There are now 110 Small Luxury Hotels that are available for bookings through and with Hyatt. This opens up a lot of places around the world that were previously empty of Hyatt properties.

My Experience At a Small Luxury Hotel as a Hyatt Member

There are several benefits that Hyatt members get when staying at Small Luxury Hotels and here is my experience as a Hyatt member at a Small Luxury Hotel.

Here are the listed benefits that Hyatt members (all Hyatt members, not just elite members) get when booking a Small Luxury Hotel through Hyatt (with either points/awards or cash):

• Complimentary Wi-Fi
• Daily Complimentary Continental Breakfast for two guests
• Room Upgrade (one category at check-in if available)
• Early check-in (noon, based upon availability at check-in)
• Late check-out (2:00pm, based upon availability at check-in)

The complimentary Wi-Fi and late check-out are not huge deals but the room upgrade, continental breakfast, and even the early check-in are pretty nice benefits that are available to all Hyatt members.

If you stay at an actual Hyatt property, you only get the room upgrade and breakfast as a top-tier Globalist member. Not so with Small Luxury Hotels!

How Did this Small Luxury Hotel Do for a Hyatt Member?

I used a free night certificate (Category 1 – 4) to stay at the Excelsior hotel in Thessaloniki, Greece. While cash rates are not really high (around $200), I had the free night certificate to use so burned that (as a Category 3, it would have been 12,000 Hyatt points if I had used points).

Booking the Hotel

It was a seamless experience booking this hotel through the Hyatt app using my free night certificate. It was the same process as booking a regular Hyatt property. With hotels not being known very well for their IT, it was a nice surprise that it just worked.

Checking in to the Hotel

The Excelsior is a small boutique hotel so the “lobby” was quite small yet welcoming. When I walked in and gave my name, the representative thanked me for being a loyal Hyatt member and let me know what I could expect as a Hyatt member at the hotel.

When I entered the room, there was a small snack and drink prepared for me, along with a welcome note. This was very Hyatt move that is done for elite members so, well done.

Room Upgrade

I purposely didn’t ask about an upgrade because I wanted to see what wouldn happen. This was a very quiet (and cold time) time of year so I was pretty certain that even this small property would have rooms available. On the website that day, there were other rooms bookable but I was not given an upgrade.

I am not positive if this will be something that people will experience at Small Luxury Hotel properties around the world or not. My advice would be to ask upon check-in about a possible room upgrade, per the Hyatt benefits.

Late Checkout 

Without prompting, I was offered the late checkout time. It was nice to have that just mentioned instead of having to ask.

Breakfast

The Exclesior Hotel – Courtesy of Hyatt

Note that the benefit covers 2 people and a continental breakfast. Not all properties will have continental breakfast offerings so I would imagine you should be able to expect to either order off the menu or to have a discount off a full breakfast (ask at check-in if it is not mentioned).

BTW, the breakfast was fantastic! 🙂

Takeaway

At the end of my (short) stay, staying at a Small Luxury Hotel through a Hyatt booking went just like a stay at a regular Hyatt property. I stayed here a month ago so it was shortly after the hotels became bookable. I was impressed that they seemed to have things together and to recognize Hyatt members, even at a property where I was likely the very first Hyatt member to stay there with the new partnership.

Hopefully, my next stay at a Small Luxury Hotel will be just as good (plus the upgrade 🙂).