Hilton & Small Luxury Hotels Of The World (SLH) Partnership

In February 2024, Hilton announced plans to launch an exclusive new partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH). Over the past several months, we’ve seen the partnership go live, with more properties being progressively added.

There’s another update, as the number of properties participating in the collaboration now exceeds 400. While this marks the completion of the primary onboarding of properties, expect some more hotels to join in 2025.

Hilton partners with SLH for boutique luxury hotels

Hilton and Small Luxury Hotels of the World have an exclusive strategic partnership, allowing Hilton Honors members to earn and redeem points at hundreds of boutique luxury properties around the globe. This greatly expands the luxury properties that Hilton Honors members have access to. In order to earn and redeem points with this partnership, you need to book through Hilton booking channels.

For those not familiar with SLH, this is a group of roughly 560 boutique hotels (and over 400 of those are collaborating with Hilton). What makes SLH different than the other major hotel groups is that SLH as such doesn’t manage these properties. Rather, SLH is essentially a community of independent hotels that don’t have any desire to directly join the major hotel groups.

In other words, SLH has a marketing agreement with these hotels, and Hilton has rolled out a marketing partnership with SLH. These properties aren’t fully integrated into the Hilton portfolio (in the sense that they’re not managed or franchised Hilton properties), but rather Hilton is able to get a commission when people book these properties through Hilton, and in turn, the company passes on some of that commission to consumers in the form of points.

How the Hilton & SLH partnership works in practice

Over 400 Small Luxury Hotels of the World properties are bookable through Hilton Honors channels. You can find the full list of eligible properties here (or you can see them here on a map, if you prefer). The properties range from Nobu Hotel in Marbella, to Wentworth Mansion in Charleston, to Calala Island in Nicaragua, to Nimb Hotel in Copenhagen.

Hilton Honors members can take advantage of the following perks when making an eligible SLH booking:

• Hilton Honors non-elite members receive a guaranteed member discount, complimentary Wi-Fi, late check-out subject to availability, bottled water, and no resort fees on award stays
• Hilton Honors Silver members receive a 20% points bonus and a fifth night free on award redemptions, in addition to the perks of non-elite members
• Hilton Honors Gold members receive an 80% points bonus, complimentary breakfast for two guests, and space available upgrades, in addition to the perks of non-elite members
• Hilton Honors Diamond members a 100% points bonus, complimentary breakfast for two guests, and space available upgrades, in addition to the perks of non-elite members

Hilton Honors members can also earn and redeem points for eligible SLH stays:

• When it comes to earning points, Hilton Honors members earn points at the same rate as they would at full service Hilton properties; this means you earn 10x Honors points per dollar spent, before factoring in any additional bonuses, plus you earn one elite night for each night stayed
• When it comes to redeeming points, the exciting thing is that SLH properties follow the standard system for Hilton Honors award redemptions; SLH properties should top out at 150,000 Honors points per night, and you can also redeem Hilton Honors free night awards at these properties

You can find the Hilton Honors & SLH partnership terms here.

The Hyatt & SLH partnership has ended

If the concept of a major global hotel group partnering with Small Luxury Hotels of the World sounds familiar, it’s for good reason. In 2018, Hyatt and SLH launched a partnership, offering points earning and redemption opportunities, as well as select elite perks. However, Hyatt and SLH ended their partnership as of May 2024, which is what makes this new exclusive partnership possible.

Hyatt recently acquired Mr & Mrs Smith, a luxury travel agency that markets select hotels. With this acquisition, we’re seeing Mr & Mrs Smith properties slowly being integrated into Hyatt booking channels. It’s not surprising that the Mr & Mrs Smith acquisition has caused the SLH partnership to end, given the overlap between the concepts, as many hotels belong to both portfolios, and Hyatt has more upside with a company it wholly owns.

We sure are seeing a lot of hotel partnership musical chairs lately. MGM used to partner with Hyatt, but now partners with Marriott. IHG used to partner with Mr & Mrs Smith, and is now owned by Hyatt. And now SLH has switched from Hyatt to Hilton.

Bottom line

Hilton and Small Luxury Hotels of the World have an exclusive collaboration, whereby nearly 400 SLH properties are bookable through Hilton Honors channels, allowing members to earn and redeem points, and take advantage of select elite perks.

The execution of this partnership is excellent, in my opinion, much better than I was expecting from Hilton Honors. So as you plan your next trip, it’s always worth keeping this in mind. Also remember that Hilton Honors frequently sells points at a discount, so there could be value to outright buying points for the purposes of a redemption.

What do you make of the Hilton and SLH partnership?