My Personal Experience Using Hyatt’s Guest of Honor Program

I recently took a weekend trip to New York City with my daughter for her birthday.

Since New York is expensive, I knew I wanted to book my hotel room with points. Hyatt is my go-to hotel brand and thankfully there were a lot of options available on the dates we were traveling. I ended up choosing the Thompson Central Park New York because of its awesome location right near Central Park and because I’d heard positive reviews about it from a few friends and other bloggers.

When I was discussing my trip with a friend, who happens to be a World of Hyatt Globalist member, she generously offered to make a Guest of Honor booking for me. I jumped at the opportunity to try out Hyatt Globalist status since I knew it came with incredibly valuable benefits like free breakfast.

In this post, I’ll walk you through my experience using Hyatt’s Guest of Honor benefit and give you all the information you’ll need to try out the program.

What Is World of Hyatt Guest of Honor?

World of Hyatt Guest of Honor is a benefit offered to Hyatt’s top-tier Globalist members allowing them to share their perks with friends and family.

The one catch is that Guest of Honor bookings can only be made using points or Hyatt free night certificates — regular paid stays aren’t eligible for Guest of Honor bookings. Guest of Honor stays can’t be booked online, so to make a booking, the Globalist member needs to call or email their Hyatt concierge. Then the Guest of Honor will be afforded Globalist benefits during their hotel stay and will also earn Tier-Qualifying Nights.

Globalist Guest of Honor stays are only valid at the following Hyatt brands:

What Is Globalist Status?

Globalist is Hyatt’s top-tier elite status. To earn this World of Hyatt elite status, you need to stay 60 nights in a year or earn 100,000 base points. There’s also an option to earn Globalist via spend on The World of Hyatt Credit Card. Once a member earns Globalist, they have access to a host of exclusive benefits:

Hot Tip: These are just the highlights of Globalist status. For a more thorough look, check out our full list of Hyatt elite status benefits.

My Experience Using Hyatt’s Guest of Honor Program

World of Hyatt is my favorite hotel program, so I knew I wanted to redeem World of Hyatt points to book my stay in New York City. I narrowed it down to the Thompson Central Park New York and the Park Hyatt New York since both are located near Central Park, which was exactly where I wanted to be.

Ultimately, I chose Thompson Central Park New York because it cost fewer points (29,000 World of Hyatt points per night at the Thompson vs. 35,000 per night at the Park Hyatt) and had excellent reviews.

Since I only have Hyatt Explorist status, I knew I wouldn’t be eligible for benefits like free breakfast (which represents substantial cost savings in an expensive city like New York). Thankfully, my friend with Globalist status offered to book a Guest of Honor stay for me, which entitled me to free breakfast for my entire stay.

Making a Guest of Honor Booking

To make a Guest of Honor booking, the Globalist member needs to call Hyatt or email the Hyatt concierge to make the reservation. Guest of Honor stays can’t be booked online.

After the reservation was made, I received an email confirmation of my stay, but it didn’t automatically show up in my account. I contacted the Hyatt team via Twitter to add my World of Hyatt number to the reservation, and then it showed up in my online account.

After my stay, I had to contact the Hyatt Twitter team again because it wasn’t showing up in the “past stays” section of my account, and I hadn’t received Tier-Qualifying Nights for my stay. Once again, the Hyatt Twitter team was able to get it sorted out quickly, and I received my Tier-Qualifying Nights and had my stay counted in my Brand Explorer Award totals (after staying at 5 unique Hyatt brands, you’ll earn a Category 1 to 4 free night certificate).

There wasn’t any note or mention of my Guest of Honor stay in my email confirmation or my online account, even though the reservation was correctly marked as Guest of Honor.

Bottom Line: A Globalist member can make a Guest of Honor stay for a friend or family member by calling Hyatt or emailing the Hyatt concierge. The Guest of Honor will receive on-site Globalist benefits as well as Tier-Qualifying Nights for the stay. 

Transferring World of Hyatt Points

Since my friend made the booking for me using her points, I needed to transfer my points to her since I was the one who was ultimately paying for the trip. To do that, we just needed to fill out a point-combining request form and email it to Hyatt.

Keep in mind that point transfers can take some time. This transfer took 1 week, but it can sometimes take longer (up to 4 weeks, according to Hyatt), so plan accordingly. There isn’t any way to transfer World of Hyatt points to another member online.

A member can only receive transferred points or transfer points to another member once every 30 days.

Hot Tip: Hyatt Guest of Honor stays are meant to be gifted, however, Hyatt allows point transfers between members. That means it’s possible to transfer your points to your friend so they can make a Guest of Honor booking for you. 

Globalist Benefits

As a Guest of Honor, I was eligible for all on-site Globalist benefits. I was most excited about getting a nice room upgrade and a free breakfast each morning.

Room Upgrade

Unfortunately, a room upgrade wasn’t offered, which honestly caught me off-guard. I was expecting an upgrade (my first mistake) so I hadn’t prepared to ask for one like I usually do.

When I ask for upgrades at hotels, I look ahead of time to see which rooms are still bookable online so I have an idea if an upgrade will be available. Since I was expecting an upgrade, I didn’t do this, and I wasn’t prepared.

Once I got up to our room, I saw that there were better rooms available. But it was late, and my 9-year-old was hungry and tired and just wanted to order room service, so I didn’t want to go through the hassle of moving rooms.

While it was my fault for not being proactive and requesting an upgrade, I was disappointed that the hotel didn’t offer one as they were supposed to do.

Free Breakfast

My Hyatt Globalist Guest of Honor stay didn’t go to waste, though, because I definitely took advantage of the free breakfast each morning.

When I checked in at the hotel, my Globalist Guest of Honor stay was mentioned, and I was told about the free breakfast benefit (the specifics of this benefit can vary by hotel). At the Thompson Central Park New York, each person in the room (up to 2 adults and 2 kids) was eligible for 1 cold drink, 1 hot drink, and 1 entrée at the hotel’s main restaurant called Parker’s. That sounded great to me.

I was staying with my mom and daughter, so we were able to get 3 entrées, 3 cold drinks, and 3 hot drinks each morning. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law were traveling with us in a separate room and didn’t have any Globalist benefits, so I had planned to share our free meals with them.

Each morning, we split 3 entrees and ordered extra drinks and sides to share. I knew from talking with friends who have Globalist status that often a hotel will take off more charges than what’s officially included, so I had some hope that our extra charges would be wiped out. Regardless, I was prepared to pay for what we ordered above and beyond what was included. I charged all of the breakfasts to my room and hoped for the best.

At the end of my stay, all but a $2 charge from the last morning was removed from my bill. I still have no idea where the $2 charge came from, but I didn’t ask because I didn’t want anyone to notice the extra sides and drinks that were removed from my bill. So, I ended up paying $2 for 3 mornings of (delicious and expensive) breakfasts for 5 people.

Our breakfasts totaled around $160 each morning — having the Globalist Guest of Honor benefit saved a ton of money.

Bottom Line: The free breakfast benefit of Hyatt Globalist status can be a huge money-saver. Since I was on a Globalist Guest of Honor stay, I charged breakfast to my room (which averaged about $160 per day), and all of the charges were removed (including tips). 

Late Checkout

The last Globalist benefit I could use was the 4 p.m. late checkout. Since our flights weren’t until the evening, I knew I could use a late checkout. I went to the front desk and requested it and was initially offered a 2 p.m. checkout (which is available to Hyatt Discoverist and Explorist members).

When I asked for a 4 p.m. checkout, I was told that I could have it for a fee (I think it was a $100 charge) since I was only an Explorist member. I mentioned my Guest of Honor stay and, after a bit of checking, was finally granted a free 4 p.m. late checkout.

This was a benefit that I previously didn’t value much, but it came in very handy on this trip, and I was glad to have it.

Final Thoughts

Overall, my experience using World of Hyatt’s Guest of Honor program was a positive one. While I was disappointed that I didn’t get an upgrade, it was a huge benefit to enjoy a free breakfast every morning. It’s awesome that Hyatt allows Globalists to share their benefits with friends and family, and it’s a valuable perk I hope to take advantage of again soon (since I failed at earning Globalist status myself this year).