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Free Leading Hotels of the World Club membership (usually $175)
Similar to GHA and SLH, Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) is a hotel alliance for high-range boutique hotels. It operates its membership program in a different way though, as you’ll need to pay to get any benefits.
There are two membership tiers:
- Club: $175 fee per year, benefits include free wi-fi, continental breakfast, welcome gift, early check-in and late check-out. You’ll also receive one room upgrade voucher having completed the first stay.
- Sterling: $5000 spend required per year, addition benefit is five room upgrade vouchers.
You also earn points from hotel stays which you can use for free night redemption. There is a secret invitation-only tier above Sterling, namely Aurelian, for those whose annual spend fall in the top 1% amongst all members. The whole scheme reminds me of InterContinental Ambassador now…
LHW is running a promotion though which is giving the $175 membership for free. To sign up, simply visit their website and wait for the pop-up:
Click Join Now, or use this link to claim it. If you have an existing LHW account, sign in first before visiting this page and your membership should be activated as well.
As you can see from the advert, you’ll also get 500 points as a kickstart, which appears to be worth $40 when you reach the threshold to redeem them.
LHW has eight properties in London (including The Ritz, The Landmark and The Lanesborough) as well as one in Scotland. Its spread is quite decent in Western and Southern Europe, and I’m especially astonished when I see there are 33 hotels in Switzerland!
LHW’s website can be flaky so you may need to try a few times. The membership is valid for a year so you may prefer to wait till you have any travel plans, however it’s not indicated anywhere when the offer is going to be pulled.
Related Read:
Instant Indulged upgrade with Small Luxury Hotels
Small Luxury Hotels, or SLH, is yet another boutique hotels group with a decent spread worldwide. You may have heard the name from its connection with the Hyatt hotels that started a couple of years ago.
SLH has its own loyalty program as well, and members can enjoy some benefits when booking direct:
- Invited entry level with complimentary wi-fi, early check-in and late check-out upon request
- Inspired four nights per annum, with complimentary breakfast and room upgrade subject to availability thrown in
- Indulged thirteen nights per annum, with a free night voucher upon attaining status and invitation-only events
SLH runs quite a few promotions in collaboration with different organisation that gift you Inspired status straightaway without meeting the stay requirement. Even better, there’s even a chance for instant upgrade to Indulged, their top-level status.
You could view the offer page here. Through this offer, HSBC Jade members can enjoy a complimentary upgrade to Indulged courtesy of a special arrangement. HSBC Jade is a semi-secretive client tier within the bank, and you won’t get in unless you are very wealthy. However, this offer doesn’t require any validation – simply login or create a new account on the page, and the upgrade should take effect right away.
It worked for me briefly, and then dropped to Inspired a few days later 🤷♂️ To be fair, the stay benefits between Inspired and Indulged look almost identical.
Remember that you can also book SLH hotels through Hyatt, difference being:
- Not all SLH hotels are bookable through Hyatt
- Only Best Flexible Rate is available on Hyatt, whereas many discount rates on SLH
- Earn Hyatt points, or $300 voucher for every 12 nights with SLH
- Stay benefits are pretty much the same on paper, however I’d expect Indulged / Globalist members fare better with regards to room upgrade
Related Read:
Free 12-Month Mr & Mrs Smith GoldSmith Membership (Usually £400)
You probably have heard of Mr & Mrs Smith – Similar to Small Luxury Hotels they are a loose hotel alliance, or rather marketing platform for boutique hotels, with exceptionally strong presence in the UK and also good footprint in many other countries.
They have recently tied up with IHG, and many Mr & Mrs Smith hotels are now already bookable via IHG either with cash or points. If you hold a Vitality health insurance policy, you may qualify for up to 25% discount when booking their hotels.
Apart from their partnership with IHG, Mr & Mrs Smith actually has their own membership program:
- BlackSmith Free to join, 1% cashback on bookings and Smith Extras
- SilverSmith £100 annual fee, 2% cashback on bookings, Smith Extras and Priority Pass membership
- GoldSmith £400 annual fee, 3% cashback on bookings, Smith Extras, Priority Pass & Onda membership, room upgrade subject to availability and travel concierge service
Smith Extras is a complimentary add-on to your stay, which may be a welcome fruit platter, free breakfast, room upgrade or free set meals. SilverSmith and GoldSmith members may qualify for better Smith Extras at certain properties.
The Priority Pass membership offered doesn’t come with any free visits, which means you have to pay for each entry to airport lounges (£20 in the UK).
I’m not sure how the travel concierge or room upgrade works out in reality, but at the first look the GoldSmith benefits are quite underwhelming to me considering the whopping £400 annual fee.
But wait, didn’t I say free? Mr & Mrs Smith is running a promotion with American Express, where Centurion / Platinum cardmembers enjoy a free upgrade to GoldSmith and the remaining to SilverSmith. You can access the offer page here and enter the first 6 digits of your Amex card to see if you are eligible.
The thing is, it’s unclear what markets the offer is targeted at. The terms say that UK-issued cards are not eligible for the promotion and indeed my cards don’t work. However many of my friends tried their US- or China-issued cards and also no avail.
And after many trials and errors, I’ve found a BIN code – 371595 – which is eligible for the GoldSmith upgrade. You should be able to fill out your personal information on the next page to apply for your membership.
It may take a few minutes for the welcome email to arrive, and if not you could also try resetting your password which should also activate your account.
And here are the Smith Extras you can expect at certain UK hotels:
- London, Ham Yard Hotel – A cocktail each at the bar
- London, 11 Cadogan Gardens – Full English breakfast for the two
- London, The Franklin – £50 hotel credit
- London, The Portobello Hotel – A free room upgrade and bottle of hand sanitiser (!)
- Cornwall, St Mawes Hotel – A bottle of Prosecco and tickets to local attractions
- Cotwolds, Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa – Traditional afternoon tea for two
Remember that you can also book some of the hotels via IHG or even Amex FHR / Virtuoso, and here are some pros and cons:
- Amex FHR / Virtuoso Very limited selection of hotels; Priced at Best Flexible Rate so relatively expensive; Very good benefits (free breakfast / room upgrade / £100 hotel credit etc)
- IHG Good selection of hotels; Priced at Best Flexible Rate so relatively expensive; Smith Extras benefits; Earn & redeem IHG points
- Mr & Mrs Smith Direct Booking All hotels; Many (cheaper) rates available; Potentially better Smith Extras benefits thanks to GoldSmith
The membership is valid for 12 months. If you think you may set foot in one of the hotels in the near future, why not grab a free tier upgrade now?
50% Bonus When Buying Ascott Points, Plus Free Upgrade to Silver
Ascott’s points sale is back, this time with an enhanced bonus.
You can access the offer page here. This is to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of Ascott Star Rewards, the loyalty program of the hotel chain. Note that the bonus awarded is tiered, and you need to purchase the maximum amount – 1000 SGD for 400K points – to get the 50% bonus.
In other words, you benefit from a 33.3% discount for the point purchase. Ascott’s redemption system is similar to that of Accor’s, where points have a fixed value and can be directly redeemed against most rates found on their website. This means, purchasing points now and use them on your future stays will save you 33.3% whatever the listed rate is.
However, there was an even better offer last year where points were sold for half price. Surely we have no idea whether or when it’s going to return, yet I wouldn’t encourage you to hoard the points now unless you have immediate use.
There are a few other promotions in addition. For example, Classic members can earn Silver status after completing only one stay – although there’s actually a route for instant Platinum.
IHG Fast Track – 5 Nights to Platinum
IHG has followed suit in the status match game, although it works a bit differently compared to Hilton and Marriott.
You need to sign up on this page.
- Register by August 31
- You have 90 days to complete the challenge
- Stay 2 nights to earn Gold status and 5 nights to earn Platinum
- The status is valid through 2021 and 2022
The challenge is open to everyone – you don’t need any qualification, nor any elite status from another hotel program. Only paid stays count though.
Don’t be too excited – IHG Platinum can be easily earned through various other routes already. You can pay $200 or 40,000 points to purchase an Ambassador membership, which comes with Platinum status. Spire Elite members can also gift Platinum status to someone.
And it doesn’t entitle you to any guaranteed benefits, although you could usually expect one-level room upgrade and 2pm late check-out for your stays.
If you intend to participate, remember to register to the IHG global promotion which earns you 2,000 bonus points for every two nights stayed by the end of March.
iPrefer Hotels Elite Status after One stay
Preferred Hotels is a less-known hotel alliance and we’ve written about their fast track offer last year. There is a new incentive for Mastercard holders.
You can access the offer here.
- Eligible payment cards include Mastercard World, World Elite and Black
- Valid for bookings through 2021
- Stay by March 31, 2022
- Use code MKTMPE when you book, and enjoy
- 25% off for a 4-night stay
- iPrefer Elite status after the stay
There are three participating hotels in the UK:
- THE PELHAM LONDON – STARHOTELS COLLEZIONE
- EDGBASTON PARK HOTEL & CONFERENCE CENTRE
- THE FITZWILLIAM HOTEL BELFAST
Upon enrolment all iPrefer members can benefit from early check-in, late check-out and room upgrade subject to availability. Elite members earn more points and also receive welcome amenity for their stays in addition.
18-night Fast Track to Platinum for Accor Plus Members
Accor Plus – Accor’s special paid membership programme in Asia Pacific – is running a fast track promotion for its members.
You can access the offer page here.
- Register by April 15
- Book and stay by August 31
- Silver members get an additional 10 night credits after one stay
- Gold members get an additional 15 night credits after one stay
Upon purchasing Accor Plus membership you are granted Silver status right away. Note that only Silver and Gold members can register to this offer.
Remember that everyone earns double elite night credit throughout 2021. For a Silver member, with the 10 bonus credits you only need to stay 10 nights to gain Gold (10+10*2=30); and then this rewards you with an additional 15 credits, so a total of 18 nights stayed elevates you to Platinum (10+10*2+15+8*2=61).
If you are already Gold though, you only earn 15 bonus night credits which means it still requires 23 nights for you to become Platinum.
Instant Fraser World Diamond Status & 3-for-2 Sale
We wrote about Fraser World previously with regards to its deal with Mastercard. It looks like the deal has been extended and become even better.
You could access the deal on Mastercard’s website here, or Fraser World’s page here. There are two ongoing offers.
For Mastercard World Elite cardholders in Asia Pacific, you are given complimentary Fraser World Diamond status instantly. Its says Asia Pacific only, however Mastercard’s website was happy to accept my UK Curve Metal details.
If you don’t have a Fraser World account yet, simply sign up using referral code MASTERELITE to enjoy the Diamond status and there doesn’t seem to be any check. Existing members need to email [email protected] with the first 10 digits of the World Elite credit card for verification.
The second offer is open to any World or World Elite cardholders. Enter promo code MASTER during sign-up / booking to enjoy 3-for-2 on hotel rates, and fast track to Diamond after a 3-night stay.
We’ve already covered a similar deal in the past so I’m not going into many details this time. Fraser World has a few properties in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Diamond status comes with early check-in, late check-out and room upgrade on short stays.
The promotion ends on 30 June, 2021.