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Hyatt says that it has signed a deal to open a Grand Hyatt in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, in late 2027. It will be the second Hyatt property in the country, and it’s coming to an area where miles and points fans have had very little to work with until now.
Here’s what we know so far, which admittedly isn’t a huge amount at this stage.
The details
Grand Hyatt Victoria Falls The Kingdom is expected to open in late 2027, following a management agreement between a Hyatt affiliate and an affiliate of Albwardy Investments LLC.
The building the Grand Hyatt will occupy isn’t new. It was originally built in 1966, redeveloped in 1999, and will now go through what Hyatt describes as an extensive renovation and design transformation before it reopens under the Grand Hyatt brand.
Although Hyatt doesn’t mention this, we think that the hotel’s proposed name gives away what this is. This is the old Kingdom hotel at Victoria Falls, which has been closed since 2022, so Hyatt is taking on a dormant landmark and bringing it back.
As things stand, the property is expected to feature:
- 245 guestrooms
- 1,800 sqm (19,375 sq ft) of meeting and event space
- Three dining venues
- A spa and fitness centre
- A grand lobby lounge
Location-wise it’s well placed. Hyatt says it’s a five-minute walk to the Victoria Falls rainforest and the closest hotel to the entrance of the national park on the Zimbabwean side.
The airport, Victoria Falls International, is a 20-minute drive away.
That’s the extent of the confirmed detail, so there’s still a lot of important stuff that we don’t know – no room sizes, no cash rates, no named restaurants or chefs, no World of Hyatt category and no points pricing – all of that should be available (hopefully) at some point next year.
Quick thoughts
Victoria Falls has long been blind spot for the big hotel rewards programs and as things stand, if you want to use hotel points anywhere near the falls, the only viable option for most people is the Protea Hotel by Marriott across the border in Livingstone, Zambia.
On the Zimbabwean side specifically, there are (mostly) no options in the area at all. Hilton has no presence here, Marriott has no presence here, and IHG announced a Vignette Collection property for Victoria Falls back in 2022 (House of Chinhara), but despite being scheduled to open in January 2026, it isn’t yet open and unverified reports suggest that it won’t open until some point in 2027, if then.
A lot of the of the accommodation in the area tends to take the form of expensive safari lodges and the historic Victoria Falls Hotel, so a Grand Hyatt could be a genuinely useful option to have.
It’s worth noting, at this point, that Hyatt.com does show a couple of open Victoria Falls hotels through Mr & Mrs Smith, as well a third Mr & Mrs Smith property marked “coming soon”, so technically, you could argue that there are points options for World of Hyatt members here already.
Well, yes and no.
Matetsi Victoria Falls can be found on Hyatt.com, but doesn’t appear to be bookable at all, for cash or points, despite being bookable on its own site, so that’s a bit of a mystery.
Victoria Falls River Lodge is bookable with cash and points through Hyatt, but the cash rates are far in excess of what any Grand Hyatt is likely to charge ($1,700+ a night) and the number of points needed to book this property is ludicrous (well over 150,000 points per night on all the dates I selected), so neither of these properties represent a good option to World of Hyatt members or other miles and points fans.
That makes me a little excited about this new Grand Hyatt (almost as excited as I am about the new Curio Collection Hilton in San Sebastian that I wrote about on Friday).
Sure, late 2027 is a long way off, and “late 2027” on a renovation of a building that’s been closed since 2022 has plenty of room to turn into 2028 (or worse). We also don’t know how many points will be needed for a free night or how good or bad this property will be, but I’m staying positive.
A reasonable World of Hyatt category could make this a standout redemption in a part of the world where redemptions, essentially, don’t exist. A top-end World of Hyatt category would make it far less interesting, as that’s when cash is likely to offer better value and if you’re paying cash, why stay at a chain hotel in somewhere as beautiful as this?
Bottom line
Hyatt is opening a new property in Victoria Falls next year and it looks like it will actually be the reopening of the long-closed Kingdom hotel at Victoria Falls. The property will be called the Grand Hyatt Victoria Falls The Kingdom and is expected to open with 245 rooms in late 2027.
Details on the property are thin on the ground right now, so a lot of the important facts are still unknown, but there’s a lot to be hopeful about here and if we finally get a very nice points-bookable option in a destination as underserved (in the miles and point world) as Victoria Falls, that’s got to be good news.
