In February 2024, Hilton announced plans to launch an exclusive new partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH). This partnership went live in early June, in a very limited capacity, whereby just a handful of properties joined the collection.
There’s now a major update, as this partnership has been expanded, and nearly 400 SLH properties are now part of Hilton Honors. This is all happening much faster than we were promised, so that’s good news.
In this post:
Hilton partners with SLH for boutique luxury hotels
Hilton and Small Luxury Hotels of the World have introduced 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. 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, 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
Hilton and Small Luxury Hotels of the World have finally supercharged their partnership, as nearly 400 SLH properties are now bookable through Hilton Honors channels. You can find all the eligible properties on this page.
The properties range from Nobu Hotel in Marbella, to Wentworth Mansion in Charleston, to Calala Island in Nicaragua, to Nimb Hotel in Copenhagen.
I’m delighted to see how quickly this partnership is now being rolled out. Recently we were told that around 100 SLH properties would join the Hilton Honors portfolio before the end of 2024, so it’s great to see nearly 400 properties by the middle of 2024. I guess Hilton made it a big focus to get this rolled out ASAP.
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 launched an exclusive collaboration, which comes as Hyatt’s partnership with SLH has ended. While we started to see some SLH properties join Hilton Honors in June, we’re now seeing nearly 400 properties participate in this partnership, which is exciting.
I’m pretty happy with what we’re seeing so far, especially on the redemption front. This is an awesome new aspect of the Hilton Honors program, which should add lots of value for those wanting luxury travel.
What do you make of Hilton and SLH partnering?
Just booked a 1 night stay in Europe during peak summer season at an SLH hotel - EUR1000 cash cost or 120k hilton points (Standard reward), so used a free night cert from Aspire card; no issue booking via phone.
The fact that sold out SLH properties through the Hilton site “Puzzles the heck out of you”, only highlights your lack of knowledge of the hotel industry and these type of partnerships.
A property may list itself as “participating”, but most will only release rooms when they have a certain percentage of unsold rooms available. Properties make more money if they can sell the rooms themselves. In most cases (especially with popular locations/properties), inventory...
The fact that sold out SLH properties through the Hilton site “Puzzles the heck out of you”, only highlights your lack of knowledge of the hotel industry and these type of partnerships.
A property may list itself as “participating”, but most will only release rooms when they have a certain percentage of unsold rooms available. Properties make more money if they can sell the rooms themselves. In most cases (especially with popular locations/properties), inventory will be tightly controlled, with very few rooms ever released to book through Hilton. These partnerships are more about cross company marketing but allows SLH to release rooms when inventory is high.
Laughable comment. I just booked 5 nights at Grand Victoria in Lake Como during upcoming peak fall 2024. Also booked amazing hotel in Florence for same trip.
Laughable? I worked for them and have been in the industry for over 30 years. If you read my comment carefully, I said each hotel can open reservations to Hilton at their own discretion, similar to any 3rd party reservation system. I did not say rooms will never be available, but hotels won’t sell rooms through a 3rd party website (or Hilton) if they can sell out themselves. They would lose money unnecessarily. Look at...
Laughable? I worked for them and have been in the industry for over 30 years. If you read my comment carefully, I said each hotel can open reservations to Hilton at their own discretion, similar to any 3rd party reservation system. I did not say rooms will never be available, but hotels won’t sell rooms through a 3rd party website (or Hilton) if they can sell out themselves. They would lose money unnecessarily. Look at the website, most are unavailable as Ben stated. They may release future rooms incrementally, as they feel necessary. You have no idea what your reserved hotels were running at when you booked. Ask a manager about their Hilton reservation policy during your stay. Your name definitely checks out, though.
@ Ultimate AF -- The rooms just hadn't been loaded yet, at the time of that post. Now they are, and availability is good. :-)
I wonder if the Amex Hilton cards count the charges as Hilton charges and result in lots more Hilton points.
looking at the app and website none of the appear to be available even for 3 night stays. It just says "check for more availability" these are hotels ranging from Kentucky, USA to Scotland/Antigua.
Recently stayed at Keswick Hall (SLH property outside Charlottesville) on a Hyatt FNC. They told me the hotel has elected to not participate in a relationship with Hilton, so no ways to use points or get privileges. They implied it is a choice each SLH property can exercise. I thought that was interesting.
SLH went from being 40K-50K UR points transferred to Hyatt per night to "only" 120K-150K.
That’s actually a great deal since Hyatt points are worth at least 4 time what Hilton points are worth.
I'm not aware of any SLH porperties that were priced at more than 45k Hyatt points/night.