With the highest level World of Hyatt Globalist status, you can enjoy several benefits such as complimentary breakfast, late check-out until 4:00 PM, parking and resort fee waivers, club lounge access and suite upgrades based on availability. But what if you don’t have this hard-to-achieve globalist status and still want to receive the same great benefits? Fortunately, there is now a way.
Before this year, Hyatt allowed all Globalist members to share their elite status benefits when booking award stays for others. However, as of January 1, Hyatt has made some big changes to its loyalty program, including these coveted “Guest of Honor” awards. It’s easier than ever to help other Hyatt travelers experience the benefits of Globalist. You even have the option to grant yourself Globalist status before earning this top status. In this article, we will explore the details of the World of Hyatt Guest of Honor awards.
Earning Hyatt Guest of Honor awards
One of the better aspects of the World of Hyatt program is that members earn “Milestone Rewards” after achieving a specific number of qualifying nights or base points. At each level, members receive a fixed reward or can even select a reward from a drop-down list. The reward options vary at each level, but one reward you’ll often see floating around is the Guest of Honor.
When you assign a guest of honor to a reservation, you receive all the internal benefits of Globalist status—Hyatt’s highest level of elite status. This is a great opportunity to take advantage of some great perks, including a better room type (and the option of a suite upgrade, if available), late check-out, waived resort fees, club lounge access, and free breakfast. Not only can these benefits give you a much more luxurious stay, but they can also save you a lot of money.
As you can see in the rewards chart above, a Guest of Honor reward is automatically earned once you reach the following levels:
- 40 nights or 65,000 base points (one earned)
- 60 nights or 100,000 base points (two earned)
- 70 nights (one earned)
- 80 nights (one earned)
- 90 nights (one earned)
- 110 nights (one earned)
- 120 nights (one earned)
- 130 nights (one earned)
- 140 nights (one earned)
This means you can earn up to ten Guest of Honor rewards in one year. But for those who typically earn Globalist status by exceeding the 60-night threshold, you’ll get three Guest of Honor awards for the year.
This gives you ample opportunity to have a friend or family member receive the benefits of Globalist status on a single reservation (up to a seven-night stay). Unlike the previous policy where a Guest of Honor reservation could only be applied to a points reservation, Guest of Honor rewards can now be used for paid reservations or points reservations. And if you use points, the person using the Guest of Honor award can use points from their own account.
However, only one award can be applied per reservation, meaning you cannot combine a Free Night Certificate with a Guest of Honor award. If you happen to have a Suite Upgrade Award in your account, it also cannot be combined with a Guest of Honor reward.
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Related: 8 Reasons Why Frequent Travelers Love Hyatt Globalist Elite Status
And don’t forget, you can also earn qualifying nights on credit card spend on both the World of Hyatt Credit Card and the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card. With the World of Hyatt Credit Card, you automatically get five eligible nights each calendar year. You’ll also earn two additional night credits eligible for every $5,000 you spend with your card each calendar year.
Meanwhile, if you own the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card, you’ll earn five eligible night credits for every $10,000 you spend on your card each calendar year. By earning extra qualifying nights by spending with these two cards, high spenders can quickly earn Milestone Rewards.
Related: Is the World of Hyatt Credit Card Worth the Annual Fee?
Additional guest of honor opportunities for 2024
For 2024 only, those with Globalist (or Lifetime Globalist) status received five additional Guest of Honor awards to their account at the beginning of the year on December 31, 2023. These awards are in addition to the Guest of Honor awards earned throughout the year as part of Milestone Rewards and can be gifted and redeemed in the exact same way – with an expiration date of February 28, 2025.
Additionally, World of Hyatt is offering a special benefit for those who completed 2023 with Globalist status. Globalist members (as of December 31, 2023) can use the old Guest of Honor benefit after all their guest of honor awards have been awarded or awarded. With the old Guest of Honor benefits, only rooms booked as a free night can enjoy Globalist benefits. To do this, the Globalist member must call Hyatt directly to book this guest of honor stay. These reservations still do not require the Globalist member to be a guest in the room (or even the property), but must use points from their own account to book the stay.
Globalist members can take advantage of this benefit until their Globalist status was originally set to expire on December 31, 2023. For most members who earned status in 2023, this means you can book old Guest of Honor reservations through February 28, 2025.
Booking Guest of Honor Awards
When you log into your World of Hyatt account, you will see all your earned awards, including Guest of Honor awards. From there, you can “gift” or “redeem” each individual reward.
To gift a prize to a friend or family member, log into your account and go to the ‘Prizes’ section. In the Hyatt app, select the radio button next to the reward you want to gift, then select the ‘GIFT’ option below the reward. If you’re on the Hyatt website, click the three dots to the right of the prize and select “Give your prize as a gift.” On the next screen, you will need to enter the recipient’s World of Hyatt membership number and their last name. Once the prize is awarded, the recipient will see the prize in their account almost immediately.
Once a prize has been donated, it cannot be gifted to anyone else. Therefore, make sure that your recipient can use the reward before it is transferred.
Redeeming the gifted award is also incredibly easy. If you have already booked your reservation and would like to add the Guest of Honor award, you will need to call Hyatt and have the award manually applied to the reservation. However, if you have not yet booked your reservation, you can simply apply the Guest of Honor award during the reservation process. Once you have found your preferred hotel and date, select the ‘Available Awards’ above all room rate options. All your earned (or given) rewards should are listed, and you can select the “Guest of Honor Award” option. If by chance the award isn’t listed, you can always call Hyatt directly to apply the award.
You go ahead and book your reservation as you normally would, and on the final booking page you will see that a Guest of Honor award has been applied.
If you are using your own earned Guest of Honor award, follow the same steps as redeeming the award as the award is already in your account. This can be useful if you are not yet a Globalist member but have earned a Guest of Honor after staying 40 nights (or earning 65,000 base points).
Related: The Best Hyatt Category 4 Hotels, According to Globalists
Guest of Honor Rules
The Guest of Honor program is simple and ultimately allows you to share your Globalist benefits throughout the year by gifting a friend or family member a Guest of Honor award.
And while this is a huge benefit for the recipient, there is also a pretty big benefit for the member donating the prize. Although the recipient is the one who earns the qualifying stays for status, the member giving the award will still receive one qualifying stay for the entire reservation. So, for example, if your friend or family member applies the Guest of Honor designation to a five-night stay, you will still receive one qualifying stay for status even though you are not the one actually staying in the hotel room. However, this benefit only applies to redeemed Guest of Honor awards and not to Guest of Honor reservations booked using the legacy method.
Once you earn a Guest of Honor Award, it is valid for the rest of the year, plus an additional 14 months. This means that rewards expire on the last day of February, two calendar years after they are earned. For example, any Guest of Honor award earned in 2024 will expire on February 28, 2026. This means your check-out date must be on or before the expiration date. Please note, this is not just a ‘book by’ date.
That said, you may not be able to book a Guest of Honor reservation at all Hyatt properties per Hyatt’s terms and conditions:
Guest of Honor benefits are only available for gift rewards redeemed at a participating Park Hyatt, Miraval, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Andaz, Hyatt Centric, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Thompson Hotels, Alila (some locations only), JdV by Hyatt, Dream (some locations only), Destination by Hyatt (both participating Destination Hotels and participating Destination Residences locations), Caption by Hyatt, Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Hyatt Ziva, Hyatt Zilara, Hyatt Vivid, Impression by Secrets, Secrets, Breathless, Zoëtry, Alua, Sunscape or any other Legacy AMR Collection (some locations only) hotel or resort. Not valid for holiday homes.
Related: You can transfer World of Hyatt points to other members: Here’s how
In short
World of Hyatt offers the unique opportunity to share elite benefits with friends and family, even if you’re not traveling with them. And now that you can book a Guest of Honor reservation for free nights and paid stays, it’s easier than ever to let others experience the many great benefits.
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