Leading Hotels of the World Leaders Club
Dec 18, 2009, 8:18 am
#76
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: VCE
Posts: 14,165
Just got an e-mail through from Leaders Club touting the fact that effective Jan 1st, you can start earning towards free nights at LHW properties. Apparently full details will be available in Spring (presumably including earn and burn rates), but the earning of free nights will commence in January....
The Leading Hotels of the World would like to make this year’s travel even better for you with a new exclusive rewards program.
Beginning January 1, you will earn one complimentary night at any Leading Hotel for every five stays completed by December 31, 2010.
Just a few details to start earning your reward...
- There is no limit to the number of complimentary nights earned.
- At least two hotels must be represented in your five stays.
- Only non-contiguous stays will qualify.
- Only publicly available rates are eligible.
- Only reservations made through The Leading Hotels of the World are eligible.
If you wish to reserve through a travel professional, please remind them to call one of our Worldwide Reservations and Service Centers to book your travel to a Leading Hotel, and provide your unique Leaders Club number.
Dec 18, 2009, 9:53 am
#77
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: London
Programs: BA, VS, HH, IHG, MB, MR
Posts: 26,871
This is surprisingly attractive and compares well (if not better) with earning a 'top tier' award with SPG etc if your stays tend to be short (1 night, 2 max probably).
It gets less attractive if you are doing long stays, of course, since a 7 night stay at a top Hyatt property would probably get you enough points for 1 free night whereas here it only gets you 0.2 free nights. However, 7 x 1 night stays gets you 1.4 free nights with LHW versus probably 1 Hyatt night. As with Hyatt Faster Free Nights, there will undoubtedly be some good arbitrage deals to be had by doing 5 cheap nights in Asia to redeem 1 free night at a top European property.
The rules are very simple. For every 5 stays per calendar year, you get 1 free night. Each of the 5 stays must be at a published rate (no corp rates) and booked through the LHW website. Your 5 stays must include at least 2 different properties. Within 2 weeks of your 5th stay you get an e-mail certificate, which can be redeemed up to 48 hours prior to arrival. Blackout dates do apply but all LHW hotels are participating, it seems. The only slightly odd rule is that you can only use 1 certificate per stay, so a weekend break will require you to pay for 1 night however many certificates you have.
It gets less attractive if you are doing long stays, of course, since a 7 night stay at a top Hyatt property would probably get you enough points for 1 free night whereas here it only gets you 0.2 free nights. However, 7 x 1 night stays gets you 1.4 free nights with LHW versus probably 1 Hyatt night. As with Hyatt Faster Free Nights, there will undoubtedly be some good arbitrage deals to be had by doing 5 cheap nights in Asia to redeem 1 free night at a top European property.
The rules are very simple. For every 5 stays per calendar year, you get 1 free night. Each of the 5 stays must be at a published rate (no corp rates) and booked through the LHW website. Your 5 stays must include at least 2 different properties. Within 2 weeks of your 5th stay you get an e-mail certificate, which can be redeemed up to 48 hours prior to arrival. Blackout dates do apply but all LHW hotels are participating, it seems. The only slightly odd rule is that you can only use 1 certificate per stay, so a weekend break will require you to pay for 1 night however many certificates you have.
Dec 18, 2009, 9:55 am
#78
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: VCE
Posts: 14,165
As long as blackout dates are not too restrictive- I agree this is a pretty good deal. Let's see how the redemption process works out- I will probably get 2/3 of these in the next few months...
Dec 18, 2009, 10:03 am
#79
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: IAD/DCA
Posts: 31,797
1. what is the minimum spend / maximum earn?
for example this similar offering - http://www.hotels.com/customer_care/...merewards.html
2. why does it make it sound like they removed confirmed upgrades from access/unlimited?
there are blackout dates.
they only do 1 free night because theyre trying to increase revenue.
id tend to assume cashback would be better. like the site Raffles has mentioned and Mr and Mrs Smith.
https://www.lhw.com/LeadersClub/memb...ionAccess.aspx
doesnt mentioned confirmed upgrades anymore
but for example, this does > http://www.lhw.com/download_s/43.pdf
https://www.lhw.com/LeadersClub/memb...Unlimited.aspx
"Guaranteed upgrades at the time of reservation on all rates at participating hotels." ^
for example this similar offering - http://www.hotels.com/customer_care/...merewards.html
property priced at USD40 or more...After you have stayed a total of 10 nights, we will automatically credit you with a free night at any partner property offered by hotels.com, up to USD400 in value
there are blackout dates.
they only do 1 free night because theyre trying to increase revenue.
id tend to assume cashback would be better. like the site Raffles has mentioned and Mr and Mrs Smith.
https://www.lhw.com/LeadersClub/memb...ionAccess.aspx
doesnt mentioned confirmed upgrades anymore
but for example, this does > http://www.lhw.com/download_s/43.pdf
https://www.lhw.com/LeadersClub/memb...Unlimited.aspx
"Guaranteed upgrades at the time of reservation on all rates at participating hotels." ^
Last edited by Kagehitokiri; Dec 18, 2009 at 10:47 am
Dec 18, 2009, 11:00 am
#80
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: London
Programs: BA, VS, HH, IHG, MB, MR
Posts: 26,871
The difference between the hotels.com scheme (and indeed booking Expedia / hotels.com stays and taking cashback via fatwallet / quidco) is that you are getting no recognition on the qualifying stays. Here you will get LHW 'benefits' (such as they are!) for the 5 stays and presumably on the free one as well.
LHW is a weird scheme. They throw two great parties a year in London where you can eat and drink until you fall over (for free), take home a nice goody bag and possibly win a nice prize, all in a top venue - no other hotel scheme sends me invitations like this. (Next London one is Wed 24 Feb at the Banqueting House.) And then they have a fundamentally poor programme! This swings it a bit. However, to be honest I would struggle to get through 5 LHW stays in a year given that Four Seasons does not partake, unless we switch from FS Hampshire to The Grove for weekends away ....
LHW is a weird scheme. They throw two great parties a year in London where you can eat and drink until you fall over (for free), take home a nice goody bag and possibly win a nice prize, all in a top venue - no other hotel scheme sends me invitations like this. (Next London one is Wed 24 Feb at the Banqueting House.) And then they have a fundamentally poor programme! This swings it a bit. However, to be honest I would struggle to get through 5 LHW stays in a year given that Four Seasons does not partake, unless we switch from FS Hampshire to The Grove for weekends away ....
Dec 18, 2009, 7:48 pm
#81
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Denver
Programs: AMEX Cent., Relais & Chateaux, LHW, SLH
Posts: 427
The difference between the hotels.com scheme (and indeed booking Expedia / hotels.com stays and taking cashback via fatwallet / quidco) is that you are getting no recognition on the qualifying stays. Here you will get LHW 'benefits' (such as they are!) for the 5 stays and presumably on the free one as well.
LHW is a weird scheme. They throw two great parties a year in London where you can eat and drink until you fall over (for free), take home a nice goody bag and possibly win a nice prize, all in a top venue - no other hotel scheme sends me invitations like this. (Next London one is Wed 24 Feb at the Banqueting House.) And then they have a fundamentally poor programme! This swings it a bit. However, to be honest I would struggle to get through 5 LHW stays in a year given that Four Seasons does not partake, unless we switch from FS Hampshire to The Grove for weekends away ....
LHW is a weird scheme. They throw two great parties a year in London where you can eat and drink until you fall over (for free), take home a nice goody bag and possibly win a nice prize, all in a top venue - no other hotel scheme sends me invitations like this. (Next London one is Wed 24 Feb at the Banqueting House.) And then they have a fundamentally poor programme! This swings it a bit. However, to be honest I would struggle to get through 5 LHW stays in a year given that Four Seasons does not partake, unless we switch from FS Hampshire to The Grove for weekends away ....
My friend won a 2 night stay at The Club at Saujana in Malaysia that night
Jun 15, 2010, 5:40 pm
#82
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 2
LHW Access card
I have been with LHW since for a few years and was an invited member before they had opened up membership to all. Anyway over the last couple years I have not had many stays and been reduced back to the basic card. I was thinking of purchasing the access since I will not have enought stays to recieve membership for the unlimited card. Does anyway know any benefits or if it is even worth getting the access card from LHW? Sometime I feel like LHW is declining, although I have had some superior stays I have many bad ones as well lately.
Jun 15, 2010, 6:04 pm
#83
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Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: FLL -> Where The Boyars Are
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They did a party in Taipei earlier this year too, but there were only about 10 hotel reps there, and most of them are from Asia of course. But yea it was a really nice party too, free drinks and food, food was great lol My friend won a 2 night stay at The Club at Saujana in Malaysia that night
Jun 16, 2010, 3:29 am
#84
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: London
Programs: BA, VS, HH, IHG, MB, MR
Posts: 26,871
I have been with LHW since for a few years and was an invited member before they had opened up membership to all. Anyway over the last couple years I have not had many stays and been reduced back to the basic card. I was thinking of purchasing the access since I will not have enought stays to recieve membership for the unlimited card. Does anyway know any benefits or if it is even worth getting the access card from LHW? Sometime I feel like LHW is declining, although I have had some superior stays I have many bad ones as well lately.
It is worth noting in Europe that if you are Basic, you are offered 15,000 Lufthansa miles for upgrading to Access - the offer comes in the e-mail at the end of the year when they say they are renewing your Basic card. Not sure if non-Europeans get a similar offer. However, even for 15,000 M&M miles I don't pay the $300!
Jun 16, 2010, 5:13 am
#85
Join Date: Jun 2010
Posts: 2
Thank you for the info, it just doesn't seem like the access card compared to the basic card on the website really confirms anything. For the unlimited card membership you have to spend between 20k to 30k, which I don't travel to enough LHW to do. I have always been upgraded with the basic at every hotel in the last year. Next week I'm going to Le Palais in Prague so I will see how that goes and perhaps that will help me decide to keep using LHW or switch to another program.
Jun 16, 2010, 5:40 am
#86
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: London
Programs: BA, VS, HH, IHG, MB, MR
Posts: 26,871
If you live in London, the principal benefit of LHW - even at Basic level - are the 2 'showcase' parties they throw every year! These are surprisingly flamboyant affairs in top-quality venues with free-flowing champagne and canapes all night and often some entertainment - a fashion show in January and a ballet performance a couple of weeks ago. All for free.
Jun 25, 2010, 8:33 am
#87
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: IAD/DCA
Posts: 31,797
http://www.lhw.com/download_s/318.pdf
(LHW) has forged a new partnership with GHM whereby Unlimited level Leaders Club members are guaranteed a room, at any time, at GHM‟s eight properties within the LHW collection.
allowing a member to secure a room during peak, sold-out periods – such as a last-minute New Year‟s Eve stay
The Guaranteed Availability benefit to Unlimited Leaders Club is currently available at the following GHM hotels and resorts:
The Setai, Miami, U.S.
The Nam Hai, Hoi An, Vietnam
The Datai, Langkawi, Malaysia
The Strand, Yangon, Myanmar
The Legian, Bali, Indonesia
The Chedi Club at Tanah Gajah, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
The Chedi Chiang Mai, Thailand
The Chedi Muscat, Oman
allowing a member to secure a room during peak, sold-out periods – such as a last-minute New Year‟s Eve stay
The Guaranteed Availability benefit to Unlimited Leaders Club is currently available at the following GHM hotels and resorts:
The Setai, Miami, U.S.
The Nam Hai, Hoi An, Vietnam
The Datai, Langkawi, Malaysia
The Strand, Yangon, Myanmar
The Legian, Bali, Indonesia
The Chedi Club at Tanah Gajah, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
The Chedi Chiang Mai, Thailand
The Chedi Muscat, Oman
Jun 25, 2010, 10:03 am
#88
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Here there and everywhere
Posts: 6,303
Jun 26, 2010, 2:26 pm
#89
Suspended
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 9,916
Maybe it's my failing memory, but I thought Prima was 4/4.5 star - sort of as Tudor is to Rolex. This was the late 80s if I remember?
Jun 27, 2010, 7:29 pm
#90
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Dublin,Ireland
Posts: 1,294
No elitetraveler, Vuittons is correct. Prima did represent Amanresorts and GHM back then. I still have an old Prima pocket book like catalogue to confirm this (sigh!).