How Hyatt’s Guest of Honor Globalist Benefit Can Get Your Friends Free Breakfast, Room Upgrades and More

So you have Hyatt elite status and you want to show off your VIP-lifestyle to your friends. But what happens if you're not traeling with them. Turns out that thanks to the Hyatt Guest of Honor benefit you can. If you have Globalist status — the highest tier of elite status in the World of Hyatt loyalty program — you can share your in-hotel status benefits with your friends and family.

To use it, you'll have to gift a Free Night Award to a friend or family member. When you do, that person will be treated as a “Guest of Honor” during their stay. That's pretty eye-popping for your friends, given they'll get to enjoy the same Hyatt Globalist status benefits as you when they stay on a free night award gifted by you.

The Benefits of Hyatt Globalist status

Globalist, which is the highest level of Hyatt elite status, comes with attractive benefits. When you make a reservation for someone else under the Guest of Honor benefit on points, you essentially extend your status perks to your guest for the duration of their stay.

Here are some of the benefits that your Guest of Honor can expect to receive during their stay.

• No resort fees (they're waived for eligible paid and free night stays).

• Free upgrades at check-in for standard suites (assuming they’re available).

• 4 p.m. late check out upon request

• Free breakfast or club access in hotels with an executive club.

• Comped parking when you book your stay with points.

• Free internet.

• Elite check-in areas.

• A bottle of water daily.

What else you need to know about the Hyatt Guest of Honor Globalist Benefit

The Hyatt Guest of Honor Globalist benefit allows you to make a reservation with your points for a friend or family member, bestowing Globalist benefits upon them for their stay. It’s not without its own quirks, however:

Your guest gets the qualifying night credit toward status — not you

When your Guest of Honor is a Hyatt member and their number is on the reservation, they will be credited for the qualifying night for their stay, and not yourself — even if yours is the account where the reservation originated. If your friend or family member isn’t already a World of Hyatt member, this would be a great time to get them to register.

You can bestow Globalist benefits unlimited times — as long as you keeping booking on points for your friends

There is no limit to the number of times you're able to extend your benefits via Guest of Honor, nor is there a limit of nights or rooms you are able to book at the same time for the same or different properties. Of course, you will still need to book their room on points (so you need to have enough points in your account to do it).

» Learn more: The best hotel credit cards right now

Your guest's stay can't be booked online

Unfortunately, there's no digital platform for you to take advantage of the Guest of Honor benefit. In order to make the booking for your guest and apply your benefits, you must call Hyatt customer service or your own Hyatt Concierge.

You must book with points or a free night award

No Points + Cash award bookings or normal cash bookings are eligible for the Guest of Honor benefit. The reservation needs to be fully booked on points or be a free night award booking, and the points need to come out of your Globalist account.

Because of this, you have two main options to fund your Guest of Honor booking:

• Pay for the stay with your own points.

• Have your guest transfer the points from their World of Hyatt account to yours first, then use those points to book the stay.

If you opt for the second option, be aware of Hyatt’s points transfer policy which only allows one transfer to your account every 30 days.

Eligible properties

Guest of Honor bookings are available at all Hyatt brands with the exception of Hyatt Residence Club resorts and third parties.

Suite upgrade awards and club access awards are non-transferrable, and thus cannot be granted to your Guest of Honor.

» Learn more: The complete guide to earning Hyatt points

How to qualify for Hyatt Globalist

Qualifying for Hyatt Globalist usually requires 60 elite nights or 100,000 base points per calendar year. The first and second tier levels, Discoverist and Explorist, require much less but also come with fewer perks.

A qualifying night is any night where your head is in the bed, whether that’s a paid stay or a points stay. Also, you can earn two nights per $5,000 spent on your World of Hyatt Credit Card from Chase.

» Learn more: What to know about World of Hyatt

Note: Qualifications have been adjusted for 2021

Due to the unprecedented nature of COVID-19 and its effect on travel, Hyatt has decided to cut all its requirements in half for 2021. For example, instead of needing to stay for 60 eligible nights to earn Globalist status, you can now get there with only 30 nights. The same applies to the lower tiers, Discoverist and Explorist, as they’ll only need 5 and 15 nights, respectively.

» Learn more: Amazing suites you can book at Hyatt hotels with points

The bottom line

Hotel loyalty can come with great perks that help you enjoy your stays to the fullest. And with this perk, you can look ultra-generous. Book a trip for a friend — and they get your VIP-status benefits too.

If you’re already a Globalist member or looking at upgrading your status this calendar year, factor this benefit in as you consider how valuable a particular elite status is to you (and scoring brownie points from your friends for booking them a room with elite status benefit is probably pretty valuable).