Guide to World of Hyatt Guest of Honor awards

With top-tier World of Hyatt Globalist status, you can enjoy various benefits such as complimentary breakfast, 4 p.m. late checkout and waivers for parking and resort fees. But one of the most unusual perks of Globalist status is the Guest of Honor benefit.

Guest of Honor lets Globalist members share their elite status benefits when booking award stays for others, a feature not available in most other hotel loyalty programs. In this article, we’ll explore the details of World of Hyatt Guest of Honor awards.

Introduction to Hyatt Guest of Honor

Globalist members can use their points or free night certificates to book an award stay for someone else using the Guest of Honor benefit. When they do so, the person staying on the award will enjoy in-hotel perks as if they were a Globalist member, even if the Globalist who booked their stay isn’t accompanying their guest.

Globalist members — and those they book Guest of Honor awards for — enjoy various in-hotel perks at participating Hyatt properties, including waived resort fees, complimentary breakfast, suite upgrades based on availability and late checkout.

Related: 7 ways Hyatt Globalist elite status can make your next trip better

Hyatt Globalist

Only top-tier Globalist members can make Guest of Honor bookings. To earn Globalist status, you must accrue 60 tier-qualifying nights, earn 100,000 base points or host 20 qualifying meetings and events each calendar year.

If you have the World of Hyatt Credit Card, you automatically get five tier-qualifying nights each calendar year. You’ll also earn two additional tier-qualifying night credits for every $5,000 spent on your World of Hyatt Credit Card each calendar year.

Meanwhile, if you have the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card, you’ll earn five tier-qualifying night credits for every $10,000 you spend on your card each calendar year. Earning extra tier-qualifying nights through spending on these two cards allows some high-spenders to quickly earn and easily maintain Globalist status.

You can also use the Guest of Honor benefit to book a room for someone else using one or more free night certificates. You can earn these certificates through various means, but one easy way is through the World of Hyatt Credit Card.

Related: Is the World of Hyatt Credit Card worth the annual fee?

Guest of Honor rules

The Guest of Honor program is simple — you can share your Globalist perks by booking Guest of Honor award stays for friends and family with your Hyatt points or free night certificates.

That said, you might not be able to book a Guest of Honor reservation at all Hyatt properties per Hyatt’s terms and conditions:

Guest of Honor benefits are available only for gifted awards that are redeemed at a participating Park Hyatt, Miraval, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Andaz, Hyatt Centric, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Thompson Hotels, Alila (some locations only), JdV by Hyatt, Dream (some locations only), Destination by Hyatt (both participating Destination Hotels and participating Destination Residences locations), Caption by Hyatt, Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, Hyatt Ziva or Hyatt Zilara hotel or resort. Not valid at Vacation Ownership Properties.

This won’t be an issue for most reservations, but you might not be able to share your perks using Guest of Honor at some brands. For example, most of Hyatt’s all-inclusive brands aren’t on the list of eligible brands.

Finally, you can’t share your World of Hyatt benefits on a paid stay since the Guest of Honor perk only works for award stays.

Related: You can transfer World of Hyatt points to other members: Here’s how

Booking Guest of Honor awards

To use Guest of Honor benefits, you must book an award stay as a World of Hyatt Globalist member.

You can’t book Guest of Honor reservations on Hyatt’s website or app. Instead, you’ll need to call or email the Hyatt Concierge with all the details for the stay, including the other guest’s information and World of Hyatt number. Unfortunately, Hyatt stopped letting Globalists use social media or chat to book Guest of Honor awards in 2021.

The elite nights and points go to the person completing the stay, not the Globalist who made the booking. So, making lots of Guest of Honor bookings for others won’t help you requalify for status.

Related: The 12 hotels where you’ll get the most out of your Hyatt reward night certificate

Boosting your World of Hyatt balance

You can earn World of Hyatt points to book a Guest of Honor reservation in many ways. If your friend already has enough Hyatt points, they can transfer them to your account.

Another easy way to top up your World of Hyatt balance is by transferring points from Chase Ultimate Rewards or Bilt Rewards. Both programs let you transfer rewards to World of Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio.

You can also earn more Hyatt points with the World of Hyatt Credit Card or the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card. Both cards offer sign-up bonuses for new cardholders and the ability to earn Hyatt points when you make purchases with your card.

Related: Credit card showdown: World of Hyatt card vs. World of Hyatt Business card

World of Hyatt offers the unique ability to share elite benefits with friends and family even when you’re not traveling with them. Although you can only use the Guest of Honor program on award stays, it’s relatively easy to earn Hyatt points.

Additional reporting by Benji Stawski.