FlirtatiousFlyer

are you guys familiar with slh group? my coworker who often hears of my travel exploits pointed me to their website. He tells me that registering there and purchasing your luxury hotels through them guarantee an amazing upgrade upon arrival. have any of you done this and do you know it to be verifiable?

so far the only slh.com hotel i've stayed at was splendide royale in rome.

vuittonsofstyle

Small Luxury Hotels of the World is merely a consortium of hotels that pay to be on the website and in the directory. They also pay to be marketed.

Booking through them does not, in my experience guarantee anything and that includes an upgrade.

SLH is the same sort of organisation as The Leading Hotels of the World and Relais & Châteaux. Basically, it is about marketing mostly independent properties.

PDXGUY1

I actually just made a booking at the Villa Real Madrid at slh.com. I called SLH first and was told that, provided I book on slh.com and use my Club number, I will get the benefits listed on the Club page.


http://www.slh.com/membershipbenefits.html

Membership Benefits
Tailored Service

All of your preference information will be used by over 500 Small Luxury Hotels of the World to personalise your stay. You are encouraged to express yourself! The more details you provide, the more we can tailor your stay to suit your exact requirements.

As a guest of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, you will be afforded the warmest of welcomes at the hotel and experience the very highest level of personalised service during your stay.

Whenever you make your reservation as a Club member, you can enjoy the following benefits, providing you use one of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World booking channels:

1) VIP welcome

2) A personalised stay

3) Complimentary room upgrade (subject to availability at check-in)

4) Late check-out (4pm) (subject to availability)

5) Complimentary continental breakfast for 2 (daily)

6) Access to exclusive Club rates and packages

7) Use of The Club Concierge

Join The Club, and you will also receive a unique membership card and receive monthly e-newsletters that highlight special offers and experiences.

MSPeconomist

I signed up for this a couple years ago and discovered that one needs essentially to pay rack rates to get any benefits (like at Loews), even the subject to availability stuff, which generally isn't for no obvious reason. The couple properties that I tried were of mixed quality, but generally 4* boutique hotels in Europe which were potentially interesting but definitely not luxury IME. I would rate my experiences here much worse than LHW/R&C.

vuittonsofstyle

My experience exactly - I totally agree with you.

globetrots

It depends greatly on the area. I've found the SLH ones in Mexico and Costa Rica to be top-notch.

This is though, as mentioned, a marketing organization. The hotel pays to be a part of it, just as with LHW, Preferred, Relais & Chateaux, Johanssen's etc. It's not an independent endorsement like with Andrew Harper's Hideaway Report, Luxury Latin America, Star Service (which travel agents use), or AAA 5-diamond awards.

behuman

Right, but with the difference that to become Relais & Chateaux is very very difficult with a very strict quality assessment. They are submerged with candidates and the refused properties, well, they join Small "Luxury" Hotels of the World .

All three organisations have some kind of membership program, with LHW offering one free night per 5 stays in 2010 - I doubt they will reconduct this.

The Relais & Chateaux "Club 5 C" offers some real benefits in the form of dedicated service.

Don't get me wrong, there are excellent SLH properties which Relais & Chateaux would be happy to have. A striking example is Blanket Bay whose manager is member of the SLH board (and who as a consequence deprives the owners from the prestige of being Relais & Chateaux).

SLH is not bad, it is simply inconsistent with some very nice properties and a good market presence in the US.

pjh981

Use a price comparison site such as KAYAK - if SLH offer the best rate - great - and you'll get the extra benefits. If they don't, call them and ask them to price match. At the end of the day, don't get seduced by gimmicks - but find the hotel you want and then shop around and see if you can get the cheapest price and secure the upgrades etc as added value. Sure, SLH is just a marketing front - but that doesn't necessarily make it bad.

emma69

I've used them and the upgrades have been forthcoming. I also often use AMEX travel as they often offer upgrades as well for the same publically available price (although do comparisons, as sometimes they are not as good as you can book online).

Wayfahrer

Small Luxury Hotels of the World - where else would you find a decent unique property in Wroclaw (city center), Poland of all places?

Relais & Chateaux - as the name suggests - Chateaux means castles. More properties on the countryside. Totally fine if you are more into that.

Luxury Latin America, AAA 5-diamond awards - these are regional, do not cover Poland for the sake of example.

Andrew Harper's Hideaway Report - again, taking Poland for an example it features more mainstream properties in more mainstream places compared to SLH's Polish offer - I am not convinced.

Star Service (which travel agents use) - should you subscribe for this as a traveler or?

RichardInSF

It would be preferable to start a new thread if there are any recent insights into the SLH group, instead of commenting on posts made 3 years earlier. So I am closing this thread.

RichardInSF, moderator, luxury hotels