The Leading Hotels of the World, or LHW, is a collection of 400 luxury hotels in over 80 countries in the world. Like other hotel groups LHW has a membership program which entitles you to additional benefits when you book directly with them.
[LHW Brands]
LHW acts mostly as a marketing platform, so there’s no strong branding within the group and many hotels are actually independent. It’s also common to see LHW hotels affiliated with another hotel chain.
For example, the Hotel Adlon Kempinski in Berlin is also part of GHA Discovery – actually all Kempinski hotels belong to GHA Discovery because of the deal, but the same isn’t true for LHW. LHW also has a few Gran Melia hotels in Spain, which are part of the Melia group.
In terms of geographical distribution, LHW is best represented in Europe, with especially strong footprint in Italy and Switzerland.
[Membership Tiers and Benefits]
You used to have to pay $175 a year to enrol in the LHW program, but it has been made permanently free since mid 2021. LHW has three membership tiers: Club, Silver and Aurelian.
Club – entry level
- One Pre-Arrival Upgrade each year after their first paid stay as a new Club Level member
- Upgrade priority at arrival based on availability
- Early check-in and late check-out considerations upon availability
- Complimentary Wi-Fi access throughout their stay
- Complimentary continental breakfast for two for each day of the stay
Silver – $5000 annual spend requirement
- Five Pre-Arrival Upgrades each year
- 5% stay points bonus in addition to 1 point for every USD 1 spent on qualifying stays.
Aurelian – invitation only (top 1% spend)
- Unlimited one-category Pre-arrival upgrades
- No Black-Out dates for redeeming free nights
- 10% stay points bonus in addition to 1 point for every USD 1 spent on qualifying stays.
- A USD 1000 Annual Premium Ground Transportation Budget
- And a Guaranteed 4 PM Late Check Out
Everyone can start enjoying Club benefits by signing up to the program for free. There’s some value here, especially the free breakfast and room upgrade – the latter doesn’t look great on paper, but some of my readers suggest it tends to be quite generous (including suite upgrade) in practice.
Silver status doesn’t sounds exciting to be honest. Its top-level invitation tier Aurelian is exclusive to the heaviest spenders only which is quite similar to the Royal Ambassador status in InterContinental Ambassador, but the benefits are weaker.
[Earn and Spend]
You earn 1 point for each USD spent on qualifying room rates for up to three rooms in the same reservation. Until recently it was only possible to earn points on direct LHW bookings, but it’s now expanded to some other channels:
- Luxury consortiums such as Amex FHR and Virtuoso
- Business travel bookings made via corporate travel agencies and corporate booking tools
Be careful that direct bookings with the hotel don’t qualify for points accrual. This is one main difference with other hotel groups.
Points can be redeemed towards an award night, at the rate of 100 points = $8. Note that cash + points is not an option so you must have enough points to cover the entire cost, which can be an issue if you only have a small stash of points.
Given its earning structure, you basically earn 8% cashback when making an LHW booking, which is just okay.
[Summary]
The only time I stayed at an LHW hotel was at the Gran Melia Fenix Hotel in Madrid, where I booked using Melia points. It’s unlikely I’ll ever use LHW’s website to make any booking, as the perks don’t excite me.
On the other hand, a lot of people do think very highly of their hotels. Now that FHR / Virtuoso are also qualifying rates, you might as well bag some points when you book a relevant hotel.
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