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A few days ago I received an email from Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) informing me of changes to the SLH Refer a Friend offer:

Thank you for being part of INVITED and participating in the Recommend a Friend programme. We are writing to inform you that there has been a change to the terms and conditions as of 18 December 2017. The change is highlighted below: 

The recommended friend (as a new Member) must make a new booking at a SLH participating hotel to the value of two hundred USD ($200) or more (booking an Invited qualifying rate code) and complete their stay at the SLH participating hotel.

I’ve highlighted the SLH Refer a Friend programme before, so thought it best to let you know about the change in case you didn’t see the email yourself.

Previously, if you referred a friend and they then stayed at a SLH Hotel, you would earn a free night certificate, which you could use at any SLH hotel. Given that many SLH hotels are very nice and some are extremely expensive, this was an offer that was almost too good to be true. There was no minimum booking value required to trigger the free night certificate, so your friend could book a night somewhere like the Leopold Hotel in Sheffield for ~£50 and earn you a free night certificate for hotels that charge £1,000+.

The change to the SLH Refer a Friend offer means that your friend’s stay now has to cost $200+ in order to earn you a free night certificate.

Bottom line

Clearly this is a negative change, but it doesn’t really seem an unreasonable one to be honest. You can still get extraordinary value from the offer and it remains the most generous loyalty programme refer a friend promo that I know of. You can check out the full terms here.