing and transferring points

You can buy World of Hyatt points for $24 per 1,000 via this link. This is not cheap, but can actually represent a deal if using the points for a suite or club room upgrade (6,000 and 3,000 points per night). 

Over the last few years Hyatt has become more aggressive in offering 25%-33% bonuses when buying points, reducing the cost further. I have done this a couple of times when it was cheaper to buy points than book a room for cash and I find myself buying the maximum (55,000) points each year during a good bonus period.

As an example, I have just booked Park Hyatt Paris Vendome for September. This is selling for €1,485 per night (£1,270) but you can purchase the 45,000 points required for $816 (£650) when a 33% ‘buy points’ bonus is running. The savings you can make in Ibiza, Santorini etc during peak season are substantial. Any current offers will show here.

Points can be transferred to other members by filling in this form here and emailing it to Hyatt. There is no charge for this. However, as I found out to my cost a couple of years ago, you can only do it if both members have had a stay within the last 12 months. This means that you cannot save expiring points by transferring them.

My opinion

In Part Two of our World of Hyatt review tomorrow I will give my personal opinion on the strengths and weaknesses of the scheme.

In my previous article, I outlined ‘the facts’ of the World of Hyatt loyalty scheme. This article is my personal opinion, highlighting areas where I think you might want to focus.

The full series of articles can be found here:

• Review: Is Accor Live Limitless the best hotel loyalty scheme?
• Review: Is Hilton Honors the best hotel loyalty scheme?
• Review: Is IHG One Rewards the best hotel loyalty scheme?
• Review: Is Marriott Bonvoy the best hotel loyalty scheme?
• Review: Is Radisson Rewards the best hotel loyalty scheme?

The 10-second summary:

Strong points – excellent top-tier Globalist benefits, high quality portfolio in Europe and Asia, attractive suite and club room upgrade awards, valuable Milestone Rewards including guaranteed suite upgrades from 20 nights, UK footprint expanding, potential from Mr & Mrs Smith integration

Weak points – no credit card partners in the UK, still only a limited number of directly run European properties, hard to earn status given Hyatt’s small footprint outside the US, addition of mid-market ‘all inclusive’ hotels risks diluting the brand, losing Small Luxury Hotels of the World properties

The longer version:

I have stayed in some beautiful Hyatt properties in the past.  The wooden wedding chapel in the Grand Hyatt Tokyo is breathtaking. The suite I was given at the Grand Hyatt Shanghai was beautifully decorated.  The Park Hyatt Hamburg (review) was one of the best city hotels in Europe before it closed in late 2022.  My stay at a Hyatt Place in Dubai a few years ago was a real eye-opener into how nice a ‘budget’ hotel could be.

In the last two years I’ve had excellent stays at Andaz Prague (review) which could easily have a Park Hyatt or Mandarin Oriental sign on the door, Hyatt Regency Amsterdam (review), Grant Hyatt Berlin (review), Hyatt Regency Nice (review), Alila Jabal Akhdar Oman (review) and Park Hyatt New York (review) amongst others.

The loss of the Park Hyatt resort in Mallorca was a shame but the new 7Pines in Ibiza and Sardinia should fill the gap, as well as the new property in Santorini. The AMR acquisition also brought some smarter all-inclusive options alongside the mass-market ones, including Zoetry Mallorca (ex Hilton Sa Torre).

Taken more broadly, Park Hyatt is a ‘real’ luxury chain in a way that Marriott’s The Ritz Carlton and InterContinental are, taken overall, not. The New York hotel is now the classiest points option in the city (review here).

The directly run UK network is also picking up too. We’ve recently seen the luxurious Great Scotland Yard in London, the new budget Hyatt Place in Aldgate (review) and six hotels picked up from IHG – two in Manchester, two in London Stratford plus the Crowne Plaza hotels at London Blackfriars and Albert Embankment.

I have a small concern over the Hyatt Regency brand, which is being spread too thinly in London. The Churchill and Blackfriars hotels are very impressive and cannot, in any way, be compared with the new Regency hotels at Westfield Stratford and Albert Embankment.

Losing Small Luxury Hotels of the World to Hilton is less of a blow than I expected. SLH properties were often cheaper booked outside of the Hyatt system and benefits for elite members were thin. Redemption pricing was often too high or only tiny base rooms were available. For the same reasons I am not hugely excited about the Mr & Mrs Smith integration in mid 2024, but let’s see!

I am generally very positive about World of Hyatt because it allows you to experience high end properties without paying a huge price. Living in the UK, though, you cannot get away from the fact that World of Hyatt points are incredibly hard to earn.

There is no UK credit card and they are not an American Express Membership Rewards transfer partner. Even the base earnings rate of 5 points per $1 is not generous. Spend £1,000 inc VAT and you’d only earn 5,000 points if you had no status, whilst the better (not the best) upscale hotels in the portfolio come out at 30,000 – 35,000 points per night.

It’s a real problem for Hyatt. It’s hard to encourage people who focus on rewards to start moving across nights, even when the hotels are excellent, because there are no easy ways of topping up smaller quantities of points.

If you ARE in a position to do regular Hyatt stays, I am a big fan of the 6,000 points ‘suite upgrade’ award. This article shows how I took advantage of this deal in Paris.

You can also book ‘premium’ suite upgrades at many hotels for 9,000 points per night.  The suite award is confirmed at the time of booking so you know what you are getting.  It may even be worth buying World of Hyatt points during a promotion in order to take advantage of this deal.  The hotel needs to make reward space open for suite upgrades – it is not automatic just because suites are available for cash. 

Being able to redeem for a club room for a small points premium is a good deal.  Effectively all your food and drink needs for the trip can be covered with this if the spread is suitably generous. Being able to book suites and club rooms online is a positive recent improvement.

Even standard redemptions are often a great deal. Hyatt has ‘last room availability’ – if a standard room is available for cash, it will be available for World of Hyatt points. Some hotels have a very narrow definition of what they classify as a standard room, however.

The suite upgrades you earn as Milestone Awards, starting at 40 nights, are a great benefit – especially as these can be confirmed in advance and for up to seven days per stay.  Look at it like this: someone who does 60 nights to earn Globalist could select five suite upgrade awards. You could use these to stay 35 nights per year in a suite (five x 7 day ‘suite upgrade’ stays) which would earn you back more than half of the 60 elite nights you’d need to retain Globalist. It’s a virtuous circle.

There are lots of other positive quirks to being a Globalist – no resort fees, no hotel parking fees, guaranteed upgrade to best available room on arrival including ‘standard’ suites and free lounge access or free breakfast.

Whilst earning World of Hyatt top tier status is very tough if you are UK based, I still like earning their points when I can, and I hoard them carefully given how hard it is to get them.  In recent years I have been buying points up to my annual cap each year because there is real value here – especially with upgrades.

Of course I would like a credit card transfer option, and of course I would like more properties closer to home, but Hyatt has a solid programme with (because of the suite upgrades) arguably the most valuable top tier benefits.  If only there were more of them ….

Don’t forget Hyatt Prive

Whilst not strictly points related, there is another excellent Hyatt feature to mention. Hyatt has a scheme called Hyatt Prive which is available via luxury travel agents, including our partner Bon Vivant.

The benefits at participating hotels are huge – $50-$100 of hotel credit (even – at most brands – if you are just staying one night), free breakfast and an upgrade guaranteed at the time of booking. You earn your usual points and elite night credit on top.

Hyatt Prive benefits are available at ALL hotels branded Park Hyatt, Andaz, Alila, Thompson Hotels and Miraval Resorts. It is available at selected hotels branded The Unbound Collection, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Destination Hotels, Hyatt Centric and Joie de Vivre.

News in brief:

Good Lufthansa and SWISS business class flight deals to Dubai

Lufthansa and SWISS have brought back their attractive flight deals to Dubai.

From UK airports, you should be able to find a return fare in Business Class for around £1,300.

You need to travel between May and December for the best availability and stay away for 6+ nights.

Remember that Lufthansa and/or SWISS fly from major UK regional airports so you don’t necessarily have to start your trip in London. Whilst these are ‘Business Basic’ fares, they DO include lounge access.

You will be changing aircraft in Germany or Switzerland, depending on which airline you pick.

Here’s an example (click to enlarge):

If you can get to Dublin or Amsterdam, you will find a similar deal for the same number of €, although you need to factor in the cost of getting to your starting point.

You can play around with dates and pricing on the Lufthansa site here. The site is VERY good at helping you see which dates have the lowest pricing – a calender will appear as soon as you’ve typed some random dates into the home page search box.

You are paying in £, if you book a flight starting in the UK, so the best card to pay with is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold. This offers double points (2 per £1) on all airline spend. If you start in Dublin or elsewhere in Europe, your best bet is one of the Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard cards – these have 0% FX fees in the Eurozone and earn Virgin Points.

I believe the flights book into ‘P’ class, so be careful which Star Alliance frequent flyer programme you credit. wheretocredit.com can show you potential places to credit a ‘P’ class Lufthansa or SWISS flight.

Hat-tip to Luxury Flight Club.

Get a 20% discount buying World of Hyatt points

World of Hyatt is offering a new 20% discount (equivalent to a 25% bonus) when you buy 5,000+ World of Hyatt points via this link. The offer runs to 9th April.

This is obviously worth a look if you need to top up your account.  It may also be worthwhile if you are considering a stay in a top tier Park Hyatt such as Paris, where buying the points may be cheaper than paying cash – here’s my Park Hyatt New York review where I did just that.

There is no change to the annual ‘buy points’ cap so you are restricted to 55,000 points, assuming you haven’t already bought some this year. This will only get you one night at the very top hotels but 2-3 nights elsewhere.

This deal clearly won’t make sense at all Hyatt properties.  However, if you are visiting an expensive city at peak season it is definitely worth doing the maths.

There are two snags with this offer though:

• a 20% discount (equivalent to a 25% bonus) is not the best offer that Hyatt runs – you would expect to see a 30% / 33% bonus at some point during the year

• more importantly, buying with a discount rather than with a bonus means that you are not maximising the number of points you can purchase each year. This offer lets you buy 55,000 points at 20% off. Arguably (although the price per point would be the same) it would be better to wait for when you can buy 55,000 points with a 25% bonus – because you’d be picking up 68,750 points, and the more the merrier with Hyatt points.

We value Hyatt points at 1.2p. At the top end you are paying $1,056 for 55,000 points, which is 1.52p each. This means that it isn’t a no-brainer but you should still come out on top at a good hotel on an expensive night. It’s also fair to say that, given current hotel prices, my 1.2p valuation is very conservative.

For example …. I just booked Park Hyatt Paris Vendome for 45,000 points for one night for later in the year. The cash rate is currently €1,450. You can buy 45,000 points to book the same room for $864 (€800).

The chain has some excellent hotels, and I genuinely find Park Hyatt to be the best luxury chain which is run by one of the multi-brand groups.  It doesn’t beat Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental etc but I’d take one over a Ritz-Carlton, Waldorf Astoria or St Regis any day.

Hyatt has started letting you book suites online for points and there are some bargains to be had. Here is how I used that feature in Paris in 2021. Looking at suite upgrades, you are paying 6,000 points per night – or 9,000 for a premium suite – which would be (x 1.52p) £91 per night. This is good value, especially if the suite automatically gets you lounge access too.

The Hyatt ‘buy points’ site is here. The offer ends on 9th April.

Hyatt has launched its latest promotion which is another run-out for Bonus Journeys.

Full details, and the registration link, are here.

It runs from 1st March to 30th April, and is a very simple one – you will earn 3,000 bonus World of Hyatt points for every three nights you stay.

For stays in March, this offer will double-up with the offer of 1,000 Etihad Guest miles on every stay, which are earned on top of your World of Hyatt points. Click here to learn about that deal.

You must register by 15th April.

Reward nights DO count. Existing bookings DO count.

Nights do NOT need to be consecutive.

The bonus is capped at 21,000 points, which would require 21 nights.

As well as Hyatt-branded hotels, it is also valid at participating Small Luxury Hotels of the World (for as long as that partnership continues) hotels.

There is an additional bonus for holders of US Hyatt co-brand credit cards, but as that is not relevant for our UK readership I am not going to mention it.

What is this promotion worth?

With 3,000 bonus points for every three nights (not necessarily consecutive), and based on our 1.2p valuation of a World of Hyatt point, you are getting a bonus worth £12 per night.

This is good at cheap hotels but less generous at expensive ones. It also assumes that the number of nights you do during the promotion is an exact multiple of three.

Don’t forget Hyatt Prive too

You can combine this promotion with Hyatt Prive, the benefits programme offered by luxury travel agents including our partner Emyr Thomas.

Hyatt Prive gets you the following benefits – at no additional cost, compared to the usual Best Flexible Rate – for stays at:

• all Park Hyatt hotels
• all Andaz hotels (some cheaper hotels require a 2-night stay)
• some Grand Hyatt hotels
• some Hyatt Regency hotels
• some hotels in The Unbound Collection

You get:

• $100 property credit per room per stay ($50 or $75 at some cheaper Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Regency hotels)
• one category room upgrade confirmed within 24 hours of booking
• daily full breakfast for two
• early check-in (from 9am) and late check-out (to 4pm) subject to availability
• welcome gift and letter

Because all Hyatt Prive rates are ‘pay on departure’, you can be sure that they will combine with the cashback. All Hyatt Prive bookings qualify to earn World of Hyatt points and elite night credit.

Click here to learn more about Hyatt Prive, and use the form here to contact Emyr with booking enquiries.

Remember to register for Hyatt’s ‘Bonus Journeys’ promotion here. Registration closes on 15th April but you have until 30th April to stay.

This is part of our occasional series where we remind you of some of the hotel reviews we’ve run in recent years.

We started off with all of the great hotels that were reader-reviewed during the pandemic as part of our ‘My Favourite Hotel’ series. The article was very popular and helped a lot of readers to discover content that they never knew we had.

We followed up with an article looking at the 26 London hotels we have reviewed since 2019.

Today I want to bring together our London airport hotel reviews.

Where to find these articles in the future

If you are reading this by email, you should know that there is a ‘Reviews’ tab in the menu bar of our desktop and mobile sites.

Under this tab you will find six categories:

• flight reviews
• credit card reviews
• hotel reviews (in date order, which is a bit annoying I admit)
• UK airport lounge reviews
• London airport hotel reviews (again, in date order, but sorted below)
• ‘My Favourite Hotel’ reader reviews (2020/21)

Our London airport hotel reviews

This is far from a comprehensive list. We don’t pretend otherwise. However, we DO try to get to new and refurbished hotels when they open and the ones below are among the best of the bunch.

If there is a particularly good hotel at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton or London City which is not covered here, let us know in the comments and we’ll try to make it along.

For each hotel we have indicated which loyalty scheme it belongs to and whether it is walkable from, or even in, the terminal.

If you want to know which hotel loyalty scheme is currently running the most generous bonus points promotion, look at our list here.

London Heathrow airport hotel reviews

Hotel shuttle buses are banned at London Heathrow. The only way to reach hotels outside the terminal complex is via the Hotel Hoppa bus or public buses. A couple are easily walkable from Hatton Cross, the first underground station beyond the airport. The Thistle can be accessed by taking the driverless pods from Terminal 5.

In or attached to the terminals:

Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow Terminals 2 and 3 (Hilton Honors, book here)

Aerotel London Heathrow Terminal 3 (independent, book here)

Holiday Inn Express London Heathrow Terminal 4 (IHG One Rewards, book here)

Crowne Plaza London Heathrow Terminal 4 (IHG One Rewards, same building as above, book here)

Premier Inn Heathrow Terminal 4 (independent, book here)

Hilton London Heathrow Hotel at Terminal 4 (image above, Hilton Honors, book here)

Sofitel London Heathrow Terminal 5 (Accor Live Limitless, book here)

Requiring a bus or taxi transfer:

These hotels are listed by approximate distance from the terminals, nearest first:

Radisson Hotel London Heathrow (image above, Radisson Rewards, book here)

Radisson RED London Heathrow (Radisson Rewards, same building as above, book here)

ibis Styles London Heathrow Airport (Accor Live Limitless. book here)

Courtyard London Heathrow Airport (Marriott Bonvoy, book here)

Holiday Inn London Heathrow Bath Road (IHG One Rewards, book here)

Staybridge Suites London Heathrow Bath Road (IHG One Rewards, same building as above, book here)

Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport (World of Hyatt, book here)

Moxy London Heathrow Airport (Marriott Bonvoy, book here)

Accessible via a tube transfer to Hatton Cross:

Hilton Garden Inn London Heathrow Airport (Hilton Honors, book here)

Atrium Hotel Heathrow (independent, book here)

Accessible via pod transfer from Terminal 5:

Thistle Heathrow Terminal 5 (independent, book here)

London Gatwick airport hotel reviews

Hilton London Gatwick Airport (top image above, attached to South Terminal, Hilton Honors, book here)

YOTEL Gatwick Airport (inside South Terminal, independent, book here)

Hampton by Hilton London Gatwick Airport (inside North Terminal, Hilton Honors, book here)

Courtyard London Gatwick Airport (walkable without heavy luggage from South Terminal, Marriott Bonvoy, book here)

BLOC Hotel London Gatwick Airport (image above, inside South Terminal, independent, book here)

London City Airport hotel reviews

Courtyard London City Airport (walkable from terminal, Marriott Bonvoy, book here)

Moxy London Excel (walkable from terminal, but a lot further than Courtyard, Marriott Bonvoy, book here)

London Stansted airport hotel reviews

Hampton by Hilton Stansted Airport (image above, attached to terminal, Hilton Honors, book here)

Luton Luton airport hotel reviews

Holiday Inn Express London Luton Airport (nearest walkable hotel from terminal, IHG One Rewards, book here)

Courtyard Luton Airport (fairly long walk or local bus from terminal, Marriott Bonvoy, book here)

London Southend airport hotel reviews

Holiday Inn Southend Airport (walkable from terminal, IHG One Rewards, book here)

Welcome to our regular round-up of the best hotel promotions currently running.

All of the information in this article can also be found on our ‘Hotel Offers’ page which contains details of all of the current offers, together with links to our major articles on each hotel scheme.  However, a positive response from readers – especially our 18,000 email subscribers – means we run this monthly article as a handy summary.

We’ve seen a bounce back in the number of offers this month BUT big American Express cashback deals are noticeably absent. Are these now over? American Express was heavily subsidising them, and as they have all stopped (Hilton, Marriott, IHG and Marriott all ran them multiple times) it is possible that Amex has turned off the tap.

Here are quick summaries and links to the registration pages you need for each offer – do it before you forget. (I apologise to email readers if this block is mangled – scroll down to the main text area.)

Current offers for buying hotel points

Here are the ‘buy points’ offers running at the moment:

Current American Express cashback offers

It’s also worth noting the current American Express cashback offers with the big chains. These may be showing on one or more of your cards and may influence which hotels you book this month:

• Get 3,000 bonus Avios on a £300 spend with selected European Hyatt hotels (only available to British Airways American Express cardholders, expires 15th March)

• Get £100 back on a £500 spend with selected Mandarin Oriental hotels (expires 27th May)

• Get 7% cashback at Radisson Blu Edwardian hotels (10 hotels – nine in London / Heathrow and one in Manchester, expires 10th April)

• Get £100 back on a £500 spend at The Londoner hotel in Leicester Square (expires 10th April)

• Get £100 back on a £400 spend at The May Fair Hotel (expires 10th April, part of Radisson Rewards, website here)

• Get £50 back on a £400 spend with The Pig Hotel Group (expires 26th March)

Where should you credit your stays for March 2024?

Remember that, irrespective of the offers below, there is never a single ‘best’ offer.

Some offers require multiple stays to maximise the bonus, which you might not do. Some require stays to be a minimum number of nights before a bonus is earned.

You need to factor in any elite status you have, which will earn you additional status bonuses.

More importantly, you need to be able to use the points. There is no value in earning a large bonus in a scheme where you will never go on to earn enough points to get a free night.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc)

Hilton has a promotion called ‘Points Plus’.

You can register here.  Our full article is here. It runs until 1st May.

You will earn 2,000 bonus points on all stays, plus an additional 500 boints if you select a Digital Key in the Hilton app.

You need to register in advance of your first stay during the period via the Hilton website here.  Existing bookings count and all Hilton Honors hotels are taking part.

The Hilton booking page is here.

IHG One Rewards is running two targeted promotions across February and March.

If you got an email inviting you to register for one of them, great. If not, tough!

You can read about the two deals here. The registration links were personalised and ‘one click’ so there is no page where you can try to register just in case.

You can book your IHG stays here.

Marriott Bonvoy (Renaissance, The Ritz-Carlton, Sheraton, Westin, W, Aloft, St Regis, Luxury Collection, Moxy etc)

Until 29th April, you will earn 1,000 bonus points per NIGHT and double elite night credits on every cash stay at a Marriott hotel.

I value a Bonvoy point at 0.5p so this is equivalent to a £5 bonus per night.  It is clearly a better deal on cheap one-night stays than expensive week-long holidays.

For many readers, the double elite night credits will be more important, allowing you to get a head start on status requalification for next year.

Our full article is here. You can register here. Note that registration closes early on 9th April.

The home page for bookings is here.

Radisson Rewards (Park Plaza, Park Inn etc)

Until 26th March, you can earn up to 7,000 bonus Radisson Rewards points.

The snag is that existing bookings do not count. You need to register here and then make your bookings.

You earn 500 bonus points on your first stay, 3,000 on your second stay and 3,500 on your third stay.

Following the Radisson devaluation of 2022, we now value Radisson Rewards points at 0.2p and potentially even lower. Remember that Radisson hotels in North America are no longer part of the program.

Our full article is here. You can register here.

The home page for bookings is here.

World of Hyatt launched its latest promotion on 1st March, which will run until 30th April.

You will receive 3,000 bonus World of Hyatt points for every three nights you stay. Nights do not need to be consecutive. Reward nights count.

You can register here. Registration closes early on 15th April.

Our full article is here. The Hyatt booking page is here.

And finally …..

If you booking a luxury hotel, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  

Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.  Feedback from readers who have used this service so far has been excellent and we have booked over £1.7 million of rooms so far.

This article shows you which of the major hotel loyalty schemes let you transfer your points to another person.

Over the last few years it has become progressively easier to transfer hotel points to someone else, often for free. Whilst this always creates the risk of fraud, the schemes appear to believe that it is worth it because families want to combine the points they earn from their individual travel.

How can you transfer hotel loyalty points to someone else?

Let’s take a look at the six core hotel programmes we cover on Head for Points, which are those run by Accor, Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Marriott and Radisson. I’ve also added in Best Western because it does allow free transfers and has a decent UK presence.

Accor Live Limitless

Accor points cannot be transferred.

Best Western Rewards

The FAQ on the UK website says:

Can I transfer points to another Best Western Rewards account?

“Yes. Points can be transferred between accounts that share the same physical address. To arrange a point transfer, please contact our Rewards Team at bwr.service@bestwestern.com”

Hilton Honors

Hilton Honors allows FREE transfers via a service it calls points pooling.  You can send up to 500,000 Hilton Honors points per calendar year, albeit across no more than six transactions, and receive up to two million points.

This is clearly a generous deal in terms of the number of points you can move, although the annual limit of six transactions means that you can’t sweep them across from your partner on a regular basis.

It works well.  When my wife has a Hilton stay – which is twice per year at most – I move the points to my account. This is partly to keep things tidy and partly because I have higher Hilton status than her and it makes sense that redemptions are booked via my account.

Note that both Hilton accounts must have been open for at least 30 days with some sort of qualifying activity, or for at least 90 days if they are dormant.

You can find out more on this page of the Hilton Honors website.

IHG One Rewards

You can transfer IHG One Rewards points to anyone else for a flat fee of $5 per 1,000.

I did this once to top up my Mum’s account when she was 1,000 points short of a redemption – in this scenario it was $5 well spent (buying 1,000 would have been $13.50).

That said, IHG One Rewards is often selling points with a large discount – click here to see if there is a deal running. This can be as high as 50%, which means $6.75 per 1,000. If such a deal is running, it makes more sense to buy points rather than accept a transfer from someone else unless the points were about to expire.

Following a recent change, the $5 per 1,000 points fee is waived if you are a Diamond Elite member of IHG One Rewards. It is also waived if you are signed up for IHG Business Rewards, IHG’s small business programme, which is free to join. You can read more in this HfP article.

The link to arrange transfers is here.

Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott Bonvoy allows you to transfer your points to anyone, for free.  Full details are here.

There is an annual cap of 100,000 points per year from one person to another. This is relatively low given that many higher end Marriott Bonvoy hotels can cost over 100,000 points per night.

Transfers can now be done online which is a huge improvement on the previous phone-based process. The maximum number of points that any account can receive per year is 500,000.

Note that both Marriott accounts must have been open for at least 30 days with some sort of qualifying activity, or for at least 90 days if they are dormant.

Radisson Rewards

In theory, Radisson Rewards allows an account to make or receive transfers from up to five different people per month, with a maximum inbound flow of 100,000 points per month.

The online transfer process has been broken for many months. I believe it is still possible to make a transfer if you call.

You must have been a member of Radisson Rewards for 30 days in order to send or receive points. There is no longer any requirement to have elite status to make transfers. Details are on the website here (see 5d).

World of Hyatt

Hyatt points can be transferred to any other member for FREE by filling in this PDF form. You can only make or receive a transfer once every 30 days. In theory you are meant to redeem them as soon as the transfer is complete but this is not enforced.

On my recent experience, transfers take 3-4 days to get done so this isn’t something to leave until the last minute.

I have had problems in the past with the service centre insisting that both the giving and receiving accounts must have had a qualifying Hyatt stay during the previous 12 months.  This is what it means when the PDF form says that both accounts must be ‘active’. Other people have not had this issue, but be aware that it is a risk.

This is Part 2 of our review of SCHLOSS Roxburghe, a new addition to the Hyatt hotel portfolio located in the Scottish Borders near Kelso.

Part 1, click here, looked at the history and location of the resort and took a tour of the different room types. In this part we’re going to look at your eating and drinking options, the spa and the holiday cottages which are also part of the estate.

Hyatt provided my room and meals for two nights as well as a spa treatment but HfP paid all of its other expenses.

Restaurants at SCHLOSS Roxburghe

The hotel has two restaurants. Below is a picture of Sunlaws Restaurant which is the fine dining option. This was closed for the winter when I was there but I was told it will re-open in April:

The second and main dining option is ‘Charlie’s’, which the hotel calls a bistro. As you can see from the design it is in the new wing and matches the style of the bedrooms with blue, marble and brass. It is a very harmonious and inviting space despite being surprisingly large.

In the middle you can also see the third bar of the hotel:

In the summer season guests can also sit outside:

Breakfast

‘Charlie’s’ is where breakfast is served. To be honest, this was one of best breakfast buffets I have seen in UK.

The comments below suggest that breakfast is included in all bookings. This is not made clear on the website – although it isn’t possible to book a room which specifically includes breakfast – and never came up in my discussions with the hotel. The hotel should make more of this since some people will automatically assume that they could be on the hook for £25-£30 per person each morning.

There are multiple bread and pastry options with cereal and jams and fresh honeycomb.

Here is the savoury section with cold cuts. There was also salmon and a very good choice of cheeses.

Fruit – preserved and fresh:

Coffee and tea is served to order as well as some hot dishes. The first day I had a delicious Avocado & Rye and the second morning I had Eggs Royale (Rhys told me it was compulsory for a HfP review) which was very tasty:

As you would expect the buffet also has black pudding (left) and haggis (middle) on offer if you fancy a Scottish option. A chef is available to cook omelettes and eggs to your specifications.

Dinner

I also had dinner in ‘Charlie’s’ on the first night. I had two friends over who live nearby which gave me an opportunity to see a range of dishes.

The food was excellent. I had Galloway Beef Tartare (£15) for starter:

My main was a fillet of hake on white beans, clams, fennel and saffron (£26):

The culinary highlight was the Winter Berry Pavlova (£10) for dessert which one of my friends ordered:

On the second night I wanted to eat something simpler and sat at the bar in the State Room Lounge:

The menu here is more straightforward – Scottish smoked salmon, salads, sandwiches, burgers, pasta, fish’n chips and steak.

I chose a grilled chicken salad with sweet potato fries, pictured below. It was fresh and very good quality. This salad was £20 but a normal caesar salad would have been £14.50 plus £5 if you wanted some prawns added. A Club sandwich (‘The Roxburghe Club’) is £18.

The spa

The new owners have clearly invested considerable sums in the spa, which is brand new and frankly beautiful. This is the reception area:

This is one of the treatment rooms. The spa uses Aromatherapy Associates products. I had a Schloss Signature Massage which was very relaxing:

Here is the relaxation room and waiting area before treatments:

The pool

SCHLOSS Roxburghe has a relatively small pool. What’s unusual is that there is a lot of seating arranged in a large space – you won’t be fighting other guests for a lounger here.

The room is cleverly divided in sections and is surrounded by floor to ceiling windows on three sides flooding it with light:

At the right end are tables and chairs for small groups. I saw couples playing cards here.

There are plenty of benches and armchairs, and – on a midweek day in February, admittedly – it wasn’t at all busy:

The pool is entered from the inside and then leads outside. The water is heated at a pleasant 30 degrees celsius. My only concern is that, at 16 metres long and 4 metres wide, the pool might be a little small at peak times given the size of the spa overall.

Access for children (younger than 16 years) is restricted to 9 -10 am and 4 – 5 pm.

There are two different saunas outside plus a 36 degree jacuzzi and a cold plunge pool. There are also showers and space for outside benches in the summer.

The gym

The gym is relatively small (the picture below has a mirror as a back wall!) but has large windows ….

…. with all the equipment you’d expect. I always appreciate it when the gym isn’t in the hotel basement.

Holiday cottages

SCHLOSS Roxburghe isn’t just a hotel. Behind the hotel in the former walled gardens and woodlands there are currently 20 holiday cottages for rent. These are situated to the right in the map below (click to enlarge). The left side of the plan is still very much a construction site.

The cottages cannot be booked via Hyatt and direct bookings via the hotel will not earn World of Hyatt points or elite night credit. I didn’t get to see inside one.

The cottages are a mix of semi detached and detached properties. The look from the outside was not overly impressive, to be honest:

…. but there is one stand-out cottage which is worth mentioning. This is the former ‘Gardener’s Cottage’:

Conclusion

SCHLOSS Roxburghe is a part-new, part-refurbished country hotel which has, to my mind, successfully combined traditional and modern to a very high standard. It blends old and new without compromising either.

What it does best is the public spaces and the beautiful interiors. As well as the inviting and cosy public rooms in the Manor House, the spa offers a lot of lounging options in a modern and refined space. The pool size is a bit of a concern for me but it is at least heated to a very pleasant 30 degrees. You will also eat very well here.

How does it compare with other Scottish resorts?

Over the last decade I’ve stayed at Gleneagles (post refurbishment), Turnberry and Fairmont St Andrews. Gleneagles has had a very glitzy refurbishment, looks fantastic and is a genuine stand-alone resort where you never need to leave the grounds. Turnberry is an old Victorian railway hotel with sea views in a quiet area. Fairmont St Andrews (Accor) is a 1990s building, totally lacking in historical features and slightly cavernous, but has sea views and there is a lot to see nearby.

Where does SCHLOSS Roxburghe fit in to this list? It is in a totally different part of Scotland, for a start, so you have different sightseeing options. If you’re driving from England it may be a shorter trip than the other three above, although they are all around a one hour drive from a major airport.

Where SCHLOSS Roxburghe stands out is that everything is brand new and done to a high standard (not the case at St Andrews or Turnberry), it has an outstanding spa and it has a number of attractive public spaces.

SCHLOSS Roxburghe is also a smaller and more intimate resort than Gleneagles or St Andrews. It wouldn’t be my top choice if you want child friendly (go to Gleneagles for that) but if you want to avoid children …..

In truth, these hotels all have something to offer the high end traveller and each lets you experience a different aspect of the country.

Pricing

Pricing at SCHLOSS Roxburghe varies sharply throughout the year as you’d expect. For a weekend in mid June, room start at £340 per night. It is worth noting that suites are well priced here, with the top suite (Estate Suite) being £640 per night on the same weekend.

Suites vary from 27,000 to 36,000 World of Hyatt points per night.

Standard room redemptions start at 12,000 points per night out of season. These can be tricky to find because the hotel only has a few ‘standard’ rooms – the ones in The Courtyard – but suite redemptions are easy to get.

It’s worth noting that this is a Category 4 hotel and so you can use it with a ‘Brand Explorer’ certificate (the free night you earn for staying at five different Hyatt brands – click here). For any US readers this also makes it usable with some of the Hyatt credit card free night vouchers.

The best deal is the ‘Premium Suite Upgrade’, upgrading a base room to the top suite for just 9,000 points per night. You can currently buy Hyatt points with a 20% discount, and buying 9,000 will cost you $172 (£135). An upgrade to a smaller suite is just 6,000 points per night which you can buy for £90. These upgrades are locked in at the time of booking.

Thanks to the SCHLOSS Roxburghe team for their time. The hotel website is here.

This is my review of SCHLOSS Roxburghe, a new addition to the Hyatt portfolio located in the Scottish Borders near Kelso.

SCHLOSS Roxburghe is a former residence of the Dukes of Roxburghe. In 2018, what was then a manor house hotel was bought by a German investment group (hence I guess “SCHLOSS” instead of “castle”) which already owned high end properties in Germany, Sardinia, Ibiza and New York.

The property was completely refurbished and a new modern wing (Estate House) added, tripling the available rooms. For clarity, despite the SCHLOSS name, there is nothing German about the food and drink, the rooms, the spa or the staff!

In January 2023 Hyatt officially announced the opening of SCHLOSS Roxburghe as the debut of the ‘Destination by Hyatt’ brand in the UK.

The hotel website is here.

We have split the review into two parts because there is a lot to cover and, because it is a Scottish hotel, it is more accessible to HfP readers than many of the overseas properties we cover.

The hotel provided my room and meals for two nights as well as a spa treatment but HfP paid for my travel.

Getting to SCHLOSS Roxburghe

I visited last time this part of Scotland nearly 30 years ago – I was still living in Germany then and Sir Walter Scott’s Abbotsford made a lasting impression on me – so I was particularly looking forward to this trip.

To get to SCHLOSS Roxburghe from London I took the train from London Kings Cross to Berwick-upon-Tweed followed by a 45 minute taxi ride costing £61. If you want to hire a car, Edinburgh and Newcastle are circa one hour drive away and may be a better place to start.

This is a country house resort with a wide range of outdoor activities on site such as golf, clay pigeon shooting, fly fishing and hiking. The surrounding countryside is undoubtedly lovely. Further afield – but really not that far – are Kelso Abbey, the famous Floors Castle and the already mentioned Sir Walter Scott’s Abbotsford. Even the beaches of Northumberland are not that much of a drive.

Above is a view of the old manor as you come up the drive, welcomed by a carpet of snowdrops (not in the pic).

There was no doorman to greet me or help with my luggage, which seemed a missed opportunity to make a grander first impression which the inside fully justifies. The reception area takes you back a century with a big fireplace (not in pic) and a welcoming feel (I loved the wallpaper):

To the left of the reception is the library, which contains one of the three bars in the property and is where whisky tastings take place. The whole room makes you feel as if you’ve gone back in time by 100 years – as long as you were part of the upper crust of course.

Straight on from the reception is the old hallway with striking wallpaper, tartan carpet and a hugely ornate fireplace. As you have probably realised by now, this is absolutely not your typical ‘big brand’ hotel.

The other side leads up to the rooms and suites in the original manor house:

From the hallway you can go to a number of public spaces. The picture below is of the Drawing Room (the old Conservatory is behind the milk glass doors). Unfortunately on my last day this area was closed off for a private event.

Another option is the State Room Lounge which also has a bar. Most of the public rooms have fire places which were lit in the evening.

Adjacent to the State Room Lounge is another snug:

There are a lot of places to hang out at SCHLOSS Roxburghe, which is a particular benefit in the winter months if the weather is inclement. You could spend a happy few days getting through your unread pile of books in front of a roaring fire.

From the snug you continue to the modern wing, the Estate House. As well as two floors of rooms and suites this also houses the main restaurant and the spa. This is an outside view to the Estate House from the park:

The Courtyard, one of the historic buildings on the estate, is utterly charming. The Courtyard also houses rooms and one suite, and is only a few steps from the main hotel / restaurant.

During my stay there were a lot of dogs in the hotel. I think I have never stayed in a hotel with so many dogs running around, but they were all very well behaved and no disturbance at all. If you’ve got a dog of your own, this is a place where they will be welcome.

My King Bed Estate Park View room

My room was in the modern wing with a view to the park. This is the preferable side – and slightly more expensive as a result – as the rooms across the hall overlook the staff and golf club car park, albeit with the golf course and countryside beyond.

The room is decorated in teal blue with matt brass on the poster bed and in the bathroom. This is a very contemporary combination and tastefully furnished.

The room was not very spacious, to be honest, but had a small desk and an armchair as well as a very stylish window seat. I was missing a bedside lamp but this was not a massive drawback as there is a reading spot light on the wall.

The blue paint may prove tricky to maintain. My wardrobe door couldn’t open fully without banging into the bedside table, and the suitcase bench in the same colour already had a few chips. The resort will need to be vigilant if the teal paint is to remain in good shape.

The coffee machine is in the wardrobe on a shelf which can be pulled out. It didn’t pull out far enough to give you access to the water tank, however, and it was quite fiddly to actually get it going.

The bathroom had a walk-in shower (no bath) and one sink. The amenities were in large bottles from Molton Brown. The glossy ocean green tiles went well with the sink top and brass furnishings.

Manor House and The Courtyard rooms

If you don’t want to stay in the new wing, you can choose from the Manor House and The Courtyard.

The rooms and suites here are all individually decorated in a traditional style in keeping with the building. The hallways sport a tartan wallpaper:

I asked to see a Junior Suite in the Manor House and was shown the suite called ‘Galalaw’. The suite has a wooden four-poster bed, heavy curtain hangings and a lovely cosy atmosphere. The thoughtful use of colour, both in the room and indeed throughout the resort, really catches the eye.

The suite is also very spacious and looks out to the front of the hotel:

In contrast, the bathroom is modern with a shower but no bath. It all looked very fresh and had a high-end feel.

A King Suite in the Estate House

I was also shown a King Suite with a park view in the newly built wing. As well as being very spacious and elegant, this suite has a good sized balcony with table and chairs which will come into its own in summer.

This is the living room space:

The bedroom was similar to my King Bed room but considerably larger – however there were no bedside table lamps here either!

The real plus is a very generous bathroom with double sinks and ….

…. a free-standing bath in addition to a shower:

This is the end of Part 1 of my SCHLOSS Roxburghe review. In Part 2, click here, I look at the restaurant, bars, the spa, the pool and the holiday cottages which are also part of the estate.

World of Hyatt will be making its annual reward category changes on 26th March.

On the face of it, it is not great news. 137 hotels are going up in points price and only 46 are going down. Europe does proportionately worse than that. That said, there are no changes to the number of categories or the points required per category.

Hyatt also does something very positive – if you have a booking at a hotel which is going down in points price, you are automatically refunded the difference on 26th March. There is no need to waste time rebooking.

In terms of European hotels:

As you can see, Europe sees a higher percentage of increases vs decreases compared to the global average. The only noticeable reductions are Bordeaux, which drops to 15,000 points on a standard night, and Santorini, which drops to 25,000 points. One of the Spanish all-inclusive resorts is also cut.

You can see the global list of changes here.

There is still great value in World of Hyatt of course. Earlier this week Rob booked his wife into Stockholm’s Hotel Reisen which I reviewed here. For just 9,000 points per night he upgraded her from a standard room to a full sea view suite which is exceptional value, even if you have to buy the points to do it. A semi-sea view suite upgrade would only have been 6,000 points per night. Remember that these upgrades are guaranteed at the time of booking.

World of Hyatt update – March 2024:

Get bonus points: World of Hyatt is not currently running a global promotion

New to World of Hyatt?  Read our overview of World of Hyatt here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on what we think World of Hyatt points are worth is here.

Buy points: If you need additional World of Hyatt points, you can buy them here.

World of Hyatt is offering a 20% discount when you buy points by 9th April 2024. Click here to buy.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Hyatt and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Is it possible to book multiple rooms at the same property on the same night, earn points from them all and have them all count as qualifying nights for elite status or for a promotion?

This is a topic that is close to my heart.  My children are now too big for rollaway beds or sharing a sofa bed, so our default hotel option is now two separate (connecting if possible) rooms.  You can be sure that I am looking to maximise my rewards from these two rooms.

I thought it was worth running through the policies of the major chains when you book multiple rooms.

Note that, in all cases:

• all rooms must be booked in your name

• you must occupy one of the rooms

• you must pay for all of the rooms

Multiple room rules with Accor Live Limitless

Accor has the most restrictive policy of the major chains on the face of it, in terms of number of rooms you can earn on (no more than two), but actually it is the best choice if you want to earn status.

The rules:

• Can you earn Accor Live Limitless ‘qualifying nights’ credit for multiple rooms per night?  No

• Can you earn Accor Live Limitless status qualifying base points for multiple rooms per night?  Yes, up to two rooms per night

• Can you earn Accor Live Limitless redeemable points for multiple rooms per night?  Yes, up to two rooms per night

The Accor Live Limitless terms and conditions are here (PDF).  See paragraph 7.2 under ‘Eligible Expenses’.

Accor lets you earn status based on either nights or spend (€10 gets you 25 status qualifying points at most brands) and that the ‘spend’ route is the easiest unless you only stay in low cost Ibis hotels.

Whilst you don’t earn ‘nights’ credit for booking two rooms on the same night, the points you earn from both rooms are counted towards qualifying for status via spend.

If you regularly book two rooms when you stay at a hotel, Accor is the ONLY programme which allows both rooms to count towards earning status.

I currently have top-tier Diamond status in Accor Live Limitless following a stay at Fairmont Windsor Park last December.  We booked two rooms and spend from both counted towards status.

Multiple room rules with IHG One Rewards

Historically IHG only allowed multiple rooms to count in the US and Canada.  It has now extended this globally – the last few exceptions (mainly Latin American countries) were removed when IHG One Rewards launched in 2022.

The only places where you can’t earn points on multiple rooms are InterContinental Alliance resorts, which primarily means the Las Vegas hotels linked to IHG.

The rules:

• Can you earn IHG One Rewards ‘qualifying nights’ credit for multiple rooms per night?  No

• Can you earn IHG One Rewards status qualifying base points for multiple rooms per night?  No

• Can you earn IHG One Rewards redeemable points for multiple rooms per night? Yes, up to NINE rooms per night

The terms and conditions of IHG One Rewards are here if you want to check the wording.  See clause 35.

Multiple room rules with Hilton Honors

Hilton Honors has a decent policy but you need to be aware of the small print.

The rules:

• Can you earn Hilton Honors ‘qualifying nights’ credit for multiple rooms per night?  No

• Can you earn Hilton Honors status qualifying base points for multiple rooms per night?  No

• Can you earn Hilton Honors redeemable points for multiple rooms per night?  Yes, up to four rooms per night, but ONLY if the bills for the rooms are merged into one bill at check-out

I came a cropper here a few years ago at an Embassy Suites, because the hotel had already prepared the bills the night before and I forgot to merge them.  Whilst my name was on both rooms I only received points for one of them.  Luckily the Hilton contact centre took pity on me and credited the additional points, but you shouldn’t rely on this.

Hilton has an extra benefit in your favour – if you have Hilton elite status, you receive your status bonus on ALL of the rooms and not just the points earned from the room you occupy. However, if there is a promotional bonus running (eg ‘double points’) then it will only apply to one room.

The Hilton Honors terms and conditions are here.  It is under ‘Accrual of Points’.

Multiple room rules with Marriott Bonvoy

Following the merger of Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest, this is what the combined Bonvoy programme offers:

The rules:

• Can you earn Marriott Bonvoy ‘qualifying nights’ credit for multiple rooms per night?  No

• Can you earn Marriott Bonvoy status qualifying base points for multiple rooms per night?  Not applicable – you can only earn Marriott Bonvoy status via nights, not base points

• Can you earn Marriott Bonvoy redeemable points for multiple rooms per night?  Yes, up to three rooms per night

This is a change from the old Starwood Preferred Guest rules, which DID let you earn qualifying nights for up to three rooms per night.  People who were close to status would often book three rooms at one of the Heathrow hotels over a cheap weekend night.

The Marriott Bonvoy terms and conditions are here.  Click on ‘Earn Points’ to bring up the relevant section – it is in Clause 2.1.d

Multiple room rules with Radisson Rewards

Radisson Rewards has an identical policy to Marriott Bonvoy:

The rules:

• Can you earn Radisson Rewards ‘qualifying nights’ credit for multiple rooms per night?  No

• Can you earn Radisson Rewards status qualifying base points for multiple rooms per night?   Not applicable – you can only earn Radisson Rewards status via nights, not base points

• Can you earn Radisson Rewards redeemable points for multiple rooms per night?  Yes, up to three rooms per night.  Note that the rules say “credit for multiple rooms must be requested at or before the time of check-in”.

You can clarify this in the Radisson Rewards terms and conditions here under Clause 5 / a / i.

Multiple room rules with World of Hyatt

World of Hyatt also has the same rules:

The rules:

• Can you earn World of Hyatt ‘qualifying nights’ credit for multiple rooms per night?  No

• Can you earn World of Hyatt status qualifying base points for multiple rooms per night?  No

• Can you earn World of Hyatt redeemable points for multiple rooms per night?  Yes, up to three rooms per night

The World of Hyatt terms and conditions are here.  See clause 1.8 in Appendix A.

Conclusion

There is no major hotel loyalty scheme which allows multiple rooms to count towards additional elite qualifying nights.

Accor Live Limitless is the only programme which allows your spending from a second room to count towards elite status earned by spend.

The good news is that you can earn redeemable points in all six of the major schemes by crediting multiple rooms to your account, even though (Accor aside) they won’t help you earn status any quicker.

Hilton recently announced that it has agreed a partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World.

This will see selected SLH hotels made available for booking via the Hilton website, for cash or Hilton Honors points, and some elite benefits offered to Hilton Honors members.

With SLH partnering with Hilton, it means that the existing SLH deal with World of Hyatt will end. Of course, Hyatt is about to add Mr & Mrs Smith hotels to its website, having taken over that partnership from IHG. Yes, it’s complicated.

The termination date for the Hyatt partnership is 15th May.

You will not be able to earn or redeem Hyatt points with Small Luxury Hotels beyond this date.

Existing bookings, for cash or points, will still be honored. You will not receive any World of Hyatt-related benefits though – no free breakfast, no World of Hyatt points, no elite night credits.

You can no longer make new bookings via the Hyatt website for stays after 15th May.

If you need more information on how this impacts any bookings you have, there is a FAQ on the Hyatt website here.

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (March 2024)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Did you know that the Virgin Atlantic credit cards are a great way of earning Hilton Honors points? Two Virgin Points can be converted into three Hilton Honors points. The Virgin Atlantic cards are the only Visa or Mastercard products in the UK which can indirectly earn Hilton Honors points. You can apply here.

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with:

• American Express Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Rewards Credit Card (10,000 bonus Amex points)

and for small business owners:

• American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Business Platinum (40,000 bonus Amex points)

The conversion rate from American Express to Hilton points is 1:2.

SPECIAL OFFER: You receive 60,000 Membership Rewards points if you apply for American Express Business Gold by 9th April 2024. Remember that the card is FREE for the first year. You receive 40,000 points for spending £6,000 within 90 days and a further 20,000 points if you retain the card for 14 months. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: You receive a huge 120,000 Membership Rewards points if you apply for American Express Business Platinum by 9th April 2024. You receive 80,000 points for spending £12,000 within 90 days and a further 40,000 points if you retain the card for 14 months. Click here to apply.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points. 

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

This is our review of the Great Scotland Yard Hotel, part of Hyatt’s Unbound Collection and probably the best Hyatt property in London.

Part 1, click here, looked at the location, the rooms and the gym. In this part, I look at the bars, the impressive Ekstedt at The Yard restaurant and The Parlour, where I enjoyed afternoon tea.

Breakfast at The Yard

Ekstedt at The Yard is the main restaurant of the hotel which I will cover in a minute. It is here where breakfast is served as well, although it is not run by the Ekstedt team.

It was not busy when I was there, but clearly there are plenty of competing breakfast options near the hotel. The price for the continental buffet is £25 and if you add an option from a la carte it is £30. I’d recommend the latter as the extra £5 is well worth it to receive a hot item as well. A World of Hyatt Globalist member would get breakfast for free, of course.

The continental buffet is relatively small but very well equipped and very good quality. Below you can see the salmon and cold cuts as well as various cheeses. Further back in the picture are a few dips and fresh salad.

Yoghurts, dried fruits and cereals are offered in this section:

In another part of the room are bread and pastries. Croissants and pastries are kept under a warming lamp for that ‘fresh out of the oven’ taste.

and

The a la carte choices are quite extensive including an Apple Bircher Muesli & Berry Compote, various egg dishes, porridge and a Breakfast Sandwich (basically a bacon or sausage roll) served with fried egg. You can order an a la carte item on its own if you don’t want the full buffet.

I had avocado & tomatoes and cherry molasses on sourdough bread with poached egg, which is £16 if ordered on its own. It was big, filling and very delicious.

The 40 Elephants Bar

The bar is entered from the lobby and is named after a famous all-female criminal gang operating from Elephant & Castle in the last century. The chandelier design is apparently a reference to glass shards from broken shop windows ….

…. whilst the wall seats are a reproduction from old Metropolitan Police carriages. It’s not a huge space but was never busy – some people had a drink here before heading into Ekstedt.

The bar offers snacks, larger bites, sides and desserts between 12pm and 10.30pm. Larger bites include guacamole, roast feta and homemade tortillas for £12 and a club sandwich served on pain de mie for £24.

Sibin Speakeasy

Great Scotland Yard also has a ‘secret’ speakeasy bar, originally a whisky bar but now offering other spirits as well. The entrance is somewhat obscured behind a “book shelf” and you can get in by pressing a button to the right or moving a specific book.

This bar has a stage and the ceiling is decorated with empty bottles!

Besides the long bar itself there are cosy corners to sit in groups and enjoy drinks and music.

Every Thursday and Friday is live jazz night from 8.30pm to 11pm organised in collaboration with Jazz London Radio. I was there on the Thursday night and the music was impressive. There were only about 10 people in the bar when I was there around 9pm – the rest of the hotel guests were missing out.

Dinner at Ekstedt at The Yard

Ekstedt at The Yard is a real destination for foodies. Even if you have no need to ever stay in the hotel due to living in London, I’d recommend a meal here.

Overseen by Michelin starred chef Niklas Ekstedt it offers his signature dishes prepared in wood fire, smoke or ash in traditional Scandinavian style using British ingredients.

It is genuinely something different. Note that Ekstedt only operates from 6pm to 9pm, Tuesday to Saturday, with the restaurant operating as a more ‘standard’ hotel dining room at other times.

As I mentioned above when discussing breakfast the restaurant is very inviting, even more so at night in the dimmed light.

The kitchen is open and you are sitting very close to the open fires as the food is prepared.

Guests can chose from an a la carte menu or a six course ‘Journey to Scandinavia’ tasting menu for £115. Two optional wine pairings are available for an additional £85 or £115 per person.

Rob had popped along for dinner and we went for the a la carte option. Three courses cost £85 but hotel guests will receive 20% off their bill. Our meal was comped by Hyatt as part of the review.

After a delicious amuse bouche we received our starters. Here is the Seaweed Baked Carrot (fermented carrot, sea buckthorn foam) which was very tasty.

Between the starter and the main (not, note, at the beginning of the meal) we received some fantastic bread with home made butter which was placed into a sour liquid dip.

For my main I had Juniper Smoked Duck Breast which was left to smoulder at the table ….

…. and was then served with butter vinaigrette and Jerusalem artichoke. We try to avoid in-depth food reviews on HfP but honestly, it was divine.

Dessert was toasted almond ice cream in poached rhubarb and charcoal torched meringue. (What does this mean? It means your plate comes with a large chunk of meringue and then red hot charcoal blocks are brought to the table and pressed into the meringue, hence the scorch marks you can see below.)

The menu then said FIKA which I needed to look up and means “The Swedish Art of FIKA: Coffee, Cake and Catch-Ups”. So Rob and I did our best.

Each course came with an optional wine pairing recommended by the house sommelier.

The atmosphere in the restaurant was very laid back and not in the slightest bit stuffy. There was a group of business people, there was a family group with small children, there were solo diners and there were young couples. Ekstedt is definitely not the preserve of wealthy retirees, which is the core client at many high end London restaurants these days.

Champagne afternoon tea in The Parlour

The Parlour is on the lobby level and offers afternoon tea (12pm-7pm), lunch (12pm-2pm) and earlier dinners (6pm-8.30pm) for anyone who doesn’t want a gourmet experience at Ekstedt or the bar menu. Dinner options include squash soup for £13, Scottish salmon with Jerusalem artichokes, dill and samphire for £26 and baked cheesecake with berry compote for £9.

The decoration reminds you of colonial life and is in fact based on the Imperial Hotel in Delhi, which I visited around 2005 and was – hopefully still is – a beautifully maintained historic hotel.

…. and from the other side:

The highlight here is definitely the afternoon tea. My stay included the Champagne afternoon tea (£70 per person) for two, so I invited Katie over from the HfP office for a break from negotiating ad deals!

It was quite a sophisticated affair, as you’d expect from the price, with the tea preparation celebrated on a tea trolley. The Parlour collaborates with heritage perfumery Floris London, both to scent the room – which changes every season – and to add traces of fragrance to some cakes. The current spring fragrance can also be purchased.

This is the sweet étagère (we had a savory étagère before that) which also included scones and a wonderful rhubarb and rose jam.

Here’s a close-up of the cakes which tasted as good as they looked, although they were rather big.

The Parlour is definitely worth considering if you are looking for a different afternoon tea venue, especially as you can also check out the mini museum of police memorabilia in the lobby.

Conclusion

The Great Scotland Yard Hotel is a success on all levels – location, interior and food. I have rarely stayed in a hotel where every detail was so well thought through from a practical and aesthetic point of view.

The location is great for most tourists – central but on a quiet street – and is perfect starting point to discover the key sites in London. Ekstedt at The Yard was a revelation to Rob and myself and we fully intend to return.

The Great Scotland Yard Hotel is a Category 6 hotel in World of Hyatt which means you’ll need 25,000 points per night on a ‘standard’ date (it is 21,000 points off-peak and 29,000 points peak).

Cash prices start at £285 in early April. If you have children, the hotel sells guaranteed connecting rooms with a king bed linked to a twin.

You can see more, and book, on the hotel website here.

PS. If you are booking a stay at Great Scotland Yard, even for just one night, you will receive Hyatt Prive benefits if you book via our luxury hotel booking partner Bon Vivant.

Your booking would come with:

• $100 hotel credit valid against your incidental spend
• One category room upgrade confirmed within 24 hours of booking
• Daily full breakfast for two
• Early check-in (from 9am) and late check-out (to 4pm) subject to availability
• Welcome gift and letter

You would pay the same as the Best Flexible Rate shown on hyatt.com and you pay on departure as usual. You can contact Bon Vivant via the form here. You can learn more about how Hyatt Prive works in this article.

This is our review of the Great Scotland Yard Hotel, part of Hyatt’s Unbound Collection and probably the best Hyatt property in London.

It was the first UK hotel to join Hyatt’s Unbound Collection, which lets high quality hotels join World of Hyatt without having to adhere, line by line, to the standards of Hyatt’s own brands. That means you can earn and burn points and receive World of Hyatt status benefits in what is, effectively, a luxury independent hotel.

Rhys stayed here in 2021, just after it opened, and was impressed. The flagship ‘Ekstedt at The Yard’ restaurant was not open at that point, however. Hyatt was keen for us to return, partly to let London based readers, as well as potential guests, know what Ekstedt has to offer – and it is very good as you will see.

The hotel’s name stems from use of the building at one point as the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police. The ‘Scotland’ element goes back to when this area was part of the Palace of Whitehall and housed diplomatic representatives of the Kingdom of Scotland.  After the Met moved to Victoria – and more recently back to Embankment – the building was used by the Ministry of Defence as late as 2013.

The beautiful Edwardian facade stands out next to the larger Government buildings in the area. With 151 rooms and suites it is not as small as it appears but does have a distinct boutique hotel feel.

The location is surprisingly good for a tourist. Whilst being on a very quiet side street, Embankment tube station is under five minutes away. Many of London’s key landmarks such as Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Covent Garden and the West End shopping areas are all walkable. The lovely Whitehall Gardens are around the corner and you can walk across the river at Embankment in less than 10 minutes for the South Bank and London Eye.

My stay was complimentary from Hyatt for two nights and included dinner at Ekstedt and afternoon tea. Thank you to the team for being very welcoming and giving me a tour.

The lobby at Great Scotland Yard

Entering from the street, you take a few steps down to a very spacious lobby. Hyatt has sensibly decided to max out on the police theme with Sherlock Holmes references, and the lobby is packed with police artifacts and memorabilia.

Here’s the view you see as you enter:

…. and if you turn around you’ve got the reception and concierge area:

To the left of the stairs you will find the walk of fame with portraits of infamous gangsters, prominent judges, lawyers and royals – and even TV personality ‘Judge’ Rob Rinder, real life criminal law barrister turned Amazing Hotels co-host.

The walls of the lobby are lined with boxes of police related memorabilia such as these police whistles from the 1880s to 1950s. It’s worth popping in to take a look if you are in the area even if you are not staying here.

Eccentric furniture pieces in the lobby combined with Tom Dixon floor lamps make for an interesting combination. This is a rhino chair!

The interior of the hotel is of a very high quality. We wouldn’t normally run a picture of the public loos but it’s a shame not to show this lovely art deco style design:

No detail was too small, such as the brass plague on the cistern:

Here is the entrance to the Ekstedt restaurant. On the left you see a sample of the hotel’s art collection, bought from Koestler Arts, the UK’s best-known prison art charity.

My room at Great Scotland Yard

I was booked into a standard room but was upgraded to a ‘Premium King Bed’. There is very little difference between this and a standard room apart from a little extra space.

Someone has gone to town on the corridors, with blue ornate doors and posh copper fire extinguishers. You will notice that there is police presence everywhere.

The corners of the walls in the hallways and rooms were protected with metal – you can see it by the door below – with a prison-like design. I really liked this little detail as hotel wall corners can become scruffy so quickly.

My room was on the third floor looking out to the front of the hotel. There are no views except to the empty desks of the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero opposite, but as you will have realised by now the most interesting things to see are all inside the hotel.

The room design was lovely with clever lighting. Socket lovers should note there are USB A, European AND British plugs next to the bed.

The windows had secondary glazing to keep any noise out, albeit the hotel is on an exceptionally quiet street, and I noticed massive new marble window sills had been put in during the renovation. Instead of a separate desk I had a table with two armchairs.

The bathroom was particularly smart with a Japanese toilet, a very big shower with gorgeous tiles and lots of marble. It felt very art deco and sophisticated.

The high-end toiletries are in big bottles from Jo Loves by Jo Malone.

A sideboard contained a cooling drawer with free non-alcoholic drinks including water. There is a coffee machine and a tea selection. Alcoholic drinks have to be ordered.

Attention to detail is what really makes this hotel. Next to the tv was another little nod to history with a Victorian-style moustache-shaped coat hook, possibly modelled on Dr Watson.

The Sherlock Suite

I asked to view a suite to see the difference to my room and was shown the Sherlock Suite. The bedroom itself was relatively small as you can see below, and the decoration was similar to my own room.

The suite also had a small sitting room with a sofa and coffee table as well as the table and two armchairs I had in my own room.

Where the Sherlock Suite really excels is the bathroom, which is XL size. You have two sinks far apart, a marble floor and shower ….

…. as well as a bathtub tucked behind the door.

The toilet is separate and close to the entrance of the suite.

The gym

The gym is in the basement of the hotel. Whilst not very big it is perfectly functional with all the necessary machines available. Clever lighting and large mirrors make it feel quite spacious.

Around the corner are weights and a bench and space for yoga, gymnastics or pilates.

This is the end of Part 1 of my Great Scotland Yard Hotel review.

In Part 2, click here, I look at the bars, the impressive Ekstedt at The Yard restaurant and The Parlour, where I enjoyed afternoon tea. If you live in London these are all worth knowing about, even if you will never need to sleep here.

Welcome to our regular round-up of the best hotel promotions currently running.

All of the information in this article can also be found on our ‘Hotel Offers’ page which contains details of all of the current offers, together with links to our major articles on each hotel scheme.  However, a positive response from readers – especially our 19,000 email subscribers – means we run this monthly article as a handy summary.

We’ve seen a bounce back in the number of offers from the winter low BUT ‘big brand’ American Express cashback deals are still noticeably absent.

Are these now over? American Express was heavily subsidising them, and as they have all stopped (Hilton, Marriott, IHG and Hyatt ran them multiple times) it is possible that Amex has turned off the tap. The only offers we have are from second tier chains.

Here are quick summaries and links to the registration pages you need for each offer – do it before you forget. (I apologise to email readers if this block is mangled – scroll down to the main text area.)

Current offers for buying hotel points

Here are the ‘buy points’ offers running at the moment:

Current American Express cashback offers

It’s worth noting the current American Express cashback offers with the big chains. These may be showing on one or more of your cards and may influence which hotels you book this month:

• Get £100 back on a £500 spend with selected Mandarin Oriental hotels (expires 27th May)

• Get 7% cashback at Radisson Blu Edwardian hotels (10 hotels – nine in London / Heathrow and one in Manchester, expires 10th April)

• Get £100 back on a £500 spend at The Londoner hotel in Leicester Square (expires 10th April)

• Get £100 back on a £400 spend at The May Fair Hotel (expires 10th April, part of Radisson Rewards, website here)

• Get £30 back when you spend £175 at Macdonald Hotels (expires 26th April, book here)

• Get £100 back when you spend £500 at Corinthia London (expires 31st May, book here – this is a fantastic property if you are looking to splurge)

• Get £100 back when you spend £300 with Maybourne Hotel Group (The Connaught, The Berkeley, Claridge’s) (expires 31st May)

• Get £100 back when you spend £500 with Preferred Hotels (expires 30th June)

• Get £75 back when you spend £400 at The Standard London (expires 3rd June)

• Get £20 back when you spend £100 at Expedia on pre-paid hotels (expires 24th June – see here for details but you must be targetted and opt-in via your Amex online account)

Where should you credit your stays for April 2024?

Remember that, irrespective of the offers below, there is never a single ‘best’ offer.

Some offers require multiple stays to maximise the bonus, which you might not do. Some require stays to be a minimum number of nights before a bonus is earned.

You need to factor in any elite status you have, which will earn you additional status bonuses.

More importantly, you need to be able to use the points. There is no value in earning a large bonus in a scheme where you will never go on to earn enough points to get a free night.

Hilton (Hampton, Conrad, Waldorf-Astoria etc)

Hilton has a promotion called ‘Points Plus’.

You can register here.  Our full article is here. It runs until 1st May.

You will earn 2,000 bonus points on all stays, plus an additional 500 boints if you select a Digital Key in the Hilton app.

You need to register in advance of your first stay during the period via the Hilton website here.  Existing bookings count and all Hilton Honors hotels are taking part.

The Hilton booking page is here.

IHG One Rewards is offering 2,000 bonus points for every two nights you stay.

The promotion runs from 1st April to 31st May. Only cash nights count, not reward stays. Existing bookings are OK.

You can register here. Our full article on the promotion is here.

Whilst not hugely rewarding (we value 2,000 points at £8) some members were emailed with an additional bonus offer which stacks on top of this one.

You can book your IHG stays here.

Marriott Bonvoy (Renaissance, The Ritz-Carlton, Sheraton, Westin, W, Aloft, St Regis, Luxury Collection, Moxy etc)

Until 29th April, you will earn 1,000 bonus points per NIGHT and double elite night credits on every cash stay at a Marriott hotel.

I value a Bonvoy point at 0.5p so this is equivalent to a £5 bonus per night.  It is clearly a better deal on cheap one-night stays than expensive week-long holidays.

For many readers, the double elite night credits will be more important, allowing you to get a head start on status requalification for next year.

Our full article is here. You can register here. Note that registration closes early on 15th April.

The home page for bookings is here.

World of Hyatt launched its latest promotion on 1st March, which will run until 30th April.

You will receive 3,000 bonus World of Hyatt points for every three nights you stay. Nights do not need to be consecutive. Reward nights count.

You can register here. Registration closes early on 15th April.

Our full article is here. The Hyatt booking page is here.

And finally …..

If you booking a luxury hotel, remember that we can offer you exclusive additional benefits at Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula and similar hotels.  

Click here for details of our luxury hotel booking service in association with Bon Vivant / Virtuoso.  Feedback from readers who have used this service so far has been excellent and we have booked over £1.7 million of rooms so far.

News in brief:

Hilton buys the NoMad brand to accelerate its ‘luxury lifestyle’ plans

Hilton has acquired the NoMad London hotel in Covent Garden, in an intriguing acquisition.

Technically, it has acquired a majority interest in Sydell Group which owns the NoMad brand. Sydell is also a shareholder in The Ned, alongside Soho House, but this is not joining Hilton.

Hilton has been known to be planning a ‘luxury lifestyle’ hotel brand for some time to compete against Marriott’s W and the like. It seems that acquiring the NoMad brand is a way of speeding this up.

NoMad London is, admittedly, a very well regarded hotel. However, NoMad offshoots in New York and Los Angeles have closed. NoMad Las Vegas, which is run by MGM, is not included in the deal and will be rebranded. It’s not a lot to show for a 12-year old brand.

Despite this, Hilton believes that it can eventually open 100 NoMad hotels globally, and that 10 are in ‘advanced stages of development’.

Sydell will retain responsibility for designing the hotels whilst Hilton will take charge of development. NoMad London will join Hilton Honors later this year.

Barcelona gains a Grand Hyatt hotel

Hyatt has announced the opening of the Grand Hyatt Barcelona hotel.

The hotel is not new but a conversion of an existing property. It was previously the Hotel SOFIA Barcelona, part of Hyatt’s Unbound Collection since 2018. It has since been refurbished to bring it in line with Grand Hyatt standards.

The Grand Hyatt Barcelona is located in the Les Corts district of the city, on its Western edges. Landmarks nearby include the Monastery of Pedralbes and FC Barcelona’s home at Camp Nou. It is a 15-minute metro ride into the city centre.

The hotel has 465 rooms including 49 suites and a penthouse. There’s also a large spa and pool as well as a number of meeting and conference rooms and four restaurants.

The hotel website is here.

Hotel offers update – April 2024:

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Want to buy hotel points?

• Hilton Honors is offering a 100% bonus when you buy points by 14th May 2024. Click here.

When we compare the major hotel loyalty schemes on Head for Points, we generally look at them in terms of the number of nights you need to stay in order to earn elite status.

For most people, this is the correct approach. Whilst most of the hotel programmes let you qualify by either spend or nights, the majority of people earn status by qualifying nights because the spend target is disproportionately high.

If you like to stay in luxury hotels, however, you may be able to qualify for top tier status on spend even if you don’t do many nights. This is especially true if you tend to book larger rooms or suites.

Let’s take a look at how much spending each programme needs for top tier status.

For clarity, not all top tiers are created equal. Accor only gives free breakfast to top tier members on weekends, for example.

For schemes which offer them, you also need to separate ‘milestone’ benefits, which are based on qualifying nights, from status benefits. Lounge access, for example, is only given to IHG One Rewards members who choose it as a milestone benefit for doing 40 nights. Even if you earn top tier Diamond Elite status by spending $12,000 for a fortnight at a top InterContinental resort, it won’t trigger this. Hyatt is the exception here as milestone rewards are also triggered via base point earning.

Here are the headline numbers – these are based on pre-tax spend:

Easiest chain to earn top-tier status by nights:

• Radisson Rewards – 30 nights or 20 stays
• Accor Live Limitless – 60 nights (for Platinum, as Diamond is not possible via nights)
• Hilton Honors – 60 nights or 30 stays
• World of Hyatt – 60 nights
• IHG One Rewards – 70 nights
• Marriott Bonvoy – 75 nights (for Titanium)

The Marriott Bonvoy figure is reduced to 60 nights for holders of the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card, which comes with an annnual benefit of 15 elite night credits.

Hilton and Radisson make it easier for anyone doing one night stays to earn top tier status due to the option of also qualifying on stays, however short.

Easiest chain to earn top-tier status by spend:

• Accor Live Limitless – $5,950 (for Platinum)
• Accor Live Limitless – $11,060 (for Diamond, not available via nights)
• IHG One Rewards – $12,000
• Hilton Honors – $12,000
• World of Hyatt – $20,000

Marriott Bonvoy and Radisson Rewards do not let you earn status via spending, only by nights stayed.

Here is a breakdown by chain:

Accor Live Limitless

Top-tier Diamond status requires €10,400 ($11,060) of qualifying spend. There is no ‘nights’ equivalent.

If we drop down to Platinum, where the key benefits – including lounge access – are very similar, it requires 60 nights or €5,600 ($5,950) of pre-tax hotel spending.

The benefits of Platinum and Diamond status are shown on accorhotels.com here.

Hilton Honors

Top-tier Diamond status requires 60 nights or 120,000 base points.

At 10 base points per $1, you would earn Diamond with $12,000 of pre-tax hotel spending.

The benefits of Diamond status are shown on hilton.com here.

IHG One Rewards

Top-tier Diamond Elite status requires 70 nights or 120,000 elite qualifying points.

At 10 base points per $1, you would earn Diamond Elite with $12,000 of pre-tax hotel spending.

The benefits of Diamond Elite status are shown on ihg.com here. You will not receive the ‘milestone’ benefits listed at the bottom of that page unless you complete the required number of nights, irrespective of spending.

Marriott Bonvoy

Top-tier Titanium Elite status requires 75 nights. There is no cash equivalent.

The ‘concierge’ level, Ambassador Elite, requires 100 nights AND $23,000 of annual spending.

The benefits of Titanium Elite status are shown on marriott.com here.

Radisson Rewards

Top-tier VIP status requires 30 nights or 20 stays. There is no cash equivalent.

The benefits of VIP status are shown on radissonhotels.com here.

World of Hyatt

Top-tier Globalist status requires 60 nights or 100,000 base points.

At 5 base points per $1, you would earn Globalist with $20,000 of pre-tax hotel spending. As I notes above, Hyatt WILL give you all the milestone rewards if you earn status via spend, which includes ‘guaranteed when booking’ suite upgrade vouchers.

The benefits of Globalist status are shown on hyatt.com here.

Conclusion

If you are a big spender at hotels, Accor Live Limitless may have more to offer than you originally thought.

Both Platinum and Diamond, which is ‘spend only’, are easy to achieve compared to the competition. Accor also has a lot of high quality brands, including Fairmont, Raffles, Sofitel and Swissotel. You can also have spend from two rooms per night count towards status – this is how I earned Accor Diamond status myself last year.

At the other end of the scale, World of Hyatt has the least to offer moderately high spenders, requiring $20,000 of spend for Globalist, but it does let you pick up valuable milestone rewards along the way.

Marriott Bonvoy, despite having St Regis and The Ritz Carlton in its portfolio, doesn’t offer any route for high spenders to gain status on just a few luxury stays. You can only qualify by nights.

This is our review of the Park Hyatt Milan, Italy, hotel.

After a fantastic stay at the Park Hyatt Vienna (review here) back in 2022, still one of the best hotels I’ve ever visited, I was keen to revisit the brand. My recent trip with ITA Airways, the new(ish) Italian airline to review their A220 service from London City Airport to Milan offered the perfect opportunity.

This year the Park Hyatt Milan is celebrating its 20th anniversary, having first opened its doors to guests in 2004. It completed a full refurbishment of guest rooms in 2022 and has just renovated its top suites with local architect Flaviano Capriotti, so the hotel has never looked better.

Like Park Hyatt Vienna, Park Hyatt Milan is a conversion of an eighteenth-century palazzo and former bank building.

Thanks to Hyatt for arranging my stay for review purposes. The hotel website is here.

Where is Park Hyatt Milan?

The location of the Park Hyatt Milan could not be better, and is arguably the best-located hotel in the city. It is directly opposite the famous Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and about 20 metres away from the Piazza del Duomo. Any more central and you’d literally be inside the famous Duomo!

It is around 20 minutes by taxi from the closer Milan Linate airport, whilst Milan Bergamo is about an hour away by car or train.

Inside Park Hyatt Milan

Entrance to the hotel is via a relatively discreet cul de sac off Via Giuseppe Mengoni. It was clear that the staff here are fantastic, with doormen immediately greeting me and offering to take my bag.

The main entrance opens immediately onto the light-filled Cupola Lounge, a modern glass addition in the former courtyard of the building. Reception and concierge are to the left and my check-in was immediately handled, before I was shown to my room.

Rooms at the Park Hyatt Milan hotel

Owing to its historic home, no two rooms at the Park Hyatt Milan are the same. There are 108 rooms and 26 suites in total, including five Signature Suites which have just been refurbished.

As I mentioned above, the room refurbishment program was completed in 2022. There are broadly six room categories from Park King to Premiere King, ranging in size from 35sqm to 51sqm.

I was given a Park Deluxe King room on the 5th (of 6) floors, a mid-tier room at 42sqm with an internal view over the Cupola. You enter directly into the bedroom:

…. which features a range of warm wood, stone (mostly travertine) and neutral beige and brown tones for an overall warmly luxurious effect.

The king bed is on the right, facing the window:

I slept magnificently!

The designers were on the ball here and there are more charging points than you know what to do with.

Opposite the bed is a sofa and table/desk unit, with some beautiful cut flowers:

Next to it, in the corner, is the mini bar. This features a Lavazza coffee machine (I imagine the Italians turn their noses up at Nespresso!) and a fully stocked mini fridge of drinks. A range of still and sparkling waters are available for free. You also get a complimentary bowl of fruit.

The 55″ TV is to the right of this, perpendicular to the bed. Although it does swing out slightly, it is obviously not ideal to watch from bed.

Next door is the bathroom, clad in travertine and marble stone. All bar a handful of rooms have bathrooms with windows, a rare feature in most hotels.

There is a toilet with bidet on the right, as well as a shower and free-standing bath tub. All the rooms have separate baths and showers.

Toiletries come in mini bottles and are by Florentine brand Lorenzo Villoresi, created exclusively for Park Hyatt Milan:

Around the corner are the wash basins, set into a beautiful marble countertop:

There is plenty of storage in here too, with one wall dedicated to a row of wardrobes which also contained some super-soft (microfibre?) bath robes and slippers.

Spa and gym at Park Hyatt Milan

As a city centre hotel, the Park Hyatt Milan doesn’t come with a huge range of facilities but you will find a spa and gym in the basement. To enter, you’ll need to get a separate keycard from reception which you must renew every day. It’s a bit of an odd system and not one I’ve encountered before.

The spa is relatively small. The highlight is a large jacuzzi in the centre which was certainly popular on the raining evening I arrived. There are a couple of day beds and you’ll also find a superbly-scented steam room in both the male and (I assume) female changing rooms.

Breakfast and dining at the Park Hyatt Milan

Breakfast is served in the lovely La Cupola Lounge, which is also open for casual lunches and dinner. This light-filled space is the perfect way to start the day. The staff-to-guest ratio was very high and service was consistently excellent and friendly – taking orders, clearing dishes and more.

The breakfast concept lets you choose a hot item from the a la carte menu whilst helping yourself from the buffet spread. The a la carte menu includes pancakes, waffles and eggs in virtually any style you wish, with sides including sausages, bacon, avocado and more.

Of course, I tried the eggs royale and was impressed:

The buffet was equally good, with a surprisingly varied selection including an entire table dedicated to Asian and Middle Eastern cuisines. The hummus, babaganoush and tabbouleh were some of the highlights of my mornings.

Also on offer was a selection of cold cuts including bresoala, mortadella, salami, turkey, jamon, smoked salmon and fish:

A range of cheeses, the highlight being fresh buffalo mozzarella:

…. plus cereals, a range of pastries, yoghurts and fruit and vegetables:

In the centre of the room was a table dedicated to sweet treats, ranging from madeleines to the best banana bread I’ve ever had and everything in between:

Pellico 3 Milano

For dinner, the hotel invited me to try their fine dining restaurant Pellico 3. It is led by Guido Paternollo, a new young chef local to the area. The restaurant is small with perhaps just 20 covers, offering an intimate dining experience.

The meal started with a trio of bite-size delights:

This was followed by an amuse bouche of oyster with a delicious sauce. For my starter, I had the ‘cooked and raw seasonal vegetables and their dressings’. Whilst it might look like a deconstructed salad, it’s one of the most flavourful dishes I’ve ever had, with the variety of individual flavours combining perfectly.

Intensity of flavour seems to be Guido Paternollo’s signature, with all of the dishes unbelievably flavourful. Never a dull moment here. For mains, I had his signature risotto, bay leaf, lacquered eel, siberian caviar and fermented lemon.

The staff were fantastic here too, attentive and friendly.

Whilst currently in the Michelin Guide, they are hoping to achieve a star rating in November when the next update is announced. The tasting menu is €130 whilst main courses range from €55-€60.

Conclusion

Whilst not as grand as the Park Hyatt Vienna, with its historic banking hall and vaulted spa, the Park Hyatt Milan stands out for its luxurious rooms and fantastic service. It’s easy to see why it has such an excellent reputation.

Staff – whether at breakfast, dinner or housekeeping – were all uniformly polite and attentive, often pre-empting my needs.

Breakfast and dinner were also stand-out moments, with the food beautifully presented and delicious. We will have to wait until November to see if Pellico 3 wins a Michelin Star, but I’m hopeful it will.

Room rates usually start from €850 per night but often go above €1,000. Redemptions are priced from 35,000 to 45,000 World of Hyatt points per night depending on seasonality.

It is a hotel where it might make sense to purchase World of Hyatt points in one of their regular bonus promotions – this is what Rob did for his Park Hyatt New York stay last autumn, using £630 of points instead of paying £1,400 in cash. You can check for any current ‘buy points’ offer here.

Use Hyatt Prive if booking for cash

If you are planning to use cash, you are very likely to be better off booking via Emyr Thomas, our luxury hotel booking partner. Emyr can access a number of additional benefits under the Hyatt Prive scheme, including:

• Upgrade to the next category immediately after booking (confirmed within 24 hours)
• Complimentary breakfast for two daily for duration of the stay
• $100 equivalent hotel credit once per stay
• Early check-in/late check-out, subject to availability 

Because the upgrade is locked in when you book, you can book a cheaper room than the one you want, knowing that the upgrade will happen. On the rare occasion that it doesn’t, you will know within 24 hours and will have the option to cancel.

The rate you pay via Emyr is the same as the Best Flexible Rate shown online, and you pay at the hotel on departure. To get these benefits, simply reach out to Emyr via this contact form.

You can find out more about the hotel, and book, on the hotel website here.