Some links to products and partners on this website will earn an affiliate commission.
Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) represents one of the largest collections of luxury hotels in the world – with over 375 hotels in 75 countries, including many iconic hotels like The Ritz and The Langham in London.
LHW do not have a traditional loyalty programme where your status depends on how often you stay. Instead, you have to pay $150.00 for membership of their ‘Leaders Club’ programme, or $1,200 for an elite ‘Unlimited’ membership.
For a limited period one of the LHW hotels – The Biltmore Hotel in New York – is offering complimentary Leaders Club membership! All you need to do to get free status is follow the link, fill in the form and email it to them at [email protected].
Are the benefits of membership any good?
Given that LHW normally charge $150.00, I’m pleased to say that the membership is definitely worth having.
It includes:
- Complimentary daily continental breakfast for two
- Complimentary Internet Access
- Welcome Gifts
- Room Upgrades
- Free Night at any LHW hotel after every 5 stays
- Member-Only offers and Rates
- Early Check-in/Late Check-out consideration
- Sixt Rental Car Platinum Status
- $150.00 ‘Luggage Free’ Credit
Getting free breakfast, a room upgrade and a welcome gift is equivalent to top-level status in many other hotel loyalty programmes and the other perks are nice extras too.
I also love the simplicity (and generosity!) of a free night at any of their hotels after just five stays.
It could even potentially be worth doing a sort of luxury ‘mattress run’.
There are plenty of very nice hotels in Europe that you can stay at for ~£100.00 per night out of season, including the excellent Lowry Hotel in Manchester.
Further afield, the cheapest I could find was the Majestic Hotel in Kuala Lumpur for ~ £65.00, or the Superior Golf & Spa Resort in Kharkiv (Ukraine) for £57.00. When you consider that some of the LHW hotels charge in excess of £1,000 per night, you can see the opportunity – if ultra luxury is what you’re after!
Anyway, free status is always great and you never know when it might come in handy – sign up here!
The ‘sign up here’ link at the bottom of the article is missing a web address.I used the one near the top instead.
I may as well sign up for it, you never know 🙂
Thanks Andrew – fixed.
Totally agreed, always worth signing up for these whether you plan to stay at the hotel chain or not.
Done. Strange that you have to print out the form, fill it in by hand, then scan it/take a photo, but I guess it’s the signature they want to see. How charmingly old fashioned 🙂
Did this yesterday. How long does it take to get a reply? So far no acknowledge to email, anyone else got a response?
Hi Caroline!
I sent mine in a few days ago and haven’t heard anything yet. I seem to remember something saying it could take up to 7 (working?) days,so will chase it up next week if I haven’t heard anything.
Nothing for me either. Next week probably!
Yup, just got mine. Took 10 days 🙂
Just got the SLH status too.
Last week I didn’t have higher status with *any* hotel program. Now, I have three. I’ve not spent a single night at any of these hotels. It’s ridiculous really!
Now if only Hilton would match my status to Gold, and that would be four…
I’ve just chased them up for mine as it’s been 10 days.
Hopefully you’ll get it today or tomorrow.
Hilton’s new status match website now makes it mandatory to submit a jpeg showing proof of a prior stay before you can submit your application, so as I’ve never stayed in a GHA hotel, that route to Hilton Gold is now closed to me. Shame.
So now I’m looking at a stay at the SLH Leopold in Sheffield for £50. Assuming Hilton recognise Small Luxury Hotels as a valid loyalty program, I could use that stay to match SLH Loved to Hilton Gold (I hope!).
I’m on day 11..and still no sign! Hoping any day since on Weds I rock up at one of their hotels in Tokyo and would be great to have the status! 🙂
Just to follow up from the above, I submitted my application on the 2nd May, chased them on the 12th May (no reply), chased them again on the 29th May and 31st May I received a reply:
‘Dear Guest,
I apologize for the inconvenience, we have had a high volume of Leaders Club memberships the past two weeks. I do not see you in the system as of yet, however if you resend me your scanned document I will make sure it is priority.’
I re-sent the scanned application last night at 2100 and I have just received a ‘welcome’ mail from them with a complimentary year of membership. So chasing them helps. Even though they said they have a high volume of memberships in the last two weeks. But I’ll overlook that I sent the original application 4.5 weeks ago… 🙂