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Big news for Hyatt loyalists. Hyatt announced an agreement today to purchase Mr & Mrs Smith. The platform offers direct bookings at a collection of over 1,500 boutique and luxury properties. The acquisition is expected to close this quarter and includes 100% of the asset-light, London-based company with a price tag of around $56 million.
Mr & Mrs Smith will aid Hyatt in building a leadership position in luxury and offer tons of new options, especially across Europe. This acquisition is the latest in a series that Hyatt has undergone in the past year. Others included the acquisition of Dream Hotel Group’s lifestyle brand, the conversion of over 30 franchise agreements with Lindner Hotels & Resorts, as well as Hyatt organically growing its global brand portfolio. With all of these new options and some of the best benefits for elite members, the World of Hyatt loyalty program has grown its membership by more than 3x in the past five years.
Mark Vondrasek, Hyatt’s chief commercial officer, released this statement:
We are excited by this planned acquisition and to explore bringing guests and World of Hyatt members even more global luxury offerings across hundreds of geographies – including over 20 countries where there are currently no Hyatt hotels such as Fiji, Croatia, Iceland, and Anguilla. Founders Tamara and James Lohan alongside their impressive team have built the ultimate global direct booking collection of truly unique stay experiences including rooms located in treehouses, within caves, and underwater suites. Importantly, we see a lot of synergy between our collective ethos of care, and we look forward to working together to bring our shared focus to new, memorable stay experiences for guests and World of Hyatt members – and introduce new guests to Hyatt hotels around the world.”
This partnership will be akin to what Hyatt currently has with Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) in that Hyatt neither owns nor manages the properties, but has aligned on booking and giving its World of Hyatt members the ability to earn and redeem points as well as to receive some other benefits. It’s not yet clear what benefits will be offered or how status will be handled at Mr. & Mrs. Smith properties. I’d guess it will be a similar setup to SLH. Properties range from the incredible-looking Moskito Island (which costs over $20,000 per night) at the high end to many boutique options including The Chow Kit in Kuala Lumpur that starts around $50 per night.
Anthony’s Take: I’m excited to have so many new options. I rarely stay at a hotel that I can’t earn points at and this acquisition has the potential to open tons of boutique and luxury properties up for earning and redemption. There are some aspirational properties and lots that will add choices to places currently not served.
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