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As we were promised a few months ago (following Hyatt’s purchase of the Mr & Mrs Smith booking platform), Hyatt is now adding Mr & Mrs Smith properties to the World of Hyatt, and we finally know what these properties will offer members when they stay. Frankly, I’m underwhelmed.
The properties themselves aren’t underwhelming (some are great and I really don’t know enough about the others to pass judgement), it’s what the Mr & Mrs properties bring to the World of Hyatt that’s underwhelming.
The fact is that there was nothing to stop anyone from booking Mr & Mrs Smith properties before they began to be integrated into the World of Hyatt program, so I was hoping that after coming under Hyatt’s wing, these properties would offer World of Hyatt members quite a bit more than they already do.
To an extent, they offer a little more, but nothing that’s going to be materially important to a lot of World of Hyatt members.
Mr & Mrs Smith bookings made through the Hyatt will…
- earn 5 Hyatt points/dollar (just as regular Hyatt bookings do)
- earn World of Hyatt members their elite bonuses
- earn World of Hyatt members elite night credits
- earn anyone who has linked their Hyatt account and American Airlines account AAdvantage miles (just as regular Hyatt bookings do)
And that’s pretty much it.
Mr & Mrs Smith properties will not have to honor World of Hyatt benefits (late check out, complimentary breakfast for Globalists, suite upgrades, etc…), card_name and the card_name will not earn bonus points on Mr & Mrs Smith bookings, and while Mr & Mrs Smith properties are now bookable with Hyatt points, award pricing is dynamic and pegged to the cash cost of the booking (so, presumably, free night certificates will not be useable at these properties).
This last point isn’t particularly surprising because some of the Mr & Mrs Smith properties are amazingly expensive places to stay and they’re not aimed at the hoi polloi of the miles and points world, but the rest is disappointing.
Thankfully, the rates for the Mr & Mrs Smith properties that are currently shown on Hyatt.com appear to be broadly in line with what the Mr & Mrs Smith website is showing (with the now dissolved SLH partnership it was almost always cheaper to book through SLH than Hyatt), but I know of one or two examples where the hotel’s own site is showing lower rates than Hyatt, so it’s not all good news on the pricing front.
Add to that the fact that some of the redemption options that I’ve seen appear to be valuing World of Hyatt points at around a penny each and I have to question just how much of a positive addition to the World of Hyatt the Mr & Mrs Smith properties will be.
Yes, earning points and elite night credits for select Mr & Mrs Smith stays is nice, but that’s not really a strong reason to suddenly start booking Mr & Mrs Smith stays if you weren’t booking them already.
The whole point of a hotel loyalty program is to entice members to book stays with a particular hotelier in exchange for benefits that those members wouldn’t get if they booked elsewhere, and Hyatt is (mostly) failing to offer that here and that seems like a lost opportunity.
Bottom line
For those who are solely focused on earning Hyatt points and elite night credits, the addition of the Mr & Mrs Smith properties to the World of Hyatt will probably be good news. For the rest of us who also enjoy all the other things that the World of Hyatt offers (elite benefits, good value redemptions, etc…), I can’t see that having Mr & Mrs Smith properties as part of the program will make much difference at all, and that’s disappointing.
What do you think of what the Mr & Mrs Smith properties bring to the World of Hyatt?
Featured image: Arctic TreeHouse Hotel, Finland courtesy of Hyatt
It really was the worst case scenario. There is no value created with Mr and Mrs Smith, and some lost with SLH. Really disappointing. The redemption values makes no sense, and make the relationship pretty much useless.