World of Hyatt’s Guest of Honor Awards [How They Work, Benefits]

World of Hyatt Globalist status is easily one of the most valuable hotel elite statuses available to travelers. Not only does it offer free breakfast, complimentary suite upgrades, bonus points, and waived resort fees, but it also lets you make Guest of Honor bookings.

If you aren’t already familiar, Guest of Honor bookings allow a Globalist to share the benefits of their Globalist status with friends and family members that they make bookings for.

In this guide, we will break down how Guest of Honor bookings work, including how you can make one, what benefits the guest receives, and what rules you need to be aware of.

Let’s jump in!

What Are Guest of Honor Awards?

Put simply, Guest of Honor awards are award bookings made by a Hyatt Globalist member on behalf of someone else. Guest of Honor bookings allow you to extend your elite status privileges to another traveler without having to accompany them on the trip.

What Benefits Does a Guest of Honor Receive?

On Guest of Honor bookings, the guest you book for receives all of your Globalist benefits during their stay, including:

• Complimentary upgrades to standard suites
• Elite check-in
• 4 p.m. late checkout
• Free breakfast and club lounge access
• Waived resort fees and parking fees

It’s easy to see why Guest of Honor bookings are so valuable, as ordinarily, the guest you book for wouldn’t receive any of these benefits.

Additionally, the member who gifts their Guest of Honor award to another member receives 1 elite night credit toward their membership qualifying tier after that member completes their stay — so it pays to be generous with your Guest of Honor awards.

Guest of Honor Booking Rules

There are a few rules when it comes to Hyatt Guest of Honor bookings.

The first is that you must have a Guest of Honor award available to use. Gone are the days when you could make an unlimited number of Guest of Honor bookings. You earn 1 Guest of Honor award after 40 elite qualifying nights, 2 more after 60 elite qualifying nights, and 1 additional award at the 70, 80, 90, 110, 120, 130, and 140 elite night thresholds. This gives you a maximum earnable amount of 10 per year — but most members retaining Globalist each year are likely to end up with 3 to 4.

Previously, you could only redeem Hyatt Guest of Honor awards for point stays. Now, awards are redeemable for both points and eligible cash stays. This means the only time you cannot use a Guest of Honor award is when redeeming a free night certificate or when you’ve booked a cash rate from a third-party provider.

Lastly, Guest of Honor awards are good for 1 year after they are received and can only be used on stays of up to 7 nights.

How To Gift a Guest of Honor Award

You can now easily redeem your Guest of Honor award straight through your World of Hyatt account. This is a welcome change for members, as you previously needed to call the World of Hyatt reservation line or email your Hyatt concierge.

Now, the process is simple and involves you just transferring your award to the person’s World of Hyatt account.

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Log in to your World of Hyatt account and click My Awards.

Step 2: Once you see all of your available awards, select a Guest of Honor award, then click Gift.

Step 3: From there, you simply need to enter the World of Hyatt number and the last name of the person you are gifting the Guest of Honor award to, and then click Continue.

Step 4: After that, the recipient will receive a confirmation email that they’ve received the Guest of Honor award. It will appear in their account, ready for use on their next stay.

How To Redeem a Guest of Honor Award

There are a few people who might use a Guest of Honor award. The most obvious is a person without Globalist status who was gifted the award from a friend or family member with Globalist status.

But now that Guest of Honor awards can be redeemed after earning 40 elite night credits, you could also redeem your own Guest of Honor award on your own stay to boost the benefits you receive during that stay. This can be useful for those working toward Globalist status but haven’t achieved it yet, or those who used to be Globalist but have since dropped down to Explorist status.

In any case, redeeming a Guest of Honor award is now extremely easy.

Step 1: When you log in to your World of Hyatt account and click Awards, you’ll see your Guest of Honor award and whether you earned the award yourself or were gifted it from a friend or family member.

Step 2: From there, simply book a stay as you usually would, and then click to apply your Guest of Honor award to the stay during booking. And voilà, you’re all set to receive Globalist benefits on your next stay!

Guest of Honor Award Exclusions

There are a few notable exclusions that apply that you should be aware of when using Guest of Honor awards:

• Guest of Honor awards can be redeemed at most hotels in the World of Hyatt portfolio except for Hyatt Vacation Club properties.
• Guest of Honor awards cannot be stacked with any other type of Hyatt award. This includes Suite Upgrade Awards, Free Night Awards, and Club Lounge Access Awards.

Final Thoughts

In summary, Guest of Honor bookings allow the user, whether it be yourself or someone you’ve gifted it to, to experience Globalsit treatment on an upcoming stay. While there are some exclusions, this is, without a doubt, a powerful award to earn. Non-Globalist members can use it for themselves to enhance their stay, and Globalist members can gift it to a friend or family member to earn an elite night credit and brownie points, to boot.