One of the best features of any hotel loyalty program is the World of Hyatt Guest of Honor award, where you can share elite status with anyone else.

What is a Hyatt Guest of Honor award?

The World of Hyatt program has several different types of awards that it distributes to members for meeting certain criteria. The Guest of Honor award is a way for members to experience Globalist, their top-tier elite status, for a single stay up to 7 nights in length. As you might assume, this provides the most benefit to members who are not already at Globalist status.

So what benefits does the Guest of Honor award give? Most benefits that Globalists get:

• No resort/destination fees on eligible rates, including cash stays booked directly with Hyatt
• Room upgrades including standard suites, based on availability
• A guaranteed 4PM late checkout except at resorts, where it’s based on availability
• Club access, if the hotel has a lounge
• Free breakfast for registered guests, up to 2 adults and 2 children
• Free parking on free night awards

What benefits Globalists get that don’t transfer over to Guest of Honor? Just a few:

• The 48-hour guaranteed availability window
• American AAdvantage redemption options
• The 30% points bonus for stays booked with cash
• My Hyatt Concierge (this is only earned after 60 elite nights in a year)

You can think of these awards as mostly a way for existing Globalist members to gift elite status to others who don’t have it.

On which rates can you apply Guest of Honor awards?

Simply put, you can use these Guest of Honor awards on any eligible rate. This includes free nights booked with points and cash rates booked directly on the Hyatt.com website. Other eligible rates include Hyatt Privé, American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts, and Chase The Edit, to name a few. We’ve talked about these special rates separately.

Just as importantly, you should know which rates you cannot stack these awards on top of:

• Rates booked with most third-party travel agencies, such as Expedia
• Free nights booked with certificates, such as Category 1-4 awards
• Stays longer than 7 nights

How to earn Guest of Honor awards

You’ll earn your first Guest of Honor award automatically when you reach 40 elite nights in a year. You could use it on yourself as a way to experience what Globalist status is like before you get there, if you don’t already have it. Or you can gift it to others if they have more of a use for it.

After that, you’ll earn 2 more when you reach 60 elite nights in a calendar year, the same threshold as normal qualifications for Globalist status. Then you’ll earn 1 more at each of 70, 80, 90, 110, 120, 130, and 140 elite nights in a single calendar year.

This means the maximum number of Guest of Honor awards a single member can earn in one year is 10 Guest of Honor awards. A Globalist member who stays the bare minimum 60 elite nights in a year will earn only 3.

If you have Lifetime Globalist status, you’ll get 5 at the start of each year and you can earn more based on elite nights.

Who earns elite credit for the stay?

Here’s the thing: just like any other method of earning elite nights, the member who makes the reservation is the one who gets the elite credit. If you hand the award off to someone else and that person uses it for their stay, that member will earn the credit. If you use the award yourself to try out Globalist status for a stay, you earn the credit.

That said, as a “thank you” for sharing the award with someone else, you can earn 1 additional elite night credit when they redeem it. Just sending the award on to someone else isn’t enough; they must book a stay and use it before it expires. This bonus elite night credit will boost the giver’s elite night balance based on the year the stay is completed. And, no, if you use it on yourself, you won’t get this bonus credit.

Regardless of the length of stay, the additional elite night credit earned upon redemption is limited to 1 per award.

How do you gift Guest of Honor awards to someone else?

Let’s say you’ve earned a Guest of Honor award and you want to send it to someone else for them to enjoy on their stay. To redeem these awards, simply head over to your account page on either the website or the app. We’ll show the process for transferring on the website, but the process is identical for both.

Once at your account, click on the Awards section, and you’ll see all the Guest of Honor awards in your account. Click the ‘…’ symbol to bring up the option to “Gift Your Award”.

From there, you’ll need to enter a code they email to your email on file as an extra measure of security. Then, after verifying your account, you can unlock the ability to gift awards to someone else. You just need two things:

• The recipient’s World of Hyatt membership number
• The recipient’s last name on their account

Of course, you should also mind the award expiration date. Remember that the stay must end no later than the expiration date.

And that’s it! You’ll get an email from Hyatt when the member completes their stay and the bonus elite night hits your account.

How does the member redeem these Guest of Honor awards for themselves?

It’s quite simple to redeem these awards. If you haven’t yet made a booking online at Hyatt’s website, it’s just as simple as selecting the award when you’re looking at rates for the hotel you want to book. On the website, you’ll find any eligible awards show up under the room description and above the listing of room rates.

If you’re using the Hyatt app, it’ll appear after selecting a hotel, on the same page as when you select a rate. Just click the ‘+’ button to make the awards appear, then the down carat icon to choose an award to add to your stay.

If the member already has an existing reservation and they wish to add this award to it, the good news is they won’t need to rebook their stay to apply it. Just have them call the Hyatt customer service line to apply it.

Commonly-asked questions about World of Hyatt Guest of Honor

Who can you transfer these awards to?

Anyone who has a World of Hyatt account in good standing is eligible to receive awards, be they Guest of Honor awards or something else. As stated above, you’ll need both the recipient’s World of Hyatt membership number and last name on the account to transfer. There is no relationship needed between the sender and the recipient–it could be a friend, family member, or a complete stranger.

That said, we would exercise caution if you do want to conduct a transfer with a complete stranger. Hyatt allows for free points transfers between accounts and two of the things needed for those transfers are the name on the account and the membership number. Do you trust that other person enough, now that they have your membership number, to not figure out your mailing address and send in a points transfer request to steal your points? This matters more for the recipient than the giver, but it’s still something to consider.

Can you transfer the Guest of Honor award back to the person who gave them to you if you don’t use them?

No, once the award has been transferred once, it cannot be transferred again. As far as we can tell, this is a feature of the program to help prevent fraud and abuse. Make sure plans are fairly firm before transferring it to someone else or it might go to waste.

That said, we have heard mixed success by applying it to an upcoming stay and then transferring the entire reservation over to someone else. This can’t be done online and will require chatting with Hyatt customer service to handle. However, one problem can be finding the right agent to handle this. If it’s an award booking, be aware the points will come out of your account. This process may allow you to get around the limitations around transferring awards.

Can you buy/sell Guest of Honor awards?

No, buying or selling awards is against the terms and conditions of the World of Hyatt program. Anyone caught buying or selling awards is subject to termination from the World of Hyatt program or legal action.

You might see the offer appear from time to time on Reddit or other online forums where someone suggests they’re selling awards or looking to buy. However, these individuals could be working for Hyatt to catch people red-handed. We wouldn’t recommend it.

However, there is a bit of a gray area in the terms under which some people operate. While buying or selling awards is explicitly disallowed, the trading of awards isn’t referenced anywhere. Thus, some people might be open to exchanging different types of awards to get something more useful to them. Personally, I’m not comfortable with the gray area as everything has a value and I’d rather not have to defend this to a program I value. But to each their own, I suppose.

Can you apply multiple types of awards to the same reservation?

No, a single reservation can only have one award attached to it. That means if you have both a Suite Upgrade and a Guest of Honor award, you’re going to have to make the call on what matters more to you. Similarly, if you have a Category 1-4 or Category 1-7 free night certificate, you can’t stack a Guest of Honor award on top.

This is a very restrictive limitation, and we’d all like it better if this didn’t exist. However, with this limitation in place for several years already, we’re not expecting it to change in the near future.

Can you book back-to-back reservations with different awards?

Here’s the general thought: you can’t stack awards onto the same reservation, so instead you decide to book the first night under a single reservation with a Suite Upgrade Award. Then, the next night, you book a second reservation with a Guest of Honor award, and ask the hotel to honor the benefits the whole stay through. No sense in changing rooms in the middle of your stay, right?

Well, unfortunately, you’re not able to do that per Hyatt’s terms. Per Hyatt, even if you break up the total stay into multiple reservations, for the purposes of Hyatt’s definitions, it’s considered the same stay. And you’re not allowed to use multiple awards on a single stay. We’ve heard some potential where this causes issues at check-in when the system merges reservations into a single stay.

To get around this, if you’re traveling with someone else, you might want to book one reservation for the first night under your account and a second reservation for the remaining nights under your friend’s account. Then, have a chat with the front desk and see if they have any flexibility to make your request work.

Are any hotels ineligible when using Guest of Honor awards?

Yes and no. Individual hotels are not excluded from Guest of Honor awards. However, there are two chains where they are not accepted:

• Hyatt Vacation Club properties
• Mr. & Mrs. Smith properties

Though Hyatt bought Mr. & Mrs. Smith in 2023, they’ve run the platform as though it’s mostly separate from Hyatt.

Is there any benefit to using these awards at Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, or all-inclusive resorts?

We’re bucketing all these hotels together because the main benefit of Guest of Honor is the free breakfast, and all* of these hotels provide free breakfast. Why the asterisk? Because some Hyatt Place hotels charge for breakfast these days unless you’re a Globalist.

Sure, some of the benefit of the award is minimized when breakfast is free for all, but you still have a chance at a room upgrade, free parking on award stays, and a late checkout, just to name a few. These are all still valuable, as is the extra elite night the giver gets from the stay.

Is there any “trick” to maximizing these awards?

So now that you know what these awards are and what they aren’t, is there any easy way to maximize them? Thankfully, there is.

A cheaper way to handle needing multiple rooms

Let me start with the way I typically use these Guest of Honor awards–on my own travel. I don’t apply them to my own stays, but rather I pass the awards on to my wife Jennifer. If we go to a hotel where a single room doesn’t fit our party, I will consider either the family rate (a lesser-known discounted room for your kids) or sending her a Guest of Honor award.

It’s no fun if benefits only extend to one room, which is why we highly value what Hyatt does with these Guest of Honor awards. Being able to extend benefits to everyone we travel with honestly makes travel more enjoyable.

Requalifying Globalist status is easier

Each time someone uses a Guest of Honor award, the sender (generally a Globalist member) will have an easier time requalifying status. Even if you only get 3 awards, using all will drop the requirement from 60 to 57 (5% easier).

You could also look at this as making it easier in future years. Say you have an opportunity to stay one more night at a Hyatt towards the end of the year but you’re already at 79 elite nights. Sure, there are other milestone benefits you get, but you’ll end up with one more Guest of Honor award too. That one night you stay this year can help boost your elite night count the following year if you find a taker for that award.

Thus, you can think of it as overstaying at Hyatt hotels in one year might just help you requalify the next year. There isn’t rollover credit in the traditional sense, but this is as close as it gets to the concept.

Longer stays at nicer properties

The simple answer for maximizing the award is to use it at longer stays. Since these awards are good for stays up to 7 nights, the longer you stay, the more benefit you’ll get from them. Also, if you stay at nicer properties, you’ll have nicer rooms or a better breakfast benefit.

Use with cash for stays at properties where there’s a resort or destination fee

Found a great cash rate but don’t have Globalist status and so you’re dreading the resort or destination fee? Adding on a Guest of Honor award to your reservation will mean you’re no longer on the hook for those fees. That’s a potentially big perk depending on where you’re going.

The main exception to this is at The Venetian Las Vegas, where everyone including Globalists are still on the hook for resort fees.

Use with points for stays at properties where there’s a parking fee

The flip side above is that if you’re staying at a property with points, the resort fee will be waived for all. However, Globalists will get that parking fee waived on those stays. That means those using Guest of Honor awards will benefit in the same way. This isn’t relevant if you don’t have a car, but with fees topping $70 daily in major metro areas these days, this can be a bigger deal than getting resort fees waived.

What’s your experience with Guest of Honor awards?

Suggested reading:

• Hyatt Regency Seattle: Good Location, Great Price
• Grand Hyatt SFO: One of the Best Airport Hotels
• Great for Families: A Review of the Hyatt Regency Étoile