Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) recently announced a revamp and rebrand of its loyalty program, to be known as the SLH Club.
Previously, SLH operated a select benefits loyalty program called INVITED. According to SLH, the new program is designed to provide a better experience for loyal fans and underlines SLH’s commitment to personalised luxury.
On top of the new name for the program, and the status levels, there will also be a new App, and a new Digital magazine.
Who are SLH?
Small Luxury Hotels of the World is something of a marketing organisation, rather than an actual hotel group. Around the globe it represents about 570 independent properties.
In some cases, there are individual hotels, but there are also cases where there are small hotel groups as well. For example, in Australia Ovolo Hotels count among the members of SLH.
SLH Club
The new SLH club offers 3 levels of membership – the base level and then two ‘elite’ tiers. Moving up the ladder of status is entirely night based, the more nights you stay, the higher your level.
The requirements and benefits of each level are as follows:
- Club 01:
- An entry-level tier accessible for 0-3 night stays.
- Members can enjoy flexible check-in/check-out, and access to the preferential Club Rate. Plus for every night you book, SLH will plant two trees in partnership with TreeNation.
- Club 02:
- Accessible from 4-12 night stays.
- Members will enjoy all the benefits of Club 01, plus even more, including complimentary continental breakfast, room upgrades, priority access to the SLH flash sale bonus rate (available in the new app only), and special partner offers.
- Club 03:
- accessible from 13+ night stays.
- Members will enjoy all the benefits of Club 01 and Club 02, plus reward night vouchers, exclusive events and the chance to win complimentary nights at any SLH hotel.
The following table shows the benefits available at the various status levels.
| Club 01 | Club 02 | Club 04 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualification | |||
| Nights | 0 – 3 | 4 – 12 | 13+ |
| Benefits | |||
| SLH Club Rates | Y | Y | Y |
| Early Check-In (noon, based upon availability at check-in) | Y | Y | Y |
| Late Check-Out (3pm, based upon availability at check-in) | Y | Y | Y |
| Complimentary Wi-Fi | Y | Y | Y |
| Member Exclusive Promotions | Y | Y | Y |
| Complimentary in-room water | Y | Y | Y |
| Daily Complimentary Continental Breakfast | Y | Y | |
| Room Upgrade (one category at check-in if available) | Y | Y | |
| Invite Only Events | Y | ||
| Rewards Night Voucher | Y | ||
But No Points?
As with the INVITED program, there are no points to collect or redeem. In essence, most of the benefits are on property benefits such as breakfast, upgrades and so on.
That said, they do offer Reward Night Vouchers at the Club 03 level. One of these is issued when you first achieve Club 03 level. After that, one is issued each time you stay an additional 13 nights, or achieve a spend of $US6,000.
These Reward Night vouchers have a nominal value of $US300 each. They can be used to pay for a single night up to a value of $US300, although there is no change given if the room is less than that amount.
App and Digital Magazine
On 24 October, SLH will be releasing a new App. This is promising a faster booking experience, in addition to some new features.
Swoon by SLH
SLH are also promising a new digital magazine from 24 October. Going be the name of Swoon by SLH, it is said to include hotel reviews, in addition to face time with various hotel owners (whatever that means).
The Hilton Partnership
It’s worth noting that for many of the properties you can take advantage of the partnership between Hilton and SLH. This allows you to take advantage of various benefits available through Hilton Honors. For example, when booking through Hilton, you can earn and redeem points and take advantage of various perks specific to the partnership.
However, note that taking advantage of the Hilton Honors benefits is mutually exclusive to the SLH Club benefits. You book through Hilton for the Hilton Honors benefits, or you book through SLH for the SLH Club benefits. You can’t do both.
Final Words
The SLH Club program has a lot of similarities with the previous INVITED iteration of the program. The number of nights needed to move up the levels is basically the same, as are many of the benefits.
One of the generous benefits is SLH is that the breakfast benefit kicks in after just 4 nights in SLH properties. The opportunities for early check-in or late check-out can be valuable as well. So, for many, membership of SLH Club could provide some decent benefits.
Keeping that in mind, if you are looking at staying at an SLH property the choice will be whether to book through SLH Club, or through the Hilton Honors tie-up. This may come down to the price of the room through each channel, and which particular benefits are valuable to you.
