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The Gainsborough Bath Spa – the UK’s best regional city hotel – is now a Hyatt partner

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One of the most interesting hotel loyalty developments over the last couple of years has been the integration of a large number of Small Luxury Hotels of the World members into the Hyatt system.

Whilst these hotels have not become Hyatt branded, you can now book them – for cash or points – via the Hyatt website.

This has opened up some fantastic new redemption options especially in the UK and Europe where Hyatt was never particularly strong.  Small Luxury Hotels properties are also more likely to be rural, giving you rare ‘out of town’ redemption options.

The Gainsborough Bath Spa on Hyatt points

Hyatt status benefits are not available on SLH bookings.  However, as long as you book via Hyatt, you will receive five World of Hyatt points per $1 spent plus free continental breakfast.  You need to double-check pricing against the SLH website and the hotel’s own website, however, as it can vary.  If you register at the official SLH website you will also see additional discounts.

To add to the confusion, some – but not all – SLH hotels participate in a ‘preferred partner’ scheme for luxury travel agents which offers extra benefits such as free breakfast.  Emyr Thomas, our partner, can book you these.  You can contact Emyr here.

The reason for discussing this again today is that another 21 Small Luxury Hotels are joining Hyatt across July and August.  These include:

  • Castello Boutique Resort Spa in Crete
  • Grand Hotel Principe di Piemonte in Tuscany
  • Hemingways Nairobi in Nairobi
  • Hotel Crillon-Le-Brave in Provence
  • The Gainsborough Bath Spa in Bath
  • Can Ferrereta in Mallorca
  • Hotel Valdepalacios in Torrico, Spain
  • A77 Suites by Andronis in Plaka, Greece
  • Port Palace Boutique Hotel in Monte Carlo

Regular readers may remember that I rate The Gainsborough Bath Spa very highly.  In my review, I said it was probably the best city hotel in the UK outside London.  The swimming pool is fed directly by the same spa waters that fill the Roman Baths across the road.

The Gainsborough Bath Spa on Hyatt points

You can now book The Gainsborough Bath Spa for 25,000 World of Hyatt points per night.  Here is the home page on hyatt.com.

This is a decent but not superlative redemption, as cash prices are currently around £250 per night and you may be able to get extra goodies thrown in if you are paying cash.  1p per Hyatt point is not to be sniffed at though.  We tend to value Hyatt points at 1.1p.

If only Hyatt would join Amex Membership Rewards in the UK as a transfer partner, we could get some decent value from these deals.  As it is, UK residents are restricted to earning World of Hyatt points purely from hotel stays.

A quick story about booking Small Luxury Hotels

As a PS. to this article, here is an example of how complex it can be to get the best price at a Small Luxury Hotels property.

We were at The Atlantic in Jersey last month which is an SLH hotel.  Pricing was different based on whether I went via Hyatt, SLH, SLH as a logged-in user, Hotels.com or Hotels.com as a logged in user.

Emyr Thomas couldn’t help as The Atlantic doesn’t participate in the SLH ‘preferred partner’ programme.  In the end, I used Hotels.com.  I saved 10% as a registered Hotels.com user and got a further 10% back in Hotels.com Rewards credit.

This was far better than anything that the hotel could offer directly – even when Emyr approached them and ask for their best offer – or via Small Luxury Hotels.  Proof that it pays to shop around …..

PS.  I recently reviewed the new Hotel Indigo in Bath – take a look here

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World of Hyatt update – April 2025:

Get bonus points: Hyatt is not currently running a global promotion

New to World of Hyatt?  Read our overview of World of Hyatt here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on what we think World of Hyatt points are worth is here.

Buy points: If you need additional World of Hyatt points, you can buy them here.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Hyatt and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Category

World of Hyatt

Comments (19)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • TGLoyalty says:
    4 Aug4 August 05:34

    Looking in the Hyatt app only bookable from October and rates are currently 10% higher than booking direct.

  • Jack says:
    4 Aug4 August 08:34

    Agree about the Gainsborough. Went there a couple of years ago for an anniversary and it was unbelievably good. It was about £500 for the night on a Thursday though!

    • Secret Squirrel says:
      4 Aug4 August 08:58

      Try £200 via Expedia.

      • Jack says:
        4 Aug4 August 12:17

        Probably is £200 for a basic room in a global pandemic that’s decimated travel yeah.

        We’re talking junior suite in 2018 here.

        • Secret Squirrel says:
          4 Aug4 August 16:38

          Can’t believe anyone would pay £500 for one night in Bath!

          • Jack says:
            4 Aug4 August 19:16

            Anniversary and we’re fortunate enough to be able to easily afford it 🙂

            Like Rob said in his review, quite possibly the best hotel in the UK outside of London.

  • The Savage Squirrel says:
    4 Aug4 August 09:06

    Hotels.com ratenot only matched but beat what the hotel could offer directly – even to direct contact! Advertised rates I get, given the restrictions being listed on sites like hotels.com; but even to a quiet phone call? Given the hotels.com cut vs direct booking, either they’d sold off a bucket of cheap rooms to hotels.com for the guaanteed income some time ago, or this is proof that some hotel front desks are just astonishingly badly run!

    • TGLoyalty says:
      4 Aug4 August 10:25

      The problem is when you check in your are bottom of the chain when it comes to getting a decent room with OTA.

      Ofcourse you can always swing a nicer one if you complain enough but default position is you’re in the worst rooms, I’d probably take that risk for £30 a night but not for a price match.

      Looking at random rates in September I don’t see much better

      • Secret Squirrel says:
        4 Aug4 August 11:10

        From recent experience, booking direct did not yield us any improvement like a better room. I would rather be £30 better off per night plus 10% c@shb**k so nearly £50.

  • Lady London says:
    4 Aug4 August 11:19

    Stayed at the Bath Spa many years ago on a Saturday night booked last minute direct at fully flexible rate.

    We arrived about midnight. On the Sunday we phoned from the room to request a 1-hour late checkout. The hotel wouldn’t even give us that.

    Stayed a lot in that area there are some lovely hotels about, but never booked The Bath Spa since.

  • Cam says:
    4 Aug4 August 11:58

    The Hyatt / SLH partnership is indeed confusing in execution. I booked a UK SLH property last year. I could have booked through Hyatt (with included continental breakfast?), or SLH, or Amex PTS (with included hot breakfast?). Hyatt was the same as the non-breakfast rate elsewhere, but for a weekend away I booked through Amex PTS. However, in reality I doubt the property differentiated continental vs full breakfast.

    • Rob says:
      4 Aug4 August 13:14

      Atlantic in Jersey on the a la carte menu said continental £15, standard £22.50 – which made no sense as it was a la carte.

  • krys_k says:
    4 Aug4 August 16:47

    I was contracting in bath on and off for 4 years up until 2016. Must have stayed at 50+ hotels and eaten at similar number of restaurants. If this place was open might have just stayed at one place !

    • Jerrry Butler says:
      4 Aug4 August 20:23

      At £500 a night, you would have bugger all left at the end of the week if you did that 5 days a week me old fruit!

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