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Regular readers will know that some hotels that fall under the brand Leading Hotels of the World are also our favorite hotels. These include Hotel Hermitage Monte-Carlo and the Royal Riviera in the South of France (pictured above).
We also visited and reviewed the Kulm Hotel in St. Moritz last summer, which is an amazing ski resort and offers a wonderful spa resort to take in the mountain air in the summer. And for Swiss wellness, Grand Resort Bad Ragaz, which has to be our favorite spa resort, and is also a member of Leading Hotels of the World.
Leading Hotels of the World emailed me this week, offering bonus points if I purchased Leaders Club points. So, I wanted to work out if it was worth purchasing these Leaders Club points.
The offer is outlined as follows:
Buy or Gift 2,000 – 11,000 Leaders Club points and get 50% more.
Buy or Gift 12,000 – 29,000 Leaders Club points and get 75% more.
Buy or Gift 30,000 – 50,0000 Leaders Club points and get 100% more.
This offer is available for qualified Leaders Club points purchases made between 10:00 AM ET on November 16, 2023, and 11:59 PM ET on December 26, 2023 (“Offer Period”). Terms and conditions apply.
I have previously calculated how much a Leaders Club point is worth. I calculate this to be approximately $0.078 USD or €0.072 Euro.
So if I were to buy 60,000 points for $3,600 USD, I would be paying $0.078 USD x60,000 = $4,680 USD, which means I would be getting around 23% of value free. This sounds good, but the reality isn’t quite as good as the top line figures appear. This is because Leaders Club points can only be used on certain rates at LHW hotels.
Often, the cheapest special offer available for your Leading Hotel on LHW online for your dates is cheaper than the rate that your Leaders Club points can buy. Leaders Club points can often only be used for more expensive rates, not special offer rates.
For this reason alone, I will not be purchasing these points. As an example, if the hotel I want to stay in offers a 3rd night free deal, there is no guarantee that I will be able to use my points on the 3rd night free deal. In fact, from my experience, I haven’t been able to ever use my points on the 3rd night free deals that I have seen on LHW. In this situation, if I pay with cash, I get 33% off my rate.
If I pay with points, I can’t use them for the 33% off deal. If I buy the Leaders Club points with the maximum bonus, which translates to around 23% of value free, I will lose out.
I also don’t like to tie my cash up in points that I then feel obliged to use in case they time out before I remember to use them or in case the supplier devalues them, which can happen.
Conversely, if you usually book a hotel that doesn’t have special offers on Leaders Club and intend to make a fairly immediate booking, the bonus point offer may be worth considering.
A final point worth making is that Leading Hotels of the World have very sadly removed the $100 credit benefit they used to apply to bookings made by their members.
Book a stay at the same hotel with our luxury concierge, and you will get the $100 benefit that is now missing from Leading Hotels of the World, plus you get breakfast for two, welcome gift and prioritized room upgrade. We sometimes have different special offers, too, so it’s always worth getting a quote from our agents. We almost always offer a better deal.
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