Last summer Hyatt announced a deal with Small Luxury Hotels of the World to allow members to use their points to stay at SLH’s 500 hotels in 80 countries, and to earn points and stay credit at those properties as well.

Small Luxury Hotels of the World is a collection of independent properties, and it’s more of a booking relationship than a hotel chain. And Hyatt’s deal is something similar to what they have with MGM’s M life Rewards — let’s share customers, offering points-earning and redemption.

Hyatt launched the partnership in December with just 54 hotels participating. A month ago they added 56 more. Today they’re announcing 57 more properties added to the relationship, which gets them close to one-third of the SLH property collection.

That’s still a far cry from what was expected when the deal was announced in August, but also far better than where things stood at the start of December.

Here are the new hotel additions for Hyatt members:

Hotel	City	Country	Category
Correntoso Lake and River Hotel	Villa La Angostura	Argentina	5
Altstadt Vienna	Vienna	Austria	5
Elite Spring Villas	Anxi	China	6
Eclat Hotel Beijing	Beijing	China	4
LN Hotel Five Guangzhou	Guangzhou	China	3
Hotel Le Cep & Spa Marie de Bourgogne	Beaune	France	6
Chateau Le Cagnard	Cagnes-sur-Mer	France	5
Château de Fère	Fere-en-Tardenois	France	5
Hotel Juana	Juan Les Pins	France	6
Domaine des Etangs	Massignac	France	8
Le Mas de Candille	Mougins	France	6
Hôtel la Pérouse	Nice	France	6
Tiara Miramar Beach Hotel & Spa	Theoule-sur-Mer	France	7
Schlosshotel Kronberg	Frankfurt am Main	Germany	5
Minos Beach Art Hotel	Crete	Greece	8
St Nicolas Bay Resort Hotel	Crete	Greece	8
Eagles Villas	Halkidiki	Greece	8
Agalia Luxury Suites	Ios	Greece	6
Grand Forest Metsovo	Metsovo	Greece	3
Boheme Hotel	Mykonos	Greece	8
Mykonos Ammos Hotel	Mykonos	Greece	7
Naxian Collection	Naxos	Greece	6
Mr and Mrs White Paros	Paros	Greece	5
Rodos Park Suites & Spa Hotel	Rhodes	Greece	5
El Convento Boutique Hotel	Antigua	Guatemala	3
Hotel Ranga	Sudurland	Iceland	7
Hotel Lungarno	Florence	Italy	8
Villa Mangiacane	Florence	Italy	6
ROMEO hotel	Naples	Italy	7
Diamonds Dream of Africa	Malindi	Kenya	4
Mangala Resort & Spa	Kuantan	Malaysia	3
Hacienda Pena Pobre	Mexico City	Mexico	4
Stara Hamburgo	Mexico City	Mexico	3
Stara San Angel Inn	Mexico City	Mexico	3
Casa Velas	Puerto Vallarta	Mexico	7
Diamonds Mequfi Beach Resort	Pemba	Mozambique	5
Quinta das Lágrimas	Coimbra	Portugal	5
Pousada Palacio de Estoi	Faro	Portugal	4
Pousada Mosteiro de Guimarães	Guimaraes	Portugal	4
Pousada de Lisboa	Lisbon	Portugal	6
Hotel da Estrela	Lisbon	Portugal	4
The Liming Bequia	Bequia	St. Vincent & Grenadines	8
Diamonds Star of the East	Zanzibar	Tanzania	8
Akyra Sukhumvit Bangkok	Bangkok	Thailand	3
Akyra Thonglor Bangkok	Bangkok	Thailand	3
Akyra Manor Chiang Mai	Chiang Mai	Thailand	5
Pimalai Resort and Spa	Koh Lanta	Thailand	6
Bo Phut Resort and Spa	Koh Samui	Thailand	6
The Racha	Phuket	Thailand	6
Ariana Sustainable Luxury Lodge	Uchiasar	Turkey	6
Dormy House Hotel	Broadway	United Kingdom	6
Cromlix	Dunblain	United Kingdom	7
Foxhill Manor	Farncombe Estate	United Kingdom	7
Crossbasket Castle	Glasgow	United Kingdom	6
The Franklin	London	United Kingdom	6
The Academy	London	United Kingdom	5
HGU New York	New York City	USA	5

The Liming Bequia

On the redemption side more choices is better. And there are some fantastic properties included. Many seem overpriced in points relative to the room rates they command.

My worry is that Hyatt added a new top redemption category 8 to its award chart to accommodate the priciest SLH hotels. This suggests to me that Hyatt is reimbursing SLH properties more for redemption stays than their own Hyatt hotels, so they need to bill members for more points to cover it. However ultimately this may make it easier for pre-existing Hyatt properties to go up to category 8 in the future (“we’re only adding a handful of the priciest hotels to this new tier”).

On the earning side it’s crucial to comparison shop. To take advantage of Hyatt points-earning and stay credit you need to book through Hyatt, and no best price guarantee applies.

In terms of how Hyatt members are using the SLC relationship,

The following markets rise to the top with the most SLH hotel member bookings, with Rome recently surpassing London with the most member bookings:

1. Rome, Italy
2. London, England
3. Venice, Italy
4. Shanghai, China
5. Santorini, Greece