With the departure of Small Luxury Hotels, which is defecting to Hilton, Hyatt has had a hole in its portfolio. Of course, at around the same time of SLH’s bad news, we learned of a replacement. Now, Mr and Mrs Smith goes live with Hyatt, restoring a broader selection of properties to World of Hyatt members.
The timing was always up in the air, and there was concerns about a large lapse in time until an SLH replacement would become available. But it seems like integration work occurred pretty quickly, as Mr and Mrs Smith goes live with Hyatt a little less than three months after the initial announcement – and just over two weeks before SLH’s departure. Unfortunately, while I was excited that the new partnership would open up properties I’ve been wanting to try, but weren’t associated with a major chain before, that hasn’t come to pass. That’s too bad, though this was always going to be a possibility.
Mr And Mrs Smith Goes Live With Hyatt
Before we get into my disappointment, let’s discuss the basics as Mr and Mrs Smith goes live with Hyatt. As of yesterday – April 24, 2024 – 700 Mr and Mrs Smith properties became visible in Hyatt’s system. As far as member benefits go, World of Hyatt members that stay at Mr and Mrs Smith properties will enjoy the following benefits:
- Earn 5 base points per $1 spend on eligible room rates
- Receive your standard tier bonus on eligible room rates
- Stays count towards your elite status accrual and Milestone Rewards
- Redeem points for award stays
- Space available room upgrades (upon check-in) for Globalist members only
- Credit towards a Brand Explorer Award
As you can see, these benefits don’t quite line up with the standard World of Hyatt elite benefits, with he most glaring of these being that only Globalists can receive room upgrades of any type, no one is eligible for late checkout, and you won’t earn bonuses for putting your stay on your Hyatt card. That’s a bit of a bummer, but not quite as big as the overall number of properties that ended up being part of the Hyatt-Mr And Mrs Smith relationship.
You see, when I initially reported on the new partnership, I noted that Mr and Mrs Smith had a global footprint encompassing over 2,000 boutique hotels. But as you may have noticed, earlier in this post I mentioned that 700 properties are now available through Hyatt – that’s less than half of Mr and Mrs Smith’s portfolio. Bummer. And as I noted earlier in this post, some of those omissions include properties I was very much looking forward to having the opportunity to redeem World of Hyatt points at.
Those specific properties for me included the Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur, California, and Rosewood Kona Village. Unfortunately, it seems as if the Auberge Mauna Lani has left Mr and Mrs Smith entirely, but their departure isn’t entirely surprising to me. That said, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of North American properties at all. The vast majority of the 700 properties are in Europe, with other high concentrations appearing in Southeast Asia, New Zealand, and to a lesser extent, Australia. Fiji, surprisingly, has three properties, including one on a private island!
Final Thoughts
Since Mr and Mrs Smith goes live with Hyatt, we finally get to see the scope of the new partnership. For my purposes, I’ve got to say that I’m a bit disappointed. However, SLH was strong in Europe, which is where the vast majority of participating Mr and Mrs Smith properties are located, so it seems that they kept things as just that – a replacement for SLH, and not much more. That’s too bad but, again, isn’t all that surprising.