dkc192

I've noticed that, at least during certain time periods, some SLH properties (e.g., The Marine and The Cellars-Hohenort in South Africa, and Hotel Schweizerhof in Switzerland) have imposed minimum stay lengths for award bookings: 3 nights in the case of the two South African properties, and 7 nights in the case of the Swiss one. These shenanigans are slightly different from those played by, say, the Andaz Maui or Hyatt Centric Waikiki. The Hawaiian properties won't make a standard room available unless you meet the minimum stay requirement, whereas these SLH properties have a standard room available for a one-night stay yet still refuse to take award bookings.

I e-mailed my concierge about the Swiss property when I was trying to book for February, and she basically said tough luck, SLH properties "do not always offer room for points" and "Hyatt cannot dictate to the hotels what inventory they should make available to our members." Is this accurate--can Hyatt really not do anything about this? Not sure how widespread this is among SLH properties, but it's quite an unwelcome feature of the so-called Hyatt/SLH "partnership" IMO.

GUWonder

If SLH's own agreement with an SLH property doesn't ban minimum stay requirements, then I doubt that Hyatt's agreement with SLH and/or SLH properties would ban it. Even otherwise, Hyatt doesn't have much influence on SLH properties as SLH properties only have to do with Hyatt's bookings what SLH/SLH properties and Hyatt have agreed to do.

59Impala

I would not call this „shenanigans“. This is very common in Switzerland, especially in the winter ski season. There are many „Schweizerhof“ in Switzerland (not connected to each other), and I presume you mean the Zermatt location.

often a 7 day stay is the minimum, and often also a Saturday to Saturday.

beachfan

If you have the points, book three nights, then shorten it.

Gertjaars

It depends on the slh property.

But heres how I "gamed" it as a globalist at these restrictive slh properties:
Call the globalist line/your concierge to book the entire stay on points to meet their nightly minimum, doesnt matter if you have all points or not because you can get the Points Advance as a globalist. Wait 2-3 days, then call the line again to shorten you stay to the nights you want precisely on points. Whether you have enough points or still need the points advance, globalist line/concierge will adjust to your selected nights.

takes maybe..10 minutes by calling. Just a suggestion

dkc192

Interesting, thanks. I've tried to make a points advance reservation at a SLH as a Globalist and was told that I couldn't do that at SLH properties, only at Hyatt ones.

Without having tried it, I'd guess 50-50 chance an agent can shorten an already booked SLH reservation to circumvent a minimum stay requirement. If I do try it, I'll report back.

MSPeconomist

IMO minimum stay requirements aren't unreasonable, but it should be possible to combine free night certs, points bookings (award nights), cash and points bookings if applicable, and reservations to be paid with money (and booked through Hyatt, no third parties or OLTAs) to meet the minimum stay requirement.

dkc192

Fully agree with this. Hyatt already allows this at some/most/all of its own properties. Would be good to extend this to SLH properties.

A4K

Bumping an old thread as the OP lists Cellars Hohenort specifically as having an issue with. I cannot find they offer any award bookings under any length of stay on any dates even when their standard room is available for revenue booking. Is there anything WOH can do about that? Is this just an error?

What is interesting is the hotel dropped from Cat 4 to 3 last year, so I don't know why they would do that if they didn't want award bookings.

Kacee

The property does not determine the category. That's Hyatt.

A4K

Ok then maybe that explains why they don't want to release any availability at Cat 3.

Even with a min stay with standard rooms available they should be allowing redemption nights.Can't find any nights between now and 13 months from now.

236Dakota

Seems like all the SLH hotels along the Garden Route have the same issue. I've been monitoring them for months, but have settled on just paying for them. We do have 7 award nights booked at the CT Hyatt Regency in a suite

A4K

I guess the original question from the OP remains, are they allowed to pull these shenanigans?

skj

No shenanigans ... From the T&Cs ...

"Some properties that otherwise qualify as a Participating SLH Property for purposes of these SLH Terms do not have standard rooms or otherwise do not participate in the redemption of Free Night Awards and, as a result, no Program award of any kind is redeemable at such properties (unless otherwise specified by Hyatt in other terms and conditions applicable to a particular award)."

A4K

Not trying to argue about this, just trying to understand.... the the property I am questioning has an award calendar on the Hyatt website and I redeemed points earlier in 2022 there in the same standard room that is bookable with cash currently, so with that in mind it would seem like any SLH hotel can pull all award availability at any time. But, these terms don't seem to give them that blanket ability, at least the way I read it.